WPI Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Computer Science Department

CS577 / EE537 Advanced Computer Networks
Fall 2013
Instructor: Bob Kinicki

General and Historic Course Information
Academic Honesty Policies
Required Text: None
2013 Syllabus Updated: 17 Oct 13
Class List Updated: 3 Sep 13
Final Exam Guide Updated: 3 Dec 13

Live Class Stream

Course Philosophy

Besides focusing on exposing students to current Computer Networks issues and techniques, this Advanced Computer Networks course is specifically designed to provide standard tools (e.g., how to read and comprehend papers from the research literature) needed by CS and ECE graduate students to conduct research. Hence, this course is valuable for students expecting to conduct research at WPI and not just for grad students specializing in Computer Networks or Systems.

Since CS513 and ECE536 are no longer cross-listed, students need to know that either course is adequate background for CS577/ECE537. While CS513 emphasizes strong systems programming skills and ECE536 does not, this does not present a problem in Advanced Computer Networks. The reason is that students in Advanced Computer Networks select their own term project where a term paper is acceptable.

This course is conducted in 'seminar style'. Except for background 'primer' material, the course consists of readings, presentations and discussion of technical papers taken from the current computer networks literature. Seminar style implies student participation in both the presentations and in the discussions. This participation is a significant component of your grade. Hence, skipping class or showing up late for class without an approved reason WILL have negative impact on your grade.

Practical Adjustments to Published Prerequisites

Although CS533, Modeling and Performance Evaluation, is listed in the WPI catalog as a prerequisite, this is no longer the case. While it would be good for entering students to have the exposure to queuing models provided by CS533, students with basic knowledge of probability and mathematical sophistication have been successful in this course WITHOUT having previously taken CS533. Similarly, incoming CS grad students and CS undergraduates who have had a strong undergraduate networks course should strongly consider NOT taking CS513 and moving directly into Advanced Computer Networks.

Course Details

Normally, we will cover two research papers per week in class. Hence, each student is required to submit hardcopies of three research papers by September 17, 2013 as possible candidates for papers to included in the course syllabus.

Students are required to complete and hand in or email a completed Paper Evaluation Forms(pdf) (doc) for each paper covered at the beginning of every class. Late forms emailed AFTER the start of the class will not be graded because the intent of the form is to prepare the students for an informed and lively discussion.

The course includes a Course Project and a Final Exam.

Useful Resources

  • Research Topic Areas in Computer Networks Updated: 15 Jul 13
  • List of Important Networking Journals and Conferences roughly in decreasing order of providing quality papers for class presentations. Updated: 15 Jul 13
  • List of Computer Networks Textbooks Updated: 12 Aug 13
  • Current Bibliography of WSN papers Udpated: 5 Aug 13

    Fall 2013 Class Lecture Slides and Papers

    Course Objectives (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 15 Jul 2013
    TCP Sliding Windows (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 22 Jul 2013
    Review of Network Performance Metrics (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 3 Sep 2013
    General Congestion Control and Queueing (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Sep 2013
    Hobb's Internet History      
    Top 10 Internet Milestones (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 17 Sep 2013
    TCP Congestion Control (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 12 Aug 2013
    1. Random Early Detection Gateways for Congestion Avoidance (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 15 Aug 2013
    2. Tuning RED for Web Traffic (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 17 Sep 2013
    Bonus Paper
    Promoting the Use of End-to-End Congestion Control in the Internet    		 (pdf) (ppt) Updated: 25 Sep 2007
    Powerpoint Tips (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 23 Sep 2011
    3. The War between Mice and Elephants (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 24 Sep 2013
    4. Core Stateless Fair Queueing (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 23 Sep 2013
    5. Congestion Control for High Bandwdith-Delay Product Networks (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 1 Oct 2013
    6. TCP Westwood(+) Protocol Implementation in ns-3 (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 1 Oct 2013
    High Speed TCP TCP Vegas Compound TCP TCP Cubic
    Effects of Applying High Speed Congestion Control Algorithms in the Internet (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 7 Oct 2013
    A Wireless Networking Primer (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 6 Oct 2013
    7. Characterization of 802.11 Wireless Networks in the Home (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 15 Oct 2013
    8. Observing Home Wireless Experience through WiFi APs (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 15 Oct 2013
    Cellular Networking Primer (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 28 Oct 2013
    9. An In-depth Study of LTE: Effect of Network Protocol and Application Behavior on Performance (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 29 Oct 2013
    Rate Adaptation Algorithms for IEEE 802.11 Networks: A Survey and Comparison (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Nov 2013
    10. Towards MIMO-Aware 802.11n Rate Adaptation (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Nov 2013
    11. Defending against Flooding-Based Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks:
    A Tutorial    		 (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Nov 2013
    Mote_Revolution (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 13 Nov 2011
    Routing Primer (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Nov 2013
    12. A Performance Comparison of Multi-Hop Wireless Ad Hoc Network Routing Protocols (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 12 Nov 2013
    Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) Primer (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 19 Nov 2013
    13.Secure Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks: Attacks and Countermeasures (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 19 Nov 2013
    14. Ultra-Low Duty Cycle MAC with Scheduled Channel Polling (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 3 Dec 13
    15. The ContikiMAC Radio Duty Cycling Protocol (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 2 Dec 2013
    Low-Power Interoperability for the IPv6 Internet of Things (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Dec 2011
    16. Containing Denial-of-Service Attacks in Broadcast Authentication in Sensor Networks (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Dec 2013
    Leveraging IP for Sensor Network Deployment (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 4 Dec 2011
    6lowPAN Tutorial (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 5 Dec 2011
    Student Project Presentations      
    Simulating TCP Cubic Brett Levasseur (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Dec 2013
    MANETs Chung Tran (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Dec 2013
    LTE Project Pankaj Didwani (pdf) (pptx) Updated: 10 Dec 2013

    Last Modified 10 December 2013

    Bob Kinicki
    Fuller Labs 135
    Computer Science Department
    Worcester Polytechnic Institute
    Worcester, MA 01609
    rek@cs.wpi.edu

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