News and Announcements

• Labs start in week 2. Please do not forget to read the preliminary reading before coming to the labs.

Program, Resources, Lecture Notes & Handouts

• Assignment submission deadlines
• Reference text: [stallings2002] W. Stallings High-Speed Networks and Internets: Performance and Quality of Service. Second Edition, Prentice-Hall, 2002.
• Fundamental concepts and networking technologies
  • Slides: (part 1) (part 2).
  • [stallings2002] Chapters 1-3
  • Kumar, Communication Networking: An Analytical Approach: Introduction: two examples (Chapter 1) (see my note on Markov chain representation of the 2X2 switch)
• An overview of modern network architectures
  • [stallings2002] Chapter 4
  • Kumar, Communication Networking: an Analytical Approach: Networking: functional elements and current practice (Chapter 2) (skip Section 2.3.6)
• Packet switched networks: Modeling, performance estimation and analysis
  • K. Stordahl, The history behind the probability theory and the queuing theory
  • L. Kleinrock, On the modeling and analysis of computer networks
  • Lecture notes: netperf_week3_4.pdf
• Queueing theory concepts for delay and loss analysis in telecommunication networks
  • [stallings2002] Chapters 7 and 8
  • W. Stallings, Queueing analysis
  • Queueing analysis. M. Schwartz, Telecommunication Networks: Protocols, Modeling and Analysis: Introduction to queueing theory (Chapter 2) p21-43 p44-69
• Network traffic management: Routing algorithms and protocols, QoS provision and scheduling, multimedia network design
  • Slides: Routing in telecommunication networks, Internet routing
  • Slides: Internetwork traffic management
  • Lecture discussion slide: Comparison of FIFO, Round Robin and BRFQ scheduling
  • [stallings2002] Chapters 14-17 (skip Section 16.2)
  • An example of Dijkstra's algorithm in action (we will discuss this example in the lectures)
  • Paterson and Davie, Congestion Control and Resource Allocation (p446-486), (p487-526) (Sections 6.1, 6.2 and 6.5.1-6.5.3)
• End-system traffic management: Congestion control in data networks, flow and error control in link and transport layers. TCP congestion and flow control algorithms
  • Slides: End-system traffic management,
  • [stallings2002] Chapters 10-12 (skip Section 10.5)
  • Paterson and Davie, Congestion Control and Resource Allocation (use above link to download the document) (Section 6.3)
  • [kurose-ross2005] Chapter 3, Transport Layer: (p183-237), (p238-296)
• Appendix A: Network performance formula sheet (we will give you this sheet in the exam together with the questions)
• Appendix B - Sample Exam Papers:
  • 2004 exam paper and solutions
  • 2005 exam paper and solutions

Laboratory Experiments and Assignments

Laboratory Experiments

• Experiment I: Programming environment warm-up and Introduction to programming in UNIX/C (These short experiments aim to introduce you the editing-compiling-running-debugging cycle with the freely available tools in the Unix/Linux environment. I think spending a couple of hours on exploring the tutorials below will save you a lot of time when you start doing the experiments and assignments involving programming.)
• For the remaining set of experiments and assignments, we use the OMNeT++ simulation framework. OMNeT++ is an open-source (and free for research and education purposes) sophisticated discrete-event simulation system which is used for modeling communication networks, queueing networks, hardware architectures, and manufacturing and business processes. OMNeT++ documentation is available at its web site.
  • Preliminary work: Please review the flow chart of OMNeT++ simulation process and the 10-minute tutorial before coming to the lab.
  • Experiment II: Introduction to discrete-event simulation with OMNeT++. This lab uses the following OMNeT++ tutorials:
    • Getting started
    • Enhancing the 2-node TicToc
  • Experiment III: Introductory network layer protocols: Hot potato routing. This lab uses the following OMNeT++ tutorial:
    • Turning it into a real network
  • Experiment IV: Statistics collection and visualization. This lab uses the following OMNeT++ tutorials:
    • Adding statistics collection
    • Visualizing the results with Plove and Scalars
    • Adding a routing table
  • Experiment V: Delay and queueing in packet switching networks. This lab models the routers as output-queueing packet switches and uses the following OMNeT++ tutorial:
    • Simulation of packet switching networks
  • Experiment VI: Flooding
  • Experiment VII: Routing in ad hoc networks

Assignments

• Assignment I: Saturation performance of an input-queueing (IQ) switch
• Assignment II: Distance-vector (Bellman-Ford) routing algorithm. You will be using the models provided for the delay and queueing in packet switching networks experiment with the following exceptions:
  • Write your own distance-vector algorithm implementation into this networklayer.cc module.
  • Use this packet format in your assignment.
  • Use this packet generator module (app_gen.cc) in your assignment.
• Assignment III: Modeling and simulation of input-queueing switches

Assignment Submissions

• I mark the program code based on this marking criteria.
• Program code should always be uploaded as plain ASCII text. Essay type assignments should always be uploaded in PDF format (i.e. No Word, Excel, or any other formats) . Otherwise I will not be able to mark them. There are freely available tools to convert your documents into PDF format:
  • Pdf995 lets you create PDF files by simply selecting the "print" command from any application (Windows based, you need to download and install it on your computer).
  • Adobe has an online conversion service that allows you to convert a wide variety of document formats into PDF. You need to register to get 5 free conversions.
  • Or, you can always use Open Office (there are Windows and Linux versions) to write your assignments and export them as PDF files for submission.

Software Tools

I prefer to use freely available software tools especially the GNU ones developed by Free Software Foundation. their Web site has quite extensive documentation, it would be worthwhile exploring the pages. You may also find the below documents useful to refer in printed form:

• UNIX
• Introduction to UNIX (pdf, 219KB)
• Reference cards
• C reference card (pdf, 94 KB) (downloaded from http://www.refcard.com)
• UNIX reference card (pdf, 29 KB) (downloaded from http://www.kfa-juelich.de/zam/docs/rfk_e.html)
• Emacs reference card (pdf, 81 KB) (downloaded from http://www.refcard.com)
• GDB reference card (pdf, 80 KB) (downloaded from http://www.refcard.com)
• Frequently Asked Questions on C/C++/UNIX/Internetworking
• C programming FAQ
• UNIX programming FAQ
• UNIX socket programming FAQ

Tutorials

Tutorials on C/C++ programming in the UNIX environment

• Compiling C/C++ programs On UNIX
• Debugging with "gdb"
• Automating program compilation by using Makefiles
• File I/O, file and directory manipulation in UNIX
• UNIX signals programming

Tutorials on Network Programming

• Internetworking with UNIX sockets

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