CIS 553 / TCOM 512:
Networked Systems
Fall 2008

Instructor: Boon Thau Loo (boonloo AT cis.upenn.edu)
Room: Wu and Chen auditorium
Time: Monday and Wednesday (12-1:30pm)
Office hours: Wednesday 1:30-2:30pm (605 Levine Hall)
Discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/cis553-fa08

Teaching assistants:

  • Changbin Liu (changbl AT seas.upenn.edu). Office hours: M 4-5pm (6th floor Levine)
  • Bill Marczak (wrm AT seas.upenn.edu). Office hours: F 2-3pm (6th floor Levine)
  • Steven Zhou (wenchaoz AT seas.upenn.edu). Office hours: T 3-4pm (6th floor Levine)

    Graders: Yue Li (yueli AT seas.upenn.edu), Mihai Oprea (mihaio AT seas.upenn.edu).

    Announcements

    All announcements will be posted on the newsgroup.

    Course Description

    This course provides an introduction to fundamental concepts in the design and implementation of networked systems, their protocols, and applications. Topics to be covered include: Internet architecture, network applications, addressing, routing, transport protocols, network security, and peer-to-peer networks. The course will involve three written assignments, two programming projects, a midterm, and a final. This course is open to all undergraduate and graduate students in the CIS, ESE, and TCOM departments.

    Course textbook:

  • Computer Networks: A Systems Approach (4th Edition). Larry L. Peterson and Bruce S. Davie. (E.g., 1, 2, 3.)
  • Additional material will be drawn from selected research publications.

    Course pre-requisites:

  • CSE 121 (Programming Languages and Techniques II), or equivalent programming experience, or permission of instructor. Data structures and basic probability.

    Note that this course can substitute for CIS 500 as a core CIS requirement for Fall 2008, and can also be a CIS elective course.

    Grading

  • Written homework assignments: 12%
  • Programming projects: 40%
  • Class participation: 3%
  • Midterm: 15%
  • Final: 30%

    Schedule

    Syllabus is subjected to change. Please revisit this page regularly before class. The lecture slides are available on the newsgroup.

    Date Topic Reading Remarks
    Sep 3 Class introduction None
    Sept 8 Internet Architecture, layering, and end-to-end arguments Chapter 1.1-1.3; [Cla88]
    Optional: [History]; [E2E]
    Sept 10 Network performance metrics
    Socket programming    		 Chapter 1.4, 1.5;
    Optional: Beej; Sockets;
    Sept 15 Event-driven network programming Ous96; BCB03
    Optional: WCD01    		 Homework 1 (due Sept 22)
    Sept 17 Switch and router architecture
    Introduction to Fishnet (required for project 1)    		 Chapter 3.1-3.2, 3.4
    Fishnet1; Fishnet2     		TA lecture on Fishnet
    Sept 22 IP
    Intra-domain routing    		 Chapter 4.1-4.2; Project 1 (due Oct 17, checkpoint Oct 2)
    Sept 24 Inter-domain and Inter-domain routing Chapter 4.3;
    Optional: [CR05]
    Sept 29 Intra-domain routing Chapter 4.3;
    Oct 1 Transport protocols (UDP and TCP) Chapter 5.1, 5.2
    Oct 6 TCP, congestion control Chapter 6.3, 6.4
    Oct 8 Network simulation NS-3 Instructor out of town. Guest lecture by Joe Kopena
    Oct 13 Fall break
    Oct 15 Congestion control Chapter 6.3, 6.4 Homework 2 (due Oct 24)
    Oct 20 Variants of TCP
    Oct 22 Multicast Chapter 4.4
    Optional: [ESM]
    Oct 27 Midterm
    Oct 29 P2P networks, distributed hash tables [SMN03] [BKK+03]
    Chapter 9.4    		 Project 2 (due Nov 21)
    Nov 3 DHT-based overlays [SAZ+02]
    Optional: [RKC01]
    Nov 5 Quality of Service Chapter 6.2, 6.5
    Nov 10 Quality of Service (cont) Chapter 6.2, 6.5
    Nov 12 Resilient overlays [Pax96] [ADK01]
    Nov 17 MAC Chapter 2.1-2.4, 2.6
    Nov 19 Mobility and wireless networking Chapter 2.8, 4.2.5
    Nov 24 Anonymous overlay networks [RSG98] [Tor] Guest lecture by Micah Sherr
    Homework 3 (due Dec 3)
    Nov 26 Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) routing [BMJ98]
    Dec 1 Skype, Bittorrent [BS04] [PGE05] [GDJ05]
    Dec 3 Final exam review / buffer
    Dec 15 Final exam (9-11am, Helmeier Hall)

    Significant Dates

  • Sep. 3, First day of classes
  • Sep. 19, Add period ends
  • Oct. 10, Drop period ends
  • Oct. 11 - 14, Fall break
  • Nov. 27 - Nov. 30, Thanksgiving break
  • Dec. 5, End of Fall term classes
  • Dec. 6-9, Reading days
  • Dec 10-17, Final exams