Spring 2003
ENSC 833: NETWORK PROTOCOLS AND PERFORMANCE
CMPT 885: SPECIAL TOPICS: HIGH-PERFORMANCE NETWORKS

(3-0-0)
TOPICS HOMEWORK EXAMS TEXTBOOKS SCHEDULE

STAFF PROJECTS TOOLS WEB SITES WEEK IN REVIEW INFO

Course description: This course covers the techniques needed to understand and analyze modern data communications networks. It covers the basic architecture of packet networks and their network elements (switches, routers, bridges), and the protocols used to enable transmission of packets through the network. It addresses techniques for collection, characterization, and modeling of traffic in packet networks. It covers aspects of traffic management, such as various call admission control and congestion control algorithms in high-speed packet networks and the influence of traffic on network performance.

This is a project oriented graduate course. Students will be introduced to various algorithms and software tools for simulating packet networks: OPNET (OPNET Technologies), ns-2 network simulator (Lawrence Berkeley Labs), Ptolemy (UC Berkeley), and AutoClass (NASA). S-PLUS (Insightful) tool for statistical analysis of traffic data will be also available.

Pre-requisites: Successful completion of ENSC 427-3 or permission of the instructor.

TOPICS:
  • History and networking principles
  • Network services: organization
  • Network protocols: Ethernet, Internet, Token rings, FDDI
  • Circuit-switched networks
  • Packet networks: wired and wireless ATM networks
  • ATM networks: switching, scheduling, naming, and addressing, routing, error control, flow control
  • Traffic collection, modeling, and characterization
  • Traffic management
  • Connection admission control algorithms
  • Congestion control algorithms
  • Simulation tools for evaluating network performance: OPNET, ns-2, Ptolemy.
    HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS:
    Posted weekly by Thursday, and due by the following Thursday.
  • Assignment #1
  • Assignment #2
  • Assignment #3
  • Assignment #4
  • Assignment #5
  • Assignment #6
  • Assignment #7
  • Assignment #8
  • Assignment #9
  • Assignment #10
  • Assignment #11
  • Assignment #12
  • Assignment #13
    EXAMS:
    Three short quizzes.
  • 1. Tuesday, February 11.
  • 2. Tuesday, March 4.
  • 3. Tuesday, March 25.

    PROJECT REPORTS, PRESENTATIONS, AND DEMOS:

  • Web page describing your project, five references, and one interim report due March 13, 2003 (midnight).
  • Project class presentations will be held in class on March 27, April 1, and April 3, 2003.
  • Demos will be scheduled during the week of April 7, 2003.
  • Final written report (electronic version, hard copy, and Web pages) are due on April 14, 2003 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute).
    The final project grading policy
    Sign-up sheet for the presentations
    Sign-up sheet for the demos
    GRADING:
    Quizzes 15%, class participation 10%, class presentations 15%, demo presentation 15%, final project 45%.
    Click here to see your attendance records, your scores, and the distribution charts.
    TEXTBOOKS:

    Required text:
  • J. Walrand and P. Varaiya, High-performance Communication Networks, Second edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000.

    Recommended reading:

  • J. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 2/e, Addison Wesley, 2003.
  • S. Keshav, An Engineering Approach to Computer Networking, Addison Wesley, 1997.
  • J. Walrand, Communication Networks, A First Course, Second edition, McGraw-Hill, 1998.
  • D. Bertsekas and R. Gallager, Data Networks, Second edition, Prentice Hall, 1992.
  • L. L. Peterson and B. Davie, Computer Networks, A Systems Approach, Second edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 1999.

    Other related sources:

  • I. Katzela, Modeling and Simulating Communication Networks, A Hands-on Approach Using OPNET, Prentice Hall, 1999.
  • M. De Prycker, Asynchronous Transfer Mode: Solutions for Broadband ISDN, Ellis Horwood, 1991.
  • T. G. Robertazzi, Computer Networks and Systems, Queuing Theory and Performance Evaluation, Third edition, Springer Verlag, 2000.

    Check the status of the books on reserve for ENSC 833 by typing "ENSC 833" (with the space) in the search window.

    JOURNALS:
  • IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials
  • IEEE Network, The magazine of global information exchange
  • IEEE Communications Magazine
  • IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
  • IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking
  • ACM Computer Communication Review
    SCHEDULE:
    Lectures:
    T/R 17:30 - 18:50 in K 9500.
    Ljiljana Trajkovic ljilja@cs.sfu.ca

    Projects:
    ASB 9884 and ASB 10803 (open labs).

    PROFESSOR:

    TEACHING ASSISTANT:

    • Eric Keung
      eykeung@sfu.ca
      Office hours: T 15:00 - 17:00 in ASB 9884 (ENSC Graduate Computer room) and R 15:00 - 17:00 in ASB 10803 (CMPT Graduate Computer room).
    • Kenny Shao
      qshao@cs.sfu.ca
      Office hours: T 16:00 - 17:00 in ASB 9884 (ENSC Graduate Computer room) and R 16:00 - 17:00 in ASB 10803 (CMPT Graduate Computer room).

    COMPUTING HELP:

    PROJECTS:
    Contact info
    List of ENSC 833/CMPT 885 Spring '03 project proposals
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '03 projects
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '02 projects
    ENSC 833/CMPT 885 Spring '01 projects
    ENSC 894/CMPT 885 Spring '00 projects
    Instructions for in class presentations of your final projects
    Instructions for writing ENSC 833/CMPT 885 final project reports
    SOFTWARE TOOLS:
  • ENSC and CMPT host names
  • Running tools remotely
  • Setting the environments:
         OPNET: version 9 and version 8
         ns-2      Ptolemy      AutoClass      Splus
  • ns-2 simulator and documentation
      BlueHoc: Bluetooth Performance Evaluation Tool
      Network Designer (NetDes) with ns Java applet
  • OPNET main page
  • Autoclass
  • Ptolemy
  • Omnet++
  • S-PLUS for Unix or Linux and S-PLUS for Windows

    TRAFFIC TRACES:
    Locally available short traces:

  • Star Wars data:
      VBR Frames: trace and its description.
      MPEG Frames: trace and its description.
      Trace for ns StarWars trace for ns (14 MBytes) and its description.
  • News recorded video data: news.IPB, news.I, news.P, news.B, and their description.
  • Short extracts from Bellcore Ethernet traces:
      tpAug89_2000.TL, pOct89_2000.TL, OctExt_2000.TL, and their description.
    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
    Email messages with hints and answers to some frequently asked questions:
       FAQ in 2003
    FAQ in 2002
    FAQ in 2001
    FAQ in 2000
    WEB SITES OF INTEREST:
  • Communication Networks Laboratory and More about Communication Networks Laboratory
  • UCB EE228a Communication Networks: Internet, Ethernet, ATM Slides
    In case you have problems accessing it from UCB, here is the local file.
    Acronyms:
  • http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov:80/fs-1037/
  • http://www.csrstds.com/acro-a-d.html
    General references:
  • What is page
    Organizations:
  • International Telecommunication Union
  • The Internet Engineering Task Force
  • The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
  • American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
  • European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)
  • Internet Telephony Consortium (ITC)
  • Gigabit Ethernet Alliance
  • Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC)
    Forums:
  • ATM Forum
  • ADSL Forum
  • Frame Relay Forum (FRF)
  • Intelligent Network Forum (IN Forum)
  • Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF)
  • European ISDN User Forum
  • North American ISDN Users Forum (NIUF)
  • Wireless LAN Interoperability Forum (WLIF)
    Documents:
    Internet Requests for Comments (RFC) sites:
  • Internet Engineering Standards Repository
  • IETF
  • CIS Ohio
    Other resources:
  • Telecom information resources on the Internet
  • MPLS Resource Center
  • MPLS Vendor Information
  • World of SNMP and Network Management
  • Optical Networking Page
  • The SONET Home Page
  • Signaling System 7 (SS7)
  • High Speed Networks and ATM Info Page
  • Cell Relay Retreat
  • Protocols for Adaptive Mobile and Wireless Networking
  • CDMA Development Group
  • PSC Networking Research Group
  • British Telecom Global Reports
  • National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR)
         End-end Internet performance assessments
  • Cisco networking page
    Daily news of interest:
  • Wired News: DoS: Defense Is the Best Offense
  • ADSL FAQ
    Tools:
  • Ethereal: A network protocol analyzer
  • GNU Zebra: Free routing software
    Sites with traffic traces:
  • StarWars traces from Telcordia
  • StarWars trace for ns
  • MPEG-4 and H.263 encoded videos from TU Berlin
  • MPEG-1 video traces from University of Wuerzburg
  • MPEG-1 and Motion JPEG traces from Ohio State University
  • Internet Traffic Archive
  • Traces from the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research
  • Fred Xue's traffic page with links to traffic sites
    Fun things:
  • RFC 1149
  • RFC 2100
  • UC Berkeley EECS20: Structure and Interpretation of Signals and Systems
    WEEK IN REVIEW:
  • 1. January 2
  • 2. January 7
  • 3. January 14
  • 4. January 21
  • 5. January 28
  • 6. February 4
  • 7. February 11
  • 8. February 18
  • 9. February 25
  • 10. March 4
  • 11. March 11
  • 12. March 18
  • 13. March 25
  • 14. April 1
    INFO:

  • ENSC 833 FOLDERS:
    Two binders (identical copies) labeled
    ENSC 833/CMPT 885
    HIGH-PERFORMANCE NETWORKS
    are placed in the ASB 9884 and the ASB 10803 Graduate Students Computer rooms.
    CONTENT

  • ENSC 833 URL:
    http://www.ensc.sfu.ca/people/faculty/ljilja/ENSC833/

  • ENSC 833/CMPT 885 MAILING LIST:
    ensc833-g1@sfu.ca (it contains the cmpt-885-g1@sfu.ca mailing list)

  • ENSC 833/CMPT 885 NEWSGROUPS:
    sfu.class.ensc.ensc833 and sfu.class.cmpt.cmpt885

  • ENSC 833/CMPT 885 CAUCUS:
    ENSC833_CMPT885
    Information
    TOPICS HOMEWORK EXAMS TEXTBOOKS SCHEDULE

    STAFF PROJECTS TOOLS WEB SITES WEEK IN REVIEW INFO

    Created by
    Ljiljana Trajkovic
    ljilja@cs.sfu.ca
    Last modified: Wednesday February 26 16:05:02 PST 2003.