Spring 2009
ENSC 835: COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
CMPT 885: SPECIAL TOPICS: COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

(3-0-0)
TOPICS WEEK IN REVIEW ASSIGNMENTS EXAMS TEXTBOOKS

SCHEDULE STAFF PROJECTS TOOLS WEB SITES INFO


Current count of email messages related to ENSC 835 exchanged this term: 211.
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:
WEEK IN REVIEW:
  • 1. January 5, 2009
  • 2. January 12, 2009
  • 3. January 19, 2009
  • 4. January 26, 2009
  • 5. February 2, 2009
  • 6. February 9, 2009
  • 7. February 16, 2009
  • 8. February 23, 2009
  • 9. March 2, 2009
  • 10. March 9, 2009
  • 11. March 16, 2009
  • 12. March 23, 2009
  • 13. March 30, 2009
    ASSIGNMENTS:
    Posted weekly by Friday. Due by the following Friday.
  • Assignment #1
  • Assignment #2
  • Assignment #3
  • Assignment #4
  • Assignment #5
  • Assignment #6 (early posting)
  • Assignment #7
  • Assignment #8
  • Assignment #9
  • Assignment #10
  • Assignment #11
  • Assignment #12
  • Assignment #13
    EXAMS:
    Two quizzes:
  • 1. Thursday, February 12, 2009 in WMC 2507
  • 2. Thursday, April 2, 2009 in WMC 2507

    PROJECT REPORTS, PRESENTATIONS, AND DEMOS:

  • Web page describing your project, five references, and one interim report due March 15, 2009 (midnight).
  • Project class presentations will be held in class on Thursday, April 2 (revised from April 6), 2009.
  • Demos will be scheduled during the week of April 13, 2009.
  • Final written report (electronic version, hard copy, and Web pages) are due on April 19, 2009 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute). (Please note that there is an after-hours drop-off box at the entrance door of the ENSC main office.)
    The final project grading policy
    The final project grading form (all)
    The final project grading form (presentation)
    The final project grading form (demo)
    The final project grading form (report)
    Presentation schedule
    Demo schedule

    GRADING:
    Quizzes 15 % (Quiz #1 = 5% and Quiz #2 = 10 %), class presentation 15%, demo presentation 15%, and final project 55%.
    TEXTBOOKS:

    Recommended reading:
  • J. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 4/E Addison Wesley, 2008.
  • J. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet: 3/E, Addison Wesley, 2005.
  • J. Walrand and P. Varaiya, High-performance Communication Networks, 2/e, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000
        (online version).
  • A. Leon-Garcia and I. Widjaja, Communication Networks: Fundamental Concepts and Key Architectures, 2nd edition, McGraw-Hill, 2004.
  • S. Keshav, Engineering Approach to Computer Networking: ATM Networks, the Internet, and the Telephone Network, Addison Wesley, 1997.
  • J. Walrand, Communication Networks, A First Course, 2/e, 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, 3rd edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 1999.
  • Other related sources:
  • T. G. Robertazzi, Computer Networks and Systems, Queuing Theory and Performance Evaluation, Third edition, Springer Verlag, 2000.
  • M. De Prycker, Asynchronous Transfer Mode: Solutions for Broadband ISDN, Ellis Horwood, 1991.
  • I. Katzela, Modeling and Simulating Communication Networks, A Hands-on Approach Using OPNET, Prentice Hall, 1999.
  • Check the status of the books on reserve for ENSC 835 by typing "ENSC 835" (with the space) in the search window.


    JOURNALS:
  • IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials
  • IEEE Network, The magazine of global information exchange
  • IEEE Communications Magazine
  • ACM Computer Communication Review
  • IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
  • IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking
    SCHEDULE:
    Lectures:
    TTh 19:00 - 20:20 in WMC 2507 (note the room change)
    Ljiljana Trajkovic ljilja at cs.sfu.ca

    Projects:
    ENSC Graduate Computer room: ASB 10802 (open lab).


    PROFESSOR:

    TEACHING ASSISTANT:

    COMPUTING HELP:


    PROJECTS:
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '09 projects
    Samples of past projects:
    Research with OPNET at SFU
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '08 project
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '06 projects
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Fall '03 projects
    ENSC 833/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 ENSC 835/CMPT 885 final projects
    Instructions for writing ENSC 835/CMPT 885 final project reports
    SOFTWARE TOOLS:
  • ENSC and CMPT host names
  • Running tools remotely
  • Setting the environments:
         OPNET: version 14.0.A, version 12.0.A, version 11.0.A, and version 10.5.A
         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
  • J-Sim (formerly known as JavaSim)
  • 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 2009
    FAQ in 2008
    FAQ in 2006
    FAQ in 2003
    FAQ in 2002
    FAQ in 2001
    FAQ in 2000
    WEB SITES OF INTEREST:
  • Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 2/e
  • 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.
    Online courses:
  • Prof. Shiv Kalyanaraman's Online Audio and Video Lectures on Computer Networking
    Acronyms:
  • Dictionary of Acronyms in Communications and Informatics (DACI)
  • http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov:80/fs-1037/
  • http://www.csrstds.com/acro-a-d.html
    General references:
  • What is page
    Documents:
    Internet Requests for Comments (RFC) site:
  • IETF
    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)
    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 (not available)
  • StarWars trace for ns (not available)
  • 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 1121
  • RFC 1149
  • RFC 2100
  • UC Berkeley EECS20: Structure and Interpretation of Signals and Systems
    INFO:
    TOPICS WEEK IN REVIEW ASSIGNMENTS EXAMS TEXTBOOKS

    SCHEDULE STAFF PROJECTS TOOLS WEB SITES INFO


    Created by
    Ljiljana Trajkovic
    ljilja at cs.sfu.ca
    Last modified: Thursday, April 23, 2009 9:20:08 PM PDT