Spring 2013
ENSC 835: 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: 295.
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 7, 2013
  • 2. January 14, 2013 (revised)
  • 3. January 21, 2013 (revised)
  • 4. January 28, 2013
  • 5. February 4, 2013
  • *. February 11, 2013
  • 6. February 18, 2013 (updated)
  • 7. February 25, 2013 (revised)
  • 8. March 4, 2013 (revised)
  • 9. March 11, 2013
  • 10. March 18, 2013
  • 11. March 25, 2013 (revised)
  • 12. April 1, 2013
  • 13. April 8, 2013 (updated)
    ASSIGNMENTS:

    Posted weekly by Friday. Due the following week on Sunday (firm deadline).
  • Assignment #1
  • Assignment #2 (revised)
  • Assignment #3
  • Assignment #4
  • Assignment #5
  • Assignment #6
  • Assignment #7
  • Assignment #8
  • Assignment #9
  • Assignment #10
  • Assignment #11
  • Assignment #12
  • Assignment #13
    EXAMS:
    MIDTERM EXAM:
    Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 19:00 - 20:20 in RCB 8100
    Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 19:00 - 20:20 in RCB 8100

    FINAL EXAM:
    No final exam.

    FAS policy on mid-terms and finals is described in Section 5.7 of the FAS Handbook

    PROJECT REPORTS, PRESENTATIONS, AND DEMOS:

  • Web page describing your project and five references are due March 17, 2013 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute).
  • Interim report is due March 17, 2013 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute).
  • Project class presentations will be held in class during the week of April 8, 2013.
  • Demos will be scheduled during the week of April 15, 2013.
  • Presentation slides (Power Point and PDF files) of your final project, URL for the web pages of your final project, and final written report (LaTEX or MS Word file, PDF file, and a hard copy) of your final project are due on Sunday, April 21, 2013 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute). (Please note that ENSC homework assignment boxes are located in the ASB Atrium.)
    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:
    Assignments 10%, midterm exams 10% (= 2 x 5%), class presentation 10%, demo presentation 10%, and final project 60%.
       Click here to see your scores
    TEXTBOOKS:

    Recommended reading:
  • J. F. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 5/E, Addison Wesley, 2010.
  • J. F. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 4/E, Addison Wesley, 2008.
  • J. F. 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 (click on "Full text - Books 24x7 limited to 5 simultaneous users" link once you access the page).
  • 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:
    Mon/Wed 19:00 - 20:20 in RCB 8100
    On Monday, February 25, 2013, the lecture will be held in AQ 3003.

    Projects:
    Unfortunately, the ENSC Graduate Computer room: ASB 10802 (open lab) is not equipped to provide local access to OPNET.

    PROFESSOR:

    TEACHING ASSISTANT:

    COMPUTING HELP:

    PROJECTS:
    ENSC 835 Spring '13 project teams
    ENSC 835 Spring '13 project proposals
    ENSC 835 Spring '13 projects

    Samples of past projects:
    Research with OPNET at SFU
    ENSC 894 Spring '12 project
    ENSC 427 Spring '12 projects
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '11 project
    ENSC 427 Spring '11 projects
    ENSC 895 Spring '10 project
    ENSC 427 Spring '10 projects
    ENSC 427 Spring '09 projects
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '09 project
    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 final projects
    Instructions for writing ENSC 835 final project reports

    SOFTWARE TOOLS:
  • Instructions how to run OPNET
  • Running tools remotely
  • Setting the environments:
         OPNET: version 16.0.A, version 15.0.A, and version 14.0.A
         ns-2      Ptolemy      AutoClass      Splus
  • ns-3 website, ns-3 tutorial, ns-3 documentation, and ns-3 wiki page
  • ns-2 simulator and documentation
      BlueHoc: Bluetooth Performance Evaluation Tool
      Network Designer (NetDes) with ns Java applet
  • OPNET main page
  • Ptolemy
  • Omnet++
  • S-PLUS for Unix 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 2013
    FAQ in 2011
    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:
  • ENSC 835 Spring 2011
  • ENSC 835 Spring 2009
  • Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 2/e
  • 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:
  • Dictionary of Acronyms in Communications and Informatics (DACI)
  • 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)
  • Gigabit Ethernet Alliance
  • Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC)
    Forums:
  • Broadband Forum
  • Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF)
  • North American ISDN Users Forum (NIUF)
    Other resources:
  • MPLS Resource Center
  • Optical Networking Page
  • The SONET Home Page
  • Protocols for Adaptive Mobile and Wireless Networking
  • CDMA Development Group
  • National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR)
  • Cisco networking page
    Daily news of interest:
  • Wired News: DoS: Defense Is the Best Offense
    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
  • Internet Traffic Archive
  • Traces from the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research
    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: Mon Jan 7 22:45:22 PST 2013.