Spring 2014
ENSC 894 G200 SPECIAL TOPICS II: COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

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

SCHEDULE STAFF PROJECTS TOOLS WEB SITES INFO

This course is taught together with ENSC 427. Please refer to the ENSC 427 web page for details.
Current count of email messages related to ENSC 894 exchanged this term: 257.
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:
ASSIGNMENTS:
Posted weekly by Friday. Due the following week on Sunday (firm deadline).
EXAMS:

MIDTERM EXAMS:
Wednesday, February 19, 2014, 14:30 - 15:20, C 9000
Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 14:30 - 15:20, C 9000

FINAL EXAM:
No final exam.

PROJECT REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS:

  • Web page describing your project and five references are due March 16, 2014 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute).
  • Interim report is due March 23, 2014 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute).
  • Project class presentations will be held during the week of April 7, 2014.
  • Final written report (electronic version, hard copy, and web pages) are due on Sunday, April 20, 2014 (midnight: 11:59 PM + 1 minute).
    The final project grading policy
    The final project grading form
    Presentation schedule
    GRADING:
    Assignments 10%, Midterms 20% (Midterm #1 = 10% and Midterm #2 = 10%), class presentation 10%, and final project 60%.
    Click here to see your scores and midterm exam 1 and midterm exam 2 distribution charts.
    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 894 by typing "ENSC 894" (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:
    Monday 14:30 - 16:20 in SECB 1013
    Wednesday 14:30 - 15:20 in C 9000
    Location: South East Classroom Block (SECB)

    Tutorial:
    Wednesday 15:30 - 16:20 in ESIL Lab ASB 1000B/ASB 10803.

    Projects:
    Please note that there is no ENSC Graduate Computer room dedicated to this course. You need to run all tools remotely.

    PROFESSOR:

    TEACHING ASSISTANT:

    COMPUTING HELP:

    PROJECTS:
    ENSC 894 Spring 2014 project teams
    ENSC 894 Spring 2014 projects

    Instructions for in class presentations of your ENSC 894 final projects
    Instructions for writing ENSC 894 final project reports
    IEEE Tools for Authors for writing papers. Subsection "Template for Transactions", "Instructions Only".

    Samples of past projects:
    Research with OPNET at SFU
    ENSC 427 Spring '13 projects
    ENSC 427 Spring '12 projects
    ENSC 427 Spring '11 projects
    ENSC 427 Spring '10 projects
    ENSC 427 Spring '09 projects
    ENSC 895 Spring '10 projects
    ENSC 894 Spring '12 projects
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '13 projects
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '11 projects
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '09 projects
    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

    SOFTWARE TOOLS:
  • Instructions how to run OPNET (under revision)
  • Get familiar with Linux/CentOS. The following sites have links to useful Unix tutorials and documentation:
        http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-unix-commands-cheat-sheets.html
        http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO.html
        http://wiki.centos.org/HowTo To run ns-2 and/or ns-3 on a PC running MS operating system, download:
        Option 1: cygwin
        Option 2: Ubuntu virtual machine. Login and password may be found on the same page. Downlaod VirtualBox in order to run the virtual machine.
  • Review:
        Running tools remotely
  • Setting the environments:
         OPNET: version 16.0.A and version 15.0.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
  • 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 2014
    FAQ in 2013
    FAQ in 2012
    FAQ in 2011
    FAQ in 2010
    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 427 Spring 2012
  • 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)
  • Gigabit Ethernet Alliance
  • Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC)
    Forums:
  • ATM Forum
  • ADSL Forum
  • Frame Relay Forum (FRF)
  • Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF)
  • North American ISDN Users Forum (NIUF)
    Other resources:
  • MPLS Resource Center
  • 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:
  • Wireshark network protocol analyzer
  • Quagga Routing Suite
  • GNU Zebra (old site)
    Sites with traffic traces:
  • 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: Tue Jan 28 18:38:58 PST 2014.