Fall 2003
ENSC 835: HIGH-PERFORMANCE NETWORKS
CMPT 885: SPECIAL TOPICS: HIGH-PERFORMANCE NETWORKS

(3-0-0)
TOPICS ASSIGNMENTS 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.
    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
    EXAMS:
    Two short quizzes.
  • 1. Tuesday, September 23.
  • 2. Tuesday, November 4.

    PROJECT REPORTS, PRESENTATIONS, AND DEMOS:

  • Web page describing your project, five references, and one interim report due October 30, 2003 (midnight).
  • Project class presentations will be held in class on November 18, 20, 25, and 27, 2003.
  • Demos will be scheduled during the week of December 1, 2003.
  • Final written report (electronic version, hard copy, and Web pages) are due on December 7, 2003 (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 (details)
    Sign-up sheet for the presentations
    Sign-up sheet for the demos
       Due to construction, all demos will be held in ASB 10803 (CMPT Graduate Computer room).
    GRADING:
    Quizzes 15 % (Quiz #1 = 5% and Quiz #2 = 10 %), 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:

    Recommended reading:
  • J. Kurose and K. W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 2/e, Addison Wesley, 2003
        (online version).
  • J. Walrand and P. Varaiya, High-performance Communication Networks, Second edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2000
        (online version).
  • 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 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
  • IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
  • IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking
  • ACM Computer Communication Review
    SCHEDULE:
    Lectures:
    TR 19:00 - 20:20 in ASB 9896 (or ASB 9705) (note the room change)
    Ljiljana Trajkovic ljilja@cs.sfu.ca

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

    INSTRUCTOR:

    TEACHING ASSISTANT:

    COMPUTING HELP:

    PROJECTS:
    Contact info
    List of ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Fall '03 project proposals
       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 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 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
  •    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 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:
  • 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 1121
  • RFC 1149
  • RFC 2100
  • UC Berkeley EECS20: Structure and Interpretation of Signals and Systems
    WEEK IN REVIEW:
  • 1. September 2
  • 2. September 9
  • 3. September 16
  • 4. September 23
  • 5. September 30
  • 6. October 7
  • 7. October 14
  • 8. October 21
  • 9. October 28
  • 10. November 4
  • 11. November 11
    INFO:

  • ENSC 835 FOLDERS:
    Two binders (identical copies) labeled
    ENSC 835/CMPT 885
    HIGH-PERFORMANCE NETWORKS
    are placed in the ASB 9884 and the ASB 10803 Graduate Students Computer rooms.
    CONTENT

  • ENSC 835 URL:
    http://www.ensc.sfu.ca/people/faculty/ljilja/ENSC835/

  • ENSC 835/CMPT 885 MAILING LIST:
    ensc835-g1@sfu.ca (it contains the cmpt-885-g1@sfu.ca mailing list)

  • ENSC 835/CMPT 885 NEWSGROUPS:
    sfu.class.ensc.ensc835 and sfu.class.cmpt.cmpt885

  • ENSC 835/CMPT 885 CAUCUS:
    ENSC835_CMPT885
    Information
    TOPICS ASSIGNMENTS EXAMS TEXTBOOKS SCHEDULE

    STAFF PROJECTS TOOLS WEB SITES WEEK IN REVIEW INFO

    Created by
    Ljiljana Trajkovic
    ljilja@cs.sfu.ca
    Last modified: Friday September 19 22:07:48 PDT 2003.