ENSC 835/CMPT 885 COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

Spring 2008
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: 353.

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.

WEEK IN REVIEW:

ASSIGNMENTS:
Posted weekly by Friday. Due by the following Friday.

Assignment #13

EXAMS:
Two short quizzes.

1. Monday, February 18.

2. Monday, March 17.

PROJECT REPORTS, PRESENTATIONS, AND DEMOS:

Web page describing your project, five references, and one interim report due

March 16, 2008 (midnight).

Project class presentations will be held in class on

April 7, 2008.

Demos will be scheduled during the week of

April 14, 2008.

Final written report (electronic version, hard copy, and Web pages) are due on April 20, 2008 (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%.

Click here to see your scores.

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-Gracia 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

IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications

IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking

ACM Computer Communication Review

SCHEDULE:
Lectures:
MW 17:30 - 18:50 in WMC 2507
Ljiljana Trajkovic ljilja at cs.sfu.ca

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

INSTRUCTOR:

Ljiljana Trajkovic
ASB 9811
Tel.: (778) 782-3998
ljilja@cs.sfu.ca
Office hours: MW 19:00 - 20:00 in WMC 2507 or ASB 9811.

TEACHING ASSISTANT:

None assigned.

COMPUTING HELP:

CSS staff: gripe at cs.sfu.ca

PROJECTS:

ENSC 835/CMPT 885 Spring '08 projects
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 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 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 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:

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