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TCOM-5213: Network Design and Management

This is a graduate course in network design and management. This offering will be quite a bit different from the previous two as I will spend more time to the new developement of network design since the seminar paper by Kelly. Since then, network design research has been driven by global optimization formulations. I will cover some basic topics described in Bersekas and Gallager and then I will move on with Srikant to attempt to give an overview of this new development on network design. Background on stochastic math is required. I will give a quick overview. But it is advised that you should have taken Dean Ray's math class before this one.

For projects and homework (that may involve ns-2 or ns-3 simulator), it is preferred that you have a linux machine to play with. Either a real linux system or an emulated one using cygwin, virtualbox, andlinux or any other software (all three aforementioned ones are free and of course so does Linux). Some programming skills are very helpful for this course. I suggest you using Python for your course work. The language is quite easy to learn and is designed for readability. You can dig up some tutorials from the links below.

Textbooks

• Data Networks by D. Bertsekas and R. Gallager
• The Mathematics of Internet Congestion Control by R. Srikant
• Network Optimization and Control by S. Shakkottai and R. Srikant

• Foundations of Python Network Programming by John Goerzen
• Computer Networks: Fundamental Concepts and Key Architectures by A. Leon-Garcia and I. Widjaja
• Computer Networks by A.S. Tanenbaum
• Data and Computer Commmunications by W. Stallings
• 802.11 tutorial
• Understanding TCP/IP

Project

Please note that project amount to 40% of your overall grade and I take it very seriously (summarizing a paper is not enough and definitely gives you a low grade). Group project is encouraged with maximum two per team.

Grading is based roughly on the actual quality of the work, i.e., originality, amount of work actually involved, relevancy to the subject, difficulty in conducting the work, etc. (25%), and the quality of the report, i.e., organization, readablility, style, etc. (15%). Some project suggestions are given here.

Grading

• Homework: 30%
• Quiz 1: 15%
• Mini-project: 15%
• Final project: 40%

Homework may include mini-projects and paper reports, details yet to be determined.

Late Policy

Late assignment is generally subjected to 10% penalty per day.

Useful Links

• Courses from elsewhere
  • Course material of a computer networks course from MIT OpenCourseWare
  • An MIT course on data communication networks
  • A Harvard course on wireless communications and sensor networks
  • Prof. Shiv Kalyanaraman's Online Audio and Video Lectures on Computer Networking
• Python materials
  • Tutorial on network programming with Python
  • Socket programming in Python
  • Dive into Python
• Simulators
  • ns-2 simulator website
  • ns-2 simulator tutorial
  • ns-3 simulator
  • OPNET tutorial from IIT Bombay
• Testbeds
  • DETER: Cyber defense technology experimental research network
  • Emulab
  • ORBIT: a research testbed for wireless networks
  • PlaneLab: a global research network supporting the development of new network services
  • WAIL: a network testbed at the University of Wisconsin
  • PREDICT
  • HPWREN: wireless research and education network
• Resource website of Stallings' textbook
• Wireshark
• COPE
• EmStar
• 3GPP

Course Calendar