University of Memphis
COMP 7311: Advanced Computer Networks
Spring 2005

Course Information

• Time: Tuesday & Thursday 1:00-2:25PM
• Location: 225 Dunn Hall
• Prerequisite: COMP 6310 or equivalent (strictly enforced)
• Desired Skills: programming experience in Java, C or C++; basic knowledge of Unix systems

Instructor: Prof. Lan Wang

• Office: 318 Dunn Hall
• Phone: (901) 678-2727
• Email: lanwang@memphis.edu
• Webpage: http://www.cs.memphis.edu/~lanwang/
• Office hours: Tuesday & Thursday 11:00AM-12:00PM
• Teaching Assistant:  TBA

Objectives

This course will cover the following topics: Internet architecture and layering, intra-domain routing protocols, inter-domain routing protocol, congestion control, and network QoS.  Students will gain enough knowledge to select and work on their own research topics.

Course Load

Students are required to do the following:

1. Read various chapters in two books;
2. Read at least 10 research papers and write a summary for each paper;
3. Do an in-class presentation on an assigned paper;
4. Take a few quizzes;
5. Take a midterm exam;
6. Work on a term project;
• Submit proposal, progress report, and final report;
• Do a demo and a presentation;

Resources

The required textbooks for this course are:

•  Interconnections, Bridges, Routers, Switches and Internetworking Protocols, 2nd Edition by Radia Perlman (Adddison-Wesley, ISBN: 0-201-63448-1)
• Routing in the Internet, 2nd Edition by Christian Huitema, (Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-022647-5). 
  

• Fundamental Networking Concepts:
• Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 3rd Edition by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-321-22735-2
• Computer Networks, 4th Edition by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-066102-3
• TCP/IP Protocols:
• TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 (The Protocols), by W. Richard Stevens, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-63346-9
• TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 2 (The Implementation), by Gary R. Wright and W. Richard Stevens, Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-63354-X
• Internet Routing:
• Internet Routing Architectures, 2nd Edition by Sam Halabi and Danny McPherson, Cisco Press, ISBN 1-57870-233-X

Class Participation

• Class attendance: the instructor will check attendance periodically.
• In-class presentation: students will form groups of 2 and each group will be assigned a paper to read.
• Answering and raising questions: the instructor will ask questions frequently.  She also expects a lot of questions both in class and after class.

Homework Assignments

Students should hand in one summary for each assigned paper.  The following are the requirements (your summary needs to satisfy all the requirements to get credit):

1. Read the entire paper and summarize its main ideas in your own words (at least 150 words).  DO NOT copy the abstract, introduction or conclusion.
2. Answer in your own words the following three questions (at least two answers to each question):
1. What do you like about this paper (or what are its strongest points)?
2. What do you dislike about this paper (or what are its weakest points)?
3. How can the authors improve this paper? 
   

You can critique the paper’s assumptions, model, approach, simulation setup, explanation of the results, etc.   Remember that writing the summary helps you better understand the paper.  The summaries also make the instructor aware of any questions and misunderstanding that you may have of the papers.

Homework assignments should be submitted before 1PM on the due date.  No late turn-ins will be accepted.

Quizzes

There will be several pop-up quizzes. There will NOT be makeup quizzes, so it is very important for students to attend every lecture.

Midterm Exam

The midterm exam will be on Tuesday, Mar. 15. There will be no makeup exam for the midterm exam unless the student is in a documented emergency.

Term Project

Every student will work on a networking project.  Teamwork of 2 people is preferred.  Since an early start is key to the success of the project, students should discuss project ideas with the instructor as early as possible.  Below are the due dates of the deliverables:

• Topic Selection: Feb. 1 (do a 5-minute presentation in class);
• Project Proposal (3+ pages):  Feb. 8 (midnight);
• Progress Report (4+ pages): Mar. 10 (midnight);
• Project Presentation: Apr. 21 and Apr. 26;
• Demo: Apr. 28;
• Final Report: May 3 (midnight).

There is no grace period for the project proposal, progress report and final report.

Grading

Letter grades will be assigned as follows -- A: 90, A-: 87, B+: 84, B: 81, B-: 79, C+: 75, C: 72, C-: 68, D+: 64, D: 60, F: < 60. A student's final score will be composed of the following components.

Tentative Schedule of Lectures