BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, Pilani

Pilani Campus
Instruction Division

Date: 1st Aug 2014

FIRST SEMESTER 2014-2015

COURSE HANDOUT (PART II)

In addition to Part I (General Handout for all courses appended to the timetable) this portion gives further
specific details regarding the course.

Course No.: CS G525

Course Title: Advanced Computer Networks
Instructor(s): VIRENDRA S SHEKHAWAT
Email : vsshekhawat@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in
Course web page: http://nalanda.bits-pilani.ac.in

Course Description:
This is a graduate level course on computer networking and assumes a student has a basic understanding
of networking concepts. This course is a topics based course which primarily covers topics from Internet
Architecture, Transport Layer Protocols, Network Layer Protocols, Wireless Networking, Quality of
Service, Network Security, Network Performance, Network Management, Network Applications, and
Software Defined Networking. Around 30+ research papers will be discussed on various aspects of
computer networking. This course will introduce students to the basic design principles on which today's
networks are based along with the current and emerging research topics in computer networking. In
addition, this course will cover some recent proposals to improve network performance, functionality and
scalability.

Scope and Objectives:

 To understand the state of the art in network protocols, network architecture, and networked
systems.
 To develop a strong understanding of the core concepts of computer networks
 To gain practice of reading the research papers and critically understanding the research of
others
 To engage ourselves in networking research

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Prescribed Text Book

There is no prescribed text book for this course. The course contents will be covered through several
research papers. Students can consider following text books to refresh their basics on networking:

Kurose James F and Keith W. Ross: Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the
Internet
L. Peterson and B. Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach
Note: Several technical papers/articles from the literature will be assigned throughout the
semester. These papers/articles will be made available to the students through the course page.

Module Topics Learning Objectives

No.
Internet Architecture: Overview of network
building blocks, Network architecture, layers
M1 and protocols, Internet design: Challenges and
Solutions
To understand the Internet Design
Philosophy. Pitfalls in existing design and
probable solutions.

Resource Management: Congestion control To gain the knowledge of network

principles, Hop-by-hop vs. End-to-end
congestion control, Explicit vs. Implicit
M2 Feedback, Fair Queuing, Flow control, TCP
variants (Tahoe, Reno, Vegas, New-Reno,
SACK), Load balancing using Multipath TCP
congestion problem and it’s solutions.
Limitations with existing solutions and
probable solutions for further improvements.

Internetworking & Network Management: To understand the interconnection of

Design Principles, IP Design, Intra domain
Routing (RIP, OSPF), Inter-domain Routing
M3 (BGP), Adaptive Routing, Multipath and QoS
Routing. Software Defined Networks (SDNs),
Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs)
different networks and protocols involved.
The focus will be on the control and
management related issues. Limitations of
current systems and solutions to improve.

Wireless Networks: Multihop Wireless To understand wireless network architecture.

Networks and Adhoc routing, Wireless WAN,
M4 TCP performance improvement in Wireless
Networks
Network Applications & Services: Overlay
Networks, P2P Networks, Content
M5 Distribution Networks, Data Center Networks
How traffic routing in wireless is different
from wired. TCP and performance issues
with wireless networks. Wireless WAN
networks and challenges.
To know about the service specific networks
and their characteristics. Performance and
implementation related challenges and their
solutions.

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Lecture Plan:
Lect. Topics Reading List
No.

M1: Internet Architecture

L0 Introduction to the course, Course plan and Class Notes

administration
L1 Internet architecture and design principles The Design Philosophy of The
DARPA Internet Protocols [Clark
1988]
L2-L3 Internet Layering, Functionality End-to-End Argument in System
Implementation (like Recovery from crashes, Design [J H Saltzer 1984]
security, reliability etc.) at lower layers vs. A Brief History of The Internet [B
Higher layers Leiner 2009]
L4-L5 Next generation Internet design and Tussle in Cyberspace: Defining
challenges Tomorrow’s Internet [Clark 2005]
A Survey of the Research on Future
Internet Architectures [Jianli Pan
2011]

L6 Case Study of Future Internet Design NDN Project Technical Report [L

Project: Named Data Networking (NDN) Zhang 2010]

M2: Resource Management

L7-L8 Congestion Control Principles, TCP Congestion Avoidance and Control

Congestion Control Models
L9-L10 Congestion Control using Fair Queuing,
Core State less Queuing and Other Queuing
Methods
L11 Random Early Detection, Explicit
Congestion Control Protocol
[Jacobson 1988]
Analysis of Increase and Decrease
Algorithms for Congestion Avoidance
in Computer Networks [Raj Jain 1989]
Core-Stateless Fair Queueing:
Achieving Approximately Fair
Bandwidth Allocations in High Speed
Networks [Stoica 1998]
Random Early Detection Gateways for
Congestion Avoidance [Floyd 1993]
Congestion Control for High
Bandwidth Delay Product Networks

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[Katabi 2002]
L12-L13 Load Balancing using Multipath TCP How Hard Can It Be? Designing and
Implementing a Deployable Multipath
TCP [Raiciu 2012]

M3: Internetworking and Network Management

L14 Intradomain Routing: Protocols Traffic Engineering with

Characteristics and Limitations; Achieving
QoS/Traffic Engineering with IP Routing
Protocols
Traditional IP Routing Protocols
[Bernard 2002]
Making Intra-Domain Routing Robust
to Changing and Uncertain Traffic
Demands:Understanding Fundamental
Tradeoffs [David 2003]

L15-L16 Interdomain Routing: Performance and Some Foundational Problems in

Security Problems with Border Gateway
Protocol (BGP)
L17 Software Defined Networks: Architecture
Interdomain Routing [Feamster 2004]
BGP Routing Policies in ISP
Networks [Caesar 2005]
A survey of BGP Security Issues and
Solutions [Butler 2013]
Fabric: A Retrospective on Evolving
SDN [Casado 2012]

L18 OpenFlow: Protocol to Program the OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation in

Networks Campus Networks [N Mckeown 2008]
L19-L20 Software Defined Networks: Applications Experience with a Globally-Deployed
Software Defined WAN [Jain 2013]
L21-L22 Delay Tolerant Networks: Architectures and A Delay-Tolerant Network
Applications Architecture for Challenged
Internets [Kevin Fall 2003]

M4: Wireless Networks

L23 Wireless Networking: An Overview Class Notes

L24 Multi-Hop Wireless Ad Hoc Network A Performance Comparison of
Routing Protocols Multi-Hop Wireless Ad Hoc Network
Routing Protocols [Josh Broch 1998]

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L25-L26 TCP Performance and Wireless Links A Comparison of Mechanisms for

Improving TCP Performance over
Wireless Links [Balakrishanan 1996]
Understanding TCP fairness over
Wireless LAN [Saar Pilosof 2003]

L27 Wireless Networks Performance Partial Packet Recovery for Wireless

Improvement Networks [Kyle Jamieson 2007]

M5: Network Applications & Services

L28 Overlay Networks, Advantages and Resilient Overlay Networks [2001]

Challenges, Resilient Overlay Networks
(RON)

L29-L30 Lookup Problem in P2P Networks, Scalable Chord: A Scalable Peer-to-peer

P2P Lookup Service for Internet Lookup Service for Internet
Applications, Chord Protocol Applications [Stoica 2001]

L31-L32 DNS and Naming System, DNS and CDN, Development of the Domain Name
HTTP and CDN, Coral CDN System [Mockapetris 1988]
Democratizing content publication
with Coral [Freedman 2004]
L33 DNS Caching and Performance DNS Performance and the
Effectiveness of Caching [Jung 2002]
L34-L35 An overlay approach to decouple sender and Internet Indirection Infrastructure
receiver to generalize the Multicast, Anycast [Stoica 2002]
and Mobility
L36 Data Center Networks and Congestion A Scalable and Flexible Data Center
Control Network [Albert Greenberg 2009]
Data Center TCP [M Alizadeh 2010]
L37-L38 Course Review and Feedback Class Notes

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Evaluation Scheme:
EC Evaluation Component Duration Weightage Date & Time Nature of
No. (Mints) (%) Component
1. Mid Semester Test 90 25 10/10 4:00 - Close Book
5:30 PM
2. Project -- 30 Open Book
3. Comprehensive Examination 180 35 9/12 AN Close Book
4. Classroom -- 10 NA Open Book
Participation/Online
Quizzes/Discussion Forum
Posts

Makeup Policy: Makeup for any component will be given only in genuine cases as per CSIS department
makeup policy guidelines. In all cases prior intimation must be given to IC.

Chamber Consultation Hour: T,Th 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Notices: Notices regarding the course will be displayed ONLY on the course page on NALANDA.

Instructor-in-charge
CS G525

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