networked world logo CMPSCI 653: Advanced Computer Networks
Prof. Don Towsley
College of Information & Computer Sciences
U. Massachusetts Amherst
Fall 2015

This course covers advanced fundamental principles of computer networks, studying foundational material in the field. Topics include advanced network architecture, network algorithmics, network control, network measurement, and wireless networks. The goal of this course is to teach networking fundamentals/techniques that will be useful for years to come.

Course materials. There is no required textbook for this course. Reading materials will be primarily drawn from the literature. Students who have taken an undergraduate networking course, but want to fill in their background might want to read Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 6th edition, Pearson 2013.

Course Prerequisites. An introductory (undergraduate level) courses in computer networks (e.g., CMPSCI 453) and algorithms (e.g., CMPSCI 311) are required. Some familiarity with probability and optimization theory will be helpful.

Course assignments, exams. There will be a midterm and a final. 4-5 homework assignments.

Class meeting time: This class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:05 until 10:20 in Computer Science Building 142.

Office Hours: Don has office hours on Monday and Wednesday from 10:30-11:30 and by appointment (email towsley@cs.umass.edu)

TA: Our TA is Chang Liu, cliu@cs.umass.edu. Her office hours are Friday 10:30 - 12:30 in Room 216 in the Computer Science Building, cube 1. You can also arrange to meet with her 1-1 outside of office hours by emailing her. Both Chang and Don also welcome questions by email.

Class WWW site: http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/cs653 (you are here). We will make extensive use of the class WWW site. All assignments are (only ) posted on this site. The site is full of lots of useful other information, so check out and use this site often! 

Class email list. We have a class email list, cs653@cs.umass.edu. It's used to disseminate important information, ask/answer questions and more. So make sure you are on the list! See Don to get your name added to the list. Note that you can only post to the list using the email address you registered to receive class email.

Topics:

  • Protocol mechanisms. What protocol mechanisms/techniques are commonly found in networks protocols and why are they used? signaling, randomization, indirection, multiplexing, virtualization, scalability.
  • Network architecture: Lessons from the Internet, ATM, and telephony. Circuit switching versus packet switching revisited. Internet control plane. Software defined networks.
  • Router design. input- output-queueing, scheduling.
  • Network resource allocation. traffic engineering, congestion control as a resource allocation problem, TCP.
  • wireless networking. What a networking person needs to know about the wireless media, how wireless changes networking solutions, TDMA vs. CSMA
  • Content Centric Networks. names vs. addresses, network caches.

Grading: 50% Of your grade will be determined by two exams, a midterm and a final. The rest of your grade will be determined by homeworks.