Communication Networks

Course Description

EECS 780
3 credit hours

Comprehensive in-depth coverage of communication networks with emphasis on the Internet and the PSTN (wired and wireless). Extensive examples of protocols and algorithms are presented at all levels, including: client/server and peer-to-peer applications; session control; transport protocols, the end-to-end arguments and end-to-end congestion control; network architecture, forwarding, routing, signalling, addressing, and traffic management; quality of service, basic queuing (basic M/M/1 and Little's law) and multimedia applications; LAN architecture, link protocols, access networks and MAC algorithms; physical media characteristics and coding; network security and information assurance; network management.

Prerequisites

Basic working knowledge of computer systems, the Internet, and probability and statistics; basic programming skills. Undergraduate students must have taken EECS 461 or equivalent and have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better.

Credit may not be received for more than one of EECS 563, 663, or 780.

Time and Location

Important Notice: The first meeting of the class will be Wed. 23 January for the first scheduled lecture session. The discussion session will not meet on 21 January.

EECS 780 meets one evening a week for three hours on the Edwards Campus in the western Kansas City suburb of Overland Park. A discussion session is scheduled on an additional evening and will meet occasionally as needed for class make-up and exam reviews. See the individual course offering pages for detailed time and room information.

For Kansas City residents, this is 2.4 mi. south from the Quivera Road exit of the southwestern portion of the I-435 loop to 127th St. For Lawrence residents this is approximately 30 miles / 50 km east of the Lawrence Campus, a 40 minute drive mostly along the K-10 freeway. A parking permit is not needed on the Edwards Campus. The K-10 Connector bus is a service used by many students between the Lawrence and Edwards campuses.

Course Offerings

Detailed information about individual offerings of this course are located on the following pages, including schedule and homework assignments.

• spring 2009: KU EECS 780 planned for KU Edwards Campus
• spring 2008: KU EECS 780 (Edwards Campus)
• spring 2007: KU EECS 700 (Edwards Campus)
• spring 2006: KU EECS 663 (Edwards Campus)
• fall 2004: Northeastern University TSM G330 Data Networking

Generic course information and the latest version of the lectures are located this page below.

Lectures and Readings

Reading assignments: K = Kurose & Ross, S = Sterbenz & Touch

Required Textbooks

James F. Kurose and Keith F. Ross,
Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, fourth edition,
Pearson Addison Wesley, 2008.

Kurose and Ross come with a prepaid subscription to the companion Web site. The first page in the book has a scratch-off access code. If you purchase used copy of the book you will need to follow the instructions at the bottom of the page or on the book Web page to separately purchase a license. You must use the 4th edition of this book, which is different from previous editions.

James P.G. Sterbenz and Joseph D. Touch,
High-Speed Networking: A Systematic Approach to High-Bandwidth Low-Latency Communication,
John Wiley, New York, 2001.
This book is also used for EECS 881

Supplementary Textbooks

These books provide additional depth in key areas that will be covered in this course. The majority of them will be on three-day reserve in the Edwards Campus Library when course is in session.

General Networking and Communication

[GW2004]
Alberto Leon-Garcia and Indra Widjaja,
Communication Networks: Fundamental Concepts and Key Architectures,
2nd ed., McGraw-Hill, 2004.
(Slightly more analytical than Kurose & Ross, has a bit more emphasis on lower layers, and is currently used in the Lawrence section of EECS 563)

[S2007]
William Stallings,
Data and Computer Communications,
8th ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
(Good coverage of the physical layer in addition to a slightly more analytical treatment overall than Kurose & Ross.)

[PC1993] (full text available online)
David M. Piscitello and A. Lyman Chapin,
Open Systems Networking: TCP/IP and OSI,
Addison-Wesley, 1993.
(Classic that provides both the Internet and OSI protocols and philosophy)

[S1994]
W. Richard Stevens,
TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols,
Addison-Wesley, Reading MA, 1994.
– and –
[S1996]
W. Richard Stevens,
TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 3: TCP for Transactions, HTTP, NNTP, and the UNIX Domain Protocols,
Addison-Wesley, Reading MA, 1996.
(The definitive guides to the Internet protocol suite, but a bit dated and lacking recent protocol enhancements.)

[R1983]
R.F. Rey, ed.,
Engineering and Operations in the Bell System, 2nd ed.,
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ, 1983.
(The definitive reference on the PSTN architecture and systems in the US through divestiture.)

[HP1995]
Gerad J. Holzmann and Björn Pehrson,
The Early History of Data Networks,
IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos CA, 1995.
(Fascinating pre-history of networks with emphasis on the optical telegraph.)

Mobile and Wireless Networking

[MM2004]
C. Siva Ram Murthy and B.S. Manoj,
Ad Hoc Wireless Networks: Architectures and Protocols,
Prentice-Hall Pearson, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2004.
(Comprehensive coverage of mobile and wireless data networking and telephony)
This book is also used for EECS 882

[S2005]
William Stallings,
Wireless Communications & Networks,
2nd edition, Prentice-Hall Pearson, 2005. (More analytical engineering approach to wireless communications)
This book is also used for EECS 882

[WMB2006]
Bernhard H. Walke, Stefan Mangold, and Lars Berlemann,
IEEE 802 Wireless Systems: Protocols, Multi-Hop Mesh/Relaying, Performance and Spectrum Coexistence,
Wiley, 2006
(Modern coverage of 802.11, 802.15, 802.16)
This book is also used for EECS 882

The Web

[KR2001]
Balachander Krishnamurthy and Jennifer Rexford,
Web Protocols and Practice: HTTP/1.1, Networking Protocols, Caching, and Traffic Measurement,
Addison-Wesley Pearson, Boston, 2001.
(In-depth coverage of Web protocols and operation.)

Peer-to-Peer Systems

[SW2005]
Ralf Steinmetz and Klaus Wehrle,
Peer-to-Peer Systems and Applications,
LNCS 3485, Springer, Berlin, 2005.
(Comprehensive survey of peer-to-peer architectures and systems.)

Switching and Routing

[P2000]
Radia Perlman,
Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols,
2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 2000.
(Addressing and routing protocols for LANs, data networks, and the Internet.)

Deep Medhi and Karthik Ramasamy,
Netework Routing: Algorithms, Protocols, and Architectures,
Morgan Kaufmann / Elsevier, 2007.
(Advanced treatment of routing algorithms and protocols for the Internet and PSTN.)

[DC2006]
Jeff Doyle and Jennifer Carroll,
Routing TCP/IP, Volume I, 2nd ed.,
Cisco Press, Indianapolis, 2006.
(A detailed examination of interior/intradomain routing algorithms and protocols including RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, and ISIS with extensive examples.)

[DC2001]
Jeff Doyle and Jennifer DeHaven Carroll,
Routing TCP/IP, Volume II,
Cisco Press, Indianapolis, 2001.
(A detailed examination of exterior/interdomain routing algorithms and protocols including BGP and advanced IP routing issued including NAT and multicast with extensive examples.)

[BMW2000]
Vijay Bollapragada, Curtis Murphy, and Russ White,
Inside Cisco IOS Software Architecture,
Cisco Press, Indianapolis, 2000.
(Probably the only comprehensive source on the architecture and implementation of commercial routers. In spite of the title the hardware and software architecture of a number of Cisco routers is covered.)

[WZ2001]
Ralph Wittmann and Martina Zitterbart,
Multicast Communication: Protocols and Applications,
Morgan-Kaufmann Academic Press, San Francisco, 2001.
(Broad survey of group communication protocols and algorithms.)

> [A1998]
Gerald R. Ash,
Dynamic Routing in Telecommunications Networks,
Mc-Graw-Hill, New York, 1998.
(Routing in the PSTN.)

Security and Information Assurance

[S2003]
William Stallings,
Cryptography and Network Security: Principles and Practices, 3rd 3d.,
(Detailed coverage of network security and cryptography, including AES.)

Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, and Mike Spencer,
Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, 2nd ed.,
Prentice-Hall Pearson, Upper Saddle Hill NJ, 2002.
(Another treatment of network security used in EECS 712.)

QOS and Congestion Control

[W2001]
Zheng Wang,
Internet QoS: Architectures and Mechanisms for Quality of Service,
Morgan-Kaufmann / Academic Press, San Francisco, 2001.
(QOS in the Internet: RSVP, integrated and differentiated services).

[W2005]
Michael Welzl,
Network Congestion Control,
John Wiley, Chichester UK, 2005.
(Congestion control for TCP and the Internet, including recent and proposed enhancements.)

Additional Readings

[PMZ2004]

Dan Pei, Dan Massey, and Lixia Zhang,
Finite State Machines for BGP,
UCLA CSD Technical Report TR040047, 2004,
available from http://www.beyondbgp.net/pubs/2004/bbgp_uclatr040047.pdf.

[BF+2005]

Steve Bishop, Matthew Fairbairn, Michael Norrishy, Peter Sewell, Michael Smith, and Keith Wansbrough,
“Rigorous Specification and Conformance Testing Techniques for Network Protocols, as applied to TCP, UDP, and Sockets”,
Proceedings of ACM SIGCOMM 2005,
Philadelphia, Aug. 2005, pp. 265–276.

Grading

Grading will be on a modified curve in which students are grouped (generally by modes in the distribution). Exams and homework will receive numerical scores; the term paper will receive a letter grade (with + and – discriminators) that will be converted to a numeric value for determining final weighted average. Final grades at KU do not have the + and – modifiers. Employer reimbursement and immigration status cannot be a consideration in the final grade.

If you are having difficulty in the class I strongly recommended you discuss this early and not wait until exam time. Students are responsible for understanding course drop policies and deadlines.

Assignments and Exams

Homework and Wireshark Labs

Homework assignments are intended to give practice in problem solving and quiz your understanding of material between exams. Homework problems for this course are generally located in Kurose and Ross, but other problems may be occasionally assigned.

Wireshark labs in Kurose and Ross provide insight on the working of protocols in a controlled envinronment.

Specific assignments and dates are located in the course offering page for a given semester. Assignments will not be graded nor receive credit unless they follow the submission requirements.

Exams

Exams will be closed book and take approximately 1/2 of a class period. The exam information page contains detailed information on the requirements, structure, and grading of examinations for this course. You must also read the academic integrity page before taking an exam.

While you are responsible for all lecture and required readings, the following list outlines some of the most important topics likely to be covered on the exams for this course.

Exam 1: Upper Layers

• HA: Network history and architecture
  • circuit, message, and packet switching
  • ARPANET, NSFNET, and privatised Internet
  • PSTN: pre-divestiture and deregulated
• AL: Networked applications
  • application characteristics: delay, bandwidth, loss tolerance
  • application types and utility curves: best effort, interactive, real-time, and deadline
  • application categories: information access, telepresence, distributed computing and storage
  • file transfer and FTP
  • the Web, HTTP and its performance optimisations
  • P2P file sharing development, alternative architectures, and example systems
  • Email and its protocols: SMTP, MIME, POP, and IMAP
  • P2P file swarming and BitTorrent
  • application adaptation
• TL: End-to-end communication and transport protocols
  • transport layer services, interfaces, and functional placement
  • the end-to-end arguments
  • framing and multiplexing
  • state management: open vs. closed loop, hard vs. soft state
  • impact of bandwidth and latency
  • transfer modes: datagram, connection, stream, transaction
  • ARQ error control: stop-and-wait, go-back-n, selective repeat
  • transmission control: flow vs. congestion control
  • open loop rate control
  • closed loop window flow and congestion control
  • slow start and AIMD
  • UDP

Exam 2: Lower Layers

• TL: End-to-end communication and transport protocols
  • protocols: TCP connection management, data transfer, error/flow/congestion control
• NL: Network layer
  • network layer functions: addressing, forwarding, routing, signalling, traffic management
  • network layer service models and best effort service vs. applications
  • signalling and transfer paradigms: circuits, virtual connections, datagrams
  • virtual circuit forwarding: label swapping
  • generic switch (and router) architecture
  • store-and-forward router architecture and bottlenecks
  • fast packet switch motivation and architecture
  • switch fabric blocking, contention, and architecture
  • PSTN addressing structure and format
  • DNS functions, name structure, and operation
  • IP important packet fields: version, IHL, length, TTL, protocol, header checksum, addresses
  • IP address formats: class-based, subnetting, CIDR
  • NAT motivation and operation
  • ICMP purpose and examples: ping and traceroute
  • IPv6 motivation and 128b addresses
  • Fast datagram router motivation and architecure
  • IP lookup: longest prefix match
• NR: Network Routing
  • Difference between routing and forwarding
  • Graph network model and link costs
  • Routing algorithm alternatives
  • Link state routing concepts and operation
  • Distance vector routing concepts and operation
  • PSTN routing types: HIER, DNHR, RTNR
  • Internet routing structure: ASs / routing domains
  • Intradomain routing protocol overview: RIP, (E)IGRP, ISIS
  • Intradomain routing protocol OSPF concepts and operation
  • Interdomain routing protocol BGP concepts and operation
  • Broadcast algorithms: uncontrolled and RPF
  • Multicast motivation; group shared, source-based, center-based
• LL: Link Layer and LANs
  • Link layer functions and services
  • Link framing and delineation: synchronous, problems with counting, stuffing, preamble pattern, physical code
  • Link types and topologies: point-to-point mesh vs. shared medium
  • Bus and ring shared medium topology and comparison
  • IEEE 802 LAN protocol stack: 802.2, 802.3, 802.5
  • Ethernet evolution by orders of magnitude in rate
  • Link layer multiplexing and switching
  • Transport networks: PDH, SONET, and OTN
  • TDM, WDM
  • Link layer components: repeaters, bridges, hubs, and switches
  • Concepts and major types of residential broadband
• PL: Physical Layer
  • Types of physical media: wire, fiber, free space
  • Attenuation due to distance and frequency

Exam 3 (portion of final exam)

• PL: Physical Layer
  • Types of line coding
• MW: MAC, Wireless and Mobile Networking
  • Types of MAC
  • Channel partitioning: TDMA, FDMA, CDMA
  • Coordinated MAC: token ring
  • Random access: ALOHA, CSMA, CSMA/CD
  • Wireless network elements
  • CSMA/CA and hidden nodes
  • 802.11 architecture and operation
  • 802.16 and 802.16 high-level concepts
  • Mobility and MobileIP
• MS: Multimedia and Session Control
  • Multimedia application concepts and characteristics
  • RTP and RTCP high-level concepts
  • SIP and H.323 high-level concepts
• TQ: Traffic Management and QoS
  • Service models: best effort, probabilistic, absolute
  • Traffic parameters: rate, delay, jitter, reliability, order
  • Basic queueing models and M/M/1 delay and load curves
  • Congestion control and avoidance
  • AQM: RED and ECN
  • scheduling disciplines: FIFO, priority, round robin, WFQ
  • IntServ, RSVP, and DiffServ role and concepts

Final Exam (comprehensive portion)

• any course material
• synthesis of multiple areas

Term Paper

Each student will submit a term paper intended to research a particular area of networking beyond the lectures and required textbook reading. The paper should be technical in nature, but be more than only a technical description of a particular topic. Comparisons of competing technologies, historical development, and future prospects, are all ways in which this can be accomplished. Papers may include reporting of simulation or implementation, but this is not required.

We will discuss potential topics in class on 16 Feb. but it is highly recommended to first think about what area of networking interests you. You are encouraged to come up with your own ideas, but here are a few possibilities:

• Compare the Internet architecture and protocols with other alternatives, such as X.25, SNA, DECNET, XNS, or ATM, from both a technical perspective, as well as from a historical perspective and discuss why the TCP/IP based Internet became the Global Information Infrastructure
• Describe and compare alternative Internet service models: best effort, IntServ, DiffServ, and consider their future prospects.
• Describe the historical development of TCP/IP along with its evolution and adaptations for congestion control and high-speed networks.
• Compare the technical merits of IPv6 against IPv4 and describe the prospects and challenges for future deployment (considering CIDR and NATs).
• Compare competing Internet access technologies and their relative merits, disadvantages, and prospects for future deployment. This could either be wired vs. wireless (e.g. Ethernet vs. 802.11) or competing wireless technologies (e.g. 802.11 vs. 802.16 vs. 4G mobile telephony).
• Explain the impact of peer-to-peer applications on the Internet architecture as deployed in real networks, considering NATs, DHCP, asymmetric channels in HFC and DSL, and in terms of service restrictions on server operation.
• Explore alternative peer-to-peer application architectures, algorithms, and architectures, and the resulting performance to applications and impact on the network.
• Explore multicast applications and protocols, including IP multicast and reliable multicast proposals. Consider the benefits of network multicast vs. application-layer multicast, and prospects for deployment.
• Explore the survivability and resilience of the current network infrastructure and what might be done to improve it.

If you are planning to do an M.S. thesis or Ph.D. dissertation in the area of networking, you may use this opportunity to begin the background reading on a topic.

Proposal

A one page proposal is due 22 Feb. at 23:59 (midnight) by email to <jpgs@eecs.ku.edu> with Subject: line of EECS 780 proposal.

The proposal will not be graded, but rather will serve as the basis for us to agree on a suitable topic. You may be asked to adjust or resubmit your proposal. I recommend that you follow the formatting requirements for the final submission to avoid problems at the last minute.

Presentation

Each student will do a short oral presentation (approximately 10 min.) to the class on 11 May. This will contribute to the term paper grade. Presentation foils (slides) will be due in electronic form by email to <jpgs@eecs.ku.edu> with Subject: line of EECS 780 presentation in either PowerPoint or PDF by midnight 10 May so that they can be preloaded for classroom display.

Paper

Submission requirements: The final paper is due 11 May at 23:59 (midnight) by email to <jpgs@eecs.ku.edu> with Subject: line of EECS 780 term paper.

Formatting requirements: The paper must be 10 – 15 pages in length (not including references), unless prior arrangements have been made well in advance of the due date. Papers may be submitted in either PDF (preferred) or MS-Word source (.doc). Other formats may be acceptable if approved in advance. Margins should be 1 – 1.5 inches, use 12 point in a reasonable font (for example Times New Roman), single spaced. The paper should begin with the title, as well as author name, affiliation, email address, and optional URL.

Papers deviating from these requirements will not be graded.

Plagiarism and academic integrity: All students are required to read and understand the acedemic integrity information and sanctions for this class.

Reference Material

Additional Sources

RFCs (request for comments) are the freely available specifications on the Internet architecture and protocols. RFCs are produced by the IETF; its working groups represent ongoing Internet design and engineering.

Most International standards must be purchased, however some ISO standards are freely available, including the key networking standards. Individuals are permitted to download 3 free ITU standards by registering. This would be sufficient to download the SDH and OTN link protocol standards most relevant to this class, and perhaps the X.25 standard if you have historical interest in connection-oriented packet switched networking. Note that ISO 8208 substantially duplicates X.25 and is a reasonable substitute if you are limited in the number of ITU standards you can download.

Similarly, ANSI standards must be purchased, and are absurdly expensive: the SONET T.105 set of specifications costs in excess of $1500, ordered either from ANSI or ATIS. Unless you work for a large telecom company with a corporate subscription or are independently wealthy, these documents are inaccessible. The Telcordia (formerly Bellcore) SONET specifications GR 253 CORE: SONET Transport Systems: Common Generic Criteria are even more expensive. As long as ANSI and ATIS are interested only in profit and not educational outreach, the very similar SDH specifications can be used to understand the SONET/SDH architecture and topology.

IEEE Standards are available from IEEE Xplore, but a subscription is required (KU does not have a full IEEE subscription). IEEE 802 networking specifications (including 802.3, 802.11, 802.15, and 802.16) are freely available once they have been published for 6 months. The publication date of IEEE Standards Association has the ability to determine the publication date of standards, which is useful to see when new 802 standards will become freely available.

The Web is a wonderful source of information: definitive & accurate, marketing spin, opinion, and total nonsense. The Wikipedia frequently has good information and may be a good starting point, but sources such as this should generally not be used as definitive references, nor should trade rags and the popular press.

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