Welcome to the Spring 2010 version of the Advanced Computer Networking Course. This course will provide a broad overview of Computer Networking research, but with significant differences from past offerings. Broadly speaking, we will survey a handful of "classical" research ideas and approaches. We will also explore the state of the art in select networking technologies, protocols and algorithms. We will examine emerging areas/applications such as social networks, novel content distribution techniques (e.g. BitTorrent), emerging techniques for wireless security and topics such as net neutrality.

Highlights: (1) We will cover roughly 20 papers in all and focus more on in-class "brain-storming". This will range from critiquing the idea in the paper and the evaluation, as well as applications of the ideas to other problem domains, and directions for future research in the general area. (2) We will spend a third of the class discussing emerging issues such as social networks, net neutrality and cognitive radios-based wireless access. We will focus more on the networking aspects of emerging technologies and examine their applications. (3) We will use a wiki to supplement the interaction in the class. Students can use the wiki to share their thoughts on papers, as well as comment on course projects etc. The wiki is hosted at CMU and will be used by graduate classes and networking researchers at CMU and UW-Madison. Students are welcome to track paper (and project) discussions at other schools. (4) There will be a wide range of course projects ranging across theoretical analyses, measurement studies, simulations, and implementation (including FPGA-based implemetations), and covering a wide range of topics such as security, social networks, wireless and mobile networking, file systems and operating system support for emerging networking primitives.

Course Details

Course prerequisites: The pre-requisite for this course is CS 640, the undergraduate-level course in Computer Networks, or an equivalent under-graduate course.

Readings: There is no required text for this course. The lectures will be based on discussing research papers. We will discuss one paper per lecture. The entire paper reading list is available here. This is a wiki hosted at CMU and will be used by graduate classes and networking researchers at CMU and UW-Madison. Students are welcome to post publicly-visible comments on papers.

Wiki and usage: Here. Some instructions here. E-mail Aditya or Holly for course passcode. All students are expected to comment on each assigned paper. All comments must be entered before the set deadline (usually 10am on the day the paper is discussed in class).

Grading: The course project carries 40% of the grade. Participation in class and on the wiki counts for 20% of the grade. The course will have two in-class exams, worth 20% of the grade each.

Class Time:Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30PM to 3.45PM

Location: Comp Sci and Stat 1257.

Instructor: Aditya Akella
Email: akella@cs.wisc.edu
Office: CS 7379
Office Hours: 4:00pm-5:00pm, on each class day.

Teaching Assistant:Holly Esquivel
Email: esquivel@cs.wisc.edu
Office: CS 5378
Office Hours: Tuesday: 12:30pm-2:00pm.