Welcome to the Spring 2012 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. This year, we will delve a lot deeper into: (a) cloud computing and data center networks, (b) software defined networking and network virtualization, (c) video on the Internet and novel content distribution techniques, while also covering other emerging topics such as social networks, emerging techniques in mobile and wireless systems, and topics such as net neutrality, censorship (SOPA/PIPA) and privacy.

Highlights: (1) We will cover roughly 30 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 cloud computing, software defined networking, 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 Piazza for Q&A. (4) We will use a wiki to supplement the interaction in the class. Students can use the wiki to share their thoughts on papers prior to the lecture. (5) There will be a wide range of course projects ranging across theoretical analyses, measurement studies, simulations, and implementation, and covering a wide range of topics such as cloud computing, SDN, video, 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 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).

Piazza: This term we will be using Piazza for outside-class Q&A. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates, and myself. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza. If you have any problems or feedback for the developers, email team@piazza.com.
Find our class page at: http://www.piazza.com/wisc/spring2012/cs740.

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

Class Time:MWF 9:30AM to 10:45AM

Location: SOC SCI 5106.

Instructor: Aditya Akella
Email: akella@cs.wisc.edu
Office: CS 7379
Office Hours: 3:00pm-4:00pm, on each class day.

Teaching Assistant:TBD
Email: TBD@cs.wisc.edu
Office: XYZ
Office Hours: XYZ.