Welcome to 14-740

Greetings! I'm looking forward to teaching you the basic principles of computer networks in 14-740, a graduate-level, first-course in networking. My primary objective is for you to learn the fundamental principles underlying computer networks. I'll use a top-down approach to cover topics in the application, transport, network and link layers of the protocol stack. We will also go over advanced topics, including network management, traffic engineering and router internals. Besides learning about the nuts and bolts, you will gain an understanding of engineering tradeoffs made and design principles used in networks and protocol design.

There is no prerequisite of an undergraduate equivalent networking course; but basic computer, programming and probability theory background is required.

All dates and times for scheduled events on any course materials refer to the Pittsburgh time of that event.

Zoom links for lectures and office hours can be found on Canvas.

Admin / Course Documents

Here are some links to various course documents that will be helpful throughout the semester.

Syllabus Textbook Canvas Protocols Final Exam Key

Schedule

You can download the classtimes and due dates in this calendar file (iCalendar format, compatible with Apple Calendar, Google Cal, ...)

Date	Topic	Reading	Deadline
Tue, 1 Sep	Networking Introduction	KR Ch 1.1 - 1.8
Thu, 3 Sep	Architecture	Design philosophy [Clark88]	Paper Review: Clark88
Tue, 8 Sep	Design Principles	E2E arguments [Saltzer84]
Thu, 10 Sep	ISPs, Backbones and Peering	A Business Case for Peering [Norton2010]	Paper Review: Norton2010
		Guide to Admin Procedures (skim) [RFC 2901]
Tue, 15 Sep	The Application Layer -- HTTP	KR Ch 2.1 - 2.2
Thu, 17 Sep	Domain Name System	KR Ch 2.4	Paper Review: Mockapetris88
		KR Ch 2.6
		Classic DNS [Mockapetris88]
Tue, 22 Sep	Peer to Peer Networking	KR 2.5	Paper Review: Liang2005
		KaZaA Measurement [Liang2005]	Lab #0
Thu, 24 Sep	Queueing Theory
Tue, 29 Sep	Quiz #1
Thu, 1 Oct	The Transport Layer; UDP	KR Ch 3.1 - 3.3
Tue, 6 Oct	Principles of Reliable Transfer	KR 3.4	HW #1
Thu, 8 Oct	Class cancelled
Tue, 13 Oct	TCP	KR Ch 3.5	Lab #1
Thu, 15 Oct	Congestion Control at the Host	KR Ch 3.6 - 3.7	Paper Review: Jacobson88
		Congestion avoidance / control [Jacobson88]
Tue, 20 Oct	Advanced Congestion Control at the Host
Thu, 22 Oct	The Network Layer	KR Ch 4.1 - 4.2
		KR Ch 4.3.1 - 4.3.3
		KR Ch 5.6
Tue, 27 Oct	Lecture is cancelled
Thu, 29 Oct	Routing Algorithms	KR Ch 5.1 - 5.2	Lab #2
Tue, 3 Nov	Internet Routing	KR Ch 5.3 - 5.4
Thu, 5 Nov	Plug-N-Play Networking; IPv6	KR Ch 4.3.4 - 4.3.5
Sun, 8 Nov	Quiz #2 Review Session
Tue, 10 Nov	Quiz #2
Thu, 12 Nov	Network Measurement	Better Netflow [Estan2004]	Paper Review: Estan2004
		Internet Traffic Measurement (Ch1-2) [Estan2003]
Tue, 17 Nov	Congestion Control: The Router's View	RED Gateways [Floyd93]	Paper Review: Floyd93
Thu, 19 Nov	Link Layer; Ethernet	KR Ch 6.1
		KR Ch 6.2 - 6.3 (skim)
		KR Ch 6.4.1 - 6.4.2
Sat, 21 Nov	HW #2 Review Session
Tue, 24 Nov	Thanksgiving (no class)
Thu, 26 Nov	Thanksgiving (no class)
Tue, 1 Dec	Link Layer Devices	KR Ch 6.4.3	HW #2
Thu, 3 Dec	Virtual Link Layer	KR Ch 6.4.4 - 6.5
Tue, 8 Dec	Wireless Networks	KR 6.1 - 6.3
Thu, 10 Dec	Software Defined Networking	OpenFlow [McKeown2008]	Paper Review: McKeown2008
		KR 4.4
		KR 5.5
Sun, 13 Dec	Lab 3 Due		Lab #3
Tue, 15 Dec	Final Exam	KR 5.7

Readings

The following list of papers and whatnot will be referenced throughout the course. You are expected to read all listed materials, save for those listed as just for fun. You will be tested on them. It behooves you to read the paper prior to the indicated lesson, as the lecture will usually discuss concepts from the paper. You will learn the material much better if you've had a chance to work on it a bit prior to lecture and get a review of the concept in class (as well as an opportunity to ask questions about it). The reverse ordering isn't optimal: If the first time you see the concept is in class, you won't be prepared to critically think about it. Completely sub-optimal (pesimal?) is to wait until the night before the final exam to look at the paper.

BGP Routing Policies in ISP Networks

The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols

Tussle in Cyberspace: Defining Tomorrow's Internet

Internet Traffic Measurement: What's Going on in My Network?

Building a Better Netflow

Random Early Detection Gateways for Congestion Avoidance

Congestion avoidance and control

Delayed Internet Routing Convergence

The KaZaA Overlay: A Measurement Study

Development of the Domain Name System

The Evolution of the U.S. Internet Peering Ecosystem

A Business Case for Peering in 2010

End-to-end Arguments in System Design

What DNS is Not (a just-for-fun reading)

NAT++: Address Sharing in IPv4 (another just-for-fun reading)

Gateway Congestion Control Survey (a just-for-fun reading)

RFC 1254

TCP Vegas: New Techniques for Congestion Detection and Avoidance

Issues in TCP Vegas

TCP Hybla: a TCP Enhancement for Heterogeneous Networks

A Compound TCP Approach for High-speed and Long Distance Networks

TCP Congestion Control With a Misbehaving Receiver (just-for-fun)

OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation in Campus Networks

PortLand: A Scalable Fault-Tolerant Layer 2 Data Center Network Fabric

Assignments

Lab0

Introduction to Wireshark

This lab is designed to teach you about packet sniffers and how they capture and analyze network traffic. You will also install Wireshark and start to learn how it works.

Lab1

Applications

Having gotten your feet wet with the Wireshark packet sniffer in the introductory lab, you’re now ready to use Wireshark to investigate protocols in operation. In this lab, you will explore several aspects of the HTTP protocol. Before beginning this labs, you might want to review Section 2.2 of the text.

Lab2

Transport and Network Layers

In this lab, you will continue to use Wireshark, but now you will explore the transport layer. You will examine various UDP and TCP transmissions. You will then examine the IP packet structure as well as ICMP messages.

Lab3

Link Layer

In htis lab, you will investigate Ethernet and the ARP protocol. Knowledge from Lecture 20 and textbook sections 5.4 and 5.5 will be key. RFC 826 contains all the interesting details of the ARP protocol. You will also need the Lab3 PCAP file.

Lab3 PCAP

PCAP file for Lab3

Here is the PCAP file for Lab3.

HW1

Basic Tools

This homework assignment is designed to give you some hands on expertise with some basic networking tools. You will learn about traceroute, ping, dig and whois, all of which should give you some good insight into the operation of the network from the application level.

HW2

Argus Flow Tools

This homework assignment is designed to give you some hands on expertise with the argus tools as you study what information is available from flow traces. In Fall 2011, my TAs gave a good demonstration of Argus tools. Unfortunately, that video has been lost when a new media server was spun up. However, you might find the slides useful, available here.