CS 791G Topics: Network Architectures and Economics

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

University of Nevada, Reno, Fall 2011

Course Information - Description - Prerequisites - Textbooks - Syllabus - Organization - Grading - Schedule, Notes & Assignments - Acknowledgment

Course Information

Credits: 3.0
Lecture hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 9:30 - 10:45am, OSN 101

Instructor: Murat Yuksel

E-mail: yuksem@cse.unr.edu

Phone: (775) 327-2246

Web page: http://www.cse.unr.edu/~yuksem

Office: SEM 237 (Scrugham Engineering-Mines)

Office hours:

Tuesday, 1-2pm
Wednesday, 11am-2pm
Thursday, 1-2pm
or by appointment

Description

Principles of internetworking architectures; and their projections on function placement and decomposition as well as various network protocol elements such as routing, naming, and addressing. Implications of network economics on the evolution and practice of network architectures. Networking and population effect and their impact on the scale of the network architectures: power laws and scale-free composition. Multi-provider inter-ISP economics: Pricing, peering, edge-to-edge tussle, neutrality, fairness, and openness.

Prerequisites

Required:

CPE 401/601 Computer Network Systems or CPE 400/600 Computer Communication Networks or equivalent or consent of instructor

Desirable:

Operating Systems (CS 446/646 or equivalent)

Textbooks

There is no required textbook for this course. Since this is an advanced level class, the textbook is only the starting point for the majority of topics that we will cover. The slides used will cover ideas from a broad range of sources including other books, papers, RFCs etc. The WebCT page will have online links to resources.

Recommended Textbooks

D. Easley and J. Kleinberg. (2010) Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press. (ISBN: 978-0-521-19533-1)
B. Ramamurthy, G. N. Rouskas, and K. M. Sivalingam. (2011) Next-Generation Internet: Architectures and Protocols. Cambridge University Press. (ISBN: 978-0-521-11368-1).

Syllabus (Tentative)

This is a tentative list of topics, subject to modification and reorganization.

Networking Paradigms

Circuit-switching
Packet-switching
Contract-switching
Bit-switching

Function Placement and Layering

End-to-end Principle
Application Layer Framing (ALF)
Network Utility Maximization (NUM)
Cross-Layer Design
Decomposition and Tussle
Multiplexing
Hourglass Model
Heterogeneity and Scale
Tiers
Virtualization

Naming and Addressing

Indirection
Encapsulation
Resolution
Hierarchies
Filtering

Routing Architecture

Two-tiered: Inter- and Intra-Domain Routing
ISP Abstractions
Source Routing:

Overlays and Peer-to-Peer

Content Distribution
Overlay vs. Underlay
Application Layer Multicast

Pricing and Inter-ISP Market

Flat-rate
Usage-based
Congestion-sensitive
Peering and SLAs

Fairness

Classification vs. Differentiation
Neutrality
Openness

Population Models

Information Cascade
Network Effects
Power Laws and Rich-Get-Richer Phenomena

Structural Models

Cascading in Networks
Small-World
Epidemics

Organization

Research Project There will be a project to be done by each student. The project will require a minimum of two architectural models or protocols to be evaluated under at least two different market or utility models. The expectation is that the project will involve sizable amount of research component so that a conference paper can potentially be brought together from the work of the project. As an example, comparative evaluation of a peer-to-peer architecture against a hierarchical architecture under elastic or inelastic demands would be an appropriate project topic. The project will be expected to make a thorough technical evaluation of the design alternatives with clearly defined metrics and parameters, and to perform a sequence of sound judgments based on the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will be expected to involve simulations, emulations, or even prototypes if possible. The project will be expected to result in a paper reporting the technical evaluation and surveying the relevant work by other researchers. The students will be required to present their project at least twice during the semester.
Homework There will be homework assignments approximately one in every three weeks. The one with the lowest grade will not affect your overall grade.
WebCT Except this web page, all course materials will be posted at the WebCT.
Late policy Late assignments will not be accepted unless a serious reason is provided. If I am not available, slide your assignment under my office door or simply email it to me as a softcopy.
Academic Integrity There will be no team projects or reports in this class, therefore all assignments and exams must be prepared strictly individually. Any form of cheating such as plagiarism or ghostwriting will incur a severe penalty, usually failure in the course. Please refer to the UNR policy on Academic Standards.
Disability Statement If you have a disability for which you will need to request accommodations, please contact the instructor or someone at the Disability Resource Center (Thompson Student Services - 107) as soon as possible.

Grading (Tentative)

Both grading policy and scale are subject to change.

• Grading Policy

Research Project	50%
Presentations	30%
Homework	20%

• Grading Scale (Tentative)

90% - 100%	A-, A
80% - 89%	B-, B, B+
65% - 79%	C-, C, C+
55% - 64%	D
0% - 54%	F

Important Note: Re-grading requests can only be made within the first week after the graded assignments/tests are returned to the students.

Schedule (Tentative), Notes & Assignments

This is a tentative schedule including the exam dates. It is subject to readjustment depending on the time we actually spend in class covering the topics. Slides presented in class and assignments will be posted at the WebCT. See the acknowledgment for the course materials.

Date	Lectures	Assignments & Notes
Tue, Aug 30	Lecture #1: Introduction
Thu, Sep 1	Lecture #2: Networking Paradigms (1)
Tue, Sep 6	Lecture #3: Networking Paradigms (2)
Thu, Sep 8	Lecture #4: Function Placement, Layering, and Internetworking (1)
Tue, Sep 13	Lecture #5: Function Placement, Layering, and Internetworking (2)	*Project: Title & Abstract Due*
Thu, Sep 15	Lecture #6: Function Placement, Layering, and Internetworking (3)
Tue, Sep 20	Lecture #7: Naming and Addressing (1)
Thu, Sep 22	Lecture #8: Naming and Addressing (2)
Tue, Sep 27	Lecture #9: Routing Architecture (1)
Thu, Sep 29	Lecture #10: Routing Architecture (2)
Tue, Oct 4	Lecture #11: Routing Architecture (3)
Thu, Oct 6	Lecture #12: Inter-ISP Market and Pricing (1)	*Project: Literature Due*
Tue, Oct 11	Project Related Work Presentations – T. Morelli, C. Zachor
Thu, Oct 13	Project Related Work Presentations – M. Stamov, H. Kardes	*Homework 1 Out*
Tue, Oct 18	Project Related Work Presentations – M. Akgun, H. Ceker
Thu, Oct 20	Project Related Work Presentations – G. Ferneyhough
Tue, Oct 25	Project Related Work Presentations – A. Shaik, E. Erdin
Thu, Oct 27	Lecture #13: Inter-ISP Market and Pricing (2)
Tue, Nov 1	Lecture #14: Population Models (1) – Information Cascade	• Easley & Kleinberg, Ch. 16
Thu, Nov 3	Lecture #15: Population Models (2) – Network Effect	• *Homework 1 Due* • Easley & Kleinberg, Ch. 17
Tue, Nov 8	Lecture #16: Population Models (3) – Power Laws and Rich-Get-Richer Phenomena	• Easley & Kleinberg, Ch. 18
Thu, Nov 10	Lecture #17: Structural Models (1) – Cascading in Networks	• Easley & Kleinberg, Ch. 19
Tue, Nov 15	Lecture #18: Structural Models (2) – Small-World	• Easley & Kleinberg, Ch. 20
Thu, Nov 17	Lecture #19: Structural Models (3) – Epidemics	• *Homework 2 Out* • Easley & Kleinberg, Ch. 21
Tue, Nov 22	Lecture #20: Fairness and Neutrality
*Thu, Nov 24*	*Thanksgiving – NO CLASSES*
Tue, Nov 29	Project Final Presentations – H. Kardes
Thu, Dec 1	Project Final Presentations – T. Morelli, M. Stamov
Tue, Dec 6	Project Final Presentations – A. Shaik, H. Ceker	*Homework 2 Due*
Thu, Dec 8	Project Final Presentations – M. Akgun, E. Erdin
Tue, Dec 13	Project Final Presentations – C. Zachor, G. Ferneyhough	*Project: Final Report Due*

Acknowledgment

The materials for this course are in part based upon the materials from a number of people/sources, including:

· Official website for the Easley & Kleinberg text: Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World

· Official website for the Ramamurthy, Rouskas & Sivalingam text: Next-Generation Internet: Architectures and Protocols

· Mehmet H. Gunes from UNR: http://www.cse.unr.edu/~mgunes

· Nick Feamster from Georgia Tech: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~feamster

· Hari Balakrishnan from MIT: http://nms.lcs.mit.edu/~hari

· Jure Leskovec from Stanford: http://cs.stanford.edu/people/jure

· Luis von Ahn from CMU: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou

· Jason D. Hartline from Northwestern: http://www.eecs.northwestern.edu/hartline

· Nicole Immorlica from Northwestern: http://users.eecs.northwestern.edu/~nickle

· Adam Wierman from CalTech: http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adamw

Course Information - Description - Prerequisites - Textbooks - Syllabus - Organization - Grading - Schedule, Notes & Assignments - Acknowledgment

Last updated on November 28, 2011