EEL 6938 Special Topics: Network Economics and Architectures

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Central Florida, Spring 2020

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

This is a course on the economics of networked systems, that are owned by multiple entities that have to compete as well as cooperate with each other to make the overall system work. The course takes a theoretical perspective on economics of networks in general and covers fundamental theory about how consensus or contagions take place in a networked system. The course gives particular attention on the economics of the Internet and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The Internet has revolutionized the way we live and think, as it is now one of the most critical infrastructures of all time. There are more than 4 billion Internet users as of 2019 and the pace of growth in the Internet usage has not shown significant slowdown for the last two decades. The Internet’s architectural design goes well beyond fundamental technical challenges of delivering end-to-end packet traffic and involves a market of value exchanges among many ISPs that both compete and cooperate with each other. In this course, we cover recent developments in the Internet architecture research with a focus on economic and policy issues. We will survey principles of internetworking architectures and delve into their projections on function placement and decomposition. We will explore the implications of network economics on the evolution and practice of network architectures. We will detail how the market among the ISPs works and explore the multi-provider inter-ISP economics in terms of pricing, peering, edge-to-edge tussle, neutrality, fairness, and openness. We will further investigate dynamics such as networking and population effects and their impact on the scale of the network architectures: power laws and scale-free composition.

Course Information

• Credits: 3
• Lecture hours: Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 - 2:45pm
• Classroom: ENG2 103
• Course ID: 003058
• Class Number: 20476
• Instructor: Murat Yuksel

E-mail: murat.yuksel@ucf.edu

Phone: (407) 823-4181

Web page: www.ece.ucf.edu/~yuksem

Office: HEC 317A

Office hours:

• Mondays and Wednesdays at 8-10am and 3-4pm
• 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 and systems. Multi-provider inter-ISP economics: Pricing, peering, edge-to-edge tussle, neutrality, fairness, and openness. Networking and population effects and their impact on the scale of the network design: power laws and scale-free composition. Cryptocurrencies and networked value exchanges.

Prerequisites

EEL 4781 Computer Communication Networks or equivalent or consent of instructor

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 lecture slides will cover ideas from a broad range of sources including other books, papers, and RFCs. A running list of reading materials for the course is available here. In addition, the following book is recommended but not required:

• [E&K] 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) Authors’ page

Syllabus (Tentative)

1. Internetworking Principles
• Networking Paradigms
• Circuit-, Packet-, Bit-, and Contract-Switching
• End-to-end Principle
• Application Layer Framing (ALF)
• Decomposition and Tussle
• Multiplexing
• Temporal, Spatial, Frequency, Statistical
• Chebyshev’s Theorem
• Heterogeneity and Scale: The Hourglass Model

2. Architectural Essentials
• Virtualization & Layering
• Naming and Addressing
• Indirection
• Encapsulation
• Filtering & Hierarchies
• Two-Tiered Routing: Inter- and Intra-Domain
• Autonomous Systems
• Policy Routing & Value Flows
• BGP-4

3. Pricing, Peering, and Inter-ISP Market
• Flat-rate, Usage-based, Congestion-sensitive Pricing
• ISP Abstractions and Tiers
• SLAs
• Customer-Provider
• Peering
• Paid Peering
• Game Theoretic Models
• Peering Agreements and Wars

4. Population Models
• Information Cascade
• Network Effects
• Power Laws and Rich-Get-Richer Phenomena

5. Structural Models
• Cascading in Networks
• Small-World
• Epidemics

6. Fairness
• Proportional, Max-min, and Weighted Fairness
• Optimization Flow Control
• Network Utility Maximization (NUM)
• TCP Fairness
• Neutrality
• Openness
• Classification vs. Differentiation

7. Cryptocurrencies
• Peer-to-Peer Value Exchange
• BitCoin
• Keys, Addresses, and Wallets
• Transactions
• Blockchain
• Mining and Consensus
• Anonymity and Security

8. Spectrum Economics
• Primary Access Licenses (PALs)
• Spectrum Auctions
• Dynamic Spectrum Access
• Spectrum Sharing & Policies
• Government-Private Bands

Organization

• Research Project   There will be a project to be done by each student. The project will require a minimum of two architectural models (e.g., protocols) to be evaluated under at least two different market 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.
• Homeworks   There will be homework assignments approximately one in every three weeks.
• WebCourses   Except this web page, all course materials will be posted at the WebCourses.
• Academic Integrity and Professionalism   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. You are allowed to discuss the course materials with your classmates or colleagues, but no written document, material or code can be shared with your classmates or colleagues. All work you submit must be your own scholarly and creative efforts. Please refer to the UCF policy on rules of conduct.
• Disability Statement   If you have a disability for which you will need to request accommodations, please contact the instructor or someone at the Student Accessibility Services as soon as possible.

Grading (Tentative)

Grading Policy

Research Project	40%
Presentations	25%
Homeworks	35%

Grading Scale

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. 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 WebCourses.

Date	Lectures	Assignments & Notes
Mon, Jan 6	Lecture 1: Introduction	Week 1
Wed, Jan 8	Lecture 2: Internetworking Principles – Networking Paradigms	Week 1
Mon, Jan 13	Lecture 3: Internetworking Principles – Tussle Granularity & Wireless Effects	Week 2
Wed, Jan 15	Lecture 4: Architectural Essentials – End-to-End Principle, Reliability, Chebyshev’s Inequality	Week 2
Mon, Jan 20	Martin Luther King Jr. Day – NO CLASS
Wed, Jan 22	Lecture 5: Architectural Essentials – Fate Sharing, Origins of Hourglass	Week 3
Mon, Jan 27	Lecture 6: Architectural Essentials – Addressing and Forwarding	Week 4
Wed, Jan 29	Lecture 7: Architectural Essentials – Routing	Week 4
Mon, Feb 3	Lecture 8: Architectural Essentials – Routing	Week 5
Wed, Feb 5	Lecture 9: Intra-domain Routing	Week 5
Mon, Feb 10	Lecture 10: Inter-domain Routing – BGP	Week 6
Wed, Feb 12	Lecture 11: Inter-domain Routing – Traffic Engineering	Week 6
Mon, Feb 17	Lecture 12: Inter-ISP Market – SLAs, Pricing	Week 7
Wed, Feb 19	Lecture 13: Inter-ISP Market – Network Utility Maximization	Week 7
Mon, Feb 24	Lecture 14: Inter-ISP Market – Peering	Week 8
Wed, Feb 26	Lecture 15: Inter-ISP Market – Peering	Week 8
Mon, Mar 2	Project: Related Work Presentations	Week 9
Wed, Mar 4	Project: Related Work Presentations	Week 9
Mon, Mar 9	Spring Break – NO CLASS
Wed, Mar 11	Spring Break – NO CLASS
Mon, Mar 16	Class cancelled	Week 10
Wed, Mar 18	Lecture 16: Population Models – Information Cascade	Week 10 E&K, Ch. 16
Mon, Mar 23	Lecture 17: Population Models – Power Laws and Rich-Get-Richer	Week 11 E&K, Ch. 18
Wed, Mar 25	Lecture 18: Population Models – Network Effect	Week 11 E&K, Ch. 17
Mon, Mar 30	Lecture 19: Structural Models – Cascading in Networks	Week 12 E&K, Ch. 19
Wed, Apr 1	Lecture 20: Structural Models – Small-World	Week 12 E&K, Ch. 20
Mon, Apr 6	Lecture 21: Epidemics and Percolation	Week 13 E&K, Ch. 21
Wed, Apr 8	Lecture 22: Fairness – Max-min vs. Proportional Fairness	Week 13
Mon, Apr 13	Lecture 23: Fairness – Neutrality and Openness	Week 14
Wed, Apr 15	Project: Final Presentations	Week 14
Mon, Apr 20	Project: Final Presentations	Week 15

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

· 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 March 18, 2020