CSC 2203: Packet Switch and Network Architectures

Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto - Fall 2008
UofT

CSC 2203 - Packet Switch and Network Architectures

Time: Thu 10-12 AM

Location: BAB026

Instructor: Yashar Ganjali

Office: BA5238

Office hours: Thu 12-1 PM, or by appointment

Web page: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~yganjali/courses/csc2203/

 

Course Description

This is a MSc/PhD level course on high-performance packet switching computer networks. The course introduces the theory and practice of designing packet switches, such as Internet routers, Ethernet switches, and ATM switches. It consists of two parts which will be presented in an interleaved fashion. The first part will develop basic tools from queueing theory, stochastic analysis, and algorithms. The second part of the course will focus on packet switch architectures: the evolution of switches and routers, and practical issues in this area.

 

Outline

The following is a tentative outline of the course:

  1. Tools and Techniques: basic queueing models, graph matching algorithms, randomization, stability through Lyapunov functions, fluid models, Markov chains.
  2. Applications:
    • Scheduling in routers, providing bandwidth and delay guarantees, fairness, active queue management
    • Switching, examples of architectures, performance metrics, unicast vs. multicast switching, speedup
    • Congestion control schemes (TCP/IP, XCP, RCP, ...) , buffer sizing
    • Address lookup, exact and longest prefix matches, hardware and software solutions
    • Packet classifiers, firewalls, policy-based routing
Prerequisites

Basic undergraduate courses in algorithms, networking, and in probability theory are strongly recommended.

 

Grading
  • Assignments: 20%
  • Class participation and discussions: 10%
  • Midterm: 20%
  • Project: 50%
    • Proposal: 5%
    • Intermediate report: 10%
    • Presentation: 10%
    • Final report: 25%
Teaching Assistant
  • Monia Ghobadi (monia at cs dot toronto dot edu)

 

Deadline Policy

5% of the mark will be deducted for each day late, up to 20%. Assignments/project reports will not be accepted after 4 days. The deadline for the final report is hard.

 

Mailing List
  • Please use csc2203-psana @ cs.toronto.edu for any course-related questions.
  • Send me an e-mail to join the list.
  • Any (course-related!) questions posted to the list will be answered within 48 hours.
Announcements

Please check this page regularly for updates.

  • Sep. 13: The class location has changed to BAB026 for the rest of the semester, except for Nov. 20th. Class will be held at BA 5256 on that day.
  • Sep. 10: We will have our first class on Sep. 11th.

Last updated: September 13, 2008 2:37 AM