CSC2203 - Packet Switch and Network Architectures

Time: Wed. 1-3PM, Location BA4010
Instructor: Yashar Ganjali
Office hours: Tue. 3-4 PM, Wed. 3-4 PM, Location: BA5238
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.

Course Outline

The following is a tentative outline of the course:

Tools and Techniques: basic queueing models, graph matching algorithms, randomization, stability through Lyapunov functions, fluid models, Markov chains.
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 discussion: 10%
Paper presentation: 20%
Final project: 50%
- Proposal: 5%
- Intermediate report: 10% _ Presentation: 10%
- Final report: 25%

Late Submission 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.

Class 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.