CPS 214: Networks and Distributed Systems
home calendar topics work resources
This calendar lists the topics discussed on each day. It will grow and change. You are responsible for completing the reading for each topic before we discuss the topic.
Date Topic/Event
Jan 11 Course introduction and Internet architecture retroactive reading assignment: K&R chapter 1
Jan 16 Internet protocol stack, sockets, network applications, the Web, and Akamai reading: K&R chapter 2. Focus on the basics of the Web and DNS from Ch 2: 2.1, 2.2, and 2.5 (you may skip 2.2.2-2.2.4 and 2.5.3). The point is to get enough about the Web and DNS to understand most of the following paper about Akamai, which is also assigned:

Akamai tutorial: Globally Distributed Content Delivery, John Dilley et. al., IEEE Computer, 2002. [local copy]

Jan 18 End-to-end arguments and the structure of network services; stresses on Internet architectural principles in a service-oriented world. DNS, caching in the Web and DNS, demand-side caching vs. CDNs (Akamai), request routing using DNS.

Reading: the classic End-to-end Arguments in System Design by J. Saltzer, D. Reed, and D. Clark, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS), Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 195-206, 1984.

Jan 23 Finish with Akamai. Basics of secure communication, authentication, crypto, and PKI. SSL and secure HTTP, and scalable hierarchical trust: DNS and certificate authorities.

Reading: Kurose and Ross sections 8.1-8.5, 8.8 (emphasize 8.8.2).

Jan 25 Scalable services and peer-to-peer systems. Reading: overcite (local mirror)
Checkpoint for lab 1
Jan 30 More scalable services, routing and server selection, and security.
Feb 1 TCP and rate control. Reading: chapter 3 of K&R.
Feb 6 Congestion, congestion control, congestion avoidance.
Feb 8 The network/OS interface: Bandwidth, latency, and overhead
Nominal due date for lab 1
Feb 13 Varun Marupadi speaks about the Shirako project.
Reading: get the gist of two papers on Shirako: [USENIX06] and [ICAC 07 draft]. You may skim section 4 and skip the performance section of [USENIX06]. What is important is to get a sense of the vision for dynamic services and sharing of networked resources.
Feb 15 midterm exam
Feb 20 Transports: DCCP.
Extended due date for lab 1
Feb 22 Transports: more DCCP and SCTP, and the TCP issues addressed by these new transports.
Feb 27 The network layer and routing. Reading: K&R 4.0-4.6.
Mar 1 Routers and routing:

Reading: The Click Modular Router. Extract the key ideas from the TOCS paper on the publications page: Eddie Kohler, Robert Morris, Benjie Chen, John Jannotti, and M. Frans Kaashoek. ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 18(3), August 2000, pages 263-297.
Nominal due date for lab 2

Mar 6 Routers and routing: interdomain routing
Extended due date for lab 2
Mar 8 Naming, routing, and overlays
Mar 20 Overlays and scalable services revisited: structured overlays (DHTs)
Mar 22 DHTs and churn: bamboo
Mar 27 Anycast and multicast, publish/subscribe
Mar 29 The link layer and ethernet
April 3 Shifting foundations: more layer 2.
April 5 Multicast, media, unstructured overlays
April 10 guest speaker
April 12 guest speaker
April 17 Return of the future Internet
April 19 demo day
April XX final exam