This is a graduate level course in computer networks. It covers advanced technologies, theory and applications of networking protocols and systems. It studies recent developments and emerging trend in various networking research areas such as: Architecture and Economic aspects of the Internet; Network management, Operation and Traffic Engineering ; Network Measurement and Monitoring ; Domain-specific networking architectures and technologies, e.g., Data-Center, Content Distribution Networks and their corresponding challenges and solutions ; Network Algorithmics and Protocol Design ; Operating Systems and Hardware Support for Networking ; Modeling and performance analysis of protocols, systems and services. Each student is expected to complete a Term-Project as part of the course assessment.

Advisory: Students are expected to have basic background in computer networks.

Teaching Timetable

Dates Related to Project and Lab:

Project Proposal Due: Feb 16

Project Mid-term Report Due: March 20

After completion of the course, the student should be able to:

1. Acquire a deeper understanding of network protocols and management based on how the Internet is operated by a multitude of ISPs.

2. Appreciate how multimedia applications are supported by current/emerging Internet protocols and additional building blocks.

3. Appreciate how the Internet is evolving with new technologies, applications and services.

4. Demonstrate the understanding of the specific challenges, possible solution-approaches and their tradeoffs in designing advanced Internet protocols/ technologies at different layers of the protocol-stack to support new applications and services.

5. Apply the understanding and knowledge of 1 to 4 to analyze and design new Internet protocols according to changing technology constraints and user/application/service requirements.

Your grade will be based on the following components:

Course Webpage: http://mobitec.ie.cuhk.edu.hk/ierg5090Spring2017

E-learning (Blackboard System): https://elearn.cuhk.edu.hk

All of the relevant class materials will be available on the class webpage and E-learning. Please visit these online resources often and stay tuned for any announcement, supplementary discussions, clarifications and changes pertaining to the content of the course and homework assignments.

NOTICE

This course does not use a single textbook. Instead, several textbooks are recommended as references:

1. Recent Advances in Networking, The ACM SIGCOMM ebook: http://www.sigcomm.org/content/ebook

2. Interconnections: Second Edition by Radia Perlman.

3. Internet Routing Architectures Second Edition by Sam Halabi.

4. MPLS: next steps by Bruce Davie and Adrian Farrel.

5. RTP - Audio and Video for the Internet by Colin Perkins.

6. Network Algorithmics by George Varghese

7. Computer Networks- a systems approach, 5th Edition, by Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie.

8. Content Networking: Architecture, Protocols and Practice by Markus Hofmann and Leland Beaumont.

9. Other parts of the course, we rely on lecture notes. We refer students to IETF RFCs for specific protocols.

10. In addition, reference material will be posted on the Reference Material page of this website.Update log will be shown on course webpage in the announcements section. Please check it regularly.

Abstract:

Wireless devices are becoming more diverse with not just over 6 billion wireless phones but also possibly a much larger number of sensors, machines contributing to machine to machine communication, and practical everything in the so called Internet of Things (IoT). With an anticipated growth to 100 billion IoT devices by year 2025, more dense radio networks are emerging. Both data and signaling from mobile devices are expected to grow exponentially over the next five or more years. The cellular networks serving cellular phones and mobile devices globally have employed centralized control with different network functions arranged in a hierarchy. On the other hand, the Internet which is originally built for fixed users is making perhaps the biggest changes to serve the wireless users. Meanwhile networks are being transformed with software defined networking as well as network function virtualization and cloudification as the technologies in communication technologies and information technologies are merging. Standards to define 5G technologies are underway.

Biography:

H. Anthony Chan received his PhD in physics at University of Maryland, College Park in 1982 and then continued post-doctorate research there in basic science. After joining the former AT&T Bell Labs in 1986, his work moved to industry-oriented research in areas of interconnection, electronic packaging, reliability, and assembly in manufacturing, and then moved again to network management, network architecture and standards for both wireless and wireline networks. He moved to academia as professor at University of Cape Town in 2004, and moved again to industry research as he joined Huawei Technologies in Dallas USA in 2007. His current research in the Wireless Research and Standards organization of Huawei Technologies is in 5G Wireless core network with software defined network and network virtualization.

Anthony is a Fellow of IEEE, a honorary professor at The University of Hong Kong, and an adjunct professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He contributes to IETF and IEEE802.21 standards and had chaired IEEE Standard 802.21c Task Group on Single Radio Handover Optimization. He has authored/co-authored 240 conference and journal papers, a research handbook, several book chapters, and 30 US patents. He is a Distinguished Lecturer/Speaker of IEEE Communication Society and of IEEE Reliability Society. He had delivered 16 keynotes/invited talks and over 40 conference tutorials and short courses. His talks attempt to bring in practical issues from the industry while also offering conceptual clarity to be of broader interest to the audience.

Students are welcome to express their comments and suggestions via the following formal and informal feedback channels:

http://www.erg.cuhk.edu.hk/Student-Faculty-Expectations

You are expected to do your own work and acknowledge the use of anyone else's words or ideas. You MUST put down in your submitted work the names of people with whom you have had discussions. Refer to http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty for details.

When scholastic dishonesty is suspected, the matter will be turned over to the University authority for action.

You MUST include the following signed statement in all of your submitted homework, project assignments and examinations. Submission without a signed statement will not be graded.

I declare that the assignment here submitted is original except for source material explicitly acknowledged, and that the same or related material has not been previously submitted for another course. I also acknowledge that I am aware of University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and of the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations, as contained in the website http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.