Course Information

Computer Networks II, Spring 2001

(IT: 1IT130, MN2: 1DT634, Course "Datakommunikation II")

This course is the follow up course of the Data Networks-I course. It is targeted at students at the ITP program who want to specialize in this area.

The Computer Networks II course covers current research topics on wireless networks, multimedia, multicasting, network performance, resource reservation, active networks and high speed networking. The objective is that the student after the course should be able to understand scientific articles in professional journals from ACM and IEEE.

The course is given at the D-level. The course requires active participation in form of a assignments with installation/implementation of protocols or the writing of a termpaper with a presentation of the results.

This instance of the course will emphasize wireless and wireless LANs. A WLAN access network has recently been installed at House 1 at Polacksbacken, providing up to 11 Mbit/s virtually everywhere. All students in IT3 with a laptop can borrow a WLAN PCMCIA card for one year which will be used in this course and used privately by the students. (The cards are sponsored by Ericsson.) This gives an unique possibility to do "hands-on" in this course. The course will also be a part of the Stanford-KTH-Uppsala Learning Lab project. One of the aim of the project is to study how a wireless infrastructure could support student teams and learning at spontaneous meeting places. An evaluation of the usage pattern and the usefulness of the WLAN cards will be conducted by of the course staff.

Prerequisites: Successful participation in Data Networks I.

Lecturers

Course home page: http://www.docs.uu.se/~perg/course/datakom2/it2001

Tentative Lecture Plan:

  Date/Time Room Topic Lect.
F0 Mar 20, 10.15 2247 Introduction, project/paper assignment PG
F1 Mar 21, 13.15 Å2001 Wireless communications PG
F2 Mar 22, 15.15 1111 Celluar communications PG
F3 Mar 26, 08.15 2247 Wireless LANs PG
F4 Mar 27, 10.15 Å2001 Ad-hoc networks CT
Mar 27, 17.00   Deadline for choice of paper topic and assign  
F5 Mar 28, 13.15 2247 Mobile IP CT
F6 Mar 29, 10.15 2247 Active Networking I CT
F7 Mar 30, 08.15 Å2001 Active Networking II CT
F8 Apr 4, 13.15 2247 Mobile IP, Industry presentation JF
F9 Apr 23, 08.15 2247 Multimedia PG
F10 Apr 24, 13.15 2247 Real Time protocols PG
  Apr 25, 17.00   Deadline for paper  
  May 04, 17.00   Deadline for revised paper  
F11 Apr 26, 10.15 2247 Packet scheduling PG
F12 Apr 27, 10.15 2247 Multicast PG
F13 May 7, 08.15 1111 Proxy architectures PG
F14 May 11, 10.15 2247 Communications Research at UU PG
F15 May 15, 10.15 Å2001 QoS and RSVP, Int+DiffServ CT
F16 May 16, 08.15 1111 IPv6 and NAT CT
P1 May 18, 08.15 1311 until 17.00: oral presentations PG+CT
P2 May 21, 08.15 1311 until 17.00: oral presentations PG+CT
P3 May 22, 08.15 1311 until 12.00: oral presentations PG+CT
EXA May 23, YY xxxx Written exam  

Assignments

Students of the Computer Network II course have to write a term paper with another student on a selected topic of modern computer networks and or a "hot topic", more comprehensive group term paper. In both cases the work has to presented orally. Additionally, all students will have to participate in a 2 times 2h "ad hoc" experiment at the end of the term. The amount of individual effort should be between one and two weeks. A written exam ends the course.

Paper and "Opponering"

Course participants have to write a 10-15 page term paper on a network topic of their choice (a list of possible topics will be made available). The paper will be written in groups of two and has to be delivered before April 25, 2001 17.00. At the next step, a second team is selected for each submitted paper: The second team has to critically examine the arguments presented in the paper. A seminar will take place in form of a presentation and discussion ("opponering").

Hot topic group papers

Two groups of four members could make a more comprehensive research into two hot topics. They will also get an extensive presentation time. The topics are:

For the instructions, see Uppgift (in Swedish) and list of topics.

Hands-on Projects

We also would like to provide the opportunity to do a course project instead of the term paper. Several topics have been defined that relate to the wireless infrastructure at the IT department. Each project is handled by a group of 4 to 5 students. The projects consist of practical evaluation and protocol installation/implementation work and a presentation of the results at the end of the course.

The titles of the projects follows below (the final list of hands-on projects depends on the availability of the hardware, and student interest):

Literature


Per Gunningberg

den 27 mars 2001