Note: The following provides a suggested course description,
objectives, and an outline. These may be modified pending discussion with
the Faculty Chairs, proposing faculty, and other curriculum
reviewers.
Course Description: In recent years, computer
networks have been undergoing significant changes in their design
principles, architectures, protocols, and application scenarios. Emerging
networks are expected to carry diverse traffic types (e.g., video, audio,
images, and text), some of which have stringent delay and packet-loss
transport requirements. Quality-of-service (QoS) support became a
fundamental block in the design of intelligent networks. The exponential
growth of the web has made it critical to deploy web caching mechanisms at
end-systems (clients and servers) as well as within the network. Network
services have been extended to the wireless domain (e.g., via WiFi and
Bluetooth), allowing for seamless wired/wireless connectivity based on
cellular as well as "ad hoc" architectures. Sensor networking is emerging
as an enabling technology for many exciting sensor-based application
domains, including environment monitoring, seismic-structure response,
marine microorganisms, etc. This course aims at exposing the fundamental
techniques, algorithms, and protocols underlying the recent technological
advanced in the fields of wired and wireless networking. Much of the
material is conceptual in nature, with some portion of it that is
mathematically oriented. Programming-based mini-projects will be used to
reinforce certain design concepts, algorithms, and protocols.
