Computer Networks

Course Format

The course will meet twice a week for 50-minute lectures. Additionally, there will be one precept per week.

Assignments for the course will be lab-based programming assignments.

Recommended Background

Prerequisite: COS 217. Although not required, taking either COS 318 or 333 before COS 461 is helpful for the programming assignments.

Grading

Grading is based on:

• a midterm (20%)
• a final exam (25%)
• four programming assignments (12% each)
• preparation for precepts (7%)

Late Policy

We understand that sometimes life events occur and that it's not always possible to meet every deadline. As such, we are willing to accept late assignments according to the following policy:

• You start the term with a grace period "balance" of 96 hours.
• Each assignment will be due at 11:59 p.m. (Princeton Local Time) on the due date.
• For each assignment, every hour late (or fraction thereof) that you turn in the assignment will subtract one hour from your grace-period balance. For example, if you turn in your assignment at 1:02 a.m. on the date after the due date, we will count this as two hours against your grace period.
• As long as your grace period balance is positive, you can turn in any assignment late without penalty.
• Once your grace period balance reaches zero, you will receive half credit for any assignment that you turn in, as long as you turn it in within one week of the due date. If your grace period balance is zero and you turn in an assignment more than one week late, you will receive no credit for the assignment. Important: You must still turn in all assignments to pass the course, even if you receive zero points on an assignment. Turning in all assignments is a necessary condition for passing.

Excuses with medical documentation are a legitimate exception and will not count against your late period. Any other reasons for lateness---including but not limited to interviews, conferences, etc.---are not legitimate excuses and any resulting lateness will count against your grace period.

Honor Code

Students are expected to abide by the Princeton University Honor Code. Honest and ethical behavior is expected at all times. All incidents of suspected dishonesty will be reported to and handled by the office of student affairs. You are to do all assignments yourself, unless explicitly told otherwise. You may discuss the assignments with your classmates, but you may not copy any solution (or part of a solution) from a classmate.

Reading and Videos

Required videos: Prof. Feamster's Networking Videos. These videos are organized in a playlist that matches the syllabus topic schedule. Please watch the appropriate videos before lecture.

Required textbook: Computer Networks: A Systems Approach (5th edition), by Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie

Recommended Books: Other recommended textbooks for reference include:

• Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet (6th edition)
• Computer Networks (5th edition)
• TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols and Unix Network Programming, Volume 1: The Sockets Networking API (3rd Edition)

Purchasing these books is not necessary; they will be on reserve in the engineering library, and online resources will be made available.

This schedule and syllabus is preliminary and subject to change. Reading assignments refer to the Peterson/Davie book (5th edition), unless otherwise specified.

Videos: In addition to the readings, you should watch the corresponding videos from the YouTube Playlist, before lecture. (Note: Some of the videos in the playlist will not be covered in the course. You are only responsible for the videos that are explicitly listed in the schedule. If you have a question about whether something is required, ask on Piazza, and we will clarify/update the syllabus below if there are mistakes.)

Where applicable, please watch all videos and read book sections before class.

Slides: All slides will be posted in this directory before lecture.

Date	Modules	Readings	Assignment
February 2	Course Overview History of the Internet	1.3 Videos: 1
February 4	Architectural Principles Packet Switching End-to-End Principle	Videos: 2-19
February 6	Socket Programming	1.4 Beej’s Guide	Programming Assignment 0 (Sockets)
February 9	Link Layer Switching and Bridging ARP, Hubs, Switches Spanning Trees	3.1.1, 3.1.4, 3.2.6 Videos: 20-28
February 11	IP Addressing Classful Addressing Allocation CIDR Longest Prefix Match	3.2.1-3.2.5 Videos: 39-46 (Optional: 47-56, 58)
February 13	HTTP	9.1.2 Videos: 168-173	Programming Assignment 1 (HTTP Proxy)
February 16	Internet Routing Oveview Intradomain Routing Topology Distance Vector Link State	3.3, 4.1 Videos: 64-71
February 18	Interdomain Routing Route Attributes Route Selection	4.1.2 Videos: 72-77, 79 (Optional: 78, 80)
February 20	Mininet and PoX		Mininet/POX Setup
February 23	Catch Up Router design Router architectures Crossbar switching	3.4
February 25	Queuing and Scheduling FIFO Fair Queueing	6.2, 6.5 Videos: 88-92
February 27	Queuing and Scheduling Bufferbloat	Videos: 208-210	Review of Routing
March 2	TCP and UDP Reliable delivery Connections	5.1, 5.2
March 4	Congestion Control Congestion Collapse TCP Congestion Control	6.3, 6.4 Videos: 34-38
March 6	Congestion Control		TCP Review Programming Assignment 2 (Router)
March 9	DNS Resolution Nameserver hierarchy Record types	9.3.1 Videos: 59-63
March 11	Scaling Techniques NAT IPv6	4.1.3 Videos: 43-44
March 13	Midterm		Midterm
March 23	Network Management Overview Traffic Engineering (Security)	Videos: 93-99, 57
March 25	Traffic Management Classification Shaping	Kurose & Ross pp 645-648 Videos: 100-107
March 27	Traffic Shaping Mechanisms Token Bucket Leaky Bucket		Bufferbloat and Congestion Activities
March 30	Software Defined Networking Control-Data Separation History of SDN	The Road to SDN Videos: 113-115
April 1	SDN Continued OpenFlow Match-Action Tables	The Future of Networking, and the Past of Protocols Video: Shenker  (Optional: 118-137)
April 3	SDN Controllers	Videos: 116-117	Scheduling and Shaping
April 6	Denial of Service Attacks Overview DDoS Defenses	8.5 DNS Amplification (NYT) Videos: 140-144	Programming Assignment 3 (Router)
April 8	Routing Security Route Hijacks BGPSEC	Routing Security Kapela Route Hijack Videos: 152-157
April 10	OpenFlow and SDN		SDN Firewall Activity
April 13	Special Guests: NSA and Princeton IT Security: Internet Security in the Wild
April 15	DNS and Naming Security Cache Poisoning Amplification Attacks DNSSEC	Kaminsky DNS Attack (Figure) DNSSEC Overview (Slides 1-5) Videos: 145-151
April 17	Router Design		Router Design (Makeup of Feb 23)
April 20	Botnets and Application-Layer Attacks Viruses and Worms Spam, Phishing Botnets	Cole: Chapter 19 Videos: 158-164
April 22	Network Virtualization	Videos: 123-127
April 24	Network Measurement	9.4.1	Measurement Videos: 108-112
April 27	Data Center Networking Topologies Routing	Barroso: Chapter 1, 3.3 Videos: 182-185, 189-190(Optional: 186-188)
April 29	Overlay Networks Peer-to-Peer Networking Content Distribution Networks	9.4.1, 9.4.2, 9.4.3 Videos: 104-112, 174-181	Programming Assignment 4 (Measurement)
May 1	Course Review Session		Course Review/Practice Problems

Course Resources

• Course Dropbox (Lecture and Precept Slides, Solutions, etc.)
• Topics Covered in Lecture
• Course Blackboard Page
• Piazza Online Discussion Forum

Software Resources

• VirtualBox Environment
• Hints on VM Setup
• Official virtual machine image
• Mininet: Virtual network emulation environment
  • Mininet Walkthrough

Going Further (Optional)

• Various Online Reading from Professor Feamster
• Connection Management Blog: Blog where various topics will be discussed during the course.
• A Research "How To" Blog
• Prof. Feamster's Twitter Feed
• Udacity Course Modules (some may be useful for additional explanation)
• Module 1
• Module 2
• Module 3

Assignments

• Assignment 0: Socket Programming
• Assignment 1: HTTP Proxy
• Assignment 2: Internet Router (Extra Credit)
• Assignment 3: Simple TCP
• Assignment 4: Internet Measurement