COS 561: Advanced Computer Networks (Fall 2026)

Instructor: Kyle Jamieson
TA: Yunxiang Chi
Meetings: Friday 1:30-4:20 PM in 301 Computer Science
Canvas Site

Overview

COS 561 aims to provide an understanding of the fundamental principles that govern the Internet (and networks more generally), particularly in the context of state-of-the-art networked systems and research. Core topics span the modern networking stack and local/wide-area/datacenter landscapes, covering concepts such as routing, congestion control, measurement, and networked applications. The course will be heavily based on studying a mixture of classic and recent research papers and presenting them during class meetings. In doing so, students will learn how to critically engage with and discuss networking research.

Reading List: Zotero

Schedule

This schedule is preliminary and subject to change. Student presenters are indicated [ ] where applicable. To use the Perusall links below, first log into Canvas and from there, course navigation link Perusall.

Deadlines: On the day of class meeting, by Friday 9:00 AM, submit five thoughtful comments or questions on Perusall (linked from each reading), for each reading marked Perusall Discuss, and by 11:59 PM, submit the reflection form (linked below).

Week 1: Friday, September 4
Course Overview and Introduction
Perusall Discuss: Clark88.
Read Keshav07.
After: Submit reflection.
Slides: [Introduction], [The Host].
Week 2: Friday, September 11
End Hosts
Perusall Discuss: TCPIP74.
Read Saltzer84.
After: Submit reflection.
Slides: [TCP and E2E].
Week 3: Friday, September 18
Classic Congestion Control
Perusall Discuss: Jacobson88.
Perusall Discuss: Vegas95.
After: Submit reflection.
Slides: [Congestion].
Week 4: Friday, September 25
Specialized Congestion Control
Perusall Discuss: BBR [XD].
Perusall Discuss: GCC [XD].
After: Submit reflection.
Initial Project Proposal due.
Week 5: Friday, October 2
Video Streaming
Perusall Discuss: BBA [SW].
Perusall Discuss: MPC [YC].
After: Submit reflection.
Week 6: Friday, October 9
Real-Time Communication
Guest Lecture: Oliver Michel
Pre-Read: WebRTC.
Perusall Discuss: Scallop.
After: Submit reflection.
Week 7: Friday, October 16
ML for Networking
Perusall Discuss: Pensieve [KZ].
Perusall Discuss: Agua [PJ].
After: Submit reflection.
Final Project Proposal due.
Fall Break (no meeting): Friday, October 23
Week 8: Friday, October 30
Data Center Networking
Perusall Discuss: DCTCP [SW].
Perusall Discuss: Jupiter [YC].
After: Submit reflection.
Week 9: Friday, November 6
Networking for ML
Perusall Discuss: NDP [PJ].
Perusall Discuss: MRC [KZ].
After: Submit reflection.
Week 10: Friday, November 13
Compositional Network Architecture
Readings TBA
After: Submit reflection.
Week 11: Friday, November 20
Data Plane
Readings TBA
After: Submit reflection.
Thanksgiving Recess (no meeting): Friday, November 27
Week 12: Friday, December 4
Project Presentations and Code Review
(no readings)
After: Submit reflection.
Dean's Date: Tuesday, December 15
Project Blog Posts Due

Project

The semester-long project in COS 561 is a systems-building project performing novel research in the area of the class. Projects are done individually, must involve significant system programming, and the use of AI-assisted agentic programming is encouraged.

Projects must be closely related to the scope of the COS 561 curriculum: the instructor will take a narrow view as to what projects satisfy this criterion, and the scope decision is taken by the instructor.

Students will present their work in the last class meeting. Rather than a research paper written as a Latex document, your final report will be a blog post that expands on a similar organization and topics as addressed in your initial project proposal. Your final report will be published on Medium as part of a course page. Source code and data should also be made available, e.g., via github.

Project timeline:

Grading

Class/Precept Participation: 20%
Oral Presentation(s): 20%
Semester Project: 60%