Table of Contents
Syllabus
Week 1
- March 31
- LectureCourse Introduction & Overview
Readings
- Ch 1 — First Principles, §The Question Behind Every System
- Ch 1 — First Principles, §A Motivating Example: What Happens When You Load a Web Page
Lecture Notes L1: Course Introduction & First Principles
- April 2
- LectureThe Four Invariants (Ch 1)
Readings
- Ch 1 — First Principles, §The Four Invariants
- Ch 1 — First Principles, §Design Principles: Strategies for Answering Well
- Ch 1 — First Principles, §The Anchored Dependency Graph
Lecture Notes L2: The Four Invariants as a Diagnostic Tool
PA1 Released PA1: Investigate Wireless Network Protocol — due Tuesday, April 14 at 11:59 PM.
Discussion Section Environment setup & tool orientation - Submit on Gradescope
Week 2
- April 7
- LectureDesign Principles in Action: From Nothing to a Routable Network (Ch 1, 5, 6)
Readings
- Ch 1 — First Principles, §Decomposition: Why Systems Have Parts
- Ch 1 — First Principles, §Generative Exercise: QUIC and the Interface Renegotiation
- Ch 6 — Routing & Switching, §Act 1: The First Four Nodes Come Online
- Ch 6 — Routing & Switching, §Act 2: The ARPANET Is Oscillating
Lecture Notes L3: Design Principles in Action
- April 9
- LectureDesign BGP and SDN From Scratch (Ch 6)
Readings
- Ch 6 — Routing & Switching, §Act 3: Ethernet LANs Keep Crashing from Loops
- Ch 6 — Routing & Switching, §Act 4: The Internet Commercializes. Shortest-Path Breaks.
- Ch 6 — Routing & Switching, §Act 5: Operators Need Traffic Engineering
- Ch 6 — Routing & Switching, §Act 6: Networks Are Unmanageable
Lecture Notes L4: Design BGP and SDN From Scratch
Discussion Section 802.11 intro - Submit on Gradescope
Week 3
- April 14
- LectureThe Shared-Medium Problem (Ch 2, 3)
Readings
- Ch 2 — Wired Link Layer, §The Anchor: Point-to-Point or Shared Bus
- Ch 2 — Wired Link Layer, §Act 1: A Building Full of Personal Computers Needs a Network (CSMA/CD)
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §The Anchor: Shared Broadcast Medium
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §Act 1: Pure ALOHA (1970)
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §Act 2: Packet Radio Channels Are Getting Crowded (CSMA)
Lecture Notes L5: The Shared-Medium Problem Background: Wireless PHY Primer (optional) PA1 Due PA1: Investigate Wireless Network Protocol — due Tuesday, April 14 at 11:59 PM.
- April 16
- LectureHow Wireless Closes the Loop: CSMA/CA and Its Limits (Ch 3)
Readings
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §Act 3: WiFi Ships. 802.11 DCF Codifies CSMA/CA
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §Act 3: WiFi Ships — CSMA/CA Throughput Analysis
Lecture Notes L6: How Wireless Closes the Loop — CSMA/CA and Its Limits
Discussion Section Flow analysis & packet parsing - Submit on Gradescope
Week 4
- April 21
- No Class Cancelled — see email for pre-lecture exercise (The Overhead Tax).
- April 23
- LectureBreaking the Contention Ceiling (Ch 3, 4)
Readings
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §Act 4: WiFi Adopts Cellular-Style Scheduling. 802.11ax Ships
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §Act 5: The Cellular Alternative: Centralized from Day One
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §The Anchor: Licensed Spectrum with Exclusive Operator Ownership
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 1: GSM — Europe Needs a Unified Digital Cellular Standard
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 2: Packet Data Demands a Parallel Path (UMTS)
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 3: All Traffic Must Become IP (LTE)
Lecture Notes L7: Breaking the Contention Ceiling
Discussion Section QoS metric extraction for video streaming
PA2 Due PA2: Extract QoS Metrics for Video Streaming Applications — due Tuesday, April 14 at 11:59 PM.
Week 5
- April 28
- LectureThe Other Path: Cellular and Convergence (Ch 3, 4)
Readings
- Ch 3 — Wireless Link Layer, §Act 5: The Cellular Alternative: Centralized from Day One
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §The Anchor: Licensed Spectrum with Exclusive Operator Ownership
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 1: GSM — Europe Needs a Unified Digital Cellular Standard
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 2: Packet Data Demands a Parallel Path (UMTS)
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 3: All Traffic Must Become IP (LTE)
Lecture Notes L8: The Other Path — Cellular, Convergence, and Progressive Disaggregation
- April 30
- No In-Class Lecture Students are encouraged to read the lecture notes and chapter readings below independently.
Readings
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 4: 5G Demands Split, Scalable, Service-Aware Infrastructure
- Ch 4 — Wireless Infrastructure, §Act 5: Operators Demand Open, Programmable RAN Control (O-RAN)
- Review all Ch 1–4 sections covered in Weeks 1–5
Lecture Notes L9: Inside the Scheduler — 5G Disaggregation, O-RAN, and Network Slicing
Discussion Section Midterm review
Week 6
- May 5
- Midterm ExamIn-class, closed-device Covers Lectures 1–8 (Chapters 1–4: First Principles, Wireless Link Layer, Wireless Infrastructure).
- May 7
- LectureL10: The Perceptual Anchor: Why Multimedia Is Different (Ch 7) — Guest: Sanjay
Readings
Lecture Notes L10: The Perceptual Anchor
Discussion Section Analyzing RTP Streams - Submit on Gradescope
Week 7
- May 12
- LectureL11: The Streaming Control Loop: Buffering, DASH, ABR (Ch 7)
Readings
Lecture Notes L11: The Streaming Control Loop
- May 14
- LectureL12: When Buffering Is Forbidden: VoIP, Jitter, and Modern Real-Time (Ch 7)
Readings
Lecture Notes L12: When Buffering Is Forbidden
Discussion Section NetReplica deep dive: navigating papers, experiment design
Week 8
- May 19
- LectureL13: Who Gets Served Next? Scheduling Disciplines (Ch 5) — Guest: Jaber
Readings
Lecture Notes L13: Who Gets Served Next?
- May 21
- LectureL14: When the Queue Lies: Bufferbloat and AQM (Ch 5) — Guest: Jaber
Readings
Lecture Notes L14: When the Queue Lies
Discussion Section NetGent intro + video conferencing analysis
Week 9
- May 26
- LectureL15: Fixing the Lie: Per-Flow Isolation and Explicit Signals (Ch 5)
Readings
- May 28
- LectureL16: Designing Network Infrastructure for LLM-Scale Services
Discussion Section NetReplica/NetGent for network experimentation
Week 10
- June 2
- No Lecture Project work week — extended office hours available.
- June 4
- No Lecture Project work week — extended office hours available.
Discussion Section No discussion this week