News
- Tuesday is last day of classes, no class Thur
- Note the location change to CS Conf Room for final presentations.
- Homework 2 available.
- Homework 1 available.
- All lecture notes will now be posted to the GoogleGroup instead of the course
website. Make sure you have an account.
- Webpage going online, lecture topics/papers still tentative
General Information
When and Where: Tues/Thur, 9:00--10:50AM, Phelps 1401
Professor: Ben Zhao,
ravenben at cs.ucsb.edu
TA: Vinod Kone
Office Hours:
- Ben: Thurdays, 11AM-Noon
- Vinod: Wednesdays, 2-4pm, Phelps 1413
Class Email List: CS276
Google Group
Prerequisites: Solid background in networking
(CS176A+B or equivalent).
Introduction
This course will focus on studying the state of the art in networking
and networked systems. We will cover a variety of topics from routing
protocols to Internet stability and peer-to-peer networking. Each topic
will provide background on traditional perspectives, with updates from
current and ongoing research. The expectation is that everyone has a
solid background on networking basics. Discussions of background
material from a textbook will be complemented by those of current
publications. Students will learn tools, techniques, and concepts while
learning to carry out original research in a course project, with the
end goal of producing real, publishable results by the end of the
quarter. In addition, students are expected to gain experience in two
valuable skills: quickly reading technical papers (without sacrificing
understanding), and giving public presentations.
Textbooks
The majority of reading material for this course will come in the form
of research papers. There is no required textbook, but there are
several useful texts (optional) that you can use as background material
to help you better understand the papers.
- Kurose and Ross, Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach
Featuring
the Internet, 3rd edition.
- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, 3rd edition.
- Peterson and Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach,
2nd edition.
Class Participation
Each student is highly encouraged to read all of the relevant papers before attending
class. There are no paper reviews due, unlike my previous grad courses. At the
beginning of each lecture, we will randomly choose a member of
the class to give a very brief 5 minute discussion of the papers, their salient
points, and the most useful take-aways from each paper. While there is no specific
grade assigned to the presentation, it serves as practice in public speaking, and
should motivate you to pay attention to the readings.
Grading Policy
Your quarter grade will be derived from
homework assignments, a midterm exam, and a class
project: