COSC 525 - Advanced Networks
Fall 2016

Instructor: Prof. Wenchao Zhou
Email: wzhou [at] cs [dot] georgetown [dot] edu
Office: St. Mary's Hall, Room 357
Office Hours: Thursday 2:00 - 3:00pm, and by appointment

Room: St. Mary's Hall, Room 326
Time: Tuesday and Thursday 12:30 - 1:45pm
Course Description

This course is a graduate-level treatment of the concepts and principles of data communications and computer networking. Topics covered include network architecture and layering, packet and circuit switching, addressing, intra- and inter-networking, routing protocols, network management, network applications, and recent advances in computer networks. This course will involve a combination of homework assignments, paper readings, and programming projects.
Textbook and Other Readings

  • The required textbook for this class is Computer Networks: A System Approach (5th Edition) by Larry L. Peterson and Bruce S. Davie. The 4th edition is fine, though the chapter/section numbers will be different.
  • Additional reading material will be drawn from selected research publications (links will be listed in syllabus).
    • Grading

    Semester grades will be calculated as follows:
  • Homework assignments: 15%
  • Paper presentation: 10%
  • Reading summaries: 10%
  • Midterm Exam: 20%
  • Projects: 40%
  • Class participation 5%

    • Assignments are due before class on the posted dated. Reading summaries are due at 11:59pm Monday (i.e. the night before class). There is a 25% penalty for up to 12 hours after the deadline.
    Integrity Policies

    The course follows the Departmental Honor Policy. If you are unsure whether or not a certain practice is permissible, PLEASE ask the instructor beforehand. If a cheating case is caught, the instructor is obliged to report the case to the Graduate School of Arts and Science.
    Syllabus (tentative)

    Date Topics Readings Notes
    Week 1. Administravia and Introduction Sec 1.1 - 1.3, Design Philosophy
    Week 2. Link Layer, Switching and Bridging Sec 2.1 - 2.4, 2.6, 3.1
    Week 3. Network Layer, Intradoamin Routing Sec 3.2 - 3.3 Project 1 Release
    network simulator (ns3)
    Week 4. Inter-domain Routing, Routing Convergence Sec 4.1, Gao-Rexford
    Week 5. Transport Layer, UDP and TCP Sec 5.1 - 5.2, 6.1 - 6.2, Fair Allocation
    Week 6. Congestion Control, TCP variants Sec 6.3 - 6.4, DCTCP
    Week 7. Buffer/Review Sec 9.1 Midterm 1
    Week 8. Peer-to-Peer, BitTorrent Sec 9.4.2, BitTorrent
    Week 9. Content Distribution Networks Sec 9.4.3, Akamai Work-in-Progress
    Week 10. Overlay networks, DHT Sec 9.4.1, Chord Project 2 Release
    Week 11. Mobile and Wireless Networks Zigzag
    Week 12. Datacenter and Cloud Above the Cloud
    Week 13. Software Defined Networks Ethane
    Week 14. Buffer/Review Midterm 2
    Week 15. Course Summary Project Presentation