Computer Laboratory

Course pages 2011–12

Computer Networking


2011-12 Lecture Notes


  • Topic 1 Introduction / Foundation pptx pdf Updated: 2012-1-20

  • Topic 1.1 Internet pptx pdf Updated: 2012-1-27

  • Topic 2 Network Applications pptx pdf DNS Errata as pdf Updated: 2012-2-1

  • Topic 3 Transport pptx pdf Updated: 2012-2-8

  • Topic 4 Network pptx pdf Updated: 19-Feb-2012

  • Topic 5 Data-Link (+Physical) pptx pdf 27 Feb 2012

  • Topic 6 Advanced Topics (Data Centers) pptx pdf keynote 12 Mar 2012

Note: The material of the syllabus and the ratio of (number of lectures) material is roughly correct but the ordering is a bit redone this year to meet a few issues that arose previously (Causal linking of material).


2011-12 Supervision Handouts


Topic 1-6 pdf Updated: 2012-3-13 *** UPDATED TO INCLUDE TOPIC 6 Data Centers ***


Topic-specific material

Topic 1 - Introduction

  • End-to-End Arguments in System Design, Saltzer, J., Reed, D., and Clark, D.D., Second International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (April 1981) pages 509-512, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 1984, Vol. 2, No. 4, November, pp. 277-288 PDF
  • Trying to explain the interconnectedness of the Internet to your parents/grand-parents? The Internet Revealed Disclaimer: this is very IXP-centric, funded as it is by Euro-IX, the body representing a big bunch of IXPs. Trivia: LINX (London IXP) has been the worlds largest IXP by traffic, customers, and peerings).
  • Andrew D. Birrell and Bruce Jay Nelson, "Implementing remote procedure calls", ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 2(1), 1984, (PDF)
  • David Tennenhouse, "Layered Multiplexing Considered Harmful", Protocols for High-Speed Networks, Rudin and Williamson (Editors), NorthHolland, Amsterdam, 1989 (PDF)

Topic 2 - Applications

Topic 3 - Transport

  • A quicktime video of (Monday/Wednesday 21st/23rd of Feb) presentation is available HERE Notes about the movie are available here. You may wish to open two browsers: one for the movie and one for the notes.

  • Sally Floyd and Van Jacobson, "The Syncronization of Period Routing Messages", IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 2(2), p. 122-136, April 1994. (PDF)
  • Vern Paxson and Sally Floyd, "Wide-Area Traffic: The Failure of Poisson Modeling", IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 3(3), 1995 (PDF)
  • Van Jacobson and Michael J. Karels, "Congestion Aviodance and Control", (PDF) slightly revised version of Jacobson, V. Congestion avoidance and control. In Proceedings of SIGCOMM 88 ( Stanford, CA, Aug. 1988), ACM.

Topic 4 - Networks

Topic 5 - Data-Link (Media Access) and Physical

  • R Metcalfe and D Boggs, "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks", ACM Computer Systems, 1976. (PDF)

Topic 6 - Data Centers

  • Luiz Barroso ISCA 2011 Keynote "Warehouse-Scale computing: Entering the Teenage Decade" (ACM website)

Excited by Computer Networking?

Then you may want to consider a UROP or a project (or both), perhaps one based our networking kit --- I'm particularly keen for people that wish to do NetFPGA, based projects.

Impress your (geeky) friends - how many of them will have done real work at 10Gbps?