Communication Networks 2017

Assistants:

Head

Lecture: Monday 10 am–12 pm in ETF C 1

Exercice sessions: Tuesday 10 am–12 pm in ETZ F 91, Thursday 1 pm–3 pm in ETZ E 9
(the sessions are identical, meaning you should only attend one of the two)

Slack: comm-net17.slack.com

News

July 10	Solutions for the additional exam preparation questions are now online.
June 16	Additional exam preparation questions are now online.
June 1	The materials for the thirteenth and last (!) lecture are now online.
May 29	Last year's exam is now online.
May 29	The materials for the twelfth lecture are now online.
May 27	The solutions for the twelfth exercise session are now online.
May 18	The assignment for the twelfth exercise session is now online.
May 15	The solutions for the ninth exercise session are now online.
May 14	The materials for the eleventh lecture are now online.
May 10	The assignment for the reliable transport project is now online.
May 7	The materials for the tenth lecture are now online.
May 1	The assignment for the ninth exercise session is now online.
Apr 23	The materials for the ninth lecture are now online.
Apr 10	The solutions for the sixth exercise session are now online.
Apr 9	The materials for the eight lecture are now online.
Apr 5	Links to the Connectivity Matrix, as_connections file and looking glass (AS9, router LAUS).
Apr 3	The assignment for the sixth exercise session and the solutions for the fifth exercise session are now online.
Apr 3	The assignment for the Internet Routing project and the Quagga tutorial are now online.
Apr 2	The materials for the seventh lecture are now online.
Mar 27	The assignment for the fifth exercise session and the solutions for the first practical exercise session are now online.
Mar 24	The materials for the sixth lecture (already!) are now online. See you all on Monday!
Mar 20	The assignment for the first practical session and the solutions for the third exercise session are now online.
Mar 19	The materials for the fifth lecture are now online.
Mar 13	Please use this spreadsheet to register your group for the graded practical projects. If you don't have a group yet, put your name in the column on the right.
Mar 13	The assignment for the third exercise session and the solutions for the second exercise session are now online.
Mar 11	The materials for the fourth lecture are now online. See you all on Monday!
Mar 6	The assignment for the second exercise session and the solutions for the first exercise session are now online.
Mar 3	The materials for the third lecture are now online. Also, the slides for the interactive sequence of week 2 are also available.
Feb 27	The assignment for the first exercise session is now online.
Feb 24	The materials for the second lecture are now online. Also, do not forget to register yourself to the Slack channel.
Feb 17	The materials for the first lecture are online.
Feb 17	Tell us which timeslots work best for you for the theoretical exercises using this form.
Feb 16	Our new website goes live! Materials for the first lecture will be uploaded by this Sunday. See you all Monday morning (Feb 20) at 10am in ETF C 1!

It is hard to think of a technology that has more changed the way we live than the Internet. From the very way we communicate, access and exchange information, shop, pay, move, entertain, maintain friendship. At the same time, the Internet is inexorably growing, at an always faster pace: from 3 billion of connected hosts in 2015 to an estimated 4 billion in 2019.

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

understand how the Internet works: from your laptop to Google's datacenter at the other end of planet;
build and operate an Internet-like network infrastructure;
identify the right set of metrics to evaluate the performance or the adequacy of a network and propose ways to improve it (if any).

The course is an introductory one, meaning no prior networking background is needed. The course will include some programming assignments (in Python) for which the material covered in Technische Informatik 1 (227-0013-00L) and Technische Informatik 2 (227-0014-00L) will be useful.

The class will be graded 80% based on the final exam and 20% based on the practical assignments (see details). The final exam is a written open book exam. You will not be tested on material we didn't cover during the lesson. All written material (books, notes, lab exercises etc.) is allowed; all electronic devices are prohibited, except for (non-connected) calculators. The exam will be in English.

I'll use the textbook Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (6th Edition) by Kurose and Ross as a reference and as a source of examples. Older versions of the book are fine too but sections number won't necessarily match.

In addition to the lectures, there will be a set of exercises (organized twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday, see above for exact schedule) along with two projects to be done in groups of maximum 3 students (the composition of which will be decided by the students themselves at the beginning of the first project):

Internet Routing (week 6 to 9): You'll build and operate your own network! We'll then interconnect networks together and form a mini-Internet. We'll test out your Internet during a large class-wide Internet Hackathon.
Reliable Communication (week 10 to 13): You'll implement a simple transport protocol that can ensure reliable transmission.

Each project will be available online and will be introduced in class along with instructions on the report and on the specific grading scheme.

You should submit your work on an assignment (by email, according to the assignment instructions) before its due time. All assignments are due by 11:59pm on their selected days. If you submit your work late, we will give you credit for it according to this scale:

80% for work submitted up to 1 day late;
70% for work submitted up to 2 days late;
60% for work submitted up to 3 days late;
50% for work submitted up to 7 days late;
0% for work submitted more than 7 days late.

Important If you don't have a laptop, please the professor at the beginning of the course.


Part 1	Overview
Week 1	Feb 20 Lecture 1 Introduction (Part 1) What is a network made of? How is it shared? How is it organized? Homework Take a look at what the Internet looks like! Check out SWITCH (ETH's provider) connectivity and traffic Use the `traceroute` command (`tracert` on Windows) to observe some Internet paths taken from your your personal computer to some Internet destination. What do you observe? Book Sections 1.1 (The Internet), 1.2 (The Network Edge) and 1.3 (The Network Core) Optional read Why Your Netflix Traffic is Slow, and Why the Open Internet Order Won’t (Necessarily) Make It Faster Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality Optional watch The New Net Neutrality Rules, New York Times, Marc 2015 Sniffing Cable Modems, presentation at DEFCON 16 (hacker conference) Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) No exercise session Assignments start in week 2.
Week 2	Feb 27 Lecture 2 Introduction (Part 2) How does network communication happen? How do we characterize a network? Brief historical overview Book Sections 1.5 (Protocol Layers), 1.4 (Delay, Loss and Throughput) Optional read Microsoft Supercharges Bing Search With Programmable Chips Network stack challenges at increasing speeds. The 100Gbit/s challenge. A brief history of the Internet Paul Baran, the link between nuclear war and the internet The birth of the web (in Switzerland!) It's the Latency, Stupid Optional watch Inside a Google data center The History & Future Of The Internet: Vinton G. Cerf Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) Slides Interactive Sequence Feb 28 & Mar 2 Exercise 1 The basics Assignment Solutions
Part 2	Conceptual Foundations
Week 3	Mar 6 Lecture 3 Routing Book Sections 4.5.1 (LS Routing Algorithm) and 4.5.2 (DV Routing Algorithm) Optional read E.W. Dijkstra, A Note on Two Problems in Connexion with Graphs, Numerische Mathematik, 1959 (Dijkstra's original paper) Optional homework Take a look at an actual Internet forwarding table by connecting yourself to Sunrise's looking glass (`telnet routeserver.sunrise.ch`) and issue the `show ip cef` command. While you are at it, take a look at the routing table of this router (`show ip bgp`). What is in common with respect to the forwarding table? Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) Mar 7 & 9 Exercise 2 Routing Assignment Solutions
Week 4	Mar 13 Lecture 4 Reliable Transport Book Section 3.4.2 to 3.4.4 (included) Homework Play with the applet illustrating Go-Back-N and Selective Repeat. Dropping a packet is performed by clicking on it. Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) Mar 14 & 16 Exercise 3 Assignment Solutions
Part 3	Today's Internet
Week 5	Mar 20 Lecture 5 Ethernet & Switching Book Sections 5.1 (Introduction to the Link Layer), 5.3 (Multiple Access Links) and 5.4 (Switched LANs) Optional read 2016 Ethernet Roadmap Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) Mar 21 & 23 Exercise 4 Assignment Solutions for the simple task and for the advanced task
Week 6	Mar 27 Lecture 6 Internet Protocol (IP) & Forwarding Book Sections 4.1 (Introduction to the the Network Layer), 4.3 (What's Inside a Router), 4.5 (The Internet Protocol) Optional watch The Day The Routers Died... Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) Mar 28 & 30 Exercise 5 Assignment Solutions
Week 7	April 3 Lecture 7 Internet Routing Book Section 4.6 (Routing in the Internet) Optional watch BGP: Putting the "Inter" in Internet. Professor Jennifer Rexford (Princeton) Optional read Supercharge me: Boost Router Convergence with SDN Achieving sub-second IGP convergence in large IP networks Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) April 4 & 6 Exercise 6 Assignment Solutions April 3 Internet Routing project starts Internet Routing project assignment and Quagga tutorial Direct links to the Connectivity Matrix and as_connections file Sample link for looking glass (AS9, router LAUS)
Week 8	April 10 Lecture 8 Routing Policies Book Section 4.6 (i.e., same as last week, this lecture focuses on Section 4.6.3) Optional watch BGP at 18: Lessons In Protocol Design (Yakov Rekhter) Border Gateway Protocol (Tim Griffin, Cambridge University) Optional read Using Routers to Build Logic Circuits: How Powerful is BGP? Stable Internet Routing Without Global Coordination Avoiding transient loops during the convergence of link-state routing protocols Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) April 11 & 13 Exercise 7 April 12 Internet Routing Hackathon The hackathon will take place in the ETZ Foyer and start at 6pm. Slides for the Hackathon.
Week 9	April 17 no class Easter Monday April 18 & 20 no exercise Easter Holiday
Week 10	April 24 Lecture 9 Routing Security Optional watch Sharon Goldberg: The Transition to BGP Security: Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? Black Hat USA 2013 - Owning the Routing Table - Part II Optional read Fibbing: Small Lies for Better Networks Using Routers to Build Logic Circuits: How Powerful is BGP? Why Is It Taking So Long to Secure Internet Routing? Hijacking Bitcoin: Routing Attacks on Cryptocurrencies RAPTOR: Routing Attacks on Privacy in Tor Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) April 25 & 27 Exercise 8
Week 11	May 1 no class Labour Day May 2 & 4 Exercise 9 Assignment Solution Internet Routing project ends Deadline: May 7 at 11.59pm.
Week 12	May 8 Lecture 10 UDP and TCP Book Section 3.5 (Connection-Oriented Transport: TCP) Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) May 9 & 11 Exercise 10 May 10 Reliable Transport project starts Reliable Transport project assignment
Week 13	May 15 Lecture 11 TCP Congestion Control Book Section 3.6 (Principles of Congestion Control) and 3.7 (TCP Congestion Control) Optional read Van Jacobson Denies Averting Internet Meltdown in 1980s Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) May 16 & 18 Exercise 11
Week 14	May 22 no class Replaced by exercice session in ETF C1 (usual time) May 22 & May 23 Exercise 12 Assignment Introduction Slides Solutions
Week 15	May 29 Lecture 12 DNS, Web & CDNs, Briefing on the exam Book Section 2.2 (The Web and HTTP), 2.5 (DNS, The Internet's Directory Service). Section "Network Address Translation" (page 349, in Section 4.4) and sub-section "Internet Control Message Protocol" (page 353, also in Section 4.4) Optional read Tim Berners-Lee on the Web at 25: the past, present and future Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) Exam 2016 Communication Networks' Exam 2016 Additional exam preparation questions and solutions May 30 Exercise 13 June 1 Lecture 13 Filling-up the holes (ICMP & NAT), SDN and Course Recap (ETF C 1) Optional watch The Future of Networking, and the Past of Protocols by Scott Shenker Materials Slides Handout (pro-tip: print me two-sided!) Reliable Transport project ends Deadline: June 4 at 11.59pm.

Communication Networks 2017

News

Learn how the Internet works and how to operate it Expand Collapse

Grading and organization Expand Collapse

Exercises and projects Expand Collapse

Tentative schedule

Overview

Feb 20 Lecture 1 Introduction (Part 1) Expand Collapse

Materials

No exercise session

Feb 27 Lecture 2 Introduction (Part 2) Expand Collapse

Materials

Feb 28 & Mar 2 Exercise 1 The basics

Conceptual Foundations

Mar 6 Lecture 3 Routing Expand Collapse

Materials

Mar 7 & 9 Exercise 2 Routing

Mar 13 Lecture 4 Reliable Transport Expand Collapse

Materials

Mar 14 & 16 Exercise 3

Today's Internet

Mar 20 Lecture 5 Ethernet & Switching Expand Collapse

Materials

Mar 21 & 23 Exercise 4

Mar 27 Lecture 6 Internet Protocol (IP) & Forwarding Expand Collapse

Materials

Mar 28 & 30 Exercise 5

April 3 Lecture 7 Internet Routing Expand Collapse

Materials

April 4 & 6 Exercise 6

April 3 Internet Routing project starts

April 10 Lecture 8 Routing Policies Expand Collapse

Materials

April 11 & 13 Exercise 7

April 12 Internet Routing Hackathon

April 17 no class Easter Monday

April 18 & 20 no exercise Easter Holiday

April 24 Lecture 9 Routing Security Expand Collapse

Materials

April 25 & 27 Exercise 8

May 1 no class Labour Day

May 2 & 4 Exercise 9

Internet Routing project ends

May 8 Lecture 10 UDP and TCP Expand Collapse

Materials

May 9 & 11 Exercise 10

May 10 Reliable Transport project starts

May 15 Lecture 11 TCP Congestion Control Expand Collapse

Materials

May 16 & 18 Exercise 11

May 22 no class Replaced by exercice session in ETF C1 (usual time)

May 22 & May 23 Exercise 12

May 29 Lecture 12 DNS, Web & CDNs, Briefing on the exam Expand Collapse

Materials

Exam 2016

May 30 Exercise 13

June 1 Lecture 13 Filling-up the holes (ICMP & NAT), SDN and Course Recap (ETF C 1) Expand Collapse

Materials

Reliable Transport project ends

Learn how the Internet works and how to operate it

Grading and organization

Exercises and projects

Feb 20 Lecture 1 Introduction (Part 1)

Feb 27 Lecture 2 Introduction (Part 2)

Mar 6 Lecture 3 Routing

Mar 13 Lecture 4 Reliable Transport

Mar 20 Lecture 5 Ethernet & Switching

Mar 27 Lecture 6 Internet Protocol (IP) & Forwarding

April 3 Lecture 7 Internet Routing

April 10 Lecture 8 Routing Policies

April 24 Lecture 9 Routing Security

May 8 Lecture 10 UDP and TCP

May 15 Lecture 11 TCP Congestion Control

May 29 Lecture 12 DNS, Web & CDNs, Briefing on the exam

June 1 Lecture 13 Filling-up the holes (ICMP & NAT), SDN and Course Recap (ETF C 1)