Instructor: Rajmohan Rajaraman
113 Cullinane Hall
Work: 617-373-2075
College of Computer Science
Email: rraj@ccs.neu.edu
Northeastern University
Home: 617-232-8298
Boston, MA 02115
Fax: 617-373-5121
Class meeting times/location: W 6:00-9:00
Office Hours: M: 4:00-6:00 PM and W: 2:00-4:00 PM
Prerequisites: You can take this course if you have previously taken a course in either algorithms (COM3390 or COM3392, or equivalent) or networks (COM3510 or COM3515, or equivalent). The material covered in class will delve deeply into algorithmic issues in networking; so a graduate level of mathematical sophistication is required. Please see the instructor if you are unsure whether you are adequately prepared for the class.
Grading
Since this is an advanced course, we will generally avoid stress-inducing activities such as tests. The course grade will be based on two to three problem sets (worth 30\%), class participation (20\%), and a project (50\%). As mentioned above, each student is required to scribe one lecture.
Tentative Schedule
Date | Topic | Lecture Notes |
March 27 | Introduction to Internet routing: Protocols and problem formulations | Notes |
April 3 | BGP convergence and optimal routing algorithms | Notes |
April 10 | Local-control algorithms for network flow and multicommodity flow | Notes |
April 17 | Analysis of the local balancing algorithm; intro to network design | Notes |
April 24 | Provisioning Virtual Private Networks | Notes |
May 1 | Flow/congestion control, TCP dynamics, and max-min fairness | Notes |
May 8 | A duality model for congestion control | |
May 15 | Introduction to resource location algorithms | |
May 22 | Data tracking in peer-to-peer systems (same slides as previous lecture) | |
May 29 | Project presentations | |
June 5 | Project presentations |
Lectures and lecture notes
We will have a total of 11 meetings. The first 9 lectures will be offered by the instructor. In the remaining 2, students will present their project work. Each student is required to scribe one lecture. We will put together the lecture notes as a manuscript at the end of the course.
Projects
A list of suggested projects is available here.