VT 2008 Period 4, IK1550 Internetworking

Announcements

Page is still under construction - contents may be inconsistent

• Some students who signed up late and only provided their name or name and person number have not been registered. Please send your name, person number (or KTHID number), and KTH e-mail address to Irina Radulescu.
• Note that the lectures and recitations begin on the hour (as noted in their schedules). Note that there is also on-line information for the textbook.
• For your document, you should be sure to use A4 sized paper rather than US letter.
• For those using LaTeX, you can improve the look of the document by:
  • switching to using PostScipt fonts (instructions)
  • You can also turn off hyphenation or at least limit its use with "\hyphenpenalty=5000 \tolerance=1000"

Some common flaws in reports

• Incomplete references
• Missing important citations
• Statements made without justification or supporting citations
• Poor (or no) editing
• Failure to spell check the document
• Documents which it is clear that no one looked at after formatting - often these have breaks in the middle of sentences, missing phrases, ... .
• Lack of page numbers
• Unreadable text in figures
• Failure to label elements of figures adequately
• Use of contractions
• Use of acronyms or abbreviations without properly introducing them; often failure to use these acroynms and abbreviations consistently through the rest of the paper
• Redundant text
• Using figures from others without the copyright owner's permission
• Using too few refences, so the paper looks like simply a cut an paste edit of these references.
• Single sentence paragraphs
• Lack of vertical white space between paragraphs, which in some cases makes it hard to understand where new paragraphs beging
• Lack of a date - every document should have a date, in addition to title and author(s)
• Lack of section, subsection, ... number - makes cross references difficult

IK1550 Internetworking is a 6 ECTS credits course designed for undergraduates.

Information is available on:

• Aim
• Prerequisites
• Contents
• Schedule
• Literature and Course Material (Textbook, Reference books and other references)
• Lecture Plan and Lecture Material (OH slides)
• Examination Requirements and Registrations
• Staff Associated with the Course
• Registering for the Course
• Other on-line Course Material (More References)
• Announcements
• Evaluation
• Previous versions of the course

Aim

This course will give both practical and general knowledge on the protocols that are the basis of the Internet. After this course you should have a good knowledge about Internet protocols and internetworking architecture. You should have a general knowledge aiding you in reading research and standardization documents in the area.

Learning Outcomes

Following this course a student should be able to:

• Understand the principles on which internetworking is based - which define the Internet (both what it is and why it has proven to be so succesful)
• Understand TCP/IP protocol stack, layering, encapsulation and multiplexing
  • Understand multiplexing, demultiplexing, upward and downward multiplexing
  • Encapsulation as used for Mobile IP, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), IP security, ... and other tunnelling protocols
  • Understand how information is encoded in headers and how the choice of this encoding and field size may effect the use and evolution of a protocol
  • Understand how data is encoded in the body of a packet and how this may effect internetworking - especially in the presence of firewall and network address translators.
• Understand IP Addressing, subnetting and address resolution - including the interaction of protocols across layers
• Understand a number of higher layer protocols including the security risks and performance limitations of each
• Understand the basic details of routing and routing protocols (RIP, BGP, OSPF) - with an emphasis on their limitations and behaviors
• Understand autoconfiguration and naming (BOOTP, DHCP, DNS, DDNS, DNSsec, ENUM, ... ) - with an emphasis on risks, limitations, scaling, and evolution
• Understand the nature and pressures on the design and operations of internets - particularily on scaling, performance, delay bounds, due to new Internet applications (VoIP, streaming, games, peer-to-peer, etc.
• Understand the advantages and disadvantages of IPv6 (in comparison to IPv4)
• Read the current literature at the level of conference papers in this area.
  • While you may not be able to understand all of the papers in journals, magazines, and conferences in this area - you should be able to read 90% or more of them and have good comprehension. In this area it is especially important that develop a habit of reading the journals, trade papers, etc. In addition, you should also be aware of both standardization activities, new products/services, and public policy in the area.
• Demonstrate knowledge of this area in writing.
  • By writing a paper suitable for submission to a trade paper or national conference in the area.

Prerequisites

• Datorkommunikation och datornät/Data and Computer Communications or equivalent knowledge in Computer Communications
• Students who have not completed the prerequisites should obtain permission of the instructor, before registering for the course.

Contents

The course consists of 14 hours of lectures, 14 hours of recitation (övningar) and 40-100 hours of written assignment.

Lectures will be given in English. Lecture notes will be available via the course web site in advance of the relevant lecture(s).

Recitations

Recitations will be based on exercises from the main literature. Some extra recitations may be made available via the course web site.

Topics

• What the Internet is and why it has proven to be so succesful.
• What protocols are required to allow internetworking (IP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc.)
• Understanding of TCP/IP protocol stack, layering, encapsulation and multiplexing
• IP Addressing, subnetting and resolution
• Transport protocols, including UDP and TCP
• Details of routing and routing protocols (RIP, BGP, OSPF)
• Autoconfiguration and naming (BOOTP, DHCP, DNS)
• Internet applications (VoIP, SMTP, etc)
• Multicasting, VPNs, Mobile IP, and security
• IPv6 and some differences with IPv4

Examination Requirements

• The basic requirement is the written paper, those who do not submit an acceptable paper can take an oral exam (see "komplettering").

Exam Schedule

Written report

• An assigned paper requiring roughly 40-100h of work by each student
• Registration: Friday 02-May-08, to maguire@kth.se with the "Subject: IK1550 topics" giving the topic selected
• Potential topics will be discussed in class.
• Written report
  • The length of the final report should be ~7-8 pages (roughly 3,000 words) for each student; it should not be longer than 8 pages for each student - papers which are longer than 8 pages will have a maximum grade of "E". (detailed measurements, configuration scripts, etc. can be in additional pages as an appendix or appendices).
  • The report should clearly describe: 1) what you have done; 2) if you have done some implementation and measurements you should describe the methods and tools used, along with the test or implementation results, and your analysis.
  • Final Report: written report due before Monday 26-May-08 23:59
  • Send email with URL link to a PDF file to maguire@kth.se
  • Late assignments will not be accepted (i.e., there is no guarantee that they will graded in time for the end of the term)
  • Note that it is pemissible to start working well in advance of the deadlines! Thus sending the instructor your selection of topic as soon as you have selected one.
  • Language: the report can be written in Swedish or English - (I can provide better feedback if the report is written in English)

A sample paper is:
http://www.ibiblio.org/mdma-release/http-prob.html by Simon E Spero).

Each of the sample papers below appears here by permision of the authors - the copyright belongs to the respective authors.

From 2G1305 - 2006 (4 point papers):

• Erik Carlborg Fröberg, André Eriksson, and Polly Yeung, "BitTorrent och traffic shaping", 26 October 2006

Note that the papers below represent papers that were done for 1 point, rather than the 4 points which the current papers are to be worth.

From 2G1305 - 2005:

• Stefan Lundström and Daniel Hassellöf, "SCTP-performance and security, 25 May 2005
• Henrik Österdahl, "A comparison of TCP and SCTP performance using the HTTP protocol, 25 May 2005
• Mikael Rudholm, "Lastbalansering för webbservrar", 24 May 2005
• Åsa Pehrsson, TLS session resumption impact on HTTP performance, 8 September 2005

From 2G1305 - 2002:

• Filip Tysk, "Design and evaluation of a TCP proxy which provides secure tunneling to another TCP proxy." 26 September 2002
• Rodrigo Sierra, Fair queuing in data networks, 6 December 2002.

Grading

A very good paper should be either a very good review or present a new idea, while an outstanding or excellent paper should be truely innovative.

ECTS grades

• To get an "A" you need to write an outstanding or excellent paper.
• To get a "B" you need to write a very good paper, i.e., it should be either a very good review or present a new idea.
• To get a "C" you need to write a paper which shows that you understand the basic ideas underlying internetworking and that you understand one (or more) particular aspects at the level of an average undergraduate student in the area.
• To get a "D" you need to demonstrate that you understand the basic ideas underlying internetworking, however, your depth of knowledge is shallow in the topic of your paper.
• If your paper has some errors (including incomplete references) the grade will be an "E".
• If your paper has serious errors the grade will be an "F".

If your paper is close to passing, but not at the passing level, then you will be offered the opportunity for "komplettering", i.e., students whose written paper does not pass can submit a revised version of their paper (or a completely new paper) - which will be evaluated.

Code of Honor and Regulations

It is KTH policy that there is zero tolerance for cheating, plagiarism, etc. - for details see http://www.kth.se/dokument/student/student_rights.pdf See also the KTH Ethics Policies

Literature

Main Text-Book

The course will mainly be based on the book Behrouz A. Forouzan, TCP/IP Protocol Suite, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, publication date January 2005, (Copyright 2006) 896 pages, ISBN 0-07-296772-2 (hardbound) or 0-07-111583-8 (softbound)

Note that there is on-line material for the textbook; this includes animations and other useful material.

Differences from the 2nd edition are list on page xxxi of the 3rd edition. The most significant for this course is that the 3rd edition covers: SCTP, more about security, and more examples (using ping, netstat, etc.).

Reading guide: read the entire book.

Additional Reference Books

• Russell Bradford, The Art of Computer Networking, Pearson Education Limited, Prentice Hall, 2007, 304 pages, ISBN 978-0-321-30676-0 ( links collected by the textbook's author)
• Mobile IP: Design Principles and Practices by Charles E. Perkins, Addison-Wesley, 1998, ISBN 0-201-63469-4.
• Mobile IP: the Internet Unplugged by James D. Solomon, Prentice Hall, 1998, ISBN 0-13-856246-6.
• Muhhub Hassan and Raj Jain, Higher Performance TCP/IP Networking: Concepts, Issues, and Solutions Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2004, ISBN 0-13-127257-8.

Supplementary readings

For socket programming see:

• Richard Stevens, UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1, Second Edition: Networking APIs: Sockets and XTI, Prentice Hall, 1998, ISBN 0-13-490012-X.Comment: An excellent book on programming network software. The source code and errata list.
• Brian "Beej" Hall, "Beej's Guide to Network Programming: Using Internet Sockets", 04/08/2004 07:22:02 PM
• "Prepared Statement of Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google Inc.", at U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Hearing on "Network Neutrality", February 7, 2006
• S. Kurkowski, T. Camp, and M. Coagrosso. MANET simulation studies: the Incredibles. ACM SIGMOBILE Mobile Computing and Communications Review, 9(4), October 2005.
• Christian Benvenuti, Understanding Linux Network Internals, O'Reilly, 2006, ISBN 0-596-00255-6
• Katie Hafner and Mathew Lyon, Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet, 1996, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-81201-0
• Robert Malmgren, Praktisk nätsäkerhet, Internet Academy Press, Stockholm, Sweden, 2003, ISBN 91-85035-02-5
• Anurag Kumar, D. Manjunath, and Joy Kuri, Communication Networking: An Analytical Approach, Elsevier Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2004, ISBN 0-12-428751-4
• Russell Bradford, Rob Simmonds, and Brian Unger. "Packet Reading for Network Emulation", Proceedings MASCOTS 2001: The IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems, August 2001, pp. 150-157. [An excellent source for learning about reading and writing link layer frames and raw packets.] (link to paper from the first author's home page)
• Chris Sanders, "Practical Packet Analysis: Using Wireshark to Solve Real-World Network Problems", No Starch Press, May 2008, 172 pp.
• Kevin D. Mitnick and William L. Simon, The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, Wiley Publishing, 2002, 0-7645-4280-X.

Useful URLs

Note that ethereal is now Wireshark. For an interesting BLOG which has excellent examples of using Wireshark for network care and maintenance see Chris Sander's Blog

Seagull - multi-protocol traffic generator

Lecture Plan and Lecture Material (OH slides)

Schedule

Note that in the following "xx" means "xx:00", not "xx:15".

The lecture notes are in PDF format.

Lectures notes for 2008(~4MB)[revised]

Schedule for Period 4 2008:

Note that the classrooms for the spring session are on the Valhallavägen campus.

Note also that the lectures and recitations (Övningar) may be intermixed - so don't skip the recitations!

Extra sessions in Kista

Due to the number of students located in Kista, extra sessions of the lectures will be held in the seminar room - Hörby at the department of Communication Systems, located in Electrum building 1, Isafjordsgatan 22, Kista on the 4th floor (near elevator C). On the following dates and times:

Staff Associated with the Course

• Lecturer (kursansvarig, föreläsare): Prof. Gerald Q. Maguire Jr. (maguire@kth.se)
• Recitation assistants
• Administrative Assistant-for administrative questions: recording of grades, ... contact
  • Irina Radulescu

Registering

Use the normal process for registering. For most students this means you should speak with your study advisor (studievägledare).

For Industrial Economics (I) students see the program for KSI (A), year 3.

Previous versions of the course

• Fall 2006 and Spring 2007
• Spring 2006
• Spring 2005

Other on-line Course Material

Sources for Further Information

• Local KTH network information
• The Libnet Packet Construction Library for easily creating packets
• Jörg Liebeherr and Magda El Zarki's Mastering Networks: An Internet Lab Manual, Addison-Wesley, 2004, ISBN: 0-201-78134-4.
• Radia Perlman, Myths, missteps, and folklore in protocol design, Invited talk, USENIX 01, June 30, 2001.
• Tim Deegan, Jon Crowcroft, and Andrew Warfield. The main name system: An exercise in centralized computing ACM SIGCOMM CCR, 35(5):5-13,October 2005
• A useful tool for emulating a network with a given throughput, error rate, etc. is NISTnet see also dummynet
• How to set up NISNET under Ubuntu
• ICANN Factsheet: Root server attack on 6 February 2007, 1 March 2007
• Edith Cohen and Haim Kaplan, "Proactive DNS caching: Addressing a Performance Bottleneck", see also E. Cohen and H. Kaplan, "Proactive caching of DNS records: Addressing a performance bottleneck", in Proc. of Symposium on Applications and the Internet (2001).
• KyoungSoo Park, Vivek S. Pai, Larry Peterson, and Zhe Wang, "CoDNS: Improving DNS Performance and Reliability via Cooperative Lookups"
• For information on packet filtering on a popular OS - see Windows Network Data and Packet Filtering, Printing Communications Assoc., Inc. (PCAUSA), Last modified: January 20, 2007
• If you are thinking about packet tracing on the Symbian platform you need access to the IP Hook API. Which appears to only be available to "Platinum" developers.
• Howard Rheingold talking about cooperation theory (an 80 meg MP3, with an interesting section about why new services and protocols can be created
• Cisco Network Topology Icons are freely available for use when drawing network diagrams.
• A very interesting analysis of the realities of TFTP by Thiadmer Riemersma, ITB CompuPhase, 2006. See the use of TFTP in Preboot Execution Environment (PXE).
• To determine your IPv6 address, try the command http://www.whatismyipv6.net/?s=IPv6_traceroute
• Laura Chappell has a very nice animated article in the October 2007 issue of Novell Connection Magazine on how to use the advanced graphing features of Wireshark

Page History

© Copyright 2007, 2008 G.Q.Maguire Jr. (maguire@kth.se)
All Rights Reserved.
Last modified: Mon Jan 31 11:03:39 MET 2011