Research Project Requirements

The course project in 11484UG & 10099PG requires students to demonstrate an in-depth

understanding of some important aspect of network architecture and design and/or network

protocol performance. Project accounts for 50% of the final grade for the course, and thus

should represent a month or so of research effort. Projects are to be done in group with

minimum 2 students and maximum 3 students.

The project should take the form of a research paper, similar to those found in the published

networking literature. (Of course, there is no requirement that your paper be publishable!)

The research paper should present your own (novel) research results on a relevant network

architecture and design performance problem. Results may be obtained analytically, through

simulation, or experimentally through measurement of an existing system or

implementation. The paper should be 7-9 pages in length, including abstract, figures, tables,

and bibliography. Use a reasonable word processing package, a readable font size (10 Times

New Roman, and double-column formatting. Papers must be submitted using an Urkund

text matching.

A lot of background reading is required to do a good research paper on a given topic, and

must be reflected in your bibliography. Note, however, that it is NOT sufficient to do just a

SURVEY PAPER. Creativity, originality, and your own contribution are also required. This

must involve applying previously known approaches to new network data or scenarios, or

applying new approaches or analyses to previously studied data or scenarios, or new

approaches to new problems entirely.

Topics of your own choosing are preferred, but if you need ideas, I can offer several

suggestions, and point you to relevant literature. Several possible project ideas are included

below. In any event, put your thinking caps on, and discuss your idea(s) with me as soon as

possible using any online way such as virtual room./nProject Suggestions

Web performance:

• Web server performance measurements/analysis

Web proxy placement problem

Web cluster load balancing issues

Experiments/Simulation/Emulation:

• Web server benchmarking

• RealMedia video/audio streaming

• Wireless PDA networking

• Multi-player wireless gaming

• TCP SACK performance

Network traffic measurements and analysis:

• Ethernet LAN traffic measurements (tcpdump)

• Wireless LAN traffic measurements/analysis

• Video traffic measurements

• Internet tomography

Traffic modeling techniques:

• Wavelet-based traffic modeling/forecasting

• Traffic multiplexing/demultiplexing effects in ATM networks

Congestion control:

• Evaluation of Connection Admission Control (CAC) schemes

• Evaluation of Available Bit Rate (ABR) traffic control schemes

• Multi-layer interactions of rate-based and window-based flow control

Routing:

• Mobile IP

• Multicast routing

• Routing in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks

Emerging Technologies:

• DiffServ (Differentiated Services) Internet

• Optical internets