Handout Material

Video Presentations

• Introducing Active Networks: Introduction to Active Networks

A gentle introduction to Active Networks

• Considering Network Security:
  • Kolmogorov Complexity Estimates For Detection Of Viruses In Biologically Inspired Security Systems: A Comparison With Traditional Approaches

    Introduces the challange of network security along with a new approach for efficiently discriminating among computer viruses and legitimate code.

  • On The Effectiveness of Kolmogorov Complexity Estimation to Discriminate Semantic Types

    More detail on the performance of the previous technique.

Assigned readings for CSI 516

1. Week 1 review of basic engineering design principles:

   • Hints for Computer System Design , by Butler W. Lampson, originally in ACM Operating Systems Rev. 15, 5 (Oct. 1983), pp 33-48. Reprinted in IEEE Software 1, 1 (Jan. 1984), pp 11-28.

     Classical analysis of when and how to apply basic engineering design techniques. Read this one on your own, skim it first, go for depth later.

2. Week 2 Protocol Design Fundamentals:

   • End-To-End Arguments In System Design by Jerome H. Saltzer, David P. Reed, David D. Clark. ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 2, 4, Nov. 1984, pp 277-288.

     A very readable and still relevant discussion of a fundamental design decision in the TCP/IP protocol design. A classic (although security concerns have evolved a bit since then).

   • Active Networking and the End-to-End Argument by David P. Reed, Jerome H. Saltzer, and David D. Clark,

     A brief update on how the End-to-End argument impacts more modern system design.

   • Active Networking and the End-to-End Argument by Samrat Bhattacharjee, Kenneth L. Calvert and Ellen W. Zegura. Proc. in ICNP `97, Atlanta, GA, Oct. 1997.

     Active Networks is an approach where the nodes in the network do some processing of traffic for efficiency or to provide services that are difficult to implement in an end-to-end fashion. This paper challenges blindly sticking to an end-to-end approach and provides some analysis.

3. Weeks 3 and 4 - Performance Analysis
   • Wide-Area Traffic: The Failure of Poisson Modeling, by Vern Paxson, Sally Floyd, in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, 3:3, January 1995, pp 226-244.

     A ground breaking paper which empirically refuted the base assumptions made in Poisson Process Models of internet traffic flow (that is that the interarrival and service time distribution assumptions do not hold in large networks).

   • On the Self-Similar Nature of Ethernet Traffic by Will E. Leland, Murad S. Taqqu, Walter Willinger and Daniel V. Wilson., Proc. of ACM SIGCOMM, ed. Deepinder P. Sidhu, San Francisco, California, 1993, pp. 183-193.

     A ground breaking paper which empirically refuted the base assumptions made in Poisson Process Models, and confirmed the presence of self-similar (long range time dependent) behavior of internet traffic flow. This takes a more mathematical approach.

   • Where Mathematics meets the Internet, W. Willinger, and V. Paxson, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Vol.45, No.8, pp. 961-970, August 1998.

     A more informal introduction to the topic, it might be good to read this first as an entry point to get a qualitative feeling for what the problems are.

4. Week 7 - Network Management
   • An Active Model-Based Prototype for Predictive Network Management, Stephen F. Bush and Sanjay Goel, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications Journal, vol. 23, no. 10, Nov 2005.

     Advances in communication networks are making them more complex to manage and to ensure their security. Basic knowledge of how networks are managed is essential, such as the via the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

5. Week 8 - Network Security
   • Kolmogorov Complexity Estimates For Detection Of Viruses In Biologically Inspired Security Systems: A Comparison With Traditional Approaches Sanjay Goel and Stephen F. Bush Complexity Journal, vol. 9, issue 2, Nov-Dec 2003, Special Issue: "Resilient & Adaptive Defense of Computing Networks".

     Fundamental results from entropy and complexity theory are being harnessed to help improve network security.

6. Week 9 - Ad Hoc Networking, Sensor Networks, and Nanotechnology
   • A Simple Metric for Ad Hoc Network Adaptation, Stephen F. Bush, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 23, No. 12, December 2005.

     There are a large and growing number of ad hoc routing protocols. This paper looks at the complexity of movement patterns in relation to the complexity of routing algorithms required to operate with a given efficiency.

   • A Survey on Sensor Networks, lan F. Akyildiz, WellJan Su, Yogesh Sankarasubramaniam, Erdal Cayirci, IEEE Communications Mag. 40 (8) (2002) 102--114.

     It's important to be aware of this form of networking, its challanges, and potential applications.

   • Nano-Communications: A New Field? An Exploration into a Carbon Nanotube Communication Network GE Global Research Technical Report 2006GRC066, Stephen F. Bush and Yun Li.

     Nanotubes as both sensor and network communication media