EE500 Network Performance

Brief Description

EE500 module introduces the students to advanced network performance concepts with focus on performance issues. The students will be reminded of the OSI and the TCP/IP models. They will be introduced to Quality of Service and Network Performance metrics as well as to Quality of Experience and Quality of Perception as metrics to assess the quality of data delivery. Various wired and wireless protocols will be introduced and their performance-related characteristics will, be discussed. These protocols will be presented at different layers of the OSI stack. At Datalink Layer WiFi (IEEE 802.11 family), WiMax (IEEE 802.16 family) and BlueTooth/UWB (IEEE 802.15) are briefly introduced before details are given about QoS-aware protocols or QoS solutions for IEEE 802.11e, IEEE 802.16e and IEEE 802.15.3, IEEE 802.15.4, UMTS. At network layer we will place emphasis on IPv4 vs IPv6, whereas at Transport Layer novel protocols such as DCCP, SCTP and others will be presented along with more established ones such as RTP and RTCP. At the Application Layer, multimedia and gaming applications will be discussed in details in the context of real-time content delivery, but other application types will also be presented. Adaptive and non-adaptive content delivery solutions will be presented along with significant issues such as end-user perceived quality. Novel performance-related issues such as mobility, power consumption and security will be presented..

Goals and Learning Outcomes

The goal of this module is to:

demonstrate advanced knowledge of networking and performance of data networks in particular

define network performance metrics, quality of service & experience

present different performance-aware communications solutions at each layer

present solutions for power saving, mobility and security

demonstrate knowledge of modeling, simulations and prototyping

Syllabus

1) Introduction Module overview: lecture content + assignment introduction. Review of Layered Network Architecture. Introduction to Data Network Performance;

2) Quality of Service Metrics + Network Performance Metrics Availability, Delivery, Latency, Bandwidth, MTBF (Mean TimeBetween Failure), MTRS (Mean Time to Restore Service), Power consumption, Mobility, Quality of Service - Cause and Effect; Solutions for Improving Quality of Service levels Availability (Connectivity, Functionality), Loss (One way loss, round trip loss), Delay (One way delay, Round trip time, Delay variance), and Utilization(Capacity, bandwidth, Throughput), Power consumption (Power per Mbps)

3) Modeling and Simulations Modeling and Simulation. Introduction to Using NS-2.

4) Quality of Service at Application Layer Type of services (Multimedia delivery, Web applications, gaming, email); Quality of Experience and Quality of Perception; Quality-aware application Solutions: Multimedia: QOAS, LDA+; Games: algorithms; Web: active documents, Email applications.

5) Quality of Service at Transport and Network Layers Transport Layer: RTP, RTCP, SCTP, DCCP, TCP-SNOOP, Indirect-TCP, TCP-W Network Layer: IPv4 vs IPv6

6) Quality of Service at Lower Network Layers Protocols and standards supporting different type of services and their performance-related characteristics

7) Mobility aspects Handover – vertical, horizontal, Protocols to support mobility: Mobile IP, SCTP, mDCCP, mSCTP, IEEE 802.21

8) Power consumption Energy savings solutions (e.g. IEEE 802.11 PSM); Security issues; Modelling and simulations

9) Modeling and & QoS-aware Programming

10) Security issues Security Solutions (e.g. IEEE 802.11i )

11) Next Generation Networking

Course Textbooks

Strongly recommended textbooks: