EL7373 High Performance Switches and Routers

High-performance large-scale routers and switches are key network components to realize today’s Internet, datacenters, cloud computing, and IT (information technology) infrastructure. Large-scale network intrusion attacks have become commonly recurring events that threaten the proper functioning and continual success of the IT infrastructure and services. One key aspect of mitigating such increasing threats is to implement intrusion detection, prevention and access control at the switches or routers.

This course first covers the basics, architectures, and technologies to implement IP routers and Ethernet switches. It discusses the fundamental concepts and algorithms to implement packet forwarding, packet classification, and packet switching. Topics include IP Route Lookup, Packet Classification, Packet Scheduling, Buffer Management, Basics of Packet Switching, Output-buffered Switches, Shared-memory Switches, Input-buffered Switches, Clos-network Switches, and Multi-Stage Buffered Switches. The course will then cover the architectures and algorithms to implement high-performance intrusion detection that can scale with the line speed and the volume of attack patterns.

Prerequisite: EL5373 or Equivalent

EL6383 High-Speed Networks 

This course covers the basics, architectures, protocols and technologies for high-speed networks. Topics: synchronous optical network (SONET), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), ATM adaptation layer (AAL), 10/100/1000/10G Ethernet, Ethernet over SONET (EOS), quality of service control, packet scheduling, network processor, buffer management, flow and congestion control, TCP, high-speed TCP and XCP, Routing and IP fast rerouting, WDM networks, MPLS and GMPLS. Each student is required to complete a project that can be reading, software design or hardware design. 

Prerequisites: EE-UY 136 or EL-GY 5373 or equivalent

EL9333 Data Center and Cloud Computing

Data center and cloud computing are key technologies in building large-scale Internet services. Almost all major service providers, e.g., Microsoft, Google, Facebook, NASDAQ, NYSE, Amazon, Netflix, rely on data center and cloud platforms for storage, computation, exchange, etc. Most traditional computing and networking equipment vendors, e.g., IBM, Cisco, Juniper, HP, Dell, have been focusing on data center and cloud computing as a strategic area of development and marketing.

This course covers the fundamental knowledge of data center and cloud computing and offers hands-on opportunities. Topics to be discussed include data center and cloud platform architecture, data center networks and protocols, software-defined networks (SDN), virtualization technologies, data center security, traffic engineering, resource management, and green data centers. Throughout the course we will motivate thinking and interactions using various approaches, such as giving examples, showing animations, discussing research papers, etc. The course includes a series of labs, and two exams. Students are expected to learn various tools used in software-defined networks, data centers, and cloud computing.

Prerequisite: EL5373 or Equivalent, and master at least one programming language (e.g., C++, Java)