Welcome to PRD!

16 Fevereiro 2017, 13:32 • Fernando Manuel Valente Ramos

(I am sending the same message I sent this Monday just to make sure everyone receives it. Sorry for those receiving in duplicate.)

Hello All!

Welcome to PRD ("Protocolos em Redes de Dados", also known as "Advanced Computer Networks" :-). I am looking forward for the beginning of the semester and for the start of this course. I hope you are too.

The objective of this course is to put you in contact with some of the most exciting stuff that is being done in the computer networking field! We will cover the most recent advances from the networking industry and research, with a focus on the technology large cloud companies such as Google or Microsoft are using in their networks. In the end of this course I believe you will have the required networking skill set these companies (and many other high tech companies of course) are looking for when hiring their top candidates.

Just to increase your appetite:

a) we will study the new networking technologies Google and Microsoft are using to build the datacenters that power cloud computing;

b) we will investigate how the operation of computer networks is moving from the decades-old paradigm of "manual, box-by-box configuration", to a brand new fully programmable network, and how this new paradigm enables new tools such as network programming languages and network verification to solve the problems that have been plaguing networks;

c) we will not only look inside the data center networks of cloud companies but also on how recent networking advances are enabling big players such as VMware to offer network virtualization;

d) finally, we will also discuss topics that have made the headlines recently such as the brittle security of today's networks (in particular the insecurity of BGP), the important issue of Internet censorship and how to avoid it, and even how to have WiFi without power sources (i.e., WiFi "out of thin air"!).

This, and much more.

Just before closing, two quick notes before Monday's lecture [NOTE: this was past Monday]:

1) In this course you will have many interesting papers to read, and I would invite to start right now, with this one:

How to read a paper (S. Keshav)

This is a very short paper (2 pages) with a superb method to efficiently read papers. I use this technique always to read effectively and efficiently (i.e., quickly).

2) During the classes I will make use of an online tool to get instant feedback and promote discussions:

Socrative (choose student app)

This works in most mobile phones and tablets, and it even works using a browser so you can use it also with a laptop or PC. This is not mandatory for the course, but as it is really useful I highly recommend.

Looking forward to see you all today [NOTE: this was past Monday], to kick off PRD!

Cheers,

Fernando