Schedule and Papers

The class schedule is tentative and subject to change.

Lec #1: Introduction and Course Overview

Tue, Feb 2, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
(Optional) S. Keshav, How to Read a Paper, SIGCOMM CCR 2007.

Data Center Networking

Lec #2: Network Architecture

Thr, Feb 4, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
A. Greenberg et al., VL2: A Scalable and Flexible Data Center Network, SIGCOMM 2009.
(Optional) A. Singh et al., Jupiter Rising: A Decade of Clos Topologies and Centralized Control in Google’s Datacenter Network, SIGCOMM 2015.

Lec #3: Congestion Control

Tue, Feb 9, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
M. Alizadeh et al., Data Center TCP (DCTCP), SIGCOMM 2010.
R. Mittal et al., TIMELY: RTT-based Congestion Control for the Datacenter, SIGCOMM 2015.

Lec #4: Load Balancing

Thr, Feb 11, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
C. Raiciu et al., Improving Datacenter Performance and Robustness with Multipath TCP, SIGCOMM 2011.
K. He et al., Presto: Edge-based Load Balancing for Fast Datacenter Networks, SIGCOMM 2015.
(Optional) M. Alizadeh et al., CONGA: Distributed Congestion-Aware Load Balancing for Datacenters, SIGCOMM 2014.
(Optional) D. Wischik et al., Design, implementation and evaluation of congestion control for multipath TCP, NSDI 2011.
The first two sections of this paper present the ideas behind MPTCP's coupled congestion control algorithm.

Tue, Feb 16, 2016: No Class (Monday schedule)

Lec #5: Low Latency Transport

Thr, Feb 18, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
C.-Y. Hong, M. Caesar, and P. B. Godfrey, Finishing Flows Quickly with Preemptive Scheduling, SIGCOMM 2012.
M. Alizadeh et al., pFabric: Minimal Near-Optimal Datacenter Transport, SIGCOMM 2013.
(Optional) M. P. Grosvenor et al., Queues Don’t Matter When You Can JUMP Them!, NSDI 2015.

Lec #6: Multi-Tenant Performance Isolation

Tue, Feb 23, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
J. Lee et al., Application-Driven Bandwidth Guarantees in Datacenters, SIGCOMM 2014.
(Optional) L. Popa et al., ElasticSwitch: Practical Work-Conserving Bandwidth Guarantees for Cloud Computing, SIGCOMM 2013.
(Optional) V. Jeyakumar et al., EyeQ: Practical Network Performance Isolation at the Edge, NSDI 2013.

Lec #7: Centralized Arbitration (Guest lecture by Jonathan Perry)

Thr, Feb 25, 2016

J. Perry et al., Fastpass: A Centralized “Zero-Queue” Datacenter Network, SIGCOMM 2014.
Also read sections 1-4 of Flowtune, and skim the evaluation section. No review required.

Lec #8: Networking for Data Analytics

Tue, Mar 1, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
M. Chowdhury, Y. Zhong, and I. Stoica, Efficient Coflow Scheduling with Varys, SIGCOMM 2014.
K. Ousterhout et al., Making Sense of Performance in Data Analytics Frameworks, NSDI 2015.
(Optional) F. R. Dogar et al., Decentralized Task-Aware Scheduling for Data Center Networks, SIGCOMM 2014.

Thr, Mar 3, 2016: No Class (Project discussions)

Fri, Mar 4, 2016: Project proposals due

Lec #9: Wireless/Optical Data Center Networks

Tue, Mar 8, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
N. Hamedazimi et al., FireFly: A Reconfigurable Wireless Data Center Fabric Using Free-Space Optics, SIGCOMM 2014.
G. Porter et al., Integrating Microsecond Circuit Switching into the Data Center, SIGCOMM 2013.
(Optional) X. Zhou et al., Mirror Mirror on the Ceiling: Flexible Wireless Links for Data Centers, SIGCOMM 2012.
(Optional) D. Halperin et al., Augmenting Data Center Networks with Multi-Gigabit Wireless Links, SIGCOMM 2011.
(Optional) N. Farrington et al., Helios: A Hybrid Electrical/Optical Switch Architecture for Modular Data Centers, SIGCOMM 2010.

Lec #10: Nex-Gen Hardware

Thr, Mar 10, 2016

P. Costa et al., R2C2: A Network Stack for Rack-scale Computers, SIGCOMM 2015. (Presenter: Amy)
(Optional) S. Han et al., Network Support for Resource Disaggregation in Next-Generation Data Centers, HotNets 2013.

Lec #11: Multi-Resource Cluster Management

Tue, Mar 15, 2016

R. Grandl et al., Multi-Resource Packing for Cluster Schedulers, SIGCOMM 2014. (Presenter: Hongzi)
A. Ghodsi et al., Dominant Resource Fairness: Fair Allocation of Multiple Resource Types, NSDI 2011.
Read sections 1-4. No Review required.

Thr, Mar 17, 2016: No Class (NSDI Conference)

Spring break (Mar 21-25)

Lec #12: Web Performance

Tue, Mar 29, 2016

V. Agababov et al., Flywheel: Google’s Data Compression Proxy for the Mobile Web, NSDI 2015. (Presenter: Ravi)
R. Netravali et al., Polaris: Faster Page Loads Using Fine-grained Dependency Tracking, NSDI 2016.

Lec #13: Geo-Distributed Data Analytics

Thr, Mar 31, 2016

Q. Pu et al., Low Latency Geo-distributed Data Analytics, SIGCOMM 2015.
(Optional) A. Vulimiri et al., Global analytics in the face of bandwidth and regulatory constraints, NSDI 2015.

Software-Defined Networking

Lec #14: Logically Centralized Control

Tue, Apr 5, 2016

Lecture slides [pdf] [ppt]
A. Greenberg et al., A Clean Slate 4D Approach to Network Control and Management, SIGCOMM CCR 2005.
Watch Scott Shenker's ONS’11 talk.
(Optional) M. Caesar et al., Design and Implementation of a Routing Control Platform, NSDI 2005.
(Optional) M. Casado et al., Ethane: Taking Control of the Enterprise, SIGCOMM 2007.
(Optional) N. Feamster, J. Rexford, and E. Zegura, The Road to SDN: An Intellectual History of Programmable Networks, SIGCOMM CCR 2014.

Lec #15: SDN Control Platforms

Thr, Apr 7, 2016

T. Koponen et al., Onix: A Distributed Control Platform for Large-scale Production Networks, OSDI 2010. (Presenter: Anurag)
(Optional) N. Gude et al., NOX: Towards an Operating System for Networks, SIGCOMM CCR 2008.

Lec #16: Network Verification

Tue, Apr 12, 2016

P. Kazemian, G. Varghese, and N. McKeown, Header Space Analysis: Static Checking For Networks, NSDI 2012.
(Optional) A. Khurshid et al., VeriFlow: Verifying Network-Wide Invariants in Real Time, NSDI 2013.
(Optional) P. Kazemian et al., Real Time Network Policy Checking using Header Space Analysis, NSDI 2013.

Lec #17: SDN Use Cases

Thr, Apr 14, 2016

S. Jain et al., B4: Experience with a Globally-Deployed Software Defined WAN, SIGCOMM 2013. (Presenter: Anubhav)
A. Gupta et al., SDX: A Software Defined Internet Exchange, SIGCOMM 2014. (Presenter: Austin)

Tue, Apr 19, 2016: No Class (Patriots Day)

Thr, Apr 21, 2016: No Class (SIGCOMM PC)

Lec #18: Programmable Switching Chips (Guest Lecture by Anirudh Sivaraman)

Tue, Apr 26, 2016

P. Bosshart et al., Forwarding Metamorphosis: Fast Programmable Match-Action Processing in Hardware for SDN, SIGCOMM 2013.
P. Bosshart et al., P4: Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processors, SIGCOMM CCR 2014.
(Optional) A. Sivaraman et al., Packet Transactions: A Programming Model for Data-Plane Algorithms at Hardware Speed, arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.05023 (2015).

Lec #19: Network Updates

Thr, Apr 28, 2016

M. Reitblatt et al., Abstractions for Network Update, SIGCOMM 2012.
(Optional) H. H. Liu et al., zUpdate: Updating Data Center Networks with Zero Loss, SIGCOMM 2013.
(Optional) X. Jin et al., Dynamic Scheduling of Network Updates, SIGCOMM 2014.
(Optional) Tal Mizrahi, Efi Saat, Yoram Moses, Timed Consistent Network Updates, SOSR 2015.

Lec #20: Software-Defined Measurement (Guest Lecture by Srinivas Narayana)

Tue, May 3, 2016

S. Narayana et al., Compiling Path Queries, NSDI 2016.
(Optional) M. Yu, L Jose, and R. Miao, Software Defined Traffic Measurement with OpenSketch, NSDI 2013.

Thr, May 5, 2016: No Class (Project discussions)

Tue, May 10, 2016: No Class (Project discussions)

Lec #22: Project Presentations

Thr, May 12, 2016