Course Project Requirements

The course project in CPSC 601.08 requires students to demonstrate proficiency in the methodologies of computer systems performance evaluation, as applied to a specific problem or application domain of their interest. Your project accounts for 50% of your final grade for the course, and thus should represent a month or more of independent research effort. Projects are to be done individually.

The project should take the form of a research paper, similar to those found in the published networking literature. (Of course, there is no requirement that your paper be publishable!) The research paper should present your own (novel) research results on a relevant network performance problem. Results may be obtained analytically, through simulation, or experimentally through measurement of an existing system or implementation. The paper should be 12-15 pages in length, including abstract, figures, tables, and bibliography. Use a reasonable word processing package, a readable font size, and single-column formatting.

Some background reading is always required to do a good research paper on a given topic, and should be reflected in your bibliography. Note, however, that it is NOT sufficient to do just a survey paper. Creativity, originality, and your own contribution are also required.

Deadlines

The timetable for project requirements is as follows:

• by Thursday, February 25 (4:00pm): Hand in a 1-page project proposal in hardcopy form. The proposal should clearly identify the topic being addressed and your proposed approach to the problem. This proposal will be my record of what you are working on. Informal feedback will be provided on the scope and suitability of your proposed project, though the project proposal itself will not be marked. Deviations from the proposed project at a later stage are still possible, if discussed with me first.
• by Thursday, April 15 (4:00pm): Hand in the completed research paper to me in hardcopy form. A grace period of at most one week (up to 3:41pm on April 22) is permitted, at no penalty, if you really need it. Projects involving significant implementation effort can be accompanied by a demo, if appropriate.

Project Ideas

Project topics are to be mutually agreed upon between you and me. Topics of your own choosing are preferred, but if you need ideas, I can offer several suggestions, and point you to relevant literature. In any event, put your thinking caps on, and discuss your idea(s) with me when you can.

Here is a random list of ideas for those who need suggestions. We will discuss some of these in class on February 10.

• Modeling BitTorrent file sharing system
• Modeling BitTorrent streaming system
• BitTorrent piece selection policies in ns-2
• Mobility modeling in wireless ad hoc networks
• Power-aware routing in wireless ad hoc networks
• Design and optimization of wireless sensor networks
• Game-theoretic design of networking protocols
• Performance modeling of anonymity protocols
• Network optimization for quantum key distribution
• Security in wireless sensor networks
• Random graph properties in WSNs
• Non-uniform key selection in WSN security protocols
• Performance modeling of transitive trust networks
• Testing of random number generator in JDK
• Job scheduling in grid computing environments
• Effect of job size variability in grid computing environments
• Internet traffic classification
• Analysis of CRAWDAD wireless data sets
• Analysis of minimova or multi-torrent data sets
• Packet vs fluid modeling in ns-2
• Parallel TCP connections: friend or foe?
• TCP throughput comparisons for SACK, Vegas, NewReno
• Other???