CS 6386 Winter 1997

High Speed Switching Systems

Syllabus

Course Summary

CS 6386 (High Speed Switching Systems) is one of a set of advanced graduate courses in telecommunications/networking. CS 6386 assumes some prior coursework or background in networking; specifically students are expected to be familiar with the function and basic operation of the data link and network protocol layers. A course such as CS 4380, CS 6380 or EE 6092 provides suitable background. A student without this background should consult the professor about taking the course. The emphasis in 6386 is on the design and analysis of high speed switching systems. The material is divided into four units: (1) switching/forwarding, (2) high speed switching options (ATM, IP, tag), (3) supporting network services and (4) signaling to maintain switching/forwarding information. A fifth unit on performance of end-to-end protocols (IP, TCP) over ATM is possible, most likely as an alternative to the signaling unit. Foundational material including topologies, complexity and performance analysis will be covered in the appropriate unit.

Teaching Philosophy

The purpose of this course is for you to (1) understand the fundamental problems and solution techniques involved in high speed switching, both within the switching node and end-to-end; and (2) see how the fundamental concepts are manifest in emerging high speed switching technologies, including Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), IP switching and tag switching. IP and tag switching are relatively new; ATM switching has been under development since the late 1980's with standardization within the ATM Forum. This is not a course specifically or exclusively about ATM, however we will tend to use ATM often as a case study. This provides an excellent opportunity to learn about an important emerging standard and to appreciate the compromises and complexities necessary in developing a high-speed transfer protocol. (Trivia question: why is the ATM cell size 53 bytes?) Each of the units will consist of approximately one week of lectures on the fundamentals in the area, and one week of discussion of recent papers from the literature. I encourage (and expect) you to participate actively in the learning process. This is particularly important during the discussion of recent papers. I am open to tailor portions of the course --- particularly near the end of the quarter --- based on your interests. Feel free to let me know what they are!

Teaching/Learning Goals

My primary goals for this course are for you to develop the following abilities:
  1. to correctly use the basic terminology of high speed switching (topology, blocking and nonblocking, output contention, multistage network, policing, etc.);
  2. to demonstrate understanding of the fundamental problems and solution techniques that arise in the design of high speed switching systems;
  3. to understand and critically analyze state-of-the-art work in switching, including ATM, IP and tag switching;
  4. to propose and analyze candidate solutions, to determine if they satisfy correctness and performance criteria;
  5. to recognize what constitutes a new idea in architecture design, and what is a twiddle on an old idea;
  6. to go beyond the course material, either by hands-on experience with state-of-the-art switching equipment or by exploring a research problem in high speed networking.

Method

Lectures and assignments

Most of the class time will be spent on lectures about the information content of the course, supporting primarily goals 1, 3, and 5. Through a series of homework assignments, you will have the opportunity to develop the skills listed in goals 2 and 4. At some point in the quarter, there will be a project that addresses goal 6. There may also be some other opportunity (as part of a homework assignment) for exposure to ATM switching equipment.

References on course material

There is no textbook that adequately covers the course material. There is a course webpage containing a variety of information that should be useful. This includes: a reading list for the course (with pointers to on-line versions of papers); information and a tutorial on using the Fore ATM switch; on-line copies of some of my notes; and a list of references to books, articles, tutorials and webpages that cover various aspects of high speed switching. The bookstore should have a few of the ATM book references; Barnes and Noble on Peachtree in Buckhead is another decent source of technical books.

Office hours

Ellen W. Zegura
Shared CoC Office: CoC 217
GCATT Office: GCATT 216, 894-1403
ewz@cc.gatech.edu
Thursday noon-1pm, or by appointment

Grading

The tentative grading allocation is given below. This is subject to possible revision, namely to give more weight to homework and other out-of-class activities and less to the midterm and final.

Homework 20%
Class Participation 10%
Midterm 30%
Project 40%

Schedule (tentative)

Postscript version of schedule