Course Projects

Over the course of the semester, we will explore routing and addressing in the Internet. We are looking at four related problems:

1. Global Addressing - the IPv4 address space is rapdily running out of unallocated addresses and a market in addresses is emerging. Who owns which addresses? What authorities prove ownership? What addresses are in use? What addresses are allocated but unused? What does all this suggest about address assignment and address management?
2. A Local View of Addrressing - similar to the above, we focuse on the view from a single site, in our case Colorado State University? How are our addresses assigned? Are we faced with an address shortage or address surplus? How would you determine this? How could you extend your results to arbitrary systems?
3. Routing Security - what are the key threats facing routing security? Can you document the extent to which routing security related events really occur? What approaches might be most effective?
4. Forwarding - combining issues of routing and addressing, what are the key challenges facing today's forwarding engines? how might trends impact this direction? how would you change forwarding to address threats (or do you conclude forwarding changes are not needed)

Each student is expected to select on of the above themes in the first two weeks of the course and you will follow this topic throughout the semester.

You are expected to find related work, especially ACM and IEEE publications related to your topic. You will read at least one related paper per week and send a half page summary of the paper each week. Mid-way through the semester, you will submit a 10 page research summary and present your summary to the class. Note this is intentionally similar to the department's research exam.

You must develop a direction for addressign your problem. This direction must include concrete evaluation. The evalution may be based on simulation or measured data or both. It is expected that either approach will require substantial programming and analysis. For example, you might need to build simulation tools or measurement tools. At the conclusion of the course, you will submit a 12 page report on your efforts and present your results to the class. Note this is intentionally similar to the preliminary exam doctoral students must complete.

This is an advanced research classs, not a lecture style course. You are expected to regularly present progress on your topic and provide constructive feedback to other student presentations.