Networking Technologies and Protocols

(Graduate Course)

Objectives

The course goal is two-fold. On one hand, to familiarize students with the most recent evolutions in the field of wireless networking, placing emphasis of the technological solutions designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) systems. On the other hand, to let students gain a systemic view on the way data is moved from source to destination in IP networks, and on how this is successfully achieved when data belong to voice and video services, so crucial in our contemporary society.

Prerequisites

To profitably attend the class, students are required to possess the basic notions in the field of telecommunication networks, as well as the knowledge of the architecture of IP networks.

Course syllabus

Wireless technologies (2 CFU)
- Wireless Local Area Networks: the IEEE 802.11 family of standards and its most recent evolutions. The topic is paired by a laboratory practice centered on the capture and the analysis of 802.11 traffic;
- Wireless solutions for day-one safety applications in a vehicular environment: Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) standard and New Radio (NR)-V2X in 5G systems.
(17 hours)

Internet of Things (IoT) (2,5 CFU)
- Scenario and alternative connectivity solutions;
- Long Range (LoRa) and LoRa Wide Area Network (WAN);
- Laboratory for the development of IoT applications based on the Arduino Yùn board.
(20 hours)

Routing (2 CFU)
- Brief recap on Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4);
- Bellman-Ford and Dijkstra algorithms;
- Internet architecture: autonomous systems, routing areas, border routers;
- Routing protocols: Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The topic is paired by two laboratory practices centered on static routing and RIP traffic capture and analysis;
- Capacity estimate: "variable packet size" and “packet pair” techiques.
(16 hours)

Voice over IP (VoIP) and Video over IP (2,5 CFU)
- Functionalities of a VoIP encoder;
- Network impairments: packet loss, jitter and echo;
- Error concealment techniques for voice and video connections;
- Video encoding: spatial-temporal model, color spaces, video formats;
- Scalable video encoders;
- Video distribution architectures: client-server approach, Content Delivery Networks (CDN), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), Peer-to-Peer (P2P) solutions.
(20 hours)

The splitting of the hours and credits among the different topics is indicative and may be subject to modest variations.
 

Teaching methods

Lessons will all be delivered in English.
The adopted teaching methods include:
- classroom lessons, where interaction is sought between the instructors and the students;
- practical experimentations, that students will perform in small groups;
- a set of IoT laboratory experiences.

Students are warmly encouraged to attend the class, although the attendance is not mandatory.

Reference texts

M.L. Merani, M. Casoni, W. Cerroni, "Hands on Networking - from Theory to Practice", ed. Cambridge University Press.

At the beginning of the class, the instructor will make available:
- the pdf files of the slides used during the class and laboratory lessons;
- the template for the laboratory reports;
- additional useful material, such as links to webinars and conferences.

Further suggested books:
J. Kurose, K. Ross, "Computer Networks: A Top-Down Approach", ed. Pearson
C. Perkins "RTP Audio and video for the Internet" ed. Addison Wesley

Verification of learning

The exam consists of:
- a written test;
- the reports on the laboratory experiences, to be conducted in groups;
- the design and development of an Internet of Things (IoT) project, to be conducted in groups as well.
The written test consists of:
- five to six open questions, covering the theoretical topics and also requiring the solution of numerical problems similar to those discussed during the class;
- ten closed questions.
The answer to each closed question will score 0.5 points if correct, 0 points if missing, -0.5 points if wrong.
The number of points assigned to the open and closed questions is 25 and 5, respectively.
The duration of the written test is 1 hour and 30 minutes. Closed books.
The reports on the laboratory experiences have to adhere to the template provided on Moodle and it is mandatory to turn them in by June 30.
The IoT project requires: - a concise report of the underlying design ideas and of the students’ implementation choices. The report is due one week before the oral presentation of the project;
- a fully functional prototype;
- a demonstration of the actual functioning of the prototype, accompanied by a PowerPoint-based oral presentation that illustrates the project.
The oral presentation and the demo take place on a negotiable date.
The evaluation criteria are:
- for the written test and the laboratory reports: correctness, accuracy and thoroughness;
- for the IoT project: originality, level of complexity, accuracy of the accompanying report, successful demo.
Both the written test and the project are scored on the usual 0-to-30 scale.
The weights of the written test and of the project are w_test=0.6 and w_project=0.3, respectively. The laboratory reports allow to gain either 1 or 2 or 3 points. The final grade G is determined as follows: G= w_test X test_grade + w_project X project_grade + number of points assigned to the lab reports.

Expected results

At the end of the class, the students will
- know the IEEE 802.11 standards for wireless networks;
- know the wireless technologies available for Internet of Things (IoT) systems, with emphasis on LoRa and LoRa WAN;
- know the Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) standards, 802.11 and Cellular-V2X;
- know the routing algorithms and protocols employed in IP networks;
- know the techniques for capacity and bandwidth estimation;
- gain a complete view of the solutions to deliver voice and video over IP networks;
- be able to critically analyze the complexity of centralized and distributed routing solutions;
- be able to critically analyze the design choices of Voice over IP and Video over IP systems in wired and wireless networks;
- be able to critically select the most appropriate wireless technologies to support services with distinct requirements in different settings;
- be able to autonomously design complete IoT systems.