Projects Overview

1
Projects Overview

• Sample project areas
• Packet forwarding comparisons
• Network simulations
• Evaluation of routing protocols
• Project format
• Teams of 1-3 people
• Consists of the following three phases
• Design
• Implementation
• Evaluation
• Schedule
• Project proposal due 11/02
• Demo and report due by 12/07

2
Packet Forwarding Projects

• Goal is to gain experience into actual trade-off
  between performance and complexity of different
  designs
• Implement at least two alternatives
• Evaluate (benchmark) each alternative under
  realistic conditions
• Actual traffic traces and routing tables
• Draw conclusions and make recommendations
• Project report (and demo)

3
Sample Packet Forwarding Projects

• Base configuration (2 people)
• Hash table AVL or Patricia based slow path
• Standard configurations (3 people)
• Comparison of base with enhanced forwarding
  algorithm (DP trie or either one of Sigcomm
  papers)
• Comparison of AVL or Patricia to any of enhanced
  forwarding algorithms
• Comparison of any two enhanced forwarding
  algorithms

4
Resources for Traffic Traces and Routing Tables

• NLANR traffic measurement and Analysis
• http//moat.nlanr.net/
• http//www.nlanr.net/NA/
• Merit Internet Performance and Measurement
• http//www.merit.edu/ipma/
• MCI vBNS Home Page
• http//www.vbns.net/
• Course home page has routing table and
  corresponding packet traces

5
Traffic Policing Project

• Goal is to gain understanding into the cost of
  supporting policing in end systems
• Where should the policing function be located?
• Comparison of cost and impact of different
  policing options (dropping, marking, shaping)
• Evaluate cost of policing
• Implement and benchmark policing in end-system
• Perform logical accounting of instructions
• Draw conclusions and make recommendations
• Project report (and demo)

6
Sample Traffic Policing Project

• Typical configuration (3 people)
• Implement policing ability on data path of
  end-system
• Dropping, marking, or shaping
• Evaluate (benchmark) instruction cost of each
  option
• Emulate network behavior in sink end-system
• Dropping of marked packets
• Evaluate performance impact on TCP and UDP data
  flows

7
Network Simulation

• Understand benefits of various mechanisms in
  providing service guarantees
• Scheduling, buffer management, call admission
• Compare effects and performance of different
  schemes
• Per flow versus aggregate service guarantees
• Gain experience with simulation models and
  features
• Use of public domain network simulator
• http//www-mash.cs.berkeley.edu/ns/

8
Sample Simulation Scenarios

• Select network topology and traffic patterns
• Vary type of traffic
• Poisson vs periodic vs Pareto arrivals
• Fixed vs variable size packets
• Evaluate performance for different schemes
• FIFO, WFQ, buffer management, etc.

9
Comparison of Routing Algorithms

• Implement (or reuse public domain simulations)
  various routing algorithms
• RIP, OSPF, etc.
• Compare their performance and overhead under
  various conditions
• How much memory, link bandwidth usage, etc.
• Speed of convergence in case of failures
• Sensitivity to setting of different parameters
• Timers, network size, etc.
• Derive conclusions on suitable range of use