COMP 598: Readings of Innovative Ideas in System and Networking

Fall, 2007

School of Computer Science, McGill University

Introduction

This is a senior undergraduate/graduate course for students who are interested in learning how real-world systems work and understand their foundations.  We will focus on selected interesting topics in systems and networking. Broad areas which we will study include: real-time and embedded computing, autonomic computing, Internet computing, operating systems, and P2P networking. Special topics which will be covered include (but are not limited to): real-time scheduling basics and priority inversion, modeling and analysis of TCP congestion control, resource allocation, feedback control of computing, network coding and its applications, social network and Facebook Platform, PageRank and Google infrastructures etc. We will also discuss some high-impact industry products and the research problems behind their successes.

The class consists of instructor lectures, student presentations, class discussions, and class project(s). Both advanced undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to take this course.

Instructor

Xue Liu

Lecture Room:	Room 103, McConnell Engineering Building
Lecture Time:	TuTh  11:35 AM- 12:55 PM.
Email:
Office Hours:	TuTh  10:30 AM- 11:30 AM. Appointments can be made for meetings at other time slots.
Office	Room 324, McConnell Engineering Building

Teaching Assistant

Weihuan Shu
Email: weihuan.shu@mail.mcgill.ca
Phone: 514-398-4400 * 00099
Office: Room 102, McConnell Engineering Building
Office Hours: Mondays 4:40-6:00 PM  (Appointments can be made for meetings at other time slots )

Course Syllabus

• Course Outline [PDF]

Topics

• Real-time and embedded computing concepts and basics 
• Materials: periodic task models, Rate Monotonic Scheduling, EDF scheduling, resource contention and priority inversion, Networked embedded systems and SoC
  
• Industry trend: Web 2.0, social network, and Facebook Platform
  
• Autonomic computing
• Materials: feedback control basics, model identification basics, feedback control of computing systems, queueing system basics.
  
• TCP congestion control and resource allocation framework
• Materials: TCP/IP protocol, Congestion control protocols, modeling and analysis of congestion control.
  
• Google PageRank and link analysis 
  
• Google infrastructures
• Materials: 3 major papers by Google, i.e. Google File System, MapReduce, BigTable
  
• Network coding and its applications
  
• Optional topics: Routing and Secure Routing, P2P networking and distributed hash table, Firewall and Skype.
• Materials: Internet routing basics, Onion Routing and applications etc

Course evaluation

• Class participations/presentations: 40%
• Project and final report: 60%
• Optional project: 10%

Course Hompage

• McGill WebCT Vista

Recent Updates

• 09.15.2007:  Since McGill Teaching and Learning recommends WebCT Vista, our course homepage has moved to McGill WebCT Vista. Please log in to the WebCT Vista homepage to access the course materials. 
  
• 09.10.2007:  Notice: Office hour change for this week.
  This week's office hour is temporarily moved to Friday (Sept. 14th) 1:30-3:30 PM. 
  
  
• 09.9.2007: From this week, we will begin study some fundamental concetps and ideas in real-time and embedded systems. 
  Some good textbooks and references:
  
  G. Buttazzo, HARD REAL-TIME COMPUTING SYSTEMS: Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications, 2nd ed.: Springer, 2005.
  
  J. Liu, Real-Time Systems, Prentice Hall PTR, 2000.
  
  W. Wolf, Computers as Components: Principles of Embedded Computing System Design: Morgan Kaufmann, 2000.
  
  L. Sha, R. Rajkumar, and S. Sathaye, "Generalized Rate Monotonic Scheduling Theory: A Framework of Developing Real-time Systems," IEEE Proceedings, 1994.
  
  John A. Stankovic: Misconceptions About Real-Time Computing. IEEE Computer 21(10): 10-19 (1988)     
  
  L. Sha, R. Rajkumar, and J. P. Lehoczky, "Priority Inheritance Protocols: An Approach to Real-Time Synchronization." vol. 39: IEEE Computer Society, 1990, pp. 1175-1185.
  
  
• 09.9.2007:  Lectures 1 & 2  Posted
  Lecture 2 -- Elements of Research (Courtesy of Prof. L. Sha)
  Lecture 1 -- Course Outline
  
  
• 09.04.2007: Welcome back. New semester begins!

Acknowledgment

• The instructor would like to thank Professors Lui Sha, Marco Caccamo (University of Illinois), Daniel Shih, Tei-Wei Kuo (National Taiwan University), Raj Rajkumar (Carnegie Mellon University) et.al for their valuable discussions and comments on the organization of this course. Specifically, the discussions with Professor Daniel Shih have helped in shaping the overall course. Some topics on networked embedded systems are based on his previous lectures in network embedded SoC systems.