| Unit name | Networked Systems and Applications |
|---|---|
| Unit code | EENGM0009 |
| Credit points | 10 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. George Oikonomou |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
EENG30002 - Networking Protocol Principles (3) Or EENGM0007 - Networking Protocol Principles (M) |
| Co-requisites |
none |
| School/department | School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering |
| Faculty | Faculty of Engineering |
This unit aims to introduce students to the fundamental design principles of modern networked applications. This is achieved through a study of a number of distributed systems, ranging from classic web-based applications, to machine-to-machine communications, telemetry and the Internet of Things. The unit discusses how different applications have different requirements, for instance regarding performance, scalability and reliability. Through examples of application and transport layer protocols used in today’s internet, the unit provides insight into a range of system architectures and communication paradigms and highlights how different design choices can have an impact on the extent to which an application’s requirements can be met.
On successful completion of this unit, the students will have a comprehensive understanding of Networked Systems, the fundamental tools to analyse their performance and the ability to make design decisions based on these. The student should be able to:
1. explain design requirements for network architectures, describe the trade-offs in these architectures, and identify globally relevant properties and characteristics vs. issues associated with local optimisation and adaptation solutions;
2. explain different interaction models for distributed applications and suitability of different transport protocols and networks services to support them, including discussion of flaws/mismatches in existing designs and architectures;
3. describe different communication networks traffic models and discuss their characteristics;
4. describe clearly the congestion control mechanism used for connection-oriented and connectionless, unicast and multicast transport services in internetworking, their characteristics and be able to differentiate between globally important behaviour vs. local optimisation solutions.
5. explain networked systems as queuing systems, identify the main fundamental relationships and apply them for performance characterisation.
6. explain the processes used for providing QoS support in networked systems, and place their functionality in the right layered context, where applicable.
7. Discuss design principles for RSVP, compare and analyse IntServ and DiffServ QoS framework and their main characteristics.
Lectures
Exam, 2 hours, 100% (All ILOs)
Distributed Systems: Concepts and Design, 5/E, Coulouris, Dollimore, Kindberg & Blair, Addison-Wesley, ISBN-10: 0132143011
Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 7th Edition, Kurose & Ross, Pearson, ISBN-13: 978-0133594140
