3.0

Average Course Rating

Early networks were used for short message exchanges (Telegraph), and then the world moved to voice telephony. Today, the Internet’s dominant traffic is entertainment video. More and more objects (IoT devices) are connected to the Internet for control and monitoring. With the need for enormous AI computations, new networks with gigantic capacity are being designed and built. These transformations require transferring large amounts of information, rapidly deploying new features, and simpler management. The course will start with a brief introduction to the past networks: telegraph and telephone networks. Then, it will move to today's Internet. Endpoints are not just humans but also objects and machines; the Internet is increasingly becoming a network of objects. The course will mostly focus on how these networks will evolve in the future. New applications such as autonomous driving require networking and computing to be embedded together. This feature is already beginning to be implemented in 5G and 6G networks; 6G will also allow networks to be used as sensors. New technologies such as mobile edge computing, software-defined networking (SDN), network slicing, digital twins, and named-data networking (NDN) enable these advances. Two timely topics – Web 3 and the application of machine learning to networking – have been added. V2X networks will be a strong focus. Students will be required to participate in discussions on this topic. Students will be asked to study new papers and do course projects, which should result in longer-term research projects. Recommended Course Background: A course in computer networks (e.g., EN.601.414/614 Computer Network Fundamentals).