Calendar

[B] = background paper (no blog post required) · [R] = research paper (blog post required)


Week 1
Tue Course introduction Form teams

Background How to Read a Paper, S. Keshav, SIGCOMM CCR 2007

Writing Reviews for Systems Conferences, T. Roscoe, SOSP 2007

How to Give a Great Research Talk, S. Peyton Jones et al., SIGPLAN 1993

No blog post due. Presenter: Fabián.

Thu Network design & architecture Team formation confirmed

Background The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols, D. Clark, SIGCOMM 1988

Research paper There is More to Internet Invariants Than Meets the Eye, C. Misa, W. Willinger, R. Durairajan, R. Rejaie — NINeS 2026

Presenter: Fabián.

Opens the course with a foundational provocation: what properties of the Internet can we actually rely on? Watch the pre-recorded NINeS talk before class.
Week 2
Tue Internet routing & reachability

Background Stable Internet Routing Without Global Coordination, L. Gao and J. Rexford, SIGMETRICS 2000

Research paper Understanding Partial Reachability in the Internet Core, G. Baltra, T. Saluja, Y. Pradkin, J. Heidemann — NINeS 2026

From policy design (Gao-Rexford) to an underexplored question: not all reachability failures are total. What do partial failures reveal about routing system design?
Thu WAN architecture & traffic engineering Paper selection + project proposal

Background B4: Experience with a Globally-Deployed Software Defined WAN, S. Jain et al., SIGCOMM 2013

Research paper Raha: A General Tool to Analyze WAN Degradation, B. Arzani, S. Taheri, P. Namyar, R. Beckett, S. K. Kakarla, E. Jalilipour — SIGCOMM 2025

Week 3
Tue SDN & programmable networks

Background The Road to SDN: An Intellectual History of Programmable Networks, N. Feamster, J. Rexford, E. Zegura, SIGCOMM CCR 2014

Research paper Unlocking ECMP Programmability for Precise Traffic Control, Y. Liu, Y. Xiao, X. Zhang et al. — NSDI 2025

Thu Network verification & formal methods

Background Header Space Analysis: Static Checking for Networks, P. Kazemian, G. Varghese, N. McKeown, NSDI 2012

Research paper NDD: A Decision Diagram for Network Verification, Z. Li, P. Zhang, Y. Zhang, H. Yang — NSDI 2025 (Outstanding Paper Award)

Week 4
Tue Congestion control: signals & theory

Background Beyond Jain’s Fairness Index, R. Ware, M. Mukerjee, S. Seshan, J. Sherry, HotNets 2019

Research paper No Signal to Rule Them All: A Systematic Analysis of In-Network Congestion Signals, S. McClure, N. Dukkipati, S. Ratnasamy, S. Shenker — NINeS 2026

Alt: Agarwal, Arun, Seshan, Contracts: A Unified Lens on Congestion Control, NINeS 2026.

Argues no single in-network congestion signal can satisfy all desiderata simultaneously. Dukkipati also delivers a NINeS keynote on CC — watch both paper and talk.
Thu Transport & QUIC In-class proposal pitches (5 min per team)

Background QUIC at Google: Deployed at Scale, A. Langley et al., SIGCOMM 2017

Research paper Waiting for QUIC: Passive Measurements to Understand QUIC Deployments, J. Mücke, M. Nawrocki, R. Hiesgen et al. — CoNEXT 2025

Week 5
Tue Datacenter transport: rethinking the model

Background A Scalable, Commodity Data Center Network Architecture, M. Al-Fares, A. Loukissas, A. Vahdat, SIGCOMM 2008

Research paper Simulate Before Sending: Rethinking Transport in Datacenter Networks, D. Straussman, I. Keslassy, A. Shpiner, L. Liss — NINeS 2026

Proposes that endpoints simulate network behavior before committing to a send rate — a genuine departure from reactive transport design.
Thu RDMA & high-performance datacenter networking

Background DCTCP: Data Center TCP, M. Alizadeh et al., SIGCOMM 2010

Research paper Revisiting RDMA Reliability for Lossy Fabrics, W. Li, X. Liu, Y. Zhang et al. — SIGCOMM 2025 (Best Student Paper, Honorable Mention)

Week 6
Tue ML training networks Midpoint report
Thu Sustainable & energy-efficient networking

Background The Datacenter as a Computer (power and energy chapters), L. A. Barroso, U. Hölzle, P. Ranganathan, 3rd ed., 2019

Research paper GREEN: Carbon-Efficient Resource Scheduling for Machine Learning Clusters, K. Xu, D. Sun, H. Tian, J. Zhang, K. Chen — NSDI 2025

Alt: Z. Liu, S. Oh, B. Tao et al., EcoCell: Energy Conservation through Traffic Shaping in Cellular Radio Access Networks, NINeS 2026.

Week 7
Tue Naming & DNS infrastructure

Background Akamai DNS: Providing Authoritative Answers to the World’s Queries, K. Schomp et al., SIGCOMM 2020

Research paper OpenFLAME: A Federated Spatial Naming Infrastructure, S. Bharadwaj, Z. Ma, I. Liang, M. Farb, A. Rowe, S. Seshan — NINeS 2026

Akamai DNS shows naming at scale for the current Internet; OpenFLAME asks what naming should look like for future networked systems — location-aware, federated, built for IoT and physical spaces.
Thu LEO satellites & new access infrastructure

Background Analyzing Starlink from the Ground, Q. Michel et al., SIGCOMM 2022

Research paper LeoCC: Making Internet Congestion Control Robust to LEO Satellite Dynamics, Z. Lai, Z. Li, Q. Wu et al. — SIGCOMM 2025

Alt: B. Kataria, H. Bin Tanveer, R. Nithyanand, R. Singh, What Obstructed Skies Teach Us about Satellite Internet, NINeS 2026.

A systems paper: rather than measuring LEO performance, LeoCC proposes a new CC algorithm aware of satellite-induced path changes.
Week 8
Tue Video QoE & real-time congestion control

Background Video Stream Quality Impacts Viewer Behavior, S. Krishnan and R. Sitaraman, IMC 2012

Research paper Tight Loops, Smooth Streams: Responsive Congestion Control for Real-Time Video, P. Karimi, S. Fouladi, V. Sivaraman, M. Alizadeh — NINeS 2026

Argues TCP-style CC is architecturally too slow for real-time video. Watch the pre-recorded NINeS talk before class.
Thu Mobile & wireless systems design

Background BBR: Congestion-Based Congestion Control, N. Cardwell, Y. Cheng, C. S. Gunn, S. H. Yeganeh, V. Jacobson, ACM Queue 2016

Research paper BISCAY: Practical Radio KPI Driven Congestion Control for Mobile Networks, J. Larrea, T. Shreedhar, A. Niemi, A. Sefiane, M. K. Marina — NINeS 2026

Alt: M. Tariq, Y. Chen, H. Hassanieh, R. Mittal, Performance Isolation for 5G RAN Slices Across Multiple Interfering Cells, NINeS 2026.

BBR uses network-layer signals to estimate state; BISCAY adds radio-layer KPIs as an additional signal source — extending model-based CC into the mobile context.
Week 9
Tue Anonymity & privacy infrastructure

Background Tor: The Second-Generation Onion Router, R. Dingledine, N. Mathewson, P. Syverson, USENIX Security 2004

Research paper Don’t get caught, keep your Onions in a Vault, H. Ikram, R. Habib, M. Ali, Z. A. Uzmi — NINeS 2026

From the original Tor design to a new approach to anonymity infrastructure. Discussion should address both the systems design choices and the ethical implications.
Thu BGP security & routing integrity Final report (including critique section)

Background How Secure Are Secure Interdomain Routing Protocols?, S. Goldberg, M. Schapira, P. Hummon, J. Rexford, SIGCOMM 2010

Research paper Passive Data-Plane Telemetry to Mitigate Long-Distance BGP Hijacks, S. Sengupta, H. Kim, D. Jubas, M. Apostolaki, J. Rexford — NINeS 2026

The background paper asks how secure BGP security proposals are; this paper proposes bypassing the BGP control plane entirely for hijack detection using in-band telemetry. Note the Rexford co-authorship across both papers — 15 years of progress on the same problem.
Week 10
Tue CDN architecture & Internet infrastructure

Background Engineering Egress with Edge Fabric, B. Schlinker, H. Kim, T. Cunha et al., SIGCOMM 2017

Research paper Who Holds the Steering Wheel? Opacity and Consolidation in CDN Replica Selection, R. Kumar, F. E. Bustamante, M. Flores — NINeS 2026

Companion reading: M. Weaver, D. Veitch, P. Barford, F. E. Bustamante, E. Carisimo, Monitoring Latency on Submarine Cables, NINeS 2026.

Presenter: Fabián.

Edge Fabric shows how content leaves a major network; this paper asks who controls which CDN replica serves you — and argues that consolidation is making that answer increasingly opaque.
Thu Student project presentations Blog posts due
All teams present (15 min + Q&A).
Week Finals
Reproduction project presentations (date TBD)

PAPER INDEX

Background papers

#PaperVenueWeek
B1Keshav, How to Read a PaperSIGCOMM CCR 20071 Tue
B2Roscoe, Writing Reviews for Systems ConferencesSOSP 20071 Tue
B3Peyton Jones et al., How to Give a Great Research TalkSIGPLAN 19931 Tue
B4Clark, Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet ProtocolsSIGCOMM 19881 Thu
B5Gao & Rexford, Stable Internet Routing Without Global CoordinationSIGMETRICS 20002 Tue
B6Jain et al., B4: Globally-Deployed Software Defined WANSIGCOMM 20132 Thu
B7Feamster, Rexford, Zegura, The Road to SDNSIGCOMM CCR 20143 Tue
B8Kazemian, Varghese, McKeown, Header Space AnalysisNSDI 20123 Thu
B9Ware et al., Beyond Jain’s Fairness IndexHotNets 20194 Tue
B10Langley et al., QUIC at Google: Deployed at ScaleSIGCOMM 20174 Thu
B11Al-Fares, Loukissas, Vahdat, Scalable Commodity Datacenter ArchitectureSIGCOMM 20085 Tue
B12Alizadeh et al., DCTCP: Data Center TCPSIGCOMM 20105 Thu
B13Narayanan et al., Efficient LLM Training: Megatron-LMSC 20216 Tue
B14Barroso, Hölzle, Ranganathan, The Datacenter as a Computer (power ch.)Book 20196 Thu
B15Schomp et al., Akamai DNSSIGCOMM 20207 Tue
B16Michel et al., Analyzing Starlink from the GroundSIGCOMM 20227 Thu
B17Krishnan & Sitaraman, Video Stream Quality Impacts Viewer BehaviorIMC 20128 Tue
B18Cardwell et al., BBR: Congestion-Based Congestion ControlACM Queue 20168 Thu
B19Dingledine, Mathewson, Syverson, Tor: The Second-Generation Onion RouterUSENIX Sec. 20049 Tue
B20Goldberg, Schapira, Hummon, Rexford, How Secure Are Secure Routing Protocols?SIGCOMM 20109 Thu
B21Schlinker et al., Engineering Egress with Edge FabricSIGCOMM 201710 Tue

Research papers (blog post required)

#PaperVenueWeek
R1Misa, Willinger, Durairajan, Rejaie — Internet InvariantsNINeS 20261 Thu
R2Baltra, Saluja, Pradkin, Heidemann — Partial Reachability in the Internet CoreNINeS 20262 Tue
R3Arzani et al. — Raha: Analyzing WAN DegradationSIGCOMM 20252 Thu
R4Liu, Xiao, Zhang et al. — Unlocking ECMP ProgrammabilityNSDI 20253 Tue
R5Li, Zhang, Zhang, Yang — NDD: Network Decision Diagram (Outstanding Paper)NSDI 20253 Thu
R6McClure, Dukkipati, Ratnasamy, Shenker — No Signal to Rule Them AllNINeS 20264 Tue
R7Mücke, Nawrocki, Hiesgen et al. — Waiting for QUICCoNEXT 20254 Thu
R8Straussman, Keslassy, Shpiner, Liss — Simulate Before SendingNINeS 20265 Tue
R9Li, Liu, Zhang et al. — Revisiting RDMA Reliability (Best Student Paper HM)SIGCOMM 20255 Thu
R10Shou, Liu, Nie et al. — InfiniteHBD: Optical Circuit Switching for LLMSIGCOMM 20256 Tue
R11Xu, Sun, Tian, Zhang, Chen — GREEN: Carbon-Efficient Scheduling for ML ClustersNSDI 20256 Thu
R12Bharadwaj, Ma, Liang, Farb, Rowe, Seshan — OpenFLAME: Federated Spatial NamingNINeS 20267 Tue
R13Lai, Li, Wu et al. — LeoCC: CC Robust to LEO DynamicsSIGCOMM 20257 Thu
R14Karimi, Fouladi, Sivaraman, Alizadeh — Tight Loops, Smooth StreamsNINeS 20268 Tue
R15Larrea, Shreedhar, Niemi, Sefiane, Marina — BISCAY: Radio KPI Driven CCNINeS 20268 Thu
R16Ikram, Habib, Ali, Uzmi — Don’t get caught, keep your Onions in a VaultNINeS 20269 Tue
R17Sengupta, Kim, Jubas, Apostolaki, Rexford — Passive Telemetry for BGP HijacksNINeS 20269 Thu
R18Kumar, Bustamante, Flores — Who Holds the Steering Wheel?NINeS 202610 Tue