Fall 2015
Instructor: Dr. Cliff Zou (HEC 243), 407-823-5015, czou@cs.ucf.edu
Course Time: MoWe 12:00pm – 1:15pm , ENG1-384
Office Hour: MoWe 10:15am-11:45am
Prerequisite: Senior standing or graduate student. Knowledge on probability and statistics. Knowledge on a computer networking course (such as CNT3004 or CNT4704).
Syllabus: (PDF Syllabus)
This course
provides an introduction to the techniques and tools needed to
construct and analyze performance models of computer systems and
communication networks. Such skills are indispensable for
research-related careers. After finishing this course, a student
will: (1). Obtain the fundamental theoretical analysis
techniques including probability, stochastic and queuing network
techniques; (2). Be able to use several useful simulation and
modeling tools, such as Matlab and NS2, to conduct basic
performance modeling and network simulation tasks; and (3).
Understand how to conduct their own performance analysis in the
future by learning many classic examples of performance analysis
in real-world computer and networking applications.
In order to let students truly learn through this
course useful knowledge and techniques in the long term, this
course emphasizes on student involvement by focusing on
experiments and programming projects. In order not to put heavy
workload on students, the course will assign fewer handwritten
homework, has no final exam (replaced by term project on
experiment and programming), and let 2 students form as one
group in most projects.
The tentative outline of this course is:
1. Review of probability and stochastic theory.
2. Basic queuing theory.
3. Performance simulation and modeling tools (such
as NS2 and Matlab).
4. Discrete-time and continous-time simulation
techniques.
5. Case study of performance evaluation of some
real-world applications (such as BitTorrent simulation and
evaluation, Internet worm modeling and simulation).
Course Materials:
Reference
textbooks:
1. Introduction to Probability Models, Ninth
Edition by Sheldon M. Ross.
2. Simulation, fouth edition by Sheldon M. Ross.
Reference resources:
1. Course: CMPSCI673 -
Performance Evaluation, by Don Towsley, UMass.
2. Course: COMS6180
- Modeling
and Performance Evaluation, by Visal Misra, Columbia
University.
Online
Video Streaming:
We will use UCF new Panopto system. Each
lecture’s video
will be posted online about two hours after the corresponding
face-to-face
lecture time. You can find the link to the Panopto video on
webcourse left side
main course menu panel. We will also use WebCourse for student
discussions,
questions and answers, homework/project assignment and
submission.
Grading Policy:
The final grade will use +/- policy, i.e., you may get A, A-, B+, B, B- … grade.
Coursework Approx amount approx %
written
homework
1
15%
Programming projects
5
65%
midterm exam (open book) 1
20%