Graduate Program in Computer Networks and Distributed Systems

Computer Networks and Distributed Computing is a major area of research and study in the Graduate Program of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Delaware. With five full-time faculty, networking research has been a prominent part of the Department's activities, and a focal point of collaboration with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. As a result, the Networking group has been able to utilize the combined resources of the two Departments, taking advantage of each one's strengths. This interaction was highlighted by a Federated Research Laboratory in Telecommunications/Information Distribution (ATIRP), involving the U.S. Army Research Laboratories and a consortium of industrial and academic partners, including the University of Delaware CIS and ECE Departments. During 1996-2001, this award brought more than $1.6 million to our department (and a like amount to ECE), and supported a wide range of networking research. The combination of resources in the CIS Department and the ECE Department provide an environment that is most conducive to making the University of Delaware one of the top networking research centers in the country.

For the period 2001-2009, the CISC and ECE Departments now are part of a new U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Collaborative Technology Alliance (CTA) in Communications and Networking. The Army Research Laboratory's strategy is to exploit commercial technology and expertise by establishing industrial/academic consortia that work closely with ARL scientists and engineers to help fulfill critical Army modernization objectives.  This CTA brings together seventeen university and industrial partners to collaborate in four general research areas: Survivable Wireless Mobile Networks, Signal Processing for Communications-on-the-Move, Secure Jam-Resistant Communications, and Tactical Information Protection. Principal investigators directing UD's research effort are CISC Professors Paul Amer, Errol Lloyd, and Adarsh Sethi, and ECE Professors Gonzalo Arce and Charles Boncelet. Additional participating faculty include: CIS Professors Lori Pollock, and Chien-Chung Shen, and ECE Professors Javier Garcia-Frias, and Xiang Gen Xia.

The Army has allocated $76.3M for the Communications and Networking Alliance. Of this total, CISC and ECE equally share $5-6M, and support approximately fourteen graduate research assistants per year.  This CTA grant represents the largest single contract the CIS Department has ever received. Being part of the winning alliance proposal demonstrates how strongly and how successfully the CIS and EE collaborate. The two departments have worked closely ever since they received an NSF equipment grant in 1985 to establish a joint EE-CIS computing facility connecting three DEC VAX machines with one of the world's first Ethernets.

The current major thrusts of the Department's networking research are in the areas of Transport Layer Services and Protocols (e.g., SCTP); Network management; Flow and congestion control; Protocols for packet radio and wireless environments; High performance computing; Wireless communication and sensor networks; Network security; Performance modeling and analysis; and Multimedia data compression.

CIS Networking Faculty

·         Paul D. Amer, Distinguished Alumni Professor (PhD, Ohio State) (joint appointment with ECE): Transport layer services and protocols; SCTP; Data compression in multimedia.  (amer@cis.udel.edu)

·         Jelena Mirkovic, Assistant Professor (PhD, UCLA): Network security; Fault-tolerant and survivable networks; Protocol optimization and evaluation. (sunshine@cis.udel.edu)

·         Adarshpal S. Sethi, Professor (PhD, IIT Kanpur): Network management protocols and architectures, Fault management and diagnosis. Quality-of-service and congestion management. Mobility management for wireless networks.  (sethi@cis.udel.edu)

·         Chien-Chung Shen, Assistant Professor (PhD, UCLA): Network management and control; Wireless communication; Sensor networks; Simulation.  (cshen@cis.udel.edu)

·         D. Martin Swany, Assistant Professor, (PhD, U. California, Santa Barbara): High performance networking; data and computational logistics; grid computing; clustering; performance modeling. (swany@cis.udel.edu)

CIS Faculty with Networking Interests

• Errol L. Lloyd, Professor (PhD, MIT): Algorithmic issues in ad-hoc networks;  Recent topics include topology control and transmission scheduling issues. (elloyd@cis.udel.edu)
• Lori L. Pollock, Professor (PhD, Pittsburgh): Ensuring integrity of mobile software. (pollock@cis.udel.edu)
• John Scoggin, Adjunct Assistant Professor: Wireless networks; System administration; Telecommunications. (scoggin@cis.udel.edu)

ECE Networking Faculty with Joint Appointments in CIS

• Stephen Bohacek, Assistant Professor, ECE and CIS (PhD, U Southern California): Congestion control; Robust routing; Ad-hoc networks; Traffic analysis; Security. (bohacek@ece.udel.edu)
• Charles Boncelet, Professor, ECE and CIS (PhD, Princeton): Nonlinear filtering; Image processing; Computer networking; Data compression; Multimedia; Information distribution. (boncelet@ece.udel.edu)
• David Mills, Professor, ECE and CIS (PhD, Michigan): Network time protocol; Internetwork architectures; Multimedia message systems; Gateway protocols. (mills@ece.udel.edu)

ECE Faculty with Networking Interests

• Gonzalo R. Arce, Charles Black Evans Professor, ECE (PhD, Purdue): Nonlinear signal and image processing; Internet and wireless congestion control; Information security.  (arce@ece.udel.edu)

Curriculum

CISC 650 - Computer Networks
CISC 651 - Data Compression in Multimedia
CISC 652 - Telecommunications Systems
CISC 659 - Simulation of Computer Networks
CISC 659 - Ad-hoc Sensor Networks
CISC 659 - Topics in Communications, Distributed Computing and Networks
CISC 664 - Network Security
CISC 852 - Network Performance
CISC 853 - Network Management
CISC 856 - TCP/IP & Upper Layer Protocols
CISC 859 - Advanced Topics: Internet Protocols and Technologies
CISC 861 - Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing
CISC 864 - Advanced Computer Network Security
ECE  867 - Special Topics in Computer Networks and Distributed Computing