Last Updated: 30 Aug 2006

20 things networks students should read
CS470/570 Site

G.W. Cox Home Page
Computer networking is a broad, fast-changing field. If you're serious about understanding it, you have to commit to serious study.

The place to begin is a good overview textbook. Tanenbaum's Computer Networks is a classic text, not only because it covers the field, but also because it's an easy read; (be sure you get the 4th edition). I also like Peterson and Davie's overview text: Computer Networks: A Systems Approach. Stallings' Wireless Communications and Networks is a good text for an overview of wireless networking.

But you can't stay current in a rapidly-evolving field like networking by reading textbooks. You need to develop the habit of regularly searching out and studying technical publications. Some of the ones that I think are important are listed on my Reading List web page. Below, I've listed the twenty of them that I think are "must reads" for anyone who wants to really understand the field, where it's been, and where it may be going.

These lists are a community project. As you study networking, you will find other papers that you believe should be on the Reading List or on the "Top 20" list. When you do, let me know and I'll consider adding them.

Many of these papers are available on line. If you want to read one the ones that aren't on line, see me for a copy.

Not all of these will be assigned for class reading. I'll let you know which ones are.

GWC

  1. By the time the Internet was born, the telecommunications industry had already been doing automated switching for almost a century. Here's a history:A. Joel, "The Past 100 Years in Telecommunications Switching", IEEE Communications Magazine, vol 22, no 5, pp. 64-70, May 1984. This paper is available from IEEExplore through the UAH library web page.

  2. If you are looking for someone who "invented the Internet", Cerf and Kahn -- the developers of TCP/IP -- are a pretty good choice. Here's their original paper: V. Cerf and R. Kahn, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication", IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol COM-22, no 5, May 1974.

  3. Vint Cerf is one of a handful who have worked on the Internet from before the beginning. Here's his recollections of the early days: V. Cerf, "How the Internet Came To Be", in The Online User's Encyclopedia, by Bernard Aboba, Addison-Wesley, November 1993, ISBN 0-201-62214-9.

  4. This is one of the fundamental papers on the design of computer-based systems. The "end-to-end" idea was used heavily in the design of the Internet: J.Saltzer, D.Reed, and D.Clark, "End-to-End Arguments in System Design", ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 2(4):195-206, 1984.

  5. Seventeen years after the "end-to-end" paper, Clark had second thoughts about how the Internet should be designed: M. Blumenthal and D.Clark, "Rethinking the design of the Internet: The end to end arguments vs. the brave new world", Workshop on Policy Implications of End-to-End. December 2001. `

  6. Many people know how the Internet works. Clark knows why it works that way: D.Clark, "The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols", Proc. ACM SIGCOMM `88, Stanford, CA, August 1988, Vol. 18, No. 4.

  7. One of the philosophical struggles in networking during the last 30 years has been between the phone system traditionalists (circuit-switching) and the packet-switching camp. This article is biased, but does a pretty good job of discussing the conflict: S. Steinberg, "Netheads vs. Bellheads", Wired Magazine, 4.10, Oct 1996.

  8. It wasn't always known that protocols should be modular. Clark was one of the first to discuss it: D.Clark, "RFC 817: Modularity and Efficiency in Protocol Implementation", IETF, Jul 1982.

  9. Metcalf is usually credited as the person who invented Ethernet. Here is the first paper about it: B. Metcalfe and D. Boggs, "ETHERNET: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Area Networks", Communications of the ACM, Vol. 19, No. 7, pp. 395-404, 1976.

  10. After Ethernet had become popular, Boggs published his thoughts on some of the "myths" about it. D. Boggs, J. Mogul and C. Kent, "Measured Capacity of an Ethernet: Myths and Reality", Proc. ACM SIGCOMM `88, Stanford CA, August 1988, Vol. 18, No. 4.

  11. You probably know Shannon as the "father of information theory". You might also know that he gets credit for observing that Boolean Algebra could be used for digital logic. But did you know he could juggle and ride a unicycle? (Actually, he could juggle while riding a unicycle). J. Pierce, "Looking Back: Claude Elwood Shannon", IEEE Potentials, pp.38-40, Dec. 1993. This paper is available from IEEExplore through the UAH library web page.

  12. The design of network equipment is a significant endeavor. Here's an overview of a high-speed router development C. Partridge et.al., "A 50-Gb/s IP Router", IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 6, no 3., pp. 237-247, June 1998.

  13. Just because everybody knows a thing, it doesn't mean that it's true. Everybody "knew" that network traffic was Poisson distributed until someone investigated it."On the Self-Similar Nature of Ethernet Traffic", Proc.ACM SIGCOMM '93, 1993.

  14. Before the end of your career, you may look back on wired networks as antique curiousities. This article is a little dated, but it gives an idea of where we stand in wireless development. Q. Bi, G. Zysman and H. Menkes, "Wireless Mobile Communications at the Start of the 21st Century", IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 39, pp. 110-116, Jan 2001.

  15. The Internet wasn't designed with mobile elements in mind. It's a big deal to integrate them in. C. Perkins, "Mobile Networking in the Internet", Mobile Networks and Applications, vol. 3, pp. 319-334, 1998.

  16. Not specifically about network security, but these ideas apply to networks, too. B. Lampson, "Computer Security in the Real World", Proc. Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), 2000.

  17. The orginal implementation of TCP "broke" under congestion. Here's how they fixed it. V. Jacobson and M. Karels, "Congestion Avoidance and Control", Proc. ACM SIGCOMM '88, 1988.

  18. Adding QoS to the Internet has been a hot topic for many years. Here's one of the foundation papers about it. R. Braden, D. Clark, and S. Shenker, "RFC 1633: Integrated Services in the Internet Architecture: an Overview", IETF, June 1994.

  19. It sure helps to have a glossary of networking terms. This is Novell's: Novell Inc, Networking Glossary.

  20. Networking is a fast-changing field. To keep up, you need to read the news at least once a week. Network Magazine is a good starting place." CMP United Business Media. Network Magazine