Systems Ph.D. Networking Qualifying Exam in Computer Science

Details and Reading List, Spring 2010

This is the official web page for the 2010 Networking Qual (part of the CS Systems Quals). It is the only official web page describing the exam.

2010 is the first year the Networking Qualifying Exam is being offered on its own (in previous years it was combined with Distributed Systems). Below are some tips on how to prepare, and a couple of example questions (taken from the CS244 Final in 2009).

Before you start preparing for the Networking Qualifying Exam, make sure you are broadly familiar with the concepts taught in CS144, and the textbook: Kurose and Ross, Computer Networks: A Top-down Approach. Prentice-Hall, 5th edition. You won't be tested on the specifics in the textbook; so if you have taken an equivalent class at your undergraduate school with a similar textbook (e.g. Peterson and Davie) you should have the sufficient foundation to start preparing for the exam.

The Networking Qualifying Exam has the same reading list as CS244 -- a discussion-based graduate networking class offered in Winter quarter. In the Qual exam we'll be looking for signs that: (1) You understand the key concepts and principles in the papers, (2) You are able to critically review the key ideas, and (3) You are able draw meaningful conclusions from the work; for example, that you can suggest improvements and areas for further study. The exam won't be testing your ability to regurgitate details, header formats and other minutiae.

You can find the Quals/CS244 reading list here: http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs244/timetable.html (Note you are NOT required to read the papers marked optional in the reading list)

Example Questions

1. Internet mobility
   • Mobile IP allows users to move from one part of the network to another, while keeping the same IP address. Describe how Mobile IP works.
   • Describe some of the shortcomings of Mobile IP, and suggest some ways to mitigate the problems.
2. If you can't beat them, join them.
   It has been proposed that internet service providers (ISPs) could reduce costs by installing P2P? "supernodes" in their networks. These nodes would download and mirror the most popular files of P2P? networks. P2P? users of the ISPs would primarily download content from these nodes inside the ISP's network. The result for the ISP would be that most of the traffic that is generated by downloading this content would stay inside the ISP's network, and the ISP would not have to pay transfer cost to carriers or other ISPs.
   
   Assume these ISP operated P2P? nodes become widespread. How would you modify BitTorrent? to take maximum advantage of this development?
   
   Is it a good idea?

Format

Scheduling