CSE 561 Computer Networks

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The projects are design-oriented. While they are modeled on a research process, no original research is required. Your goal is to use a project to (i) explore an area, (ii) develop a design of your own, drawing on the material you learn in the class and elsewhere, (iii) use a prototype to evaluate the tradeoffs in your design, and (iv) report on your design rationale and learnings. The projects are to be done in teams of two.

Project Ideas

Visible light networking. Many computing devices now have cameras and displays. Together, they can serve as a fairly high-bandwidth, secure communication channel. Develop a visible light network system.

A better remote desktop. Remote desktop protocols support a remote display, as well as input. Data de-duplication technology cuts out redundant transfers. Combine these ideas into a better remote desktop application.

Short-circuit email. Email often follows a circuitous path, from client to server and sometimes back to a computer right next to the client when people are working together. Develop an email system that short-circuits unnecessary transfers but integrates with and retains the familiar semantics of traditional email.

Audio wireless network setup. Visitors to a shop, office or house often need password information to use the local wireless network. Develop a system that uses background music or other sounds to convey this keying information, so that visitors can easily access the local wireless network.

EZPass without batteries. EZPass, probably the most widely-used electronic toll collection system for vehicles, uses a small powered transponder unit. Develop an EZPass that works with passive RFID tags (e.g., the WISP).

RFID MAC for intermittently powered devices. To support power hungry computation and sensing, emerging RFID-based devices duty cycle between awake and sleep states. However, current RFID MAC protocols assume devices are "always on". Using the RFIDSim simulator, design and implement an RFID MAC protocol for intermittently powered devices.

Mesh 802.11 networking. A relay can sometimes connect a client to an AP with better performance than the client can get by talking to the AP directly. Use a programmable router or testbed to see how often this is true in practice and design a system to cut over to relays when they are beneficial.

Router health monitoring. Network operators are often unaware of developing problems in their networks until they have caused widespread loss or disconnectivity. Preliminary hand investigations suggest we may be able to preemptively detect problems by detecting anomalies in the number of packets a router is sending, using them as distress signals. Use monitoring tools already in place to develop models of normal and anomalous behavior. We have contacts that will allow you to get feedback from actual operators on the results of your system.

Final Projects

Ryder Ziola, William Webb, "Visible Light Networking with QR Codes"

Ting-You Wang, Ting-Yen Wang, "Analyzing CRFIDs in Simulation"

Hardeep Uppal, Dane Brandon, "OpenFlow Based Load Balancing"

Francis Iannacci, Yanping Huang, "ChirpCast: Data Transmission via Audio"

Franziska Roesner, Ivayla Dermendjieva, "HTTP-Level Deduplication with HTML5"

Avanish Kushal, Prasang Upadhyaya , "An Ack Based Visible-Light Data Transmission Protocol"

Peter Hornyack, Nicholas Hunt, "Boomerang: Acoustic Fingerprinting for Network Access Control"

Juliet Bernstein, Josh Goodwin , "Subliminal: A System for Augmenting Images with Steganography"