CS756 I --  Parallel and Distributed Computing:
		 High-Performance Internet Systems and Applications
			       Winter term: 1998-1999


       1.  Instructor

       Tim Brecht,  Office DC 3508,  email: brecht@cs.uwaterloo.ca.
       Course URL:  http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~brecht/756.

       2.  Introduction

       Recent  research suggests that it is no longer the underlying computer
       systems or the networks that are roadblocks to high-performance Inter-
       net  applications  but  the  software.  In this course we will examine
       existing Internet systems and applications and their  performance  and
       hopefully develop new techniques that will enable such systems to bet-
       ter exploit modern high-speed networks.	Possible  topics  of  discus-
       sion,  readings,	 and  study  are:  widely  used and emerging Internet
       applications, web proxies,  caching,  high-speed	 networks,  operating
       systems, disk architecture, file systems, and experimental design.

       3.  Organizational Meeting

       Tuesday, January 5, 1:00 pm in DC 3307 to determine class times.
       If you can not attend this meeting please send me email.

       4.  Evaluation

       The student evaluation for this course will be based on class partici-
       pation, written summaries of the course readings,  a  course  project,
       and  project  presentation  (with  the  majority	 of  the weight being
       assigned to the course project).	 There may be a final  exam  in	 this
       course (but I'd prefer not to have one).

       5.  Prerequisites

       General	prerequisites, including CS 354, a good understanding of net-
       working and operating systems concepts, with strong C  and  UNIX	 pro-
       gramming,  testing,  and	 debugging  skills.   CS 454 is highly recom-
       mended.	Experience with writing sockets code and working  with	large
       software	 systems written by other people will definitely be an asset.

       6.  Course Readings

       There will be several course readings assigned.	 They  will  be	 made
       available  through the course web page or handed out in class.  A num-
       ber of classes will focus on two or three papers.  For  these  classes
       you  are expected to hand in a summary of each paper (no more than 1/2
       page) stating:

       1)   the most important contributions of the paper and

       2)   the most serious problems with the paper.

       The purpose of these summaries is to encourage you to  understand  and
       evaluate	 the  papers  before  class and to think critically about the
       papers.









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       7.  Projects

       Ideally the project involves evaluating and improving the  performance
       of  an  existing	 Internet  system or application.  Group projects are
       possible and encouraged and ideally  two	 or  more  projects  will  be
       related	and  at	 the  end  of  the  term  can be demonstrated working
       together.