CSE 709
Selected Topics in Cellular
Networking
Dimitrios Koutsonikolas
January 27, 2016
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/faculty/dimitrio/courses/cse709_s16/index.html
Instructor
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/faculty/dimitrio/
• Assistant Professor, CSE
• Research interests: experimental
wireless/mobile networks and systems
• Office: 311 Davis Hall
• Office hours: Tuesday 11:00-12:00, or by
appointment (use email)
• Email: dimitrio@buffalo.edu
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Time and Location
• Lectures
– Wednesday, 5:00-7:30 PM, Davis 113
• Presentation preparation meetings
– Tuesday, 11:00-12:00, Davis 311
– More on this later
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Important URLs
• Course website (notes, slides, etc.)
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/faculty/dimitrio/courses/cse709_s16/index.html
• Piazza (questions, discussions, announcements)
https://piazza.com/buffalo/spring2016/cse709/home
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Course Overview
• A selection of topics in cellular networking
• Systems/practical perspective
• Mix of current practice and advanced research
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Topics
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3G/4G performance and energy consumption
Cross-layer interactions
Control plane interaction
Mobile data charging
WiFi offloading
Multipath TCP
Congestion
Bandwidth estimation
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Course Objectives
• Learn state-of-the-art in cellular networking
• Discuss challenges and opportunities in cellular
networking research
• Identify open research problems for further study
(for interested students)
• Learn/practice 2 essential skills of doing research
– How to read/review a research paper
– How to present a research paper
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Prerequisites
• Strong background in computer/wireless
networking
– CSE 589 or CSE 630 or equivalent
• If you haven’t taken any of the prerequisites,
arrange for a meeting with me this week!
• Send me email including
– Brief description of your relevant background
– Why you want to take this seminar
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Course Workload
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Read papers
Write paper reviews
Present 1 paper
Present 1 related work summary (3 credits)
Participate in class discussions
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Class Format
• Discuss one topic each week
– Mandatory paper (everyone reads before class!)
– Optional papers
• One student presents mandatory paper for 11.5 hours
• Another student summarizes optional papers
and leads topic discussion for remaining 1 hour
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(Tentative) Grading
1 credit
3 credits
• Paper presentation: 45%
• Paper presentation: 25%
• Paper reviews (3): 30%
• Related work survey: 20%
• Class participation: 30%
• Paper reviews (5): 30%
– Discussions: 20%
– Classmate evaluation: 10%
– No credit for simply showing
up!
• Class participation: 30%
– Discussions: 20%
– Classmate evaluation: 10%
– No credit for simply showing
up!
The final grade is S/U. To receive an S grade, you
have to score at least 70%
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Reading Papers
• 11 mandatory papers
– Everyone has to read
• Recommended reading: “How to Read a
paper”, S. Keshav
• 3-pass approach
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The 3-Pass Approach
• Pass 1: the 5 C’s
– Category
– Context
– Correctness
– Contribution
– Clarity
• Pass 2: identify key points
• Pass 3: virtually recreate the paper
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Writing Reviews I
• Format on the website
1.Contributions (What are the major issues addressed in the paper? Do
you consider them important? Comment on the novelty, creativity, and
technical depth of the paper.)
2.Briefly summarize the main ideas/the approach to the solution.
3.What are the paper's strengths? Be brief.
4.What are the paper's weaknesses? Be brief.
5.Comment on the paper's evaluation methodology.
6.Are there any issues/directions this work left open? List a few possible
extensions of this work.
7.Any other comments/questions.
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Writing Reviews II
• Email the reviews to me by 08:59am on
Wednesdays!
– txt only
– Late reviews will not be accepted!
• You have to submit 3/5 reviews (your choice)
– You cannot choose the papers you are presenting
• Will post best 2-3 reviews every time online
• NO CHEATING!!!!!
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Review Grading
• 2 points = excellent
– Typically top 2-3 reviews
• 1.5 points = good
• 1 point = OK
– Limited depth/creativity, did not answer 1-2 questions
• 0.5 points = have to try harder!
• Final score multiplied x5 (1 credit) or x3 (3 credits)
• You can submit more than 3/5 reviews, the 3/5
best will count
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Paper Presentations
• Prepare power point/pdf slides
• Lead discussion for around 1-1.5 hours
– 60 min talk + questions/discussions
• OK to use other people’s slides but
– Acknowledge them!!!
– Adapt them
• A conference talk is different from a seminar talk!
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Paper Presentations II
• To better prepare for the presentation
– Read presentation guidelines
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/faculty/dimitrio/courses/cse709_s16/material/guidelines.html
– Answer talk preparation questions (email them to
me 7 days before your presentation)
– Schedule a meeting with me the week before your
presentation
– During my officer hours (T, 11:00-12:00)
• Send me your slides before the meeting
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Talk Preparation Questions I
• A. Analyze the paper
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What is the problem?
What is the motivation?
Required background/context
Paper’s key points
Experimental methods/design
Most important results. Any unexpected results?
Authors’ conclusions.
Implications, impact on future work
Any weaknesses?
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Talk Preparation Questions II
• B. Adapt paper for your audience
– Why should the audience be interested in this topic?
– What do they already know?
– What terms/definitions will be new?
– Which key points/definitions will be most difficult to grasp?
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Presentation Guidelines
• Rule 0: Understand the paper, identify key points, think
how to adapt for audience
• Rule 1: Have a slide very early on that states the key
points of the paper
• Rule 2: Structure rest of talk around key points
• Rule 3: Explain purpose of experiments, experimental
setup, results, conclusions drawn
• Rule 4: Two parts in your talk
– 1st part: present paper as author
– 2nd part: your critique
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Presentation Guidelines (Slides)
• Rule 5: Use a big letter size!
• Rule 6: Do not clutter your slides!
• Rule 7: Pictures are almost always better than text
• Rule 8: A slide should never try to convey more than a
single concept
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Presentation Guidelines (Preparation)
• Rule 9: Do at least a couple of dry-runs
• Rule 10: Think of possible questions, prepare back-up
slides
• Rule 11: To memorize or not?
– Memorizing the first few slides often helps…
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Presentation Guidelines (On the Stage)
• Rule 12: Make it look like you are having a good time
• Rule 13: Make sure the audience can always see the
screen
• Rule 14: Do not try too hard to be funny
• Rule 15: Maintain eye contact with the audience
• Presentation evaluation
– Done by classmates!
– Counts towards class participation!
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Peer evaluations
• After each paper presentation
– Fill in the form at the end of each class
– I will send a summary to presenter(s) along with my
evaluation
– Presenter does not see who wrote what
– No offensive comments!
• Your evaluations do not affect the grade of the
presenters!
– Be honest!
• Your evaluations affect your grade!
– Take them seriously!
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How Do I Describe a Graph?
• It is the presenter’s task to explain the graph and the
conclusions drawn to the audience!
• Describe x, y axis
• Describe points, lines, bars, error bars, etc.
• Describe conclusions
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Throughput (Mbps)
How Do I Describe a Graph?
Protocol A
Protocol B
Offered Load (Mbps)
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Related Work Survey
• Summarize 2-4 papers
– Optional papers in reading list
– Any other relevant paper you find (but ask me first!)
• Use slides (highly recommended)
– Only main ideas, no details
• Lead discussion on topic of the week
• Discuss with presenter of mandatory paper
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Class Participation
• Very important!!!
• Attend classes, participate in discussions (in class and
online), express your opinion, ask questions
• Be critical
– No paper is perfect!
• Be creative
– Think of alternative solutions/possible extensions
• Feel free to share ideas, questions, articles on cellular
networking etc. on piazza
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Academic Integrity
• No tolerance on cheating/plagiarism!!!
– 0 in the particular assignment on 1st attempt
– Fail the course, report to the department on 2nd
– Consult the University Statements on Academic Integrity:
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/shared/policies/academic.php.
• Students who share the work with others are as
responsible for academic dishonesty as those
receiving the material
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Academic Integrity II
• Paper presentations
– You can use any material found online (except past CSE
630/701/708 slides) as long as you acknowledge them
– E.g., in your last slide: “Many slides were borrowed from
…”, or use footnotes in each slide
• Paper reviews
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You cannot use any online material!
Reading/discussing papers in groups is encouraged
The reviews have to be written individually!!!
A zero grade due to cheating will be included in the list of
graded reviews!
– A second zero = fail the course
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Assignment 0
• Read “How to Read a Paper”
• Decide whether you are staying or not
• Pick up your preferred topics
– 1st and 2nd choice for presentation
– 1st and 2nd choice for related work (have to be
different from presentation topics)
– Post your choices on piazza by Friday
– FCFS – check piazza before you choose
– We need volunteers for the first topic 
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Questions?
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