Topics for Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination

Area 1: Computer Networks

  • Application Layer: Principles of Network Applications, The Web and HTTP, File Transfer: FTP, Electronic Mail in the Internet, DNS—The Internet's Directory Service, Peer-to-Peer Applications.

     

  • Transport Layer: Connectionless Transport: UDP, Principles of Reliable Data Transfer, Connection-Oriented Transport: TCP, Principles of Congestion Control, TCP Congestion Control.

     

  • Network Layer: Virtual Circuit and Datagram Networks, The Internet Protocol (IP), Addressing and Subnetting, Routing Algorithms, Internet Routing Protocols, Spanning Tree Algorithms, Principles of Mobility Management and Mobile IP.

     

  • Link Layer and Local Area Networks: Services and Multiple Access Protocols, ARQ strategies, analysis of ARQ strategies, Ethernet: 802.3, Wi-Fi: 802.11 Wireless LANs.

 

  • Delay Models in Data Networks (Ref: 2, Chapter 12):
  • Little's theorem, Single and multiple servers queuing models, Network of queues (Jackson's theorem).

References:

  1. Computer Networks by Andrew Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall; 5 edition, 2010.
  2. Probability, Statistics, and Random Processes for Electrical Engineering by L. Garcia, Prentice Hall; 3rd edition, 2008.

 

     Area 2: Computer Networks Security

     

    • Cryptography: Core principles of cryptography, Symmetric encryption: Classical ciphers, DES, AES, Cipher modes of operation, Integrity mechanisms, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), Cryptographic hash functions.
    • Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Digital Signatures: RSA algorithm, Public key certificates and the X.509 standard, Message digests, Symmetric and asymmetric (public key) digital signatures, Certificate authorities and trust models, Attacks on digital signature schemes.
    • Security Protocols: Simple authentication mechanisms, Real-world security protocols (Kerberos, SSL/TLS, IPsec, SSH), Protocol vulnerabilities and known attacks.
    • Principles of access control, user authentication, and authorization 

    References:

    1. Information Security: Principles and Practice by Mark Stamp, Wiley, 2nd Edition, 2011.
    2. Understanding Cryptography: A Textbook for Students and Practitioners by Christof Paar and Jan Pelzl, Springer, 1st Edition, 2010.

     Area 3: Digital Systems Design

     

    • Fundamentals of Digital System Design: Combinational and sequential logic, Moore and Mealy machines, Datapath and control unit design.

       

    • Hardware Modeling and Hardware Description Language: Design hierarchy, partitioning, and top-down design. Modeling constructs—structural, behavioral, and RTL models. Modeling iterative/regular structures and test benches. Design organization and parameterization. HDL coding for synthesis.

       

    • High-Level Synthesis: Data flow and control sequencing graphs, data-flow-based transformations (optimizations), architectural synthesis, resources and constraints, scheduling, time-constrained scheduling, resource-constrained scheduling. Heuristic scheduling algorithms such as list scheduling. Allocation and binding, resource sharing, register sharing. Datapath and control unit synthesis. Pipelining.

    References:

    1. M. D. Ciletti, "Advanced Digital Design with the Veilog HDL," (Prntic Hall), 2/e 2010.
    2. Synthesis and Optimization of Digital Ciruits – Giovanni De Micheli, MGrw Hill Intenational Edition, ISBN –0-07-113271-6, 1994. (Chaptes 4-6).

     Area 4: Computer Architecture

     

    • Fundamentals of Quantitative Design and Analysis
      • Evaluation Metrics: Performance, Power & Energy, and Area & Cost.
      • Summarizing Performance and Benchmarking; geometric/harmonic means, calculating speedups, normalizing performance.

         

    • Computer Architecture Trends:
      • Yield, Moore’s Law, Dennard Scaling, and Memory Wall.’ISA (MIPS Architecture)
      • ISA classifications
      • ISA design: encoding, decoding, formats, and addressing modes.
      • Functions and Function Calling Convention (Supporting Nested-Function Call)
      • Program IO (System Calls)
      • Pointers and Multi-Dimensional Arrays.
      • Programming Algorithms in Assembly Language: From Pseudo-Code to Assembly.

         

    • Computer Organization and Architecture
      • CPU Performance Analysis (Iron Law of Processor Performance)
      • Single Cycle Microarchitecture
      • Multicycle Microarchitecture
      • Pipelined Microarchitecture
      • Instruction Level Parallelism (ILP)
      • Superscalar CPU (multiple issue, VLIW)
      • Static Scheduling Techniques: Increasing Dependency Distance, Loop Unrolling, Software Pipelining.
      • Dynamic Scheduling Algorithms: Score boarding, Tomasulo’s algorithm.
      • Speculative Execution
      • Branch Prediction: local BP, global BP, and Tournament.
      • Handling Hazards (for all architectures)
      • Precise Exception vs. Imprecise Exceptions: Defining and Supporting Precise Exceptions.

         

    • Caches and Memory
      • Cache Organization
      • Cache Performance: Efficacy and Quantifying Performance.
      • Cache Impact on CPU Performance
      • Virtual Memory: Motivation, Support, Management, and Impact on CPU Performance.

    References:

    1. Hennessy & Patterson, Computer organization and design: hardware/software interface, latest edition.
    2. Hennessey & Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, latest edition.
    3. David Money Harris & Sarah L. Harris, “Digital Design and Computer Architecture,” Latest MIPS Edition.