Hello All,

I have received about 46 responses to my email. I am quite thrilled
with the overall enthusiasm and hope to live up to it. Many have
raised questions about what the activities of the group are and what
is to be expected. Let me answer these questions first.

Unlike what some people thought, a network reading group is not a
"research group".  We are "not" going to work on projects, conduct
research and solve problems. The objective of the group is to derive a
better understanding of networking concepts. I hope to achieve this by
identifying a seminal conference/journal paper and presenting the same
in the group with an emphasis on basic principles. In that way, this
is more of a teaching program than research. Though, one should always
find these concepts very useful when conducting research aswell. All
are welcome to attend the meetings subject to room capacity -- there
is no admission procedure.

Every week, I will suggest a paper that will be discussed in the
group.  The papers mostly focus on wired computer networking concepts
out of which 2 are in the wireless domain (To appreciate wireless
networks better, once has to be clear on wired network
principles. Hence more focus on wired networks). Most papers are
concept papers supported through actual implementation and
simulations. There is very little theoretical analysis involved.
Details of the schedule, reading list and any other announcements can
be found on my web page :
http://www.iitk.ac.in/ee/faculty/chebrolu-web/net-read.html

I would recommend strongly that you read the paper before attending
the meeting as this will help you understand the concepts better and
clarify any doubts you may have.  For those not used to reading
papers, I can understand it being a bit difficult motivating to read
papers. But this exercise has many advantages besides the obvious one
of imparting technical knowledge. For one, it improves critical and
analytical thinking. Two, one can learnt the art of writing and
presentation from a well written paper and most papers I am going to
present are the best out there. Last but not the least, it is always
thrilling to read about research contributions directly from the
source than through secondary sources -- it leads to a better
understanding of the scientific process behing the work.

Some have raised concerns regarding their background in networking.
Without some knowledge of networking, it will be difficult to follow
the papers. But if one is really interested, I don't see why one can't
acquire knowledge in this area by putting some additional effort. You
can always augment this material from reading books on these
topics. You can take help from others in the group who understand the
concepts better. I am always open to field any questions you may
have. I will do my best to make it simple, you can experiment for a
few meetings before deciding to continue.

The first meeting for this group will start on feb 22nd, Tue between
5.30pm-6.30pm. The venue will be announced shortly. The paper to be
discussed is :

D. Clark, "The Design Philosophy of the DARPA Internet Protocols",
SIGCOMM, Palo Alto, CA, Sept 1988, pp. 106-114.

It can be downloaded from the web reference I provided on my website
under network reading group: CLA88

Those who want to know how to read a technical paper, can go through
the following article: How to read an Engineering Research Paper at
http://www.iitk.ac.in/ee/faculty/chebrolu-web/students.html

Hope to see you all in the first meeting.
thanks,
Kameswari

ps: If anyone want their name removed from this list , please write to me.