Integrated Science and Technology (TU 130)
Resources | Internet Application Perfomance | Past Projects | Contact
Course Information
Examples and Templates
You may use either example proposal:
Useful Information
- Search Engines. Common search engines such as Google are a good place to find information for your project. However, it is important you use good search terms. For example, searching for What is the Internet? will normally be much better than searching for Internet.
- Encyclopedias. Sites like Wikipedia and HowStuffWorks are good starting points to learn about a topic. However do not get all of your information from these sites: follow the links from the sites, and seach for more details information. Remember, the information on these sites is not always accurate - try to get information from different sources.
- Technology News. Sites that focus on technology news are good sources of the latest information. Examples include: ZdNet, IEEE Spectrum, Science, Slashdot, TechNewsWorld, Technology Review and many more. Even some normal news sites provide some coverage of science and technology (e.g. Bangkok Post, The Nation)
- Companies and Organisations. Many sites of technology companies have technical information about the industry they work in. For example, Microsoft, IBM and Intel have a lot of technical information about computers, operating systems, Internet applications and networks; Cisco, a manufacturer of Internet equipment, has information about computer networks; and so on.
Current Projects
- What is GPU computing?
- What is the difference between a CPU and GPU?
- What applications/problems are suited to GPUs?
- What is the role of GPUs in: PCs, laptops, game machines, supercomputers?
- How is the performance of GPUs and CPUs measured and compared?
- What are some of the best performing GPUs available today?
- What is CUDA (NVidia) and OpenCL (AMD)?
Some links include:
General-purpose computing on graphics processing units |
NVIDIA CUDA Zone |
Password Cracking: GPGPU Style |
AMD OpenCLN Zone
People use many different types of Internet applications each day. Some example include:
- Web browsing: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari
- Email: client applications like Microsoft Outlook (Express), Thunderbird, as well as web-based applications (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo)
- Instant Messaging: Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger
- Voice over Internet: Skype, Voice calls with IM applications
- Video over Internet: web-based applications, as well as standalone applications
- File Sharing: Bittorrent, Limewire, eMule
- Mapping and GIS: Google Earth, location-based services
- Gaming:
- ...
When using Internet based applications, a user is interested in performance measures like response time (e.g. how long to display a web page), download speed (e.g. how long to download a file), and delay (e.g. between you and the person you are talking to on phone). From another perspective, people who build and manage computer networks (that make up the Internet) are often interested in how much traffic a particular application generates (e.g. when using Google Earth, how many megabytes are downloaded in a minute?). In this project you will make some of these measurements, to understand how Internet applications perform. Some of your tasks will include:
Learn about the basics of the Internet, and Internet applications
List and classify commonly used Internet applications
For each application, identify the relevant performance measures
Learn Wireshark (or similar software) for capturing Internet data
Design and perform experimental measurements of Internet traffic of different applications
Report on the results of the experiments
Wireless networks, such as WiFi and GPRS, allow you to use the
Internet without wires. For example, there is a wireless network that
covers most of SIIT at Rangsit and Bangkadi. You can use your laptop
computer to access the Internet both inside and outside the buildings.
A problem with some wireless networks is security. Anyone (SIIT
students, Thammasat students, workers, ...) can use there laptop to
access the Internet, and possibly confidential SIIT information. In
this project you will:
- Learn how the wireless network works at SIIT
- Study the problems of making wireless networks secure
- Survey the security levels of wireless networks at Thammasat and
elsewhere (for example, walk around the campus with your laptop
checking if you can access some-one elses network. This can also be
done in other places: at your home, in the city, at Future Park, ...)
- Provide recommendations for making wireless networks more secure,
During the project you should try to answer the following questions:
- What is a wireless LAN (also called IEEE 802.11 or Wi-Fi)?
- How does a wireless LAN work?
- What is security (with respect to computer networks and the Internet)?
- Why is security in a wireless network different from in a wired network?
- What are the problems of having an insecure wireless LAN?
- What mechanisms are used to increase the security of wireless LANs?
- What security mechanisms are used in SIIT's wireless LAN?
- What techniques (software) can you use to detect wireless LANs and measure their security?
- How many wireless LANs are there at Thammasat University, near your home, in the city, ...?
- What level of security do the wireless LANs you found use?
- What do you recommend for people/companies creating their own wireless LANs?
Almost all users of the Internet are interested in the performance:
that is, how fast can you download (or upload) data. This impacts on:
how long it takes you to download an MP3 or video file; the response
time when visiting a web page; the quality of sound when making a
telephone call over the Internet. In this project you will:
- Learn how the Internet works
- Study the factors that affect the performance of the Internet (what
makes it fast or slow)
- Perform measurements of Internet performance from different
locations and using different technologies (for example, how fast can
you download a file from SIIT Rangsit, SIIT Bangkadi, your home, an
Internet cafe, ...)
- Provide recommendations for improving the performance of Internet applications
During the project you should try to answer the following questions:
- What is the Internet (from a technical point of view)?
- Why is the performance of the Internet important?
- What are the expectations of users for common Internet applications, with respect to performance?
- How is the performance of the Internet measured?
- How do the following get access to the Internet: home user, company, SIIT?
- What factors affect the performance of the Internet?
- What software can be used to measure Internet performance?
- What is the measured performance of Internet access from different locations and at different times?
- What techniques do you recommend for users to improve the performance of their Internet applications?
Other Past Projects
- Low Cost Computers. A study of the technology behind low cost computing projects, most notably the $100 Laptop, or One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. Investigated the requirements and implementation of the computers, such as: computer specifications; energy sources; networking; applications; and physical design. [Semester 1, 2007]
- Piracy. Learnt about copying of digital content, such as DVD movies, application software and digital music. The technical methods used to protected content from being illegally copied, as well as those used to broke the protection methods, were studied. [Semester 1, 2007]
- Wireless Networking. Studied how wireless LANs and 3G work. [Semester 2, 2006]
- Internet Privacy. Studied how communications on the Internet can be made private. [Semester 2, 2006].
Resources | Wireless Security | Internet Performance | Past Projects | Contact
Return to: Course List | Steven Gordon's Home | SIIT