David Choffnes

PhD Candidate, in Computer Science at Northwestern University
Northwestern Systems Research Group
Aqualab Research Lab

~ Curriculum Vitae ~

Research Statement

CV

Software

Recreation

Photos

Personal

( Education | Publications | Code | Employment | Honors )

( PDF version )

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Northwestern University
2145 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208

Tel. 847-977-9302
Fax. 847-491-5258

Research Interests

I am interested in building large-scale distributed systems over both wired and wireless networks. Please see the research statement and publications list below for details.

Education

  • Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
    Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science. Expected June, 2009
    Advisor: Fabián E. Bustamante
  • Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
    M.S. in Computer Science December, 2006
    GPA: 4.0
  • Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA
    B.A. in Physics & French, May, 2002

Publications in Computer Science
(For more information, see my ACM author page.)

Textbooks

  • Deitel, H., Deitel, P., Choffnes, D., Operating Systems, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, 2004. (ISBN: 0131828274). (Link to product)
  • Deitel, H., Deitel, P., Choffnes, D., Kelsey, C., Simply C++ : An Application-Driven Tutorial Approach, Prentice Hall, 2005. (ISBN: 0131426605) (Link to product)

Peer-reviewed Workshop and Conference Publications

  • David R. Choffnes and Fabián E. Bustamante. Taming the Torrent: A practical approach to reducing cross-ISP traffic in P2P systems, Proc. of ACM SIGCOMM 2008, August 2008. Abstract | PostScript [2.0M] | PDF Format [652K]
    Slides from presentation: Powerpoint
  • Ao-Jan Su, David R. Choffnes, Fabián E. Bustamante and Aleksandar Kuzmanovic Relative Network Positioning via CDN Redirections, In Proc. of the International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), June 2008
    Abstract | PostScript [765K] | PDF Format [284K]
  • David R. Choffnes and Fabián E. Bustamante. Exploiting Emergent Behavior for Inter-Vehicle Communication, In Proc. of 2nd International Workshop on Hot Topics in Autonomic Computing (HotAC), June 2007. (Details and PDF)
  • Ao-Jan Su, David R. Choffnes, Alekzandar Kuzmanovic and Fabián E. Bustamante. Drafting Behind Akamai (Travelocity-Based Detouring), In Proc. of ACM SIGCOMM 2006, September 2006. (Details and PDF)
  • David R. Choffnes and Fabián E. Bustamante. An Integrated Mobility and Traffic Model for Vehicular Wireless Networks, In Proc. of the 2nd ACM International Workshop on Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANET), September 2005. (Details and PDF)

Journal Articles

  • A-J Su, D. Choffnes, A. Kuzmanovic and F. Bustamante.
    Drafting Behind Akamai: Inferring Network Conditions Based on CDN Redirections
    In IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking,, Accepted for publication, February 2008.
  • D. Choffnes, M. Astley, and M. J. Ward
    Migration policies for multi-core fair-share scheduling.
    SIGOPS Oper. Syst. Rev. 42, 1 (Jan. 2008), 92-93.

Professional Activities

  • TPC member, ICCCN 2009 P2PN (Peer-to-Peer Networking Track)
  • Reviewer: IEEE TPDS (Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems), IEEE TVT (Transactions on Vehicular Technology)

Other Activities

  • David R. Choffnes and Fabián E. Bustamante. NEWS: Crowd Sourcing Network Anomaly Detection, Poster Session, Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI) 2008, San Diego, CA.
  • David Choffnes, Sustainable Internet Scalability through Measurement Reuse, Invited Talk, Amherst College, MA, March 2008.
  • David R. Choffnes and Fabián E. Bustamante. SideStep - Scalable Detouring by Reusing CDN Measurements, Poster Session, Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) 2007, Stevenson, WA.

Non-refereed Publications

  • David R. Choffnes and Fabián E. Bustamante. Modeling Vehicular Traffic and Mobility for Vehicular Wireless Networks, Tech. Report NWU-CS-05-03, Department of Computer Science, Northwestern University, 2005.
  • David R. Choffnes, John R. Lange, Aleksandar Kuzmanovic. Rethinking the Use of Parallel TCP in Web Browsers, Tech. Report NWU-EECS-06-15, Department of EECS, Northwestern University, October 2006.

Press

Publicly Released Code

  • NEWS
    Plugin for the Vuze (Azureus) BitTorrent client that reliably finds problems in the network and raises alerts about them. Currently 12,546 users and growing! (Project page)
  • Ono
    Plugin for the Vuze (Azureus) BitTorrent client that uses CDN-based measurements to improve performance and reduce P2P impact on ISPs. Currently 313,008 users and growing! (Project page)
  • STRAW (STreet RAndom Waypoint)
    Vehicular mobility model implemented for the JiST/SWANS simulation platform. Downloaded over 900 times. (Project page)
  • SWANS++
    Sourceforge project that unifies updates and improvements to the JiST/SWANS simulation platform. Downloaded over 500 times. (Project page)
  • Ceratias
    Real-time visualization tool for the JiST/SWANS simulation platform. Also enables interaction with and online modification of the ongoing simulation, and can be detached/reattached dynamically for performance. (Part of SWANS++, see above for project page.)

Recent Employment

  • IBM T. J. Watson Research Lab, Hawthorne, NY, Summer 2007
    • Worked on a practical fair-share process scheduler for the Linux kernel. The contributions included efficient, fair support for MP systems, support for legacy priority-based applications and a simulation study to prove its effectiveness.
  • Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Fall 2005 – Fall 2006
    • Teaching Assistant for Operating Systems, Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science and Introduction to Computer Systems.
  • Deitel & Associates, Maynard, MA August 2002–July 2004
    • Coauthor and project manager for Simply C++ : An Application-Driven Tutorial Approach (ISBN: 0131426605), an introductory-level C++ textbook.
    • Coauthor and project manager for Operating Systems, Third Edition (ISBN: 0131828274). The book focuses on operating system concepts in addition to providing in-depth case studies. It is designed intended for upper-level undergraduate CS courses and intro-level graduate courses.
    • Programmer, writer and editor for the first book in the “Simply…” series of books, Simply Visual Basic .NET. (ISBN: 0131405535)

Honors

  • Terminal Year Cabell Fellowship, Northwestern University, 2008-2009.
  • Honorable Mention, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, April 2005.
  • Cabell Fellowship, Northwestern University, Sept 2004.
  • Magna cum laude, Amherst College, May 2002.

Cetera

  • Knowledgeable in Linux internals, particularly version 2.6.
  • Treasurer and 4-year rower on the Crew team, organizer for the Amherst College Alumni Rowing Association
  • Fluent in French

Last updated October 27, 2008.