Seminar - Real-time Transport for the Internet (2026)
Real-time communication systems, such as audio or video conferencing or cloud gaming, are used by many people every day. The network protocols used in many such systems must meet special requirements distinct from those of typical web traffic. Real-time media can have high bitrates and must be transmitted at low latency. While video conferencing applications have been around for a while, new developments in protocol design to optimize their performance are published regularly. Core aspects of real-time media streaming range from congestion control and bandwidth estimation techniques to system architecture optimizations that enable high scalability of low-latency streaming applications for large numbers of users.
In this seminar, we will explore the recent developments in protocol design for real-time media communication. We will focus on congestion control and protocol design techniques that enable the efficient delivery of multimedia content in real-time.
Registering for this seminar follows the usual process of the Matching System of the Department of Computer Science.
Pre-course meeting
There will be no pre-course meeting. The structure of the course and some background information can be found in the introductory slides. If you have questions or concerns, reach out via email.
Prerequisites
The participants are expected to have taken an undergraduate-level course on computer networking.
Moodle page
To stay up to date with the latest course information during the semester, please refer to the course's Moodle page.
Time and location
Dates and times: see Moodle
First introduction session (tentative): April 21, 2026, 16:00
Room: 01.07.023
In the introduction session we are going to explain how the seminar works in detail and announce the dates and times of sessions in the semester.
Learning outcomes (study goals)
The goal of the seminar is to equip students with an understanding of the unique requirements of protocols used for real-time media streaming and an in-depth knowledge of the techniques used to satisfy these requirements. Students will gain an overview of the recent developments in the area.
Students will also gain experience in critically reviewing and presenting scientific publications, and in discussing the presented works with their peers.
Teaching and learning methods
In this seminar, students will read scientific publications and prepare a review in the style of a conference or journal review. Each student will create reviews for multiple publications. Additionally, each student will present their insights from the publication(s) to the course. Students are expected to participate in the discussion of the presented topics.
Further Reading
- S. Keshav. "How to read a paper"
- William G. Griswold, "How to Read an Engineering Research Paper"
- Graham Cormode. 2009. "How NOT to review a paper: the tools and techniques of the adversarial reviewer."
- J Smith. "The Task of the Referee"
- Philip W. L. Fong. 2004. "How to Read a CS Research Paper?"
- Shriram Krishnamurthi. 2009. "How to Write Technical Paper Reviews"
- Timothy Roscoe. 2007. "Writing reviews for systems conferences"
Contact
- Mathis Engelbart <mathis.engelbart[at]tum.de>