When Jim Kurose invited me to write a piece for the "recommended reading" series in CCR, I thought it would be a fun exercise and accepted the invitation right away. Little did I realize how challenging it would be to put together this list, as much because I was only allowed to pick 10 papers as because I had to steer clear of the many fine papers that had already been picked in previous lists. Rather than focusing on a single topic, I decided to pick papers from across sub-areas of networking that have left a lasting impression on me (and quite possibly on other researchers as well) because of their elegance, the insights they provide, and in many cases both of these. I hope many readers will enjoy reading these papers, if they have not already done so.

As the saying goes, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.” Networking research has a wealth of good papers on both sides of the theory-practice divide. However, many practical papers stop short of having a sharp problem formulation or a rigorously considered solution, and many theory papers overlook or assume away some key aspect of the system they intend to model. Still, every so often, a paper comes along that nails a practical question with just the right bit of theory. When that happens, it’s a thing of beauty. These are my ten favorite examples. In some cases, I mention survey papers that cover an entire body of work, or a journal paper that presents a more mature overview of one or more conference papers, rather than single out an individual research result. (As an aside, I think good survey papers are a wonderful contribution to the community, and wish more people invested the considerable time and energy required to write them.)

In this list, I focus on papers that have had impact - that have changed the networking world. Of course, many commercial systems have done just that, so I also require that each paper has a memorable idea. Finally, I am drawn to papers that are well written, and in which the writing and the ideas stand the test of time. I break up papers in classic layered fashion, going bottom up. Because the list spans all levels of abstraction from Data Links to Applications, I hope this list of papers also provides a quick and inspirational overview of the world of networking systems for a beginning student.

One of the challenges I remember from my days as a Ph.D. student was the tremendous struggle to figure out what papers I should read: what key ideas did I need to understand to feel I was even vaguely qualified to do work in networking?

So it is my turn to recommend a reading list of 10 networking papers. I decided to take this opportunity to recommend papers from the networking area's past. I have several reasons for focusing on such a list.