Dan,
thanks for the input. IP routing research is a subject near and dear to my heart.
I have wanted, for a long time, to do some work on traffic engineering using flow optimization algorithms
from the literature applied to BGP policy. Do you think this is sufficiently interesting and useful to InterNAP that they could come up with funding ? In our business not too many PhDs with operational experience so a fellow with the operational experience and a Master's (me) might suffice.
As for the coursework: