Project Logistics
As you know, one of the major goals of this class is to understand
how networking research is done. To this end, the term project is a
major component of 6.829, since that's where you draw upon your
knowledge and experience from the course readings and elsewhere to
actually do research. This document is intended to ease the
process of figuring out what to work on and writing a short proposal
explaining what you want to work on. A separate document handed
out in class describes some project suggestions we came up with.
Please feel free to come up with your own ideas, or modify our
suggestions in any way you want. Our suggestions are simply that; and
they're usually incomplete. They are usually not complete
specifications of projects.
Please send all questions about the project to the full staff at
6.829@mit.
1. Teams: As far as possible, you should work in teams of three
(though two is acceptable and one is not). Working with others is a
lot more fun, is often a lot more productive, and the resulting work a
lot sounder than if you were working in isolation. The nature of the
networking field is one that fosters collaboration and often makes it
essential for high impact work, and you should develop the ability to
collaborate on projects. You need to work at least with one other
person from the class, so please start looking out for team mates as
soon as possible! Feel free to use the class mailing
list (6.829-students@mit) to solicit project partners.
2. Proposal : One- to two-page proposals (details below) are due
Tuesday 10/4/05 . Print out three hard copies and bring
them to 32-G940 by 5pm. We will read the proposals carefully over
the following few days and get back to you by email if we have any
questions. In some cases, we may want to meet with teams to understand
better exactly what you're doing, perhaps because it isn't focused
enough or because you're trying to accomplish too much. Please
don't wait for us to get back to you; get started as soon as possible!
You have about two months to carry out the project, which is ample if
your proposal is focused and you start early, but not otherwise.
It is important that you read important background material before
turning in the proposal!
A crisp one-page write-up that should
contain the following items.
Project title (a detailed title is better
than a vague one; you can always change it later if you don't like it!)
and names of investigators with email addresses.
A clear statement of the research problem:
a one-sentence summary followed by a one-paragraph explanation (the paragraph
shouldn't be more than 10-12 lines long). This should identify clearly
the research question you're addressing (for example, implementing
a TCP/IP networking stack, while a lot of work, isn't research, unless
of course you're doing it differently from today's approaches).
A clear statement of your research
methodology. I.e., how are you going to solve the problems you've
raised and motivated in the previous paragraph?
A statement of plan and schedule,
to convince us (and yourself!) that you can complete this by the end
of the term (exact due dates are here).
A list of resources you need to
accomplish your work, with special emphasis on important pieces you
don't yet have access to. Be as clear as you can in your requirements
and we will work towards getting what you need as quickly as
possible. If your request can't be accommodated for any reason, we will
try to get back to you about it as soon as we find out.
Any other questions you have or
clarifications you need from us.
3. Background: In a one-semester class, one can only cover a
fraction of networking topics, and there are sure to be projects where
the background material won't be covered in too much detail. And even
for topics that we do cover, there will almost certainly be other
relevant related work that you should be familiar with. Part of doing
something new is figuring out what's already been done or is known, so
you should search the related literature and Web pages as extensively
as you can. Keep an eye out for useful software or research
methodology or tools that you can leverage; this will save you
tremendous amounts of time later in the term. You might find
some of these useful links actually useful.
4. Standards: Aim high in a focused way, and do the best you
can! The best projects are sure to be publishable (as they have in
past years) in top ACM or IEEE conferences in the area, such as
SIGCOMM, INFOCOM, or MOBICOM, or appear as articles in journals like
SIGCOMM's Computer Communications Review (CCR). I have a strong
feeling that you will far surpass my already high expectations with
wonderful work that will further the state-of-the-art in network
research.
Where do you get a project? You're free to come up with your own, and
the staff will be happy to discuss your proposal ideas by
email (or in person) over the next few days. Or, you might want to
pursue one of our suggestions (feel free to modify them in your
proposal if you like).
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