Fall 2006



Prerequisites

Undergraduate systems or networks course covering basic networking concepts (e.g., 6.033 or equivalent). If you're an undergraduate or MEng student, you should have liked the materiaal in 6.033 and have done reasonably well in it; if you think you should take the class without having taken 6.033, then please send email or talk to Professor Katabi.

If your networking background is rusty, you should page material in from one of these excellent books. In particular, we recommend the book by Peterson and Davie or the book by Kurose and Ross.

Knowledge of elementary probability (e.g., as in 6.041, 6.042, or equivalent) and simple statistics will be helpful.

Course structure

Lectures will discuss the conceptual underpinnings and key details of material from the readings assigned from the literature. Students must read the assigned readings before each lecture and come prepared with comments and questions. Class participation is valued highly will count towards your grade.

Grading

The largest contributor (40%) to the final grade is a significant course project in which students carry out small research projects. A project in 6.829 has three components:

  1. A proposal, due at the end of September, which describes your problem, why it is important, prior work, your plan for tackling the problem, and how you are going to evaluate the solution. The proposal should not be more than 3 pages. We will read your proposal and give you feedback.
  2. A project status report, due in mid-November, which explains your approach, related/prior work, initial results, and why you believe you are on the right track. It may also include material from the proposal after you had the chance to update it based on our feedback.
  3. A final report: At the end of the term, students will submit a conference-style paper describing the project and its key contributions/findings, and make a conference-style presentation of their work. The entire project will constitute 40% of your total grade (divided between the status report, talk, and paper). Start early!

In addition, there will be a few problem sets assigned during the term. Problem sets will constitute 15% of your grade.

We will have two in-class quizzes, currently planned for October 19, 2006 and November 30, 2006. These quizzes form 40% of your final grade.

Finally, class participation counts for 5% of your grade.

In summary: 

Course project (2 papers + presentation)  40% 
Problem sets  15% 
Two quizzes 40%
Class participation, enthusiasm, and energy-level! 5% 

But please note: 6.829 is a graduate class and grades shouldn't be your primary or only motivator! What matters is how much you learn about research in networking and how much it excites you. We hope that this class and the project you work on meet those goals!

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