Course Description - <? print $id

Course Description -

Course overview

This class will focus on current research topics in computer networks, distributed systems, and applications. (The planned topics for the course are given below.) Moreover, students will be exposed to aspect of research methodology.

Student will also acquire the following skills:

Presentation: each student will be required to give 2-3 presentations on assigned papers. Each presentation will be for approximately 30 minutes, and will be focused on 1-2 papers. The presentation should summarize the paper(s), give some context for the paper(s) by discussing related material, and encourage a lively class discussion.
Research: each student, individually or in a group of two, will do a research project. A research project can involve building and demonstrating a research prototype, designing and implement a networking application, developing a new algorithm/approach and demonstrating (through analysis or simulation or implementation/measurements) its utility, reproducing the results obtained by other researchers in the field, and so on. At the end of the term, each student must submit a research paper describing their project. Students will also give a brief presentation of their research results in class. The class presentation will not be graded, but the research paper will be.
Review: each student will be asked to review one or more project research papers. As part of this review process, the student will be expected to read the literature associated with the assigned paper(s) and submit a detailed review, together with a recommendation for the paper. These reviews will be discussed during a fictitious ``Program Committee'' meeting in class.

There are no exams in this class.

The prerequisities for this class are CS551 OR CS555 OR instructor's concent.

Topics (tentative)

General: introduction, research skills, presentation skills, review skills, etc.
Introduction to peer-to-peer (P2P) systems
Basic design and architectures
Introduction to applications
Overlay design
Content distribution
Video-on-demand
Live streaming
Performance and reliability evaluation
Insentives

Grading (tentative)

Participation: 10%
Presentations: 30%
Reviews: 15%
Project: 45%

We will not assign incompletes unless it is for a documented medical reason (in accordance with USC policy).

Regrading Policy

All requests to change grading need to be submitted in writing within one week of the time the initial grade was given. (If the request is not submitted within one week, the instructor reserves the right not to re-grade that assignment.) Requests must be specific and explain why you feel you deserve additional credit. A request to re-grade something can result in the entire work being re-evaluated and as a result the score of any part of that work can be increased or lowered as appropriate.

Extra Credit

No extra credit assignments or exams will be given for this class. So, there is not need to ask. Try your best from the beginning!

Implicit Student Agreement and Responsibilities

During the semester you are responsible for completing the assigned readings, presentations, project, summaries, etc. It is the student's responsibility to submit their work to the instructor on time. Late submissions will receive an automatic deduction of 20% per day.

You are expected to attend every class meeting. If you do happen to miss a session, you are responsible for finding out what material was covered and if any administrative announcements were made. You must do so BEFORE the next session (e.g., if there is an assignment given during the missed session, you are still responsible for completing it by the next week along with the other students).

You should also participate actively in the class, ask questions, contribute optinions, etc. Come to office hours with questions as well as to give feedback on how the class is going.

All work must be that of the individual student. It is often productive to study with other students. However, if any portion of any submitted work is found to be shared between two (or more) students (other than team members on the same project), zero credit will be given to all students concerned and all students will be disciplined. This policy is in the interest of those students who do their own work, which hopefully applies to all of you in this class.

Any student caught cheating will be given zero credit and will be disciplined. Please make sure you read the Academic Integrity Policy of this course.

Fairness

The instructor must treat all students equally and cannot give special treatment to any particular student. Therefore, please do not ask for special treatment from the instructor because of your circumstances. This may seem unfair to you because you believe that you have special circumstances. But the rule the instructor follows is that whatever is offered to you, must be offered to the entire class.