CSc 630 -- Advanced Topics in Internet Research, Fall 2007

Syllabus

Prerequisites

CSc 525

Overview

This is an advanced graduate course that focuses on a few important topics in the current Internet research. It consists of a seminar component and a project component. In the seminar, students will present and discuss recent papers selected from top conferences. The topics include routing architecture, network measurement and performance, topology evolution and modeling, routing protocol design, large-scale data dissemination, P2P-based XML parsing system, network security and privacy, and so on. The class project will be a solid piece of research work. It aims at introducing students to networking research, and exploring areas for potential PhD/MS thesis directions. Besdies networking topics, in this semester we will also explore interdisciplnary topics between database and networking.

Paper Presentation

Each student will present two papers. The paper list and presetnation schedule will be posted here.

The presentation should effectively explain the backgroud, the specific problem, the solution and results in the paper, and discuss its drawbacks or open issues. The presenter is expected to explain the paper clearly and lead the in-class discussion.

In preparing presentation slides, you can use any publicly available materials as long as proper acknowledgement is given.

Students are required to email the presentation slides to the instructor at least two days before the presentation. The earlier the better.

Class Participation

Students are expected to read the paper before the class, show up and pay attention to the presentation, ask questions or make comments, and take part in the discussion. A short pop-up quiz about the presented paper might be given at the end of the class to test your understanding of the paper.

Projects

Projects may be carried out by a single student or a group of two students.

Suggested project topics will be emailed out. You're welcome to come up with your own project idea and come talk to the instructor. Some projects may have multiple groups working on it independently.

For each group, once the project topic is chosen, we will set a few milestones and nail down the final deliverables. The instructor will work with the project groups. To ensure timely progress, the following are required and will be considered in grading:

  • Weekly email report every Monday
  • Meet milestones at different stages
  • Final report, source code, and other deliverables

    At the end of the sememter, each group will give a project presentation in the class.

    Grading

    Projects (70%), Class participation and Paper presentation (30%).

    Mailing List

    Everyone is expected to join the class mailling list, csc630-fall07@listserv.arizona.edu. See http://listserv.arizona.edu/ for how to subscribe and unsubscribe.

    Questions of a general nature should be sent to the mailling list. Questions specific to your own work should be sent to the instructor directly.

    Policies

    Late submissions (e.g., project report, code etc.) will NOT be accepted. Partial credit will be given to works that are incomplete but submitted on time.

    You're encouraged to talk with your friends about the course work; both giving and receiving advice will help you learn. However, students are responsible for understanding and following the University's Code of Academic Integrity. Briefly, you will not accept solutions from other persons, you will not give solutions to others, and you will not tamper with graded papers, code, or exams. It is OK to talk among groups about algorithms and general approaches, but each group must develop and write its own code, and each person must turn in her or his own homework and exams. Refer to http://web.arizona.edu/~studpubs/policies/cacaint.htm for details.