Course Description - CSCI 551, Spring 2012

• L. L. Peterson and B. Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 5th Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2011.
• John W. Stewart III, BGP4, Inter-domain Routing in the Internet, Addison-Wesley, 1999.
• W. R. Stevens, Unix Network Programming: Volume 1: Networking API, 3rd Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2003.
• B. Nichols, D. Buttlar, and J. P. Farrell, Pthreads Programming: A POSIX Standard for Better Multiprocessing, O'Rielly, 1996.

Please do not ask the following types of questions in your e-mail:

• Here is my understanding of X. Am I right (or is this correct)?
  (You can do this for just about everything and in many different ways. I do not have the bandwidth to deal with too many questions like this.) However, often times, you should be able to ask a slightly different question and get the same answer that you are looking for. This type of questions is completely appropriate for office hours.)

• I don't understand X. Could you explain X to me?
  (It's your responsiblity to come to lectures and ask questions during lectures if there is something you do not understand. If you did attend lectures, then it is appropriate to ask this during office hours.)

Although this is not related to e-mails, it's a type of question I get often. Please do not ask this types of question:

• Here is what I am thinking of or doing... is it acceptable (or is this okay)?
  

  (What you are really asking is whether you will receive full credit or not. Wouldn't it be great if you can ask this during exams? It's not an appropriate question for assignments for the same reason it is not appropriate for exams. Although there is a difference between programming assignments and exams, but since you are asking about grading, it's inappropriate.)

Some problems will be based on readings and class discussions. Some will be ns/nam simulation problems. Please note that the only allowed file formats are ASCII text, PDF, Postscript, and HTML.

Exam Questions

There are two types of exam questions that I usually ask. The first type is illustrated by problems 2, 3, and 4 in the Extra Homework. The second type is in the following form: "In N words or less, what is the answer to the following question?"

For this type of question, you can write as many words as you'd like, but I will only read the first N words of your answer! You don't need to count the number of words in your answer, you just need to make sure that the most important part of your answer appears in the first N words! (There is no need to write complete English sentenses when you answer exam questions. Just give me the important stuff!)

The reason I'm doing this is that I don't want a brain dump of everything you know about a topic and tell me that the answer is there and that I have to look for it! I want you to tell me what part of your answer you think is important and you need to distinguish between answers of different quality and put the best answer up front.

Let me give a couple of silly examples (with questions that's not in the scope of any exam).

• "In 20 words or less, for our programming assignments, when is 'plagiarism' considered taking place? If your answer is "when you take someone else's work and claim it to be yours", then you will get full credit. If your answer is, "when you submit someone else's work", you probably will not get full credit.

• "In 20 words or less, what is the fairness policy of this class?" If your answer is, "whatever the instructor offer to one student, he must offer it to the rest of the class," then you will get full credit. If your answer is, "the instructor must be fair to every student," you probably will not get much credit.

In general, better answers may score more points. If you give very high level and generic answer that's generally true or basically just repeat the question, you probably will get very little credit for it! You need to answer a specific question with a specific answer.

Class Participation:		3%
Projects:		35%
Midterm Exam:		27%
Final Exam:		35%

Pleaes also note the following:

• The above percentages will be used to calculate your total score. Final grades (A,B,C,D,or F) will be determined using a modified curve (i.e., we won't necessarily assign an equal number of failing grades as passing grades) based on this total score. No other methods will be considered. (So, please do not ask the instructor to take how much you have improved since the beginning of the semester into account. You are expected to try your best from the beginning!)

• We will assign grades of C and below to individuals who do not perform satisfactorily in the above areas. (i.e., you should not assume a B- or even C if you perform unsatisfactorily.) However, we hope that everyone will perform well.

• Your assignments are your own work! No group assignments are allowed or will be tolerated. You are free to talk to other students about assignments but no actual material (files, photocopies etc.) should be shared. We will act harshly at any sign of copying.

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

If you are unable to complete a homework or a programming assignment due to illness or family emergency, please see the instructor as soon as possible to get an extension. A doctor's note is required as proof of illness or emergency. In general, when you get sick, it's best to see a doctor and get a note just in case you may need it later.

So, if you visit a doctor at the Student Health Center, please make sure you fill out one of these forms, check the "limited discussion with faculty" checkbox, get it stamped, signed, and dated by someone there (a clerk/receptionist would sign at the "witness" line), and bring it back to me. This would satisfy the "note from a doctor" requirement so that you can get an extension.

If you visit a doctor somewhere else, please either bring a "note from the doctor" or a similar authrozation letter so I can contact them.

You are welcome to make an appointment to see the instructor outside of office hours.

This policy also holds for  programming assignments. In this class, we will use sophisticated automated program checkers to detect cheating. Be aware that the program checkers have demonstrated very good results and are widely used within the academic community. Any student caught cheating will be given zero credit and will be disciplined.

It is the students responsibility to submit their assignments to the TA in time. 

For students who satisfied the CSci402 prerequisite at other universities or through work experience, this course assumes that you understand concurrency, synchronization, and UNIX programming. You should be able to write large programs in C/C++. No special assistance or consideration will be offered if your background is inadequate.

You are expected to read all the papers in detail. Not all details will be covered in class.  We will assume knowledge of material covered in EE450 and a C language programming proficiency from CSci402 or its equivalent. If you covered the introductory material at some other school it is YOUR responsibility to fill in any missing background. Feel free to ask me for advice on appropriate introductory readings if you feel your background is insufficient.

We expect you 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 are advised to read the papers for a particular lecture before attending the lecture. This will greatly enhance your understanding of the subject matter.

Programming:

• C Programming (by Steve Holmes at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, England) - includes notes on make, separate compilation, file I/O, etc.
• Makefile tutorial (at Colby College)
• Makefile tutorial (at Indiana University)
• A short tutorial on socket programming, from the University of Wisconsin (PostScript file, hosted at UMass)
• Beejs guide to socket programming (originally at CSU Chico)
• General Programming Concepts: Writing and Debugging Programs although this is mainly for AIX, there are some useful information such as chapter 11 (Threads Programming Guidelines)
• Steve's Software Trek (by Steve Karg) - includes some useful C/C++ source code for string manipulation, INI file manipulation, etc.
• C Examples - lots and lots of sample C code for basic stuff.
• C/C++ at USC from USC ITSWeb

• ns-2 home page.
• Jim Kurose's networking book on line
• Jim Kurose's on-line networking lectures
• MANIC: Other on-line courses (including an on-line socket tutorial)
• Jon Crowcroft's networking book on line
• Network Bibliography
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

• Ubuntu Linux
• cygwin (BSD system with X11R6 on Windows XP)
• Some Often-used UNIX Commands
• Unix commands (more complete, from University of Utah)
• UNIX Shell Programming (Chapter 2 of this book gives a good introduction to UNIX)
• UNIXhelp for Users from the University of Edinburgh
• C/C++ Documentation (compiling, linking, additional libraries, include files) from USC ITSWeb
• UNIX Documentation (concepts, commands, X-Windows) from USC ITSWeb
• Editors on most UNIX systems
  • Vi Text Editor Documentation from USC ITSWeb
  • EMACS Text Editor Documentation from USC ITSWeb
  • Pico Text Editor Documentation from USC ITSWeb
• Richard Stallman's gdb Tutorial
• General information on operating systems, productivity applications, Internet connectivity, e-mail and web publishing at USC, can be found at the ITS software site. You can click on your operating system and download useful software from there. For example, for the Windows platform, you can find things like X-Win32, FileZilla, and PuTTY there.