Term Project Part I Information

Information

Strength and weakness analysis of one of the following protocols.

• Typically a group of five students works on a single project
• One report per group: 10 pages (5000 words) in MS word format
• Must go beyond basic info and suggest possible improvement for the protocol
• Programming for prototyping is optional but recommended
• All topics must be approved by instructor
• Presentation is required at the end of the semester

Grading

Project team has to decide on various issues such as:

• Which protocol to pick?
• What specific part of the protocol to further research into?
• How much programming the group should do?
• Should open source programming be used in the project?
• Should the group implements performance benchmark?
• What extra features should be implemented in the project?
• What about ... etc, etc ...

As the whole class will be working on similar projects, relative grading will be used. In other words, all the projects will be ranked within the class and points will be assigned accordingly. There are two parts in the project:

• Part I: Requirement Analysis and Design 33%
• Part II: Final report and/or Implementation 67%

Handin

Project Part I consists of a document includes the following:

• Detail project plan on how the protocol is analyzed. The list of features and functions should be included in the project. (E.g. performance benchmark, Java protocol testing program, monkey/protocol changing / hacking program, etc.)
• Schedule and division of work among team members
• Prototype results

Project Final Part will be covered later in class

Final Word of Warning

This is not an "easy" class and the project is an essential part of the overall grade. People who did not deliver the project well enough could really hurt their grade as the project contains more than 40% of the overall grade.

Avoid:

• Forming group late
• Changing group in the middle of the semester
• Start late and rush any part of the project
• Form a group of less than 4/5 people
• Not enough extra features if the group is more than 5 people
• Did the final integration of the project late
• Do not do enough testing
• All but actually one person in the group does all the programming (No, people do not get lucky and teammate will complain...)

On the bright side, most of the students in the A range did really well in the project. So, there is no upper bound for an A. (In other words, I do not limit the number of A in a class.)