Communication

There are three ways to ask questions:
  • Discord [ invitation link ] (informal, interactive, great for quick back-and-forth)
  • Ed (for longer questions/problems)
  • Email [ address ] (for private communication)

Use Discord or Moodle, if you can! This way your colleagues can benefit from your questions, and you will get faster answers.

Textbook

The 7th international edition of Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, Kurose &  Ross. The textbook is not strictly necessary, in the sense that we will not examine any material that is not explicitly taught in class or through the homework and labs. However, it does provide a lot of context and interesting details that could deepen one's understanding  of the material.

Lectures

Katerina will give a classic ex-cathedra lecture every Friday, 15h15-17h00, at INF 213. 

Labs + homework

Each lecture will be accompanied by a lab-and-homework session, every Wednesday, 15h15-17h00, in INF 119. You have two options for doing the labs:
  • On your own laptop
  • On a server
Labs and homework will not be graded, but will help you prepare for the exams.

Videos

After each lecture, there will be pre-recorded videos made available that cover most of the lecture material. These are meant to help you digest and review the lectures, but not replace them. 

Please come to class! Computer networks are very exciting, but watching a pre-recorded lecture is never the same as being in class with us and your colleagues. 


Exams
  • There will be two written exams: a midterm and a final.
  • Both exams will cover material that was taught in the lectures and through the homework and labs.
  • All questions will be stated in English, but you will be free to answer in English or in French. 
  • Both exams will be closed-book and taken in person at EPFL. The final exam will take place during the winter exam session. 
  • During each exam, you will be welcome to bring your own "aide-mémoire". This is a document of at most 2 (for the midterm) or 4 (for the final) two-sided A4 sheets (=4 or 8 one-sided A4 pages). It can be hand- or typewritten. It can be a photocopy. It can contain colors and drawings. The font can be as small as you wish, but you should be able to read it without auxiliary tools (e.g., a magnifying glass).
  • The midterm grade will count toward your overall grade only if you do well
    (see grade computation below).
Quizzes
  • You will have the option of taking up to 4 online quizzes (via Moodle).
  • Each quiz will cover material from two specific lectures.
  • Quiz grades will count toward your final grade only if you do well (see  grade computation below). 
Grade computation
    We will first compute an "exam grade" for each student using the following formula:
            exam grade = max { 0.4 * midterm-exam grade + 0.6 * final-exam grade, final-exam grade }.

    In other words: If you do well at the midterm exam, that will count toward 40% of your exam grade. Otherwise, 100% of your exam grade will come from the final exam.

    The rational is that some students have not had the time to adjust to the course's style by the midterm exam. These students may do significantly better at the final exam than the midterm exam, in which case we count only their final exam.

    Next, we will compute an "overall grade" for each student using the following formula:
            overall grade = max { 0.9 * exam grade + 0.1 * quiz grade, exam grade }.

    In other words: If you do well at the quizzes, that will count toward 10% of your overall grade. Otherwise, 100% of your overall grade will come from your exams.

    Last modified: Thursday, 21 September 2023, 19:22