Computer Science Department

Multimedia Networking

CS 529
Spring 2013

This course covers basic and advanced topics related to using computers to support audio and video over a network. Topics related to multimedia will be selected from areas such as compression, network protocols, routing, operating systems and human computer interaction. Students will be expected to read assigned research papers and complete several programming intensive projects that illustrate different aspects of multimedia networking. (Prerequisites: CS 502 and CS 513 or the equivalent, and strong programming skills.)

Course Information

Instructor

Professor: Mark Claypool

email: claypool@cs.wpi.edu

office hours: by appointment

place: Fuller Labs, room B24b

phone: x5409

Email aliases:

prof: claypool at cs.wpi.edu

class: cs529-all at cs.wpi.edu

Time and Place

Day: Th
Time: 6:00pm - 8:50pm
Place: SL320

Books

There will be no formal text-book for the course. Instead, chapters selected from several text books and research papers will be made available. Details will be given in class.

Grading Policy

Breakdown

Final grades will be computed as follows:

Projects: 50%
Exams: 50%
- Mid-term: 25%
- Final: 25%

The grading policy for each project will be provided at the time of the assignment. In general, each assignment has a basic objective for the majority of the assignment points. There may be an extended objective for demonstrating additional work and understanding.

Final grades reflect the extent to which you have demonstrated understanding of the material, and completed the assigned projects. The base level grade is a "B" which indicates that the basic objectives on assignments and exams have been met. A grade of an "A" indicates significant achievement beyond the basic objectives and a grade of a "C" indicates not all basic objectives were met, but work was satisfactory for credit. No incomplete grades are assigned unless there exist exceptional, extenuating circumstances. Similarly, no makeup exams are given unless there exist exceptional, extenuating circumstances.

Late Policy

Late projects are penalized 10% of total assignment value per day (with the weekend counting as one day) or partial day, and no assignments accepted after seven days beyond the due date. All programs are due at 11:59pm on the due date. Programs turned in after that time are counted late. Projects are to be submitted as directed in class. Exceptions to these rules can be made only beforehand.

Class Conduct

This course is intended for serious students. Participants will be expected to adhere to all rules of professional behavior. It is to be emphasized that knowledge of material and professional behavior are tied together; failure in one of them negates any excellence in the other.

All work is expected to be done individually, unless otherwise specified. As such, students are encouraged to discuss their work with each other, but are also expected to do the work by themselves.

Any breach of professional ethics as evidenced, for example, by copying exams or projects, downloading code from the Internet, cooperating more than just by discussions in study groups, misusing computer resources, or using outside help of any kind, will be considered adequate reason for an F in the course and a report to the Dean of Students. Refer to the official WPI statements on Academic Honesty for details. Remember this warning - any breach of ethics will earn you an F. When in doubt, ask!

Topics

The list of Multimedia topics in this course (some topics may be substituted for others, as time and flow permits):

Introduction
- Digital audio
- Graphics and Video
- Multimedia over networks
- Speech detection
- Video compression
Multimedia Perceptual Quality
- Framerate, Delay, Jitter, Loss ...
HTTP Streaming
Network Games
- Thin client games
Multimedia Repair
- Forward Error Correction
- Selective Retransmission
Media Scaling
Delay Buffering
Misc

Slides

Slides from the in-class lectures are available shortly after they are presented, depending upon how things go. See the Reading List for slides for the papers, and the Projects for slides on the projects.

Admin pdf pptx

Introduction pdf pptx

Video Compression pdf pptx

Experiments pdf pptx

How to Give a Talk pdf pptx

Review pdf pptx

Projects

The projects are the programming assignments for the course. The implementation part of the projects are to be done individually. For evaluation, I encourage work in groups of 2 for the projects. I'd prefer to limit the groups to only 2, but if you really want a larger group, come talk to me. Working in groups provides valuable "real-world" experience as well as a built-in source for help. Do remember, however, that all exams will be taken alone. Make sure each group member understands the projects completely!