Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Credits

This is a twelve credit H-level subject, (3-0-9).

Prerequisite

6.450 (Principles of Digital Communication - I). The prerequisite will be strictly enforced. Any student who has not taken 6.450 previously and who wants nonetheless to register for 6.451 will be required to come for a personal interview to justify his or her request.

Text

None required. Course notes are provided in the Video Lectures section.

Course Handouts

Handouts and graded problem sets not picked up during lecture can be collected later.

Problem Sets

There will be approximately 10 problem sets, corresponding to a weekly schedule, although the final problem set will not be collected. You are expected to do all the assigned problems. In making up the exams we will assume that you have worked all the problems, although you should not expect the exam problems to look like the homework problems.

We encourage you to cooperate with each other in doing the problem sets. The problem sets are vehicles for learning, and whatever maximizes learning for you is desirable. This usually includes discussion, teaching of others, and learning from others.

Problem sets must be handed in by the end of the class in which they are due. Problem set solutions will be available at the end of the due date lecture. Consequently, it is difficult and unfair to seriously evaluate late problem sets.

The grades assigned to problems sets will be 0, 1 or 2. You may optionally indicate upto two problem solutions to which you would like the TA to pay special attention.

Exams

There will be one midterm exam during the semester and a final exam during the scheduled final exam period. To the midterm you may bring three pages of size 8.5" by 11". To the final exam you may bring five pages of size 8.5" by 11". The midterm exam will take place in class. The final exam will be scheduled by the registrar for 3 hours during exam week.

Course Grade

The final grade in the course is based upon our best assessment of your understanding of the material. This assessment is based on three noisy measurements: the problem sets, the midterm, and the final. The different measurements have different noise levels, and the final grade will be thus a weighted average, roughly according to the following rule: