Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Lecturer
Peiyuan Qin
Contact via peiyuan.qin@mq.edu.au
E6A360
By Appointment
Unit Convenor
Rajan Shankaran
Contact via rajan.shankaran@mq.edu.au
E6A337
By Appointment
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Credit points |
Credit points
4
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
COMP347
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit concerns itself with the design and implementation of real-world computer networks. We consider the various layers of modern network systems design, from the physical medium, through software protocol layers to the application protocols. Technical issues inherent to each layer are examined including routing, error detection and correction, flow control, connection management, data representation, and network security management.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
---|---|---|
Quiz 1 | 5% | Week 6 |
Assignment 1 | 20% | Week 7 |
Assignment 2 | 20% | Week 12 |
Quiz 2 | 5% | week 12 |
Final Exam | 50% | TBA |
Due: Week 6
Weighting: 5%
Quiz 1 is a short test (close book) that will be based on your previously covered lecture material for weeks 1-5. The quiz questions will be handed over to you at the beginning of your Lecture class. Quiz 1 contribute 5% of the total mark and serve as a feedback mechanism to monitor your progress in the unit.
Due: Week 7
Weighting: 20%
The assignment will cover various topics on network layer and protocols, including IP addressing (Subnetting, CIDR, Aggregation), Routing (General routing principles, RIP, OSP, BGP), Multicasting. This is an individual assignment and you must attempt it independely.
Due: Week 12
Weighting: 20%
The assignment 2 focusses on protocol design with security considerations.
Due: week 12
Weighting: 5%
Quiz 2 is a short test (close book) that will be based on your previously covered lecture material for Weeks 6-11. The quiz questions will be handed over to you at the beginning of your Lecture class. Quiz 2 contribute 5% of the total mark and serve as a feedback mechanism to monitor your progress in the unit.
Due: TBA
Weighting: 50%
An examination allows us to individually and securely assess student's mastery of the coursework material. The examination material will be covered by learning outcomes #1 to #5. The examination will be closed book and three (3) hours in length
Regarding the examination process, note that
§ you must attend all required classes and submit all required assessment, otherwise the Executive Dean of the Faculty or delegated authority has the power to refuse permission to attend the final examination
§ the University Examination period for First Half Year 2014 is from Monday 16th June to Friday 4th July 2014.
§ you are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable
§ the timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of examinations
§ no early examinations for individuals or groups of students will be set. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is the final day of the official examination period
§ the only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration.
ITEC803 is taught via lectures and informal tutorial sessions. During the course there will be some practical slots available for students to work on various networking routing labs using Cisco routers.
Classes are held from 6-10pm Tuesday evenings. Lectures/Tutorials and other discussion are in E6A-131 in the lecture slot. There will also be some practical work (Cisco Labs) in E6A-265.
Lectures are used to introduce computer network technologies, protocols and design and put them in a wider context. You are encouraged to ask questions of the lecturer, both during and outside the lecture, to clarify anything you might not be sure of.
It should be noted that no single text book completely covers the content of this unit. A large portion of the lecture material is drawn from the Internet standard documents called the "Request For Comments" or RFC. Students are encouraged to read RFCs of relevant topics to gain a solid understanding of the topics that are covered.
There will be two quizzes in the following weeks: 6 and 12. A quiz is a short test that will be based on your previously covered lecture material. For example, week 6 quiz will be based on lectures done in weeks 1-5. The quiz questions will be handed over to you at the beginning of your Lecture class. These quizzes contribute 10% of the total mark and serve as a feedback mechanism to monitor your progress in the unit.
The tutorial gives you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with the lecturer. The tutorial sessions involve informal discussions with your peers and the lecturer On some weeks, you will be given problems to solve prior to the tutorial; preparing solutions is important because it will allow you to discuss the problems effectively with your lecturer and maximise the feedback you get on your work.
Your assignments are to be submitted in the assignment box labelled ITEC803 on the first floor of Building E6A. Late submission of the assignment will be accepted, but penalised at the rate of 10% per working day late. If you cannot submit assignments on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the convenor at the earliest possible time.
Practical classes give you an opportunity to solve practical problems in computer networking such as router configuration. In these classes you will be given a number of problems to work on; it is important that you keep up with these problems as doing so will help you understand the material in the unit and prepare you for the work in assignments. The balance between tutorial and practical problems may vary from week to week.
Practical classes will not be held every week (Please see the Weekly Updates on the unit web site on ilearn for more information):
In this unit, you should do the following:
Lecture notes will be made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the textbook.
[C] D. Comer Computer Networks and Internet 5th Edition. Prentice Hall 2009.
OR
[C] D. Comer, Internetworking with TCP/IP, vol. 1, 6th Edition, Prentice Hall 2006.
[T] A.S. Tanenbaum and D. J. Wetherall., Computer Networks, Prentice Hall, 5th Edition. Pearson Education, 2010.
[KR] J.F. Kurose and K.W. Ross, Computer Networking: A Top Down Approach, 6th Edition. Prentice Hall 2012.
[BDC] W. Stallings, Business Data Communications, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall 2001.
[O] P. Oppenheimer, Top-Down Network Design, 3rd Edition, Cisco Press 2011.
Cisco router lab will be used for all the routing practicals.
Network Protocol Analyser (Wireshark) will be used for protocol analysis practicals.
Week Starting Date | Topic | Reading |
1 03/03/2014 |
Introduction TCP/IP, addressing |
Comer - Chapters 21, 23/Comer (TCP/IP) Chapters 1, 5, 6 |
2 10/03/2014 |
Introduction to Routing Intra-domain Routing I (RIP) |
Comer - Chapters 22, 27/Comer (TCP/IP)- Chapters 8, 14 |
3 17/03/2014 |
Intra-domain Routing 2 (OSPF) CIDR |
Comer - Chapter 27/Comer (TCP/IP) Chapters 5, 8 |
4 24/03/2014 |
Interdomain Routing (BGP) Introduction to Multicasting |
Comer - Chapter 27 (section 27.16)/Comer (TCP/IP) - Chapters 13, 15 |
5 31/03/2014 |
Multicast Routing Protocols |
Comer - Chapter 27 (section 27.16)/Comer (TCP/IP)-Chapter 15 |
6 07/04/2014 |
Quiz 1 Network Security I |
Comer - Chapter 30/Comer (TCP/IP)- Chapter 29 |
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No classes - Semester break | |
7 28/04/2014 |
Network Security 2 Assignment 1 Submission |
Comer - Chapters 30/Comer (TCP/IP) -Chapter 29 |
8 05/05/2014 |
Transport layer
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Comer - Chapter 26/Comer (TCP/IP)- Chapter 11 |
9 12/05/2014 |
Physical/ Data Link/ Application layers
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Comer - Chapters 6 to 11; Chaprers 13, 14/Comer-Chapters 28, 29/Comer (TCP/IP) -Chapters 20, 23, 24, 25 |
10 19/05/2014 |
IP version 6
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Comer - Chapter 24/Comer (TCP/IP) -Chapters 1, 5, 7, 22 |
11 26/05/2014 |
Quiz 2 Assignment 2 Submission Multimedia Networks |
Comer - Chapter 29 /Comer (TCP/IP)- Chapter 26 |
12 02/06/2014 |
Advanced Topics: Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)
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Comer - (TCP/IP) - Chapter 16 |
13 10/06/2014 |
Guest Lecture Revision and Exam Discussion |
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
Our postgraduates will be able to demonstrate a significantly enhanced depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content knowledge in their chosen fields.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be capable of utilising and reflecting on prior knowledge and experience, of applying higher level critical thinking skills, and of integrating and synthesising learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments. A characteristic of this form of thinking is the generation of new, professionally oriented knowledge through personal or group-based critique of practice and theory.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be capable of systematic enquiry; able to use research skills to create new knowledge that can be applied to real world issues, or contribute to a field of study or practice to enhance society. They will be capable of creative questioning, problem finding and problem solving.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Four standards, namely HD, D, CR, P summarize as many different levels of achievement. Each standard is precisely defined to help students know what kind of performance is expected to deserve a certain mark. The standards corresponding to the sample learning outcomes of this unit are given below:
L.O | P | CR | D | HD |
L.O.#1 | ||||
Understand the key technologies for each network layer. | Provide basic description and definitions of layer network architecture | Describe across most of the topics in layered network architecture and implementations. | Discuss with breadth across most of the topics in layered network architecture and implementations | Discuss with breadth and depth across most of the topics in layered network architecture and implementations |
L.O. #2 | ||||
Competence in analysis of network protocols. | Perform basic analysis of network protocols | Peform detailed analysis of network protocols | Perform advanced analysis of network protocol | Demonstrate indepth analysis of network protocols |
L.O. #3 | ||||
Understand the key concepts, techniques and mechanisms in networking such as addressing, routing, multicast and TCP. | Describe and apply limited set of the key networking concepts and mechanisms. | Discuss some of the key networking concepts and mechanisms. | Discuss most of the key networking concepts and mechanisms. | Discuss and apply most of the networking concents and mechanisms. |
L.O. #4 | ||||
Appreciate key issues related to network security and application layer design. | Describe limited set of key issues related to network security and application layer design | Explain some of the key issues related to network security and application layer design | Explain most of the key issues related to network security and application layer design | Discuss in depth all of the key issues related to network security and application layer design |
L.O. #5 | ||||
Competence in analysis and evaluation of significant applications of networks. | Analyze and evaluate limited set of significant network applications | Analyze and evaluate limited set of significant network applications | Analyze and evaluate limited set of significant network applications | Analyze and evaluate limited set of significant network applications |
Grading
At the end of the semester, you will receive a grade that reflects your achievement in the unit
In this unit, your final grade depends on your performance in each part of the assessment. For each task, you receive a mark that combines your standard of performance regarding each learning outcome assessed by this task. Then the different component marks are added up to determine your total mark out of 100. Your grade then depends on this total mark and your overall standards of performance.
Concretely, in order to pass the unit, you must
Students obtaining a higher grade than a pass in this unit will (in addition to the above)