Classes

Each week you should attend three hours of lectures, and a two hour practical. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage or the unit web page on ilearn.

There will also be a 1 hour tutorial in weeks 3, 6, 9 and 12 - these will be organised in the first week of lectures. For details, consult iLearn.

Note that practicals (lab sessions) commence in week 1.  A full week-by-week schedule of the practical (lab) classes can be found on iLearn.

You should have selected a practical at enrolment. You should attend the practical you are enrolled in. (Note that two quizzes will be held throughout the semester in practical classes, and you must attend your assigned class to participate in the quiz.) If you do not have a class, or if you wish to change one, you should see the enrolment operators in the E7B courtyard during the first two weeks of the semester. Thereafter you should go to the Student Centre. In cases of severe difficulty, please contact the unit convenor.

Textbook and Reading Materials

The textbook for this semester is:

• Fitzgerald, J. & Dennis, A, Business Data Communications and Networking, Eleventh Edition, Wiley 2012. ISBN 978-0-471-77116-6

Additional reading that you may find useful for this unit:

• Stallings, W., Business Data Communications, 6th ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009
• Goldman, J. & Rawles, P., Applied Data Communications, 4th ed.Wiley, 2004
• Kurose, J. & Ross, K., Computer Networking, 3rd ed., Addison Wesley, 2005
• Peterson, L. & Davie, B., Computer Networks: A Systems approach, 3rd ed., Morgan Kaufman, 2003
• Stallings, W., Data & Computer Communications, 7th ed., Prentice Hall, 2004
• Rowe, S. & Schuh, M., Computer Networking, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005
• White, C., Data Communications and Computer Networks, 3rd ed., Thomsons, 2004

Web Resources

Unit Websites

The web page for this unit can be found at http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/units/comp247

Unit content amd discussion boards are on iLearn (http://ilearn.mq.edu.au).

The unit outline can be found on units.mq.edu.au.

echo360

Digital recordings of lectures are available. Read instructions here.

Technologies Used and Required

In this unit you will will be exposed to the following technology and tools:

• Cisco equipment and the Cisco IOS
• Wireshark Packet Analyzer software
• TracePlus Ethernet: Performance and Packet Capturing tool

This offering of COMP247 will include expanded discussion of security. Security is a system-wide issue - it is relevant at many different places in the computer network and at many different levels of the network stack. In 2014, most weeks of lectures will include discussion of security related to the topics presented in that particular week. These discussions are in addition to the specific lectures on security towards the end of the semester that provide an in-depth discussion of security issues as in previous years.

Standards

In particular, students who will pass this unit will

• obtain an overall mark of at least 50% (calculated according to the weightings given above).
• perform at a Pass level in the final examination.
• perform at a Pass level or higher in assignments, quizzes, and practicals combined.
• make a reasonable attempt at the practical exercises.

Students obtaining a higher grade than a pass in this unit will (in addition to the above)

• have a total mark of 85% or higher and perform at distinction level or higher in the final examination to obtain High Distinction;
• have a total mark of 75% or higher and perform at credit level or higher in the final examination to obtain Distinction;
• have a total mark of 65% or higher  and perform at pass level but with 55% or higher in the final examination to obtain Credit.

 You are encouraged to:

• set your personal deadline earlier than the actual one;
• keep backups of all important assessed tasks;.
• make sure no one else picks up your printouts.

COMP247 is taught via lectures and laboratory practical sessions. Lectures are used to introduce new material, give examples of the use of networking concepts and techniques and put them in a wider context. While lectures are largely one to many presentations, you are encouraged to ask questions of the lecturer to clarify anything you might not be sure of. Tutorial style discussions on important topics will be conducted in the lectures. These discussions will give you the opportunity to interact with your peers as well as the lecturer.  

Practical classes give you an opportunity to practice your practical networking skills under the supervision of a demonstrator. Each week 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.

Each week, a tutorial exercise will be posted to test your understanding of that week's material. Even though these tutorial exercises are not formally assessed, it is important that you solve them on a weekly basis as these questions help prepare you for the quizzes and examination - they are often previous exam questions or are structured similar to quiz or exam questions. The more practice you have at such questions, the more likely you are to do yourself justice in the quizzes and exam. Solutions to these exercises will be regularly posted on the ilearn unit site. Use these solutions to check your work.  In case of any difficulty, seek help from the teaching staff.

Each week you should:

• Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions, seek feedback from the lecturer.
• Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer/practical demonstrator.
• Attend the practical session, do as many of the practical problems as you can and seek feedback from the practical demonstrator on your work.
• Prepare answers to tutorial questions and if need be, seek feedback from the teaching staff.
• Work on any assignments that have been released.

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.