General Assessment Information

The assessment of this unit consists of two quizzes, two assignments and a final exam. The quizzes will be carried out online in iLearn. You will submit the solutions to the two assignments via iLearn by the due date. The form and date of the final examination will be announced later in the semester.

Late Assessment Submission Penalty 

From 1 July 2022, Students enrolled in Session based units with written assessments will have the following late penalty applied. Please see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/assessments for more information. 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7^th day (including weekends). After the 7^th day, a grade of '0' will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical concern. 

For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, students need to submit an application for Special Consideration.  

In this unit, late submissions will be accepted as follows: 

• Quiz 1: NO, unless Special Consideration is granted  
• Quiz 2: NO, unless Special Consideration is granted  
• Assignment 1: YES, Standard Late Penalty applies 
• Assignment 2: YES, Standard Late Penalty applies 

Supplementary Exam

In general, if you receive Special Consideration for the final exam, a supplementary exam will be scheduled after the normal exam period, following the release of marks. By making a special consideration application for the final exam you are declaring yourself available for a resit during the supplementary examination period and will not be eligible for a second special consideration approval based on pre-existing commitments. Please ensure you are familiar with the policy prior to submitting an application. Approved applicants will receive an individual notification one week prior to the exam with the exact date and time of their supplementary examination.

Lectures

Live on campus lecture sessions will provide an opportunity for the students to ask questions on the topic of the week and to clarify anything that they might not be sure of. 

Lecture recordings will be made available through Echo360.

Practicals

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.

Note that while the practical material is structured against the lecture material, you need to keep in mind that there will not always be a one to one mapping between the practical exercises and the lecture topics. This is because you need some practical sessions to get acquainted to new tools and devices thereby limiting the number of practical time slots available to experiment with technologies discussed in some lectures.

There will be one 2 hour long practical session each week starting week 2 and each practical exercise is worth 2 marks. The practical sessions are conducted in a specially-equipped networking laboratory. There is no opportunity to conduct practical work outside the assigned sessions.Weeks 12 and 13 are catchup weeks and provide an opportunity to do any practical exercise/s that were missed over the course of the semester (weeks 2-11).

Quizzes

There will be two quizzes in the following weeks: 5, and 11. A quiz is a short test that will be based on your previously covered lecture material. For example, week 5 quiz will be based on lectures done in weeks 1-4. The quiz questions will be handed over to you at the beginning of your Lecture class. These quizzes contribute 20% of the total mark and serve as a feedback mechanism to monitor your progress in the unit.

Tutorial

Tutorials are posted every Friday on ilearn. Even though these tutorial exercises are not formally assessed, it is important that students solve them on a weekly basis as these questions are often previous exam questions or structured like test/exam questions. The more practice you have at such questions, the more likely you are to do yourself justice in quizzes/exams. Solutions to these exercises will be regularly posted on ilearn unit site. If need be, this will also allow you to discuss the problems effectively with your lecturer/peers and maximise the feedback you get on your work. In case of any difficulty, seek help from the teaching staff.

Assignments

Your assignment is to be submitted online using Turnitin.

Late Submission

From 1 July 2022, Students enrolled in Session based units with written assessments will have the following late penalty applied. Please see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/assessments for more information. 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7^th day (including weekends). After the 7^th day, a grade of '0' will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical concern. 

For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, students need to submit an application for Special Consideration.  

In this unit, late submissions will be accepted as follows: 

• Quiz 1: NO, unless Special Consideration is granted  
• Quiz 2: NO, unless Special Consideration is granted  
• Assignment 1: YES, Standard Late Penalty applies 
• Assignment 2: YES, Standard Late Penalty applies 

Text

The Recommended Text

Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1,  6th edition  Douglas Comer

Computer Networks (5th Edition)   by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and David J. Wetherall (you could use the 4th edition as well)

Link to the book.

Reference Text List

Computer Networks and Internets: Global (6th) Edition  by Douglas Comer

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach 7th edition  by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross (older editions - 5th and 6th editions can be used as well)

Request For Comments (RFCs): Series of memoranda encompassing new research, innovations, and methodologies applicable to Internet technologies. 

RFC documents are available to public for free. We will be posting these documents on ilearn as well.

General Notes

In this unit, you should do the following:

• Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions.
• Attend your weekly Practical session 
• Prepare for and strive to do well in the three quizzes
• Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer/tutor.
• Prepare answers to tutorial questions.
• 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 recommended reading list.

Unit Schedule

Tentative Lecture Schedule

Note: We anticipate that there may be some shifting of material depending on class progress during the semester.

Grades

At the end of the semester, you will receive a grade that reflects your achievement in the unit

• Fail (F): does not provide evidence of attainment of all learning outcomes. There is missing or partial or superficial or faulty understanding and application of the fundamental concepts in the field of study; and incomplete, confusing or lacking communication of ideas in ways that give little attention to the conventions of the discipline.
• Pass (P): provides sufficient evidence of the achievement of learning outcomes. There is demonstration of understanding and application of fundamental concepts of the field of study; and communication of information and ideas adequately in terms of the conventions of the discipline. The learning attainment is considered satisfactory or adequate or competent or capable in relation to the specified outcomes.
• Credit (Cr): provides evidence of learning that goes beyond replication of content knowledge or skills relevant to the learning outcomes. There is demonstration of substantial understanding of fundamental concepts in the field of study and the ability to apply these concepts in a variety of contexts; plus communication of ideas fluently and clearly in terms of the conventions of the discipline.
• Distinction (D): provides evidence of integration and evaluation of critical ideas, principles and theories, distinctive insight and ability in applying relevant skills and concepts in relation to learning outcomes. There is demonstration of frequent originality in defining and analysing issues or problems and providing solutions; and the use of means of communication appropriate to the discipline and the audience.
• High Distinction (HD): provides consistent evidence of deep and critical understanding in relation to the learning outcomes. There is substantial originality and insight in identifying, generating and communicating competing arguments, perspectives or problem solving approaches; critical evaluation of problems, their solutions and their implications; creativity in application.

In this unit, the final mark will be calculated by combining the marks for all assessment tasks according to the percentage weightings shown in the assessment summary.

Note: There are no hurdles in this unit.

Concretely, in order to pass the unit, you must obtain an overall total mark of 50% or higher.

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 to obtain High Distinction;
  • have a total mark of 75% or higher to obtain Distinction;
  • have a total mark of 65% or higher  to obtain Credit.

Note:

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.

All work submitted should be readable and well presented.

You should never commit plagiarism in any of your submitted work, including tutorial and practical answers.