Late submissions will not be accepted without an approved Special Consideration request.  Assessments submitted after the due date will receive a mark of zero.

Lectures

2 hours of pre-recorded lectures each week.

Lectures are used to introduce communication protocols, ISP network architecture 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.

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.

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 research papers, white papers and standard documents . Students are encouraged to read the weekly recommended reading list to gain a solid understanding of the topics that are covered.

Assignments

Your assignment is to be submitted online using Turnitin.

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 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.

Practicals

The purpose of practical classes is to reinforce the concepts that are covered in the lecture materials.

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 practical session each week, Conducted in a specially-equipped networking laboratory. There is no opportunity to conduct practical work outside the assigned sessions.

Note that practical classes will start in week 2. 

General Notes

In this unit, you should do the following:

• Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions.
• Attend your tutorial, seek feedback from your lecturer on your work.
• Prepare for and strive to do well in the 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.

Please note it is to your benefit to attend most of the classes, prepared to participate in discussions, ask and answer questions, and provide perspectives from your own background and workplaces. Resources to assist your learning Digital recordings of lectures are available as Echo360 through iLearn login. These are provided for review material and in case of missing lectures. Recordings should not be relied upon and copyrighted material may be omitted. iLearn is used for out-of-class communication as well as forums where active discussion of issues is encouraged. iLearn can be found at can be found at http://learn.mq.edu.au. You are encouraged to review iLearn weekly and to do background reading before each class.

TEXT

There is no single text book containing material that could address all topics of unit. All necessary reading material  will be provided by the lecturer every week.

Other Useful Books (You need not buy unless you believe you need to own one)

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

Douglas Comer, Internetworking with TCP/IP volume 1: Principles Protocols, and Architecture, 6th edition, Prentice Hall.

• Adjusted unit schedule to include new topics
• Added late submission policy to general assessment information

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.

There are no hurdles in the 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.