Final Exam

Assessment Type ¹: Examination Indicative Time on Task ²: 10 hours Due: Week 14/15 Weighting: 40% Groupwork/Individual: Short extension ³: No AI assisted?:

The final exam asks students to apply the knowledge they have gained through the semester to one or more given network scenarios. Tasks to be completed may include elements of network design, troubleshooting, and the appropriate application of security controls.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Explain the importance and the role of network protocols including why they are organised into protocol stacks and how protocol stacks function.
• Demonstrate an understanding of network addressing, routing of traffic between networks and the mechanisms that allow applications to co-exist and interact.
• Critically reflect on different major network technologies including wireless, backbone, wide area networks, and the Internet and, being aware of their properties, be able to evaluate different network designs.
• Differentiate among LAN components, describe addressing schemes at various layers and how they interact, techniques to resolve them, and in particular instances calculate addresses.
• Demonstrate technical networking proficiency including demonstrated ability to configure, construct, and document, and in simple cases, design networks, as well as the ability to perform traffic analysis on local area networks.
• Demonstrate an understanding of, and have an ability to develop plans for dealing with, issues regarding network security and management.

Network Design Report

Assessment Type ¹: Report Indicative Time on Task ²: 20 hours Due: Sunday 31/05/2026 at 11:55pm Weighting: 30% Groupwork/Individual: Individual Short extension ³: No AI assisted?:

This assignment will be released no later than week 6 Friday 3 April 2026.

This assignment tests students understanding of selected networking technologies.

On successful completion, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of network addressing, routing of traffic between networks and the mechanisms that allow applications to co-exist and interact.
• Critically reflect on different major network technologies including wireless, backbone, wide area networks, and the Internet and, being aware of their properties, be able to evaluate different network designs.
• Differentiate among LAN components, describe addressing schemes at various layers and how they interact, techniques to resolve them, and in particular instances calculate addresses.
• Demonstrate an understanding of, and have an ability to develop plans for dealing with, issues regarding network security and management.

Basic Networking Assignment

Assessment Type ¹: Demonstration Indicative Time on Task ²: 0 hours Due: Sunday 19/04/2026 at 11:55pm Weighting: 30% Groupwork/Individual: Individual Short extension ³: No AI assisted?:

This assignment will be released no later than week 2 Friday 3 March 2026.

This assignment tests students understanding of basic networking technologies.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Explain the importance and the role of network protocols including why they are organised into protocol stacks and how protocol stacks function.
• Demonstrate an understanding of network addressing, routing of traffic between networks and the mechanisms that allow applications to co-exist and interact.
• Differentiate among LAN components, describe addressing schemes at various layers and how they interact, techniques to resolve them, and in particular instances calculate addresses.
• Demonstrate technical networking proficiency including demonstrated ability to configure, construct, and document, and in simple cases, design networks, as well as the ability to perform traffic analysis on local area networks.

¹ If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

• the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
• the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

² Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation.

³ An automatic short extension is available for some assessments. Apply through the Service Connect Portal.

Late Submission Policy

• 5% penalty per day: If you submit your assessment late, 5% of the total possible marks will be deducted for each day (including weekends), up to 7 days.

  • Example 1 (out of 100): If you score 85/100 but submit 20 hours late, you will lose 5 marks and receive 80/100.

  • Example 2 (out of 30): If you score 27/30 but submit 1 day late, you will lose 1.5 marks and receive 25.5/30.

• After 7 days: Submissions more than 7 days late will receive a mark of 0.

• Extensions:

  • Automatic short extension: Some assessments are eligible for automatic short extension. You can only apply for an automatic short extension before the due date.

  • Special Consideration: If you need more time due to serious issues and for any assessments that are not eligible for Short Extension, you must apply for Special Consideration.

Need help? Review the Special Consideration page HERE.

Classes

Each week you should attend two hours of lectures and a two-hour practical workshop. For details of scheduled classes, consult the timetables webpage.

Note that practical workshops (lab sessions) commence in week 2. The week-by-week details of the practical (lab) classes will be available from iLearn.

You must attend the practical that you are enrolled in.

Textbook and Reading Materials

The textbooks for this semester are:

• FitzGerald, J, Dennis, A, & Durcikova, A, 2021, Business data communications and networking, 14th edn, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
  • Print:    ISBN 978-1-119-70284-9
  • E-Text: ISBN 978-1-119-70266-5
• Comer, D, 2015, Computer networks and internets, 6th Global edn, Pearson, Harlow, Essex.
  • Print:    ISBN 978-1-292-06117-7
  • E-Text: ISBN 978-1-292-06182-5

Additional reading that you may find useful for this unit:

• Kurose, JF & Ross, KW, 2013, Computer networking : a top-down approach, 8th Global edn, Pearson, Harlow, Essex.
  • Print:    ISBN 978-1-292-40546-9
  • E-Text: ISBN 978-1-292-41997-8
• Comer, D, 2014, Internetworking with TCP/IP. Volume one, 6th International edn, Harlow, Essex.
  • Print:    ISBN 978-0-136-08530-0
• Tanenbaum, AS & Wetherall, DJ, 2014, Computer networks, 5th Global edn, Pearson, Harlow.
  • Print:    ISBN 978-0-132-12695-3
  • E-Text: ISBN 978-0-133-07262-4

Web Resources

Unit Websites

COMP6250 is administered via iLearn (http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/).

This unit outline can be found in the university's unit guides

Live Streaming

Digital recordings of lectures may be available. They will be linked from iLearn.

Technologies Used and Required

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

• Cisco Packet Tracer software.
• Wireshark Packet Analyzer software.

General Notes

In this unit, you should do the following:

• Attend lectures, take notes, and ask questions.
• Attend your weekly practical session and work on the practical exercises.
• Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer/tutor.
• 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 and are not a substitute for your own notes or the recommended reading list.

Methods of Communication

We will communicate with you via your university email or through announcements on iLearn. Queries to unit convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent to the unit convenor's email from your university email address.

We value student feedback to be able to continually improve the way we offer our units. As such we encourage students to provide constructive feedback via student surveys, to the teaching staff directly, or via the FSE Student Experience & Feedback link in the iLearn page.