Unit Outline: COMP347
Semester 2, 2008
Convenor: Dr. Rajan Shankaran
Prerequisites: COMP247 and COMP225 OR COMP229 or INFO240 and 3cp(P) from MATH130-MATH136.
Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.
About This Unit
This course gives an understanding of advanced topics in the design and implementation of computer networks. It provides an in-depth understanding of key protocols of the TCP/IP protocol suite and its relationship to emerging technologies. This course will allow students to develop knowledge and expertise in key areas such as intra- and inter-domain routing protocols, multicast protocols, different transport protocols, Quality of Service and multimedia. These concepts will be reinforced through tutorials and lab sessions. In short
- This course gives an understanding of advanced topics in the design and implementation of computer networks.
- It provides an in-depth understanding of key protocols of the TCP/IP protocol suite and its relationship to emerging technologies.
- This course will allow students to develop knowledge and expertise in key areas such as intra and inter-domain routing protocols, multicast protocols, different transport protocols, Quality of Service and multimedia.
These concepts will be reinforced through tutorials and lab sessions.
Knowledge gained during COMP347 builds upon communication protocols. topological designs, wide area and local area networks, wireless/mobile networks as well as practical hands on skills on Cisco equipment. It allows the students to expand their skill set by exposure to socket programming paradigm enabling them to better understand the design and implementation of protocols. Some of the reasoning tasks that the students complete require focussed thinking instead of iteratively modifying and testing a program. It also enhances the students' skills in critical thinking and problem solving using challenging assignments.
Teaching Staff
Role Name Email Room Office hours Convenor, Lecturer Rajan Shankaran rshankar @ ics.mq.edu.au E6A337 TBA Lecturer Len Hamey len AT ics.mq.edu.au E6A327 TBA All emails related to COMP347 should be sent to the unit convenor and must include your full name and your student id number.
Practical Supervisors
Adam Shah
email: ashah@ics.mq.edu.au
Hadi M.
email: hadim@ics.mq.edu.au
Classes
Each week you should attend 3 hours of lectures, a one hour tutorial and a two hour practical. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.
Note that Practicals commence in week 2, and Tutorials commence in week 2 .
You should have selected a tutorial and a practical at enrolment. You should attend the tutorial and practical you are enrolled in. 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.
Please note that you will be required to attend most of the tutorials and hand in prepared work each week. Failure to do so may result in you failing the unit or being excluded from the exam.
Note: Practicals will be held in Room number E6A 265 for the first half (Week 2-Week 7) and in 300 level laboratories (E6A114) (Week 8-Week 13) for the second half. Each practical session will be 2 hours in duration. Practical Timetable for the First Half: Weeks 2 to 7 (Subject to changes)
Monday 11-1: E6A265
Tuesday 7-9: E6A265
Thursday 7-9: E6A265
Practical Timetable for the second half Weeks 8 to 13 (Subject to changes).
NOTE: Please note that there is not going to be a practical class on Tuesday in the second half of the semester.
Monday 11-1: E6A114.
Thursday 7-9: E6A 114.
Required and Recommended Texts
The textbook used this semester is:
- J.F. Kurose and K.W. Ross, Computer Networking, 4th ed. Addison Wesley 2005.
This textbook is available at the University Co-op Bookshop.
Additional reading that you may find useful for this unit:
- A.S. Tanenbaum, Computer Networks, Prentice Hall, 4th ed. Pearson Education, 2003.
- D. Comer, Internetworking with TCP/IP, vol. 1, 4th ed., Prentice Hall 2000.
- W. Stallings, Business Data Communications, 5th ed., Prentice Hall 2001.
- W. Stallings, Data and Computer Communications, 8th ed., Prentice Hall 1997.
- Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, The C Programming Language, Prentice Hall, 1988. (This is the classic reference book for C, but there are many other books you could use instead.)
Unit Web Page
The web page for this unit can be found here. Note that the majority of the unit materials are publicly available while some material requires you to log in to WebCT to access it.
The unit will make use of discussion boards hosted within WebCT. Please post questions there, they will be monitored by the staff on the unit.
Learning Outcomes
A student completing the unit should have:
- A deep understanding of the protocols in the TCP/IP family.
- Use of Internet Protocols as a vehicle for understanding computer networking concepts.
- Practical experience programming for the Internet.
- Understanding of addressing schemes used in the Internet.
- Understanding of intra-domain and inter-domain routing and multicasting protocols in Internet.
- Understanding of principles that govern the design of transport layer services in the Internet.
- Understanding of protocols catering to mobility in the Internet.
- Understanding of multimedia networking protocols in the Internet, including Quality of Service issues.
- Understanding of Quality of Service architectural components to support Internet.
- Understanding of the relationship between important application layer protocols (e.g., DNS, ftp, e-mail, http) and networks.
- Basic understanding of network security technologies (firewalls, IPSEC, etc)
- Understanding of evolving Internet technologies such as ad hoc networking, and MPLS.
In addition to the discipline-based learning objectives, all academic programs at Macquarie seek to develop students' generic skills in a range of areas. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following:
- The ability to carry out advanced and broadly based problem-solving [assignments and tutorial exercises]
- The ability to apply creative thinking.
- Self-awareness, knowledge of own abilities, strengths, weaknesses, self-discipline and motivation, independent learning skills [assignments in particular]
- The ability to perform time management for themselves and to meet deadlines [assignments in particular]
- Teamwork and cooperative learning skills [tutorial group activities]
- The ability to read, analyse and understand written material [assignments and assigned readings]
- The ability to research, analyse and synthesise [assignments and tutorial exercises]
- Numerical and quantitative skills [tutorial exercises]
- Information technology skills [assignments]
- Presentation skills -- written [assignments] -- oral [tutorial discussion]
- An awareness of the influence of the disciplines on history and society [tutorial discussion]
Teaching and Learning Strategy
COMP347 is taught via lectures, tutorials 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. Tutorials are small group classes which give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with a tutor who has a sound knowledge of the subject. You will be given problems to solve each week prior to the tutorial; preparing solutions is important because it will allow you to discuss the problems effectively with your tutor and maximise the feedback you get on your work. Practical classes give you an opportunity to practice your practical networking skills as well as your programming 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 you should:
- Attend lectures, take notes, ask questions.
- Attend your tutorial, seek feedback from your tutor on your work.
- Attend the practical session, do as many of the practical problems as you can and seek feedback from the practical demonstrator on your work.
- Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer or tutor.
- Prepare answers to next week's 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 textbook.
Topic List
Week
Topic
Reading
1
Introduction to TCPIP
2
IP routing 1
3
IP routing 2
4
IP Multicasting 1
5
IP Multicasting 2
6
QOS
7
Mobile IP
8
Real Time Protocols
9
Application Layer Protocols 1
10
Application Layer Protocols 2
11
Security 1
12
Security 2
13
Review/Guest Lectures
Relationship Between Assessment and Learning Outcomes
- A deep understanding of the protocols in the TCP/IP family: This course is focuses on Internet technologies and is therefore pretty much TCP/IP centric. Most of the assignment and practical work and much of the tutorial work rely on an understanding of this protocol stack. Examination questions will cover the bulk of this material.
- Use of Internet Protocols as a vehicle for understanding computer networking concepts: Protocols are necessary to network communication and are covered throughout the assessable work, including the examination. The practical work is centered on understanding Internet protocols. This is further assessed in the assignments and final examination.
- Practical experience programming for the Internet: This material is central to the practical work and is covered in the second half of the unit. This material will also be assessed in assignment 2 and may be the subject of examination questions.
- Understanding of addressing schemes used in the Internet: These will be covered in 3 tutorials, 1 practical, assessed in 1 assignment and may also be the subject of examination questions.
- Understanding of intra-domain and inter-domain routing and multicasting protocols in Internet: This topic will be covered in two lectures, roughly 4 practicals and at least 3 tutorials as well as being central to 1 assignment. All this material may be the subject of examination questions.
- Understanding of principles that govern the design of transport layer services in the Internet: This material will be covered in 1-2 lectures and subject of examination questions.
- Understanding of protocols catering to mobility in the Internet: This material will be assessed in 1 lecture, maybe in 1 assignment and this material can be examinable.
- Understanding of multimedia networking protocols in the Internet, including Quality of Service issues/Understanding of Quality of Service architectural components to support Internet: This material is will be covered in at least 2 lectures and tutorials and may also be assessed via assignment work. Examination questions may also cover this material.
- Understanding of the relationship between important application layer protocols (e.g., DNS, ftp, e-mail, http) and networks: This is covered in 1 lecture/tutorial and may be the subject of examination questions.
- Basic understanding of network security technologies (firewalls, IPSEC, etc): This is covered in 1 lecture/practical/tutorial. A security protocol game will be used to enhance the understanding of the underlying security concepts. This material may be the subject of examination questions.
- Understanding of evolving Internet technologies such as ad hoc networking, and MPLS: If time permits, this material will be covered in one half lecture session and may be subject to examination questions.
Task Planned Date Total Marks Assignment 1: Addressing/routing and Mobile IP 20% Assignment 2A: Connect to SFTP server 0% Assignment 2B: SFTP 20% Assignment 3: Essay 10% Final Examination TBA 50% Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part separately. In particular:
- You must perform satisfactorily in the examination in order to pass this unit.
- You must submit a reasonable attempt to all three assignments to pass this unit.
All work submitted should be readable and well presented.
Submission of Assignments- Students are warned that deadlines will be firm in this unit. This means that you must plan to finish your assignments early so that when something goes wrong (and it will) you have time left to fix it.
- As the deadline approaches, there will be insufficient resources for all the students. This will not be accepted as an excuse, as a well managed assignment would have all the programming done leaving only write-up to be completed at this late stage. Since a carefully hand-written presentation is just as good as a typed one, you won't need any computing resources to finish the assignment.
- Set your personal deadline earlier than the assignment due date.
- Always keep a back-up copy of your work that could be presented in case of disaster.
- Take care to ensure that no one else picks up your printouts. Such disasters will not be accepted as an excuse for late work or plagiarism.
- Notice that assignments are marked on the basis of what is handed in. This means that the write-up has a significant impact on the overall result. It deserves considerable effort, and should serve to demonstrate your level of understanding of the assignment topic.
- If illness or misadventure prevents you from completing your assignment on time, you should contact us as soon as possible. We may make special arrangements for you to meet the requirements of the assignment, or we may consider your situation in marking the assignment. In any case, you should make every effort to submit, before the due date, what you have achieved at that point. In exceptional circumstances, late work will be accepted with a penalty of 10% of the marks for the assignment per day submitted late. Hence, an assignment submitted five days late will get at most half the marks (but may also be rejected).
- Written reports will be collected at the start of the lecture on the due date. The electronic submission of your program for assignment two will be due before the due date for the report.
Examinations
The university examination period in Second Half year 2008 is between 13th of November - 5th of December.
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.
You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. 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. Information about unavoidable disruption and the special consideration process is available on the web (PDF).
If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.
Plagiarism
Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.
University Policy on Grading
Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).
On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.
It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.
Student Support Services
Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.
The Department of Computing provides a First Year Liaison Officer to help deal with non-unit related issues that you might have as a first year student at Macquarie. If you are falling behind in your work or having problems that interfere with your studies, please ask to see the Liaison officer: Ros Ballantyne, email ros at ics.mq.edu.au, telephone 98509513.
Staff-Student Liaison Committee
The Department has established a Staff-Student Liaison Committee at 300 level to provide all students studying a Computing unit the opportunity to discuss related issues or problems with both students and staff.
For each meeting, an agenda is issued and minutes are taken. These are posted on the web at:
Details of the regular meeting dates will be posted on the unit home page. Anyone with an interest in Computing units may attend. This includes staff involved in the teaching and administration of the units, and all students currently taking a Computing unit at that level. There are formal Liaison Committee representatives for each unit who attend to present the views of the student body; all students are welcome and are encouraged to attend.
The meetings are usually held in the Department of Computing Meeting Room, E6A357.
To forward agenda items or get in touch with your representative, send an email to comp347liaison@ics.mq.edu.au.
If you have exhausted all other avenues, then you should consult the Acting Director of Teaching (Dr Christophe Doche) or the Head of Department (Assoc. Prof. Bernard Mans). You are entitled to have your concerns raised, discussed and resolved.