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Note: This page dates from 2005, and is kept for historical purposes.
The University of Queensland
School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
Semester 2, 2004
COMS3200 / COMS7201
Computer Networks I
Course Profile
Version
This is version 1.0 of the COMS3200 / COMS7201 course profile, dated 10 July 2004.
Changes since the last version
Not applicable.
Course Summary
| Course Code(s): | COMS3200 / COMS7201 |
| Unit Value: | #2 |
| Contact Hours: | 5 hours per week (3L1T1P) |
| Purpose: | COMS3200 / COMS7201 is an introductory course to computer networks and modern communication systems. The Open System Interconnection (OSI) model is used as a reference, in order to show the logical structure of the communication systems, but the emphasis of the course is on the Internet communication protocols. Communication and computer networks are part of our everyday technology. The volume and complexity of communication systems is rapidly increasing, therefore extending both theoretical and engineering knowledge of the subject. In addition, all fields of communication are subject to extensive standardization and the volume of international standards is enormous. It is essential that future computer professionals know the general structure, scope and likely future directions of standards. COMS3200 / COMS7201 provides basic knowledge about communication systems (mainly computer networks) and also characterises standardization trends. |
Teaching Staff
Assoc. Prof. Jadwiga Indulska (Course Coordinator)
Office: 78-627
Phone: (07) 3365-2542
Fax: (07) 3365-4999
Email: jaga+coms3200[at]itee.uq.edu.au
Consultation Time: Tuesday 2-3pm (St. Lucia), Thursday - immediately after
the lecture (Ipswich)
Dr Marius Portmann
Office: 78-616
Phone: (07) 3365 8356
Fax: (07) 3365-4999
Email: marius[at]itee.uq.edu.au
Consultation Time: Tuesday 2-3pm (St. Lucia), Thursday - immediately after
the lecture (Ipswich)
Dr Peter Sutton
Office: 78-605
Phone: (07) 3365-4854
Fax: (07) 3365-4999
Email: p.sutton[at]itee.uq.edu.au
Tutors
To be advised.
Course Goals
The goal of the course is to provide students with a very good background in communication systems with the emphasis on computer networks. It is expected that upon successful completion of the course, students will:
- understand the possible topologies, functions and architectures of computer networks
- understand computer networks terminology
- be able to describe the layers in the OSI and TCP/IP reference models and understand the issues dealt with at each layer
- understand the message passing and RPC paradigms of inter-process communication (IPC) and be able to choose appropriate inter-process communication methods for given distributed applications
- understand the issues involved in network data representation and various approaches to solving the problem and be able to choose appropriate representations
- understand characteristics of communication signals e.g. frequency, amplitude, phase, spectrum, data-rate, bandwidth and signal-strength
- understand and be able to apply Nyquist’s theorem and Shannon’s theorems
- understand the differences between analog and digital transmission and have a basic understanding of various types of modulation and multiplexing
- understand which networks require MAC protocols and be able to characterise two types of transmission channel allocation: collision based and collision free
- understand the functionality of the ALOHA, Slotted ALOHA, CSMA, CSMA/CD protocols and be able to analyse performance of ALOHA and Slotted ALOHA
- understand the differences between 10base5, 10base2, 10baseT, 100baseT,1000baseT
- understand the functionality of the IEEE 802.3 protocol (CSMA/CD with exponential backoff)
- have a basic understanding of various wireless networking protocols
- understand mechanisms for frame error detection (e.g. parity bits and CRC), reliable delivery (e.g. stop-and-wait, Go-back-N, Selective-repeat) and flow control (static window) at the data link layer
- understand the functionality of and be able to compare various interconnecting devices, e.g. repeaters, bridges, switches and routers
- understand the differences between the connection-oriented, connection-less and source-routing communication models
- understand aspects of the Internet Protcol (IP), specifically, the purpose of the various header components, addressing and address classes, subnets and packet fragmentation
- understand the relationship between link addresses and IP addresses and the purpose of the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
- understand and be able to reproduce the operation of simple routing algorithms
- understand the purposes of the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
- be familiar with the important features of IPv6 and the major differences to IPv4
- know the basic characteristics of UDP and TCP and when each would be used
- understand the purpose of the various header fields for TCP and UDP
- understand how TCP connections are established and torn down and how TCP’s sliding window protocol works
- be able to characterise multimedia applications and their quality of service (QoS) requirements
- understand how the requested QoS may be supported at various layers of protocols
- be able to characterise and compare the IntServ, DiffServ, and MPLS models of QoS
- be able to characterise the functionality of RTT and RSVP protocols
- understand the importance of risk assessment and security policies for organisations
- be able to characterise 5 security aspects as defined by OSI and show which security mechanisms can provide these security aspects
- be able to characterise and compare encryption and authentication algorithms
- be able to design and implement simple networking and distributed applications;
- be able to design a simple communication protocol;
- be able to describe application services of computer networks and identify appropriate implementation methods;
- have an understanding of various Internet Protocols (e.g. DNS, HTTP)
- be able to use and interpret the results of various network diagnostic and query tools
- be able to install and configure a web server application
Graduate Attributes Developed
The University of Queensland has defined a set of graduate attributes to specify broad core knowledge and skills associated with all undergraduate programs (http://www.uq.edu.au/hupp/contents/view.asp?s1=3&s2=20&s3=5). This course addresses these attributes as follows:
| Attribute | Contributions from this Course |
|---|---|
| In-depth knowledge of the field of study | The course should provide in-depth background in a variety of networking issues: network topology, network architecture, and protocol functionality for LANs, MANs and WANs with the emphasis on the Internet protocols. |
| Effective Communication | Report writing through assignments. |
| Independence and Creativity | Assignments and tutorial problems provide opportunities for generating ideas. |
| Critical Judgement | Tutorials and assignments provide opportunities for critically evaluating existing networking technologies and providing justifications for these evaluations. |
| Ethical and Social Understanding | This course exposes students to numerous networking technologies with a focus on assessing when particular technologies are appropriate. The course supports understanding and analysing customer and user requirements for computer networks technologies. |
Assumed Background
The following rules are taken from the
UQ 2004 Course Catalog:
Prerequisites: (COMP1500 or CS181) and (3E211 or COMP1300 or 2300 or 2302
or IV112 or IENV1802)
Incompatible: COMS2000, CS233, CS332, CS334, CS336
Students are expected to have basic knowledge of computer architecture and Java programming skills. Knowledge of operating systems would be an advantage but it is not necessary. Previous programming experience is essential. Several of the assignments require Java programming in a MS Windows or UNIX environment. Knowledge of MS Windows or Unix will be advantageous.
Resources
Course Profile Copy
In the first lecture (or class meeting) students will be directed to the web address at which this course profile can be read. Students enrolled at St Lucia who wish to retain a hard copy of the profile can use the free print quota provided each semester to students enrolled in courses in the School of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering. For information on how to use this print quota, see the School Policy on Student Photocopying and Printing (St Lucia). Students enrolled at the Ipswich campus will either be provided with a hard copy or given directions in class on how to obtain a free copy
Textbook
The required text is:
-
Tanenbaum, A.S., Computer Networks, 4th ed., Prentice-Hall International 2003.
Earlier editions of this book may suffice for some lecture topics but this edition is recommended given the changes in network technology since the 3rd edition was published in 1996. References will be provided to pages in the 4th edition.
Reference Texts
Students are not expected to purchase the following books, but may find them useful. Copies of some of these books are available in the library.
-
Peterson, L., Davie, B., Computer Networks – A Systems Approach, 3rd ed., Morgan Kaufmann, 2003.
-
Stallings, W., Data and Computer Communications, 7th ed., Prentice Hall, 2004.
-
Gallo, M., Hancock, W., Computer Communications and Networking Technologies, Thomson Learning, 2002.
-
Kurose, J. and Ross, K., Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, 3rd ed. Pearson - Addison-Wesley, 2004.
Handouts
Various handouts will be made available to students throughout the semester. If you fail to collect a handout at a lecture, you may access it on the course web site. Spare copies will NOT be available after the lecture time. You will have to download and print the document yourself if you wish to have a printed copy.
Facilities
Practical work for this course will take place in a PC Lab in GPSouth (St. Lucia campus) and in the Information Environments studios (Ipswich campus). Laboratory sessions will be scheduled. It may be possible for students to use their own computing facilities to perform the assignment work for this course, however, technical problems with personal computing equipment, including loss of work through disk or other failure, will not be a valid excuse for late hand-in of assignments. All students (including those using ITEE computing facilities) are expected to make regular backups of their assignment work to guard against possible loss or corruption of data.
Consultation
Lecturer consultation hours will be determined early in the semester and will be announced in a lecture, posted on lecturer office doors and/or publicised by email, news group postings and on the course WWW page.
Distribution of Notices
Notices to students will usually be delivered electronically (e.g., by email, news posting and web-site update). Details of these resources are provided below.
Web
The course web site is available at http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~coms3200. The course Web site will contain a copy of all the lecture material, tutorial questions, tutorial answers (one week after tutorial), assignment topics and laboratory topics.
All students must read their email, preferably on a daily basis. Important announcements will be e-mailed to enrolled students. You may send email to the teaching staff at coms3200[at]itee.uq.edu.au. The mailing list will be archived on the course web site.
Newsgroup
The course newsgroup is uq.itee.coms3200. This group is available on both the University and School news servers (news.uq.edu.au and news.itee.uq.edu.au).
This group can be used by students to post questions or comments to the newsgroup. Copies of announcements will also be posted to the newsgroup. The teaching staff will monitor the newsgroup. The newsgroup is archived on the course web site.
Teaching Activities
A variety of teaching modes will be used in the course of COMS3200 / COMS7201. These include lectures, tutorials, lab sessions and independent learning. The topics for the lectures are listed in the lecture outline below.
COMS3200 / COMS7201 has 5 scheduled contact hours (3L, 1T, 1L) each week. COMS3200 / COMS7201 is a 2 unit course so students should expect to spend an average of 12 hours per week (including contact hours) on this course in order to achieve a passing grade.
Lectures
There are three hours of lectures each week:
- St. Lucia Campus:
- Lecture 1 (2 hours): Tuesday 12noon to 2pm
Lecture 2 (1 hour): Friday 12noon to 1pm - Ipswich Campus:
- Lecture: Thursday 9am to 12noon
Room details may be found in the timetable on mySI-net. In some weeks, it is possible that the third hour of lecture time will not be used.
Copies of lecture slides will be provided (via the course web site) - usually before the lecture concerned. You should note, however, that the lecture slides may not be a complete representation of the material presented at a lecture. Additional examples and other material may be provided. You should read the appropriate chapters of the textbook before coming to the lecture (page/section references will be provided). As the course is very broad, it is essential that you keep up with the weekly flow of the descriptive material – it cannot be assimilated in a short time.
Tutorials
Students should sign-up (via mySI-net) for a weekly tutorial session (commencing in week 2). Tutorials will be used to reinforce understanding of the course material. Active student participation is expected. The available tutorial sessions are listed below (subject to change). Many of the rooms have limited capacity – you should only attend the tutorial session to which you have signed up. Sessions offered will be dependent on enrolment numbers.
| St Lucia Tutorials |
|||
| Tutorial |
Day |
Time |
Room |
| Ta |
Monday |
9:00am |
50-C203 |
| Tb |
Monday |
12:00pm |
50-S201 |
| Tc |
Tuesday |
9:00am |
50-C201 |
| Td |
Tuesday |
11:00am |
32-214 |
| Te |
Wednesday |
9:00am |
50-C202 |
| Tf |
Wednesday |
1:00pm |
78-343 |
| Tg |
Thursday |
2:00pm |
50-C203 |
| Th |
Friday |
11:00am |
32-207 |
Ipswich Tutorials |
|||
| Tutorial |
Day |
Time |
Room |
| Ta |
Thursday |
12:00pm |
15-103 |
| Tb |
Thursday |
1:00pm |
19-102 |
Tutorial questions will be issued one week before the tutorial and will be placed on the course web page. The questions will be related to the lecture material and are to facilitate its comprehension and exam preparation. It is assumed that students prepare for the tutorial sessions and will be able to work on the questions under the tutor’s supervision. Other questions related (directly or indirectly) to the material are encouraged. Answers to the tutorial questions will be available via the course web site.
Pracs
Students should sign-up for and attend a weekly prac session (commencing in week 4). Before the mid-semester break, lab sessions will be used as programming consultation sessions for assignments 1 to 3. Starting from week 10, the labs will be used by students to undertake and demonstrate their work on the lab assignment (assignment 4).
The available prac sessions are listed below (subject to change). Sessions offered will be dependent on enrolment numbers.
| St. Lucia Sessions (Room 78-109) |
|||
| Prac Session |
Day |
Time |
|
| Pa |
Monday |
10:00am |
|
| Pb |
Monday |
11:00am |
|
| Pc |
Tuesday |
9:00am |
|
| Pd |
Tuesday |
10:00am |
|
| Pe |
Wednesday |
3:00pm |
|
| Pf |
Thursday |
12:00pm |
|
| Pg |
Thursday |
4:00pm |
|
| Pg |
Friday |
4:00pm |
|
| Ipswich Sessions (Room 02-106) |
||
| Pa |
Thursday |
2:00pm |
| Pb |
Thursday |
3:00pm |
| Pc |
Thursday |
4:00pm |
Attendance
You are not required to attend any of the teaching sessions (except those in which an assessment activity is taking place), however, you are strongly encouraged to do so because the material for this course is very broad and complex. The lectures, tutorials and pracs have been specifically designed to aid your learning of the course material. Failure to attend a session may result in you being disadvantaged. It is up to you to find out what happened at any class session that you miss.
Teaching Plan
| Week Number | Monday's Date | Lecture Number | Topic | Lecturer | Prac Session | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 July | 1 | Course Overview, Networking Terminology | Indulska | ||
| 2 | Introduction to Interprocess Communication | Indulska | ||||
| 2 | 2 August | 3 | Remote Procedure Calls, Data Representation, APIs | Indulska | Assign. 1 out | |
| 4 | Network Models (OSI, Internet) | Indulska | ||||
| 3 | 9 August | 5 | TCP/UDP | Indulska | ||
| 6 | Indulska | |||||
| 4 | 16 August | 7 | Network Programming | Sutton | Assign. 1 consultations | |
| 8 | Sutton | |||||
| 5 | 23 August | 9 | Physical Layer | Portmann | Assign. 1 consultations | Assign. 1 due (Fri. 4pm) Assign. 2 out |
| 10 | Portmann | |||||
| 6 | 30 August | 11 | Data Link Layer | Portmann | Assign. 2 consultations | |
| 12 | Portmann | |||||
| 7 | 6 September | 13 | Medium Access Sublayer | Portmann | Assign. 2 consultations | Assign. 2 due (Fri. 4pm) Assign. 3 out |
| 14 | Portmann | |||||
| 8 | 13 September | 15 | Internet Protocol (IP) | Portmann | Assign. 3 consultations | |
| 16 | Portmann | |||||
| 9 | 19 September | 17 | Routing | Indulska | Assign. 3 consultations | |
| 18 | Indulska | |||||
| 27 September | Mid-semester break (one week) |
|||||
| 10 | 4 October | 19 | Internet Applications | Indulska | Assign. 3 consultations | Assign. 3 due (Fri. 4pm) Assign. 4 out |
| 20 | Indulska | |||||
| 11 | 11 October | 21 | Security and Encryption | Portmann | Assign. 4 (part A) assessment | |
| 22 | Portmann | |||||
| 12 | 18 October | 23 | Quality of Service | Portmann | Assign. 4 (part A) assessment | |
| 24 | Portmann | |||||
| 13 | 25 October | 25 | Revision | Indulska | Assign. 4 (part A) assessment | Assign. 4 due (Fri. 5pm) |
| 26 | No Lecture | |||||
| 1 November | Revision Period | |||||
| Exam Week 1 | 8 November | Final Exam | ||||
| Exam Week 2 | 15 November | |||||
Assessment
COMS3200 will be assessed by several methods as outlined below. Your final grade (on a 1 to 7 scale) will be determined by combining the marks from the various assessment components as described below. For each assessment item, reference is made to the specific learning objectives (from the list above) which the assessment item will address.
Assignments (50%)
There are four required assignments. Assignment handout dates and due dates are shown in the teaching plan above. The assignments are described below. All assignments are to be individual work. Please see the statement on plagiarism and collusion below. Code written by students will be analysed using collusion detection software.
Assignment 1 - Interprocess Communication (20%)
Students will be required to design and implement a system of communicating processes. Students must (a) choose appropriate interprocess communication primitives, (b) design appropriate message formats, and (c) implement the system of processes in Java. A library of useful classes will be provided. This assignment will test you against learning objectives 4,5, 32 and 33.
Assignment 2 - Basic Network Programming (8%)
Students will be given protocol specifications and will be required to implement a process (or processes) which communicates using those protocols. Students will use low level UDP and/or TCP primitives. Implementation will be in the Java programming language. This assignment will test you against learning objective 32.
Assignment 3 - Network Application (15%)
Students will be required to implement a network application using UDP and/or TCP primitives. Implementation will be in the Java programming language. This assignment will test you against learning objectives 22, 32 and 33.
Assignment 4 - Networking Applications Lab (7%)
Students will be required to demonstrate the use of (and understanding of the output of) some simple network diagnostic and query tools. Students will also be required to install and configure a web server application (Apache). This assignment will test you against learning objectives 36 and 37.
Final Examination (50%)
A two hour final examination will be held during the final examination period. This exam will be open-book and will contain a number of questions. Open-book means that you may bring any written material into the examination room. You may also bring a battery-operated non-programmable calculator. Programmable calculators and other computing or communication devices are NOT permitted. The final examination will test understanding of a subset of learning outcomes 1-31, 34 and 35 listed in the Course Goals section.
Determination of Final Grade
Based on your individual assignment marks, an overall assignment mark (out of 50, rounded to 3 decimal places) will be calculated based on the assignment weightings shown above. A final examination mark (out of 50, rounded to 3 decimal places) will be calculated by scaling your exam result to be out of 50. An overall percentage will be calculated by adding the overall assignment mark to the final examination mark and rounding the result to the nearest whole percent.
Your final grade for COMS3200 / COMS7201 will be the highest grade for which your overall percentage and component results satisfy the criteria in the following table.
| To be awarded this | requires that you achieve this... | |||
| Final Grade | Overall Percentage | Final Exam Mark (out of 50) |
Overall Assignment Mark (out of 50) |
Lowest Assignment Mark (out of 100%, rounded to nearest %) |
| 7 (High Distinction) | 85% or higher | 37.250 or higher | 37.250 or higher | 50% or higher |
| 6 (Distinction) | 75% or higher | 24.750 or higher | 24.750 or higher | No requirement |
| 5 (Credit) | 65% or higher | 24.750 or higher | 24.750 or higher | No requirement |
| 4 (Pass) | 50% or higher | No requirement | ||
| 3 (Conceded Pass) | 45% or higher | No requirement | ||
| 2 (Fail) | 20% or higher | No requirement | ||
| 1 (Fail) | At least one item of work submitted or exam attempted | |||
| X | No work submitted and exam not attempted | |||
Your attention is drawn to the following implied requirements. In addition to achieving the required overall percentage for a given grade:
- in order to achieve a grade of 7, you must exhibit excellent performance (75%) on both the exam and assignment components of the course and you must pass (achieve at least 50% on) all assignments
- in order to achieve a grade of 5 or 6, you must pass (achieve at least 50% on) both the exam and assignment components of the course
Assessment Policies
Submission
The required submission procedure for each assignment will be detailed on the handout for that assessment item. In some cases, electronic submission will be required. Where paper submissions are required, assignments will be submitted via the submission boxes on GPSouth Level One (St. Lucia students) and via the Student Centre (Ipswich campus). Your assignment submission must be accompanied by a signed coversheet declaring that the submission is your original work. Students should keep a copy of their assignment submissions.
Late Submission
Late submission of assignments will be penalised by the loss of 10% of the assignment value per working day late (or part thereof). In the event of exceptional personal or medical circumstances that prevent on-time hand in, you should contact the lecturer concerned and be prepared to supply appropriate documentary evidence (e.g. medical certificate). Late submissions should be made to the lecturer (via the GPSouth or Information Environments office) or as advised on the assignment handout..
Return of Assignments
Marked work will be returned during tutorials so you should clearly indicate your tutorial group on your coversheet. Any items not claimed in the corresponding tutorial may be collected from the head tutor at times to be advised (St. Lucia students) or from the Information Environments office (Ipswich students)..
Academic Merit, Plagiarism, Collusion and Other Misconduct
The School and the wider academic community in general takes academic integrity and respect for other persons and property very seriously. In particular, the following behaviour is unacceptable:
- Submission of plagiarised work, i.e. work that contains content copied from an unacknowledged source.
- Submission of work without academic merit, i.e. work that adds little or nothing to material available from reference sources such as textbooks, websites, etc., even where this is appropriately acknowledged.
- Engaging in collusive behaviour, i.e. inappropriate working together with other students where individual work is required, or working with people outside your team where team work is required.
- Copying work done by other students.
- Failing to adhere to the School's regulations concerning behaviour in laboratories, in particular occupational health and safety regulations.
Penalties for engaging in unacceptable behaviour can range from cash fines
or loss of grades in a subject, through to expulsion from the University.
You are required to read and understand the School Statement on Misconduct,
available on the ITEE website at: http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/about/student-misconduct.jsp
If you have any questions concerning this statement, please contact your
lecturer in the first instance.
Assessment Feedback
Timely feedback on all progressive assessment in this course will be available in accordance with University policy (HUPP 3.30.6 Student Access to Feedback on Assessment). The marked assignment can be collected from the main tutor.
Students wishing to view examination answer scripts and/or question papers should consult with the School office (Room 217, General Purpose South Building [78], St Lucia; Room 218, Building 1, Ipswich) regarding arrangements.
It is a student’s responsibility to incorporate feedback into their learning; making use of the assessment criteria that they are given; being aware of the rules, policies and other documents related to assessment; and providing teachers with feedback on their assessment practices.
Support for Students with a Disability
Any student with a disability who may require alternative academic arrangements in the course is encouraged to seek advice at the commencement of the semester from a Disability Adviser at Student Support Services.