49202 Communication Protocols
Introduction and Overview
Roumani Alabd and Daniel R. Franklin
Faculty of Engineering & IT
February 20, 2025
FEIT - UTS
Welcome to 49202 Communication Protocols
This subject is about the Internet
What it is;
How it works - architecture, layers, protocols etc.;
How to use it (application design and implementation); and
How to practically build (parts of) it.
We cover this topic from high level concepts and architecture to low-level
practical implementation
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Lectures and Tutorials
Lecture/tutorial sessions are on 9:00-10:30 on Mondays on Zoom (link shared
beforehand on Teams)
Everything is recorded and will be shared on Canvas afterwards (there’s a
short delay before I receive the recording, so please be patient)
Typically we will go through some key points in the theory for each week
before moving on to some tutorial problems
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Lectures and Tutorials
In 6 weeks this will go for the full 1.5 hours, but in other weeks we will have a
30-minute mini-tutorial followed by a 1 hour online self-supervised quiz - more
on these later (see the subject outline!)
We do not record attendance. If you are unable to attend at the scheduled
time, please ensure that you watch the recording before your lab session.
This is YOUR responsibility.
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Lecture notes and tutorial problems
I will highlight and discuss several important concepts and ideas from the
lecture, but I will not have enough time to go through everything
Lecture notes are on Canvas (in PDF format) - you should carefully read
these yourself before each class so you are properly prepared
Similarly, I will not have time to go through all the tutorial problems for each
week in the Zoom session, but I will choose a selection of problems which will
hopefully help in the quizzes and illustrate important aspects of the theory.
If there is something especially significant in a particular week, or if many
students are reporting some difficulties with a particular topic, I may prepare a
short video to supplement the lecture notes and lecture/tutorial session.
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Labs
A critical part of this subject is the lab work
The lab runs in a virtual emulated network environment (mininet) consisting
of Linux-based switches, routers and hosts (which can run web
servers/browsers, dns server/client etc.)
The lab is distributed as a Linux virtual machine image which is available both
for Intel (x86-64 Windows, Mac and Linux) and ARM-based (Apple Mac
M1/M2) hardware
This is available for download both via the Files section of our Team and also
on Google Drive (see Canvas:Modules:Get Started:Laboratory Resources).
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Labs
We have five lab sessions - Monday and Wednesday 12:00-14:00 and
14:00-16:00, and Tuesday 18:00-20:00 at CB11.09.405 (the LAN lab).
DO NOT ATTEND LABS IF YOU ARE SICK. This applies to COVID, flu, colds,
anything else infectious. Please let me know though - if there’s anything you
need to know I will tell you.
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The lab virtual machine
I will provide two VM images that you can use, depending on your computer:
If your computer has an Intel or AMD CPU (including old Intel-based Apple
Macs), I will provide an image which will work either in VMWare Workstation Pro
(Windows users) or VMWare Fusion (older Intel Macs)
If you have an M1/M2/M3/M4-based Apple Mac, I will provide an image which
can be installed in a VM manager called UTM ([Link]
In both cases you will need a computer with at least 8 GB of RAM.
If you have a very old or underpowered CPU, we may need to adjust the
settings on the VM after you import it - lab assistants will help with this in
Week 1.
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Support
I will be providing direct online support via Microsoft Teams. You should have
been automatically added to the relevant Team for this subject.
If you have any problems or questions, please message me on Teams:
For any issues that are specific to you (e.g. problems with enrolment, your
marks etc.), please message me privately
For any technical or operational questions (e.g. where is XXX, have you
published the notes for YYY yet, how do I do ZZZ) you can ask on the general
channel. My answers (and your questions!) may be of interest to the whole
class.
If something isn’t right, or you don’t understand, PLEASE ASK. I am paid to
answer your questions and will do my best.
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Assessment
There are four components to your assessment (see the subject outline for
details). The first two components are run as self-supervised, open-book,
time-restricted quizzes on Canvas:
Three in-class quizzes on different topics, each quiz worth 5%, which will run in
Weeks 3, 6, and 9.
An IP addressing test, worth 20% of your total mark. You have 3 attempts at this
test (in Weeks 7, 8 and 10), and it is marked non-linearly - if you get less than
16/20 (80%) you will get a mark of ZERO for this assessment component. If you
get 16/20 or better, you will receive that mark.
I cannot prevent cheating, but please don’t - use these assessment
tasks as a self-check on your progress
For these assessments, please let me know if you are not able to attend on
Tuesday - I can reschedule the quiz for individuals on a case-by-case basis.
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Assessment
Two major assessments at the end of the subject:
A final theory exam, worth 40% of your final mark. This will be of a similar
format to the quizzes, but will be taken in-class under supervision (during the lab
session in Week 11). You will take the exam as a restricted open book exam -
you may bring in two pages of notes with whatever you want written on them. s
A final laboratory exam, worth 25% of your final mark. This will be held
in-class in Week 12. This test is fully open book, but each student will get a
slightly different exam, so cheating will not be much help. I will discuss this in
much greater detail in coming weeks.
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