COMP3331 Notices

Supplementary Exam Date and Time

Posted by Monir Hossain Wednesday 31 August 2022, 12:44:55 PM.

• The supplementary final exam will be held on the 8 th of September from 1:45 am to 4:00 pm Sydney time online (Inspera).
• The duration of the exam is 2 hours and 15 minutes. <o:p></o:p>
• The final exam will be available on Inspera, https://unsw.inspera.com ( link ) (the link will not be available in moodle).
  
• If you have technical issues with Inspera, then you can reach out to the Exams Unit. Details are HERE .

Final Exam Today

Posted by Monir Hossain Friday 19 August 2022, 07:35:07 AM.

• Today the 19 ^th of August 20222 is your final exam of COMP3331/9331 .
• The duration of the exam is 2 hours 15 minutes.
• The start time of the exam is 8:45 am and the end time of the exam is 11:30 am.
• Good Luck .

Good luck everyone. some advice:

Posted by Monir Hossain Thursday 18 August 2022, 09:16:41 AM.

• The final exam will be held on the 19 ^th of August from 8:45 am to 11:30 am Sydney time online (Inspera).
• If you have technical issues with Inspera, then you can reach out to the Exams Unit. Details are HERE . If you have questions about the exam, you can join THIS Zoom link (Meeting ID: 896 0803 8609 Password: 031006) from 8:45 am to 11 am and ask your question in the chat. DO NOT TURN ON YOUR MICROPHONE.
• Get a good night's sleep.
• Have some food prior to the start of the exam.
• Keep a water bottle handy.
• Find a quiet and comfortable room where you are unlikely to be interrupted for the duration of the exam.
• Make sure your computer is charged and connect it to a power outlet.
• If you are on a shared network, then make sure others using the network will not engage in heavy usage.
• Download all lecture notes and homework questions/answers to your computer to avoid potential bottlenecks with the WebCMS server.
• Don't panic if you cannot answer a question, move on and come back to it later.
• Remember to answer all questions.
• Remember to breathe !!

The Final Exam on 19th of August

Posted by Monir Hossain Tuesday 16 August 2022, 08:34:59 PM.

The assignment marks are released.

The final exam will be held on the 19 ^th of August from 8:45 am to 11:30 am Sydney time online (Inspera). The final exam will be available on Inspera, https://unsw.inspera.com ( link ) (the link will not be available in moodle). Once you logged in Inspera, you can access the final exam from “my tests” heading.

Here is the Inspera Student Support SharePoint site, which contains everything you need to know about taking assessments and exams on Inspera.

This video covers how to access Inspera, what to expect during an exam and the accessibility and appearance features of the assessment platform.

The Exams Team as the Central Digital Exams Group (CDEG) will provide full support to the students during the final exam. There should be no contact between the school/convenor and students during the test. Students should be directed to contact CDEG by phone: +61 2 8936 7007 (during the Final Exam period Monday to Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm (AEST)) or via the online form.

If you are registered with Equitable Learning Services (ELS), your exam time will be adjusted as per your approved conditions.

If you have technical issues with Inspera, then you can reach out to the Exams Unit. Details are HERE .

Good luck.

Final Exam Consultations + myExperience Survey Reminders

Posted by Monir Hossain Saturday 06 August 2022, 08:40:45 AM.

I hope everyone has started preparations for the final exam. Do not forget to check out the final 15 minutes of the very last lecture (Week 10, Lecture 2) where I go over the details of the final exam. I have created a final exam information page. Please read all the information provided there carefully. I have posted 2 PDF versions of the sample final exam (one with just questions, the other with both questions and answers) on the Final Exam page.The corresponding slides and other details are on the final exam page . A reminder that the final exam will be held on 19 ^th of August from 8:45 am to 11:30 am Sydney time online (Inspera) . The link to the final exam and the zoom meeting to ask questions will be circulated later.

I will be available for final exam consultation at the following times (all Sydney times):

• Thursday, 11th of August 9:30 am - 10:30 pm, Zoom Link (Meeting ID: 896 0803 8609 Password: 031006)
• Monday, 15 ^th of August 9:30 am – 10:30 am, Zoom Link (Meeting ID: 896 0803 8609 Password: 031006)

Week 10 Announcements

Posted by Monir Hossain Saturday 30 July 2022, 04:23:29 PM.

A few important announcements for next week:

• Lab 6 is due by 10 am Tuesday, 2 ^nd of August 2022 . There will be a tutorial replacing the lab (in your usual face-to-face or Zoom/Teams meeting) next week. This will serve as useful practice for the final exam. Please look through the questions beforehand and try to solve them by yourself. All questions on the tutorial are from past exams. So effectively, it is a sample exam.
• Please complete the myExperience surveys . The response rate so far is rather low. We would appreciate your feedback.
• The final exam will be held on the 19 ^th of August from 8:45 am to 11:30 am Sydney time online (Inspera) . I will make available several resources for the final exam including a practice exam. Stay tuned for further details next week.
• The assignment is due by noon, Friday, 5 ^th of August 2022 . This is a hard deadline. Assignment consults are running so seek help if you need it. Make sure to test your code in VLAB before submitting it to avoid angst later. If your code does not run as expected on VLAB then there isn't much we can do about it. Assignment consults are running next week if you need help.
• I know next week will be busy for everyone but make sure to not overwhelm yourself. Good luck with everything.

Week-9: Link Layer + Lab 6 + Assignment deadline approaching

Posted by Monir Hossain Saturday 23 July 2022, 09:05:16 AM.

A number of announcements for Week 9 (one more week to go !!):

• In the lectures next week, we will focus on the data link layer . Lecture slides are available. A number of homework questions are posted. You are encouraged to work through them.
• Lab 5 is due by 10 am Tuesday, 26 July . Lab 6 held next week is the last lab for the course. A reminder that we will pick your 5 best lab scores (out of 6 labs). Lab 4 marks should be available early next week.
• The assignment deadline of noon, Friday, 5 ^th of August 2022 is approaching soon. This is a HARD deadline. Late submissions will be accepted but are subject to penalties as noted in the specification. Attend the assignment consultations running in weeks 9 and 10 if you need help. Details are HERE .
• IMPORTANT : We appreciate that many of you prefer to write code on your personal machine and in your preferred IDE (e.g. Eclipse). However, your assignment will be marked in the VLAB environment and through command line execution. It is thus imperative that you thoroughly test your code in VLAB before you submit it. If we cannot execute your code then we cannot award you any marks . Please pay attention to this point to avoid any angst when marks are released.
• The final exam will be held on 19 ^th of August from 8:45 am to 11:30 am . Further information will be provided in Week 10. Mark that time in your calendar.

Assignment consultation

Posted by Ayda Valinezhad Orang Tuesday 19 July 2022, 10:33:16 PM.

Dear All,

hope you are doing well and staying safe.

I want to let you know that Tim Arney will be hosting an online session to highlight some common pitfalls and offer some tips for the assignment. The session will take place via Zoom from 7pm on Wednesday, 20th of July. You can join through this link:

https://unsw.zoom.us/j/81162352041?pwd=WHdWc3NQQXY3Q015bytSS3VuOE9wdz09

Password: 883000

Regards,

Ayda

Mid-term Exam Marks Released

Posted by Monir Hossain Monday 18 July 2022, 08:39:37 PM, last modified Monday 18 July 2022, 09:07:41 PM.

The mid-term exam marks are now available. You can check your response and the correct answers for all questions in Inspera. Log into Moodle and access the same mid-term exam link as before.

You should ignore the Pass/Fail grade in Inspera . I am unable to turn this off. There is no such grade for the mid-term. The final mark for the course will be computed as noted in the course outline .

Your total mark on the mid-term exam (out of 20) is also available through WebCMS.

We have been as generous as we can in awarding partial marks.

Want to find out how you fared compared to other students? Check out the class statistics available here . Shout outs to those students who did well on the exam are included in the summary.

Week 8: Network Data/Control Plane + Lab 5 + Assignment Consultations

Posted by Monir Hossain Friday 15 July 2022, 07:18:19 AM.

A few announcements for next week:

• The Final exam will be held on the 19 ^th of August from 8:45 am to 11:30 am .
• In the lectures, we will wrap up our discussion on the network data plane and move on to the control plane where we will focus on routing algorithms. Slides are available.
• A number of practice questions have been posted under the Homework Questions page. These cover TCP congestion control and the network data/control plane. Do make sure you work through them.
• Lab 4 is due by 10 am Tuesday, 19th of July 2022 .
• Midterm marks and class statistics will be available next week.
• The assignment is due by noon, Friday, 5 ^th of August 2022. If you need help, then you should attend the assignment-specific consults . The timetable is on the assignment page.
• The remainder of this term is going to be busy and stressful for everyone. Please stay safe and make sure that you take care of yourself. Do reach out to us if we can help in any way.
• Anonymous feedback can be left through the following link .

Week 7a: Mid-term Exam

Posted by Monir Hossain Sunday 10 July 2022, 10:28:06 AM.

The mid-term exam will open tomorrow at 10:15 am on Monday, 11th July and close at 11:30 am . The Inspera exam link is HERE (also accessible through the Moodle page for the course and the mid-term page). You will have 75 minutes to complete the exam. There is no separate reading time. Students who have sent us their ELS requirements will have their time adjusted as per these requirements with the exam starting at 10:15 am.

Week 7: Mid-term Exam and Assignment Consultations

Posted by Monir Hossain Thursday 07 July 2022, 10:31:33 AM, last modified Sunday 10 July 2022, 01:27:58 AM.

Mid-Term Exam: Note that the mid-term exam will open at 10:15 am on Monday, 11th July, and close at 11:30 am . The Inspera exam link is HERE (also accessible through the Moodle page for the course and the mid-term page). You will have 75 minutes to complete the exam. There is no separate reading time. Students who have sent us their ELS requirements will have their time adjusted as per these requirements with the exam starting at 10:15 am. A link to the Zoom Meeting is here in case you wish to ask us any questions. It is not required that you join the Zoom meeting. If you join, you must mute yourself and ask your question in the chat. Further details are on the mid-term exam page

LiC consultation day is changed from Wednesday to Monday. The consultation will be held on Monday from 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm from week7 to week10.

There is no lecture on Monday. We will start with the network layer in the Thursday lecture.

Good luck, may the force be with you !!

Mid-term Exam Details + Sample Mid-term Exam + Assignment Programming language Poll + No lectures/labs in Week 6

Posted by Monir Hossain Tuesday 28 June 2022, 11:54:04 AM.

Marks for the first two labs and the answers are available. If you have questions about marking, contact your tutor. Their details are on the timetable page.

The mid-term exam will be held during regular lecture hours (10:00 - 12:00) on Monday, 11th July (Week 7).

Check the information available on the Mid-term Exam page (includes information about the content covered, exclusions, online meeting information, etc). A short video is also available in Echo360 playlists and on the mid-term page (with slides).

The link for the exam will be circulated towards the end of next week and will also be available on the Mid-term page and on the course Moodle page.

A practice sample mid-term exam is available here: Moodle link . The exam uses the Inspera platform which will be used for both Mid-term and Final exams in this course. You can only attempt the exam once so make sure you activate it ONLY when you are ready to take it . The questions that require manual marking won't be marked. You can examine the provided answers and compare them with your answers. Everyone is strongly urged to attempt the exam. It will familiarise you with the Inspera assessment environment so that there are no surprises on exam day. A PDF file with the exam questions and answers will be posted in week6 on the 4 ^th of July 2022 posted on the mid-term exam page.

We would strongly urge everyone to provide input on their choice of programming language for the assignment in this poll . This will help us to appropriately schedule programming help sessions in Weeks 7-10, as we plan to run distinct C, Java, and Python help sessions.

You are welcome to provide anonymous feedback about the course through the following link .

A reminder that there are no lectures or labs in Week 6 . You are all urged to make use of this week to prepare for the mid-term exam and get started on the assignment.

Week 5: Exploring TCP and Congestion Control, Tutorial (No lab), Mid-term Exam coming up, Assignment is out

Posted by Monir Hossain Thursday 23 June 2022, 09:45:51 PM.

This is a busy week with a lot of updates, so make sure to read through this list multiple times:

• Lab 3 is due by 10 am Tuesday, 28th June 2022.
• There will be a tutorial replacing the lab (in your usual Zoom/Teams meeting) in week5. It is not marked. This will serve as useful practice for the mid-term exam. Please look through the questions beforehand and try to solve them by yourself. ALL questions are from past exams, so effectively it is a sample (but longer) exam paper. You can ask your tutor to prioritise questions that were particularly difficult for you. The question set is released.
• In the lectures, we will explore TCP in detail followed by a discussion on congestion control. Slides are available.
• The mid-term exam will be held during regular lecture hours (10:00 - 12:00) on Monday 11th of July (Week 7) . Further information about the format and a sample exam will be available middle of next week. The exam makes up 20% of your final mark.
• Lab 2 marks and solutions will be available early next week. If you have questions about your marks, please connect with your tutor.
• The programming assignment specification was released earlier this week. Assignment consults will run from weeks 7-10. Details will follow. The deadline for choosing the non-CSE option is 5 pm, 1st July 2022. Only students who are not enrolled in a CSE program are eligible. Further details are in the specification. Requests after the deadline will not be entertained.
• Everyone is encouraged to discuss the homework questions on the Ed discussion forum. All of these questions are from past exams. We have provided answers and comments on these discussions.
• You are welcome to provide anonymous feedback about the course through the following link .
• Flexibility Week ( Week 6, 4-8 July ) is close. There will be no lectures or labs that week which will give you an opportunity to catch up and prepare for the mid-term exam and get going with the assignment.
• The census date for Term 2 is 26 June 2022 . While we do not encourage it, this is the last day that you can drop the course without incurring fees.
• Have a good weekend and see you all in the lectures next week.

Assignment Specification is Released

Posted by Monir Hossain Tuesday 21 June 2022, 10:54:29 AM.

The assignment specification is available. It is long but for a reason. Read it carefully. Read it again (and again). The deadline is noon, Friday, 5 ^th of August (Week 10) . I will upload a video where I will go over the key points of the specification to the usual video playlist (Echo360). A second video on multi-threading is linked to the assignment page. Sample code for multi-threading is also available on the assignment page. Feel free to use it in your code. Have fun !!

Assignment specific consultations will be arranged in Weeks 7-10. Details will follow. In the meantime, post questions to the Ed forum. You can join the forum via the following link: https://edstem.org/au/join/bbwMsS

You are welcome to provide anonymous feedback about the course through the following link . We will try our best to take this into consideration.

Week 4: Getting Busy (Transport Layer, Lab on DNS + TCP Socket Programming, Assignment forthcoming)

Posted by Monir Hossain Friday 17 June 2022, 09:52:57 AM.

A number of announcements for Week 4. Read carefully:

• Lab 2 deadline is 10 am, Tuesday, 21st June 2022 .
• Lab 3 is released and will require you to get into the nitty-gritty of DNS and gain experience with TCP socket programming.
• In the lectures this week we will begin our journey into the Transport Layer. Slides are available for review
• The assignment specification is ready and will be released on Tuesday, 21 ^st of June . An announcement will follow with details.
• The mid-term exam which is worth 20% of the course mark, will be held on Monday 11th of July (Week 7) during regular lecture hours ( 10:00 - 12:00 ). The exam will be held online on the Inspera assessment platform. Further information and a sample online exam will be available in Week 5.
• The solutions to Lab 1 and your marks for the same will be released by next week . Please cross-check the solutions to find out why marks were deducted (if any). If you have questions about marking, ask your tutor. The easiest way to access your marks is through the WebCMS interface. Click on the Grades icon located beside your name at the bottom of the left frame.
• Everybody is strongly encouraged to discuss solutions to all homework problems on the course forum. Several questions are from past exams and will prepare you for the mid-term and final exams.
• If you haven't joined the Ed discussion forum, here is the link - https://edstem.org/au/join/bbwMsS
• An anonymous feedback form is available here if you have comments for us.

Week 3: The application layer + Lab 2

Posted by Monir Hossain Thursday 09 June 2022, 02:05:00 PM.

13 ^th of June, Monday is a public holiday so there will be no class on coming Monday. I will upload the week3-Lecture1 recording in Echo360.

The Lab 1 report is due by 10 am Tuesday 14 June 2022 . Submission instructions are in the lab spec. Submissions received via email will NOT be entertained. Do also note the requirement to submit a TAR (NOT ZIP) archive. It is easy to create one using the command line tar utility in Linux (VLAB) or on Mac OS. On Windows, you can use 7-zip and on Mac OS you can alternately use Unarchiver .

In the weel3 lectures, we will wrap up the leftover content from last week (E-mail) and study DNS, Peer to peer applications, and socket programming. Slides are available for review.

In Lab 2 , we will explore HTTP and learn to use a new tool called Wireshark, a protocol analyzer. We strongly encourage you to install Wireshark on your personal computer (instead of running it through VLAB). It is free and works on all operating systems. Download it here . You will also get your first exposure to socket programming. Sample working client/server programs in C/Java/Python are available under the Week 1 lecture content.

Very few students appear to be attempting the homework questions . We strongly encourage everyone to work through these questions on their own. We will post answers to the collated questions (e.g. Introduction Questions). However, the questions marked with " Students to Discuss Solutions " are exclusively left for you to work on. Please post your solutions on the Ed forum. We are happy to provide feedback on your attempts. This should serve as excellent practice for the exams.

You can join the Ed Discussion forum via the following link - https://edstem.org/au/join/bbwMsS

An anonymous feedback form is available here in case you wish to leave us some comments. We will try our best to act on your input.

A reminder that the mid-term exam will be held on Monday 11th of July (Week 7) during regular class hours (10:00 - 12:00 Sydney time). Mark this time in your calendar. The exam will be held online using the Inspera platform. Details to follow

Week 2: What's Coming up

Posted by Monir Hossain Friday 03 June 2022, 04:51:14 PM.

In the Week 2 lectures, we will wrap up our introduction to computer networks (protocol layers) and dive into networked applications (principles, Web/HTTP, Email). Slides are available for review. I have updated the Week 1 slides with answers to the in-lecture quizzes.

Labs will commence in Week 2. Please attend the lab class in which you have enrolled as many classes are at full capacity. The link to each lab class is posted on the Labs page. Note that we have a mix of in-person and online labs . For those attending in-person please ensure you follow all covid-safe protocols. Recordings will be available for online labs. Make sure you attend the correct class as per your UNSW timetable. You are strongly urged to set up access to the VLAB environment prior to the lab . It is not an efficient use of your tutor's time if they have to explain this process to you during the lab. We encourage the use of TigerVNC. Check the instructions here . The first lab exercise is now available. You are strongly urged to read the Tools of the Trade introductory lab prior to the first lab. The first lab report is due by 10 am Tuesday 14 June (Week 3). Submission instructions are in the lab specification.

A number of problem-solving questions are accessible on the Homework Questions page. You are strongly encouraged to work through these questions on your own. These are not assessed. We will post answers to the collated questions (e.g. Introduction Questions). However, the questions marked with " Students to Discuss Solutions " are exclusively left for you to work on. We are happy to provide feedback on your attempts, but we will not provide ready solutions. Working through these questions will provide good practice for the exams. Please discuss them on the Ed forum. You can join the forum via the following link: https://edstem.org/au/join/bbwMsS

My consultations are scheduled for Wednesday 9:00-10:00 pm (Sydney time) starting next week. A link to the Zoom meeting is on the course outline page and also here .

An early head's up that the mid-term exam will be held on Monday 11th of July (Week 7) during regular class hours (10:00 - 12:00 Sydney time). Mark this time in your calendar. The exam will be held online using the Inspera platform. Details to follow.

Please complete the following polls if you haven't already: Poll 1 (Internet Speed) and Poll 2 (Your location)

Welcome to COMP3331/9331 Term 2, 2022

Posted by Monir Hossain Friday 27 May 2022, 05:39:54 PM.

Welcome to COMP3331/9331, Term 2, 2022 . The course webpage is at www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs3331

The course is being offered in a hybrid mode. All lectures, consultations and exams will be held online. Some labs will take be conducted in person in a CSE lab while the others will be online. Please check your enrolment and attend the appropriate lab class.

Please read the course outline carefully .

Our first lecture will be held on Monday, 30th of May from 10:00 - 12:00 (Sydney time). We will use Zoom Meetings. Links to the Zoom Meetings are on the Lectures page.

All content for Week 1 is now available on the Lectures page.

Labs will commence in Week 2 . Links for the online labs will be posted next week.

We will be using Ed Discussions for the course forum. Please join via this link . The forum on WebCMS is disabled.