COMP3331 Notices

Course statistics and goodbye.

Posted by Wen Hu Saturday 09 December 2023, 04:09:32 PM.

• We have finalised the course marks and the statistics are available in the forum . We have turned the ed forum in read-only mode before archiving it. Please use class account (cs3331@cse.unsw.edu.au) if you have any questions.
• We hope all of you enjoyed the course. Congratulations if you are graduating this term. If you will be at uni in 2024, then we wish you a great break and hope to see you in some other courses.
• Merry Xmas and happy new year!

Final Exam and assignment marks

Posted by Wen Hu Wednesday 06 December 2023, 10:49:03 AM.

• We have released the assignment marks, which are available from Give . If you have any issues, please contact your tutor to resolve them before COB tomorrow.
• We have also released the final exam marks, which are also available from Give . Please see below for some statistics (please note that you must score at least 16 marks on the final exam to pass this course):
  • Number of students who sat for the exam: 573
  • Maximum possible marks: 40
  • Maximum mark: 39.5
  • 75% percentile (75% of students scored less than): 31.43
  • 50% percentile (median, 50% of students scored less than): 28.05
  • 25% percentile (25% of students scored less than): 24.48
  • Average: 27.74
  • Standard deviation: 5.45
• These are slightly higher than previous terms. Well done, everyone!
  

Few Announcements

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige Monday 04 December 2023, 10:08:43 AM.

Dear all,

I hope everyone's well following your exams. We have a few important announcements to share

Assignment Marks:

• Most assignment marks are out; remaining ones due by EOD today.
• Check your marks and comments. Resolve any submission issues by contacting your tutor ASAP.
• Mark amendments deadline: December 7th, EOD. Special considerations accepted beyond this date.

Final Exam Marks:

• Released tomorrow on Inspera and Give platforms (5th December).
• Contact Information:
  • Labs/assignment issues: Directly contact your tutor.
  • Exam/special considerations/anything else: Use course email - cs3331@cse.unsw.edu.au

Teaching Team Opportunity (2024):

Interested in joining COMP3331/93331 teaching team in 2024? Apply now. Mention grades later in your application.
Application is a two-part process.

• You must submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) in UNSW's employment platform UniHire (click on Apply Now).
• If you previously submitted an EOI for work at CSE, please ensure your details are correct.
• You must also submit an application on CSE's tutor selection platform talloc .

PhD Opportunities

We have a PhD opportunity (fully funded) on Artificial Intelligence of Things for Smart Cities in our group. These scholarships are open to Domestic students (Australian and New Zealand citizens, as well as Australian Permanent Residents). Please refer to to this if you are interested in applying.

Good luck for final exam!

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 27 November 2023, 09:23:32 AM.

Hello class,

• First of all, good luck for the final exam which will happen in 20 minutes or so.
• What a night! We hope you have backed up the lecture materials for the exam before webcms was down. We would like to apologise for this and understand the stress this has put on students. CSE is aware of this and is investigating the cause.
• We have disabled the editing feature of ed forum for today, but you will still able to view the content.
• The Inspera exam link is HERE . Make sure to select the exam for COMP3331/9331. The exam runs from 09:45 am to 12:00 noon.
• If you encounter technical issues, contact the Exam Support Team at +61 2 90582453 or email exams@unsw.edu.au .
• Keep a water bottle handy.
• Don't panic if you cannot answer a question, move on and return to it later.
• Remember to answer all questions.
• Remember to breathe !!
• May the Force be with you all !!

Week 11: Final Exam Link, Consultations and myExperience

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 20 November 2023, 08:24:40 AM.

• There is no lecture this week (we have completed the course last week!!!), and I hope everyone has started preparations for the final exam. Please do not forget to check out the final exam page for the details of the exam.
  
  • The final exam will be held at 9:45 am - 12pm (Morning slot) , Monday, 27 Nov 2023 , Sydney time .
  • The INSPERA exam link is HERE . You will see all your scheduled exams. Make sure you select the exam for COMP3331/9331. If you are registered with Equitable Learning Services (ELS), your exam time will be adjusted as per your approved conditions. Your exam will start at 09:45 but run for longer. The extra time will be visible on the Dashboard.
  • If you encounter technical issues, contact the Exam Support Team at +61 2 9058 2453 or email exams@unsw.edu.au .
• In addition to Ed Forum , I will be available for final exam consultation at the following times: (please see this page for the details of the Zoom information for the consultation).

• Mon 20 Nov, 10:30am - 11:30am
• Wed 22 Nov, 10:30am - 11:30am
• Fri 24 Nov, 10:30am - 11:30am
• Thanks to those of you who have completed the myExperience Surveys . The response rate is 25% (we have achieved the first milestone of 25% response rates!!!). However, it took us more than 75% of the survey duration and the response rate is still very low. Could I please request everyone else to complete the surveys before they close? The link is HERE .

Week 10 update.

Posted by Wen Hu Thursday 16 November 2023, 09:36:27 AM.

• We will have the final lecture of this term today. We will wrap up the Wireless Networking before recapping the course and discussing important details regarding the final exam .
• We would like to extend our gratitudes to those who have already completed their MyExperience survey. However, we must mention that the current completion rate stands at only 18%. Therefore, we encourage each and every one of you to take a few moments and complete the survey as soon as possible. Your input, especially the written feedback, is invaluable for us to reflect on our teaching methods and make further improvements.

We look forward to seeing you in the lecture.

Week 10: Final Week !!!

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 13 November 2023, 09:17:22 AM.

Here are a few important announcements for Week 10, which will be the last teaching week of this term:

• In the lectures, we will wrap up the Link layer, which we started last week and then move on to Wireless Network. The lecture slides are available .
• Lab 5 is due in 30 minutes or so.This week, a tutorial will replace the lab (in your usual labs or online). This will serve as useful practice for the final exam. Please look through the questions before hand and try to solve them by yourself. All questions on the tutorial are from past exams. So effectively, it is a sample exam. We have also released the video and spec for Lab 6. Please note that Lab 6 is optional and we will count the best 5 labs out of 6 as the final marks for your lab assessments.
• Please complete the myExperience surveys . The response rate so far is very low (e.g., ~11%), and we would appreciate your feedback very much.
• The final exam will be held on Monday, 27/11, from 09:45 to 12:00 online (Inspera) . We will make available several resources for the final exam, including a practice exam. Stay tuned for further details.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Week 9 updates

Posted by Wen Hu Wednesday 08 November 2023, 08:58:41 AM.

• We have opened more assignment consultation slots before the submission deadline on Sunday.
• Final exam date and venue: 9:45am to 12 pm, Monday, 27/11 @ Inspera. More information will be provided in the last lecture next week.
• MyExperience survey is opened. We encourage each and every one of you to take a few moments and complete the survey as soon as possible via Moodle . Your input, especially the written feedback, is invaluable for us to reflect on our teaching methods and make further improvements.

Week 9: Link Layer + Lab 5 + Assignment deadline approaching

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 06 November 2023, 09:40:15 AM, last modified Monday 06 November 2023, 09:41:22 AM.

Several announcements for Week 9 (final two weeks !!):

• In this week's lectures, we will wrap up network layer before moving on to data link layer . Lecture slides are available. Several homework questions are posted. You are encouraged to work through them.
• Lab 4 is due in about 20 minutes. Lab 5's materials are available, and will be due at 10:00 Mon 13 November.
• The assignment deadline of 12 November 2023 at 05:00pm , 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 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. Thus, you must 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.

See you tomorrow.

Assignment deadline extended and comprehensive version ( v5.0) released

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige Wednesday 01 November 2023, 05:08:24 AM.

Dear all,

In response to several requests from students, we have extended the assignment submisson deadline until 16:59 PM on Sunday, November 12, 2023 (AEST) <o:p></o:p>

Furthermore, based on the feedback and discussions on Ed, we have released an improved version of the assignment (v5.0) specifications to address the concerns raised. Please make sure to use the latest version of the specs and update your code accordingly.

Specs can be acessed from here: https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3331/23T3/reso...

Week 8 update

Posted by Wen Hu Tuesday 31 October 2023, 10:19:27 AM, last modified Tuesday 31 October 2023, 10:42:33 AM.

• Mid-term results are out. Your marks are available in Sms and Inspera. The sample solution is available in webcms. Please ignore the pass/fail field in Inspera. Below are some statistics.
• Number of students who sat for the exam: 581
• Average: 13.96, Standard Deviation: 3.11
• To help us to understand the effectiveness of the programming tutorial in Week 7 and improve it, please complete the following poll (the deadline is 6/11, Monday). https://webcms3.cse.unsw.edu.au/COMP3331/23T3/activities/polls/1585

See you in the lecture soon.

Week 8: Network Data/Control Plane + Lab 4

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 30 October 2023, 09:26:40 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.
• Several practice questions have been posted on 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 released, where you will investigate the behaviour of TCP. The submission deadline is 10:00 am Monday 06/11/2023.
• Midterm marks, statistics and poll result will be available last this week.
• The assignment is due by noon, Friday, 10 Nov 2023. If you need help, then you should attend the assignment-specific consultations . The timetable is on the assignment consultation page.
• The remainder of this term will be busy and stressful for everyone. Please look after yourselves and your fellow student. Do reach out to us if we can help in any way.
• Anonymous feedback can be left through the following link .

See you in the lectures tomorrow.

Week 7 updates (Provisional final exam timetable)

Posted by Wen Hu Wednesday 25 October 2023, 09:38:06 AM, last modified Wednesday 25 October 2023, 09:38:59 AM.

1. Midterm Exam is over!! We are delighted to note that ~97% of the students successfully completed their exams and submitted their work on Inspera without encountering major technical issues. The marking process for your submissions has commenced, and we anticipate completing it by next week. At that time, we will also release the marks and provide solutions to all the questions.
   • Please complete the mid-term exam poll before Friday.
2. We will wrap up TCP and start our journal into network layer on Thursday.
3. Provisional final exam timetable is out. COMP3331/9331 is scheduled 9:45am to 12pm, 2 hours + 15 mins (reading time), 27/11/23 Monday, via Inspera.
4. We have released all the remaining labs . The deadline for the optional Lab 6 is 17/11 Friday 5pm. Based on the result of the poll , Lab 6 is recording only and we will take best 5 labs out of 6 as the final mark for the lab component of the course.

See you in the in-person lecture tomorrow.

Good luck with your Mid-term exam

Posted by Wen Hu Tuesday 24 October 2023, 09:18:06 AM.

With the mid-term exam approaching in less than 2 hours (i.e., start at 11:05am for everyone), we want to wish everyone the best of luck. The exam will be accessible online through the Inspera platform, and you can find the link on your Moodle or Webcms page. Please note that all relevant information regarding the exam has already been shared in previous messages. It is crucial to take the exam on time as there will be no additional opportunities for those who miss it. Isura and I shall be monitoring the Zoom chat during the exam to address any emergency issues that may arise.

Week 7: Mid-term exam, Assignment consultation, Programming tutorials

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 23 October 2023, 10:22:52 AM, last modified Monday 23 October 2023, 02:54:38 PM.

Welcome back from Flec Week!

• Mid-term exam is approaching, and we want to wish everyone the best of luck tomorrow. The exam will be accessible online through the Inspera platform from 11:05 24/10/23, and you may find the link on your Moodle page or Webcms page. Please note that all relevant information regarding the exam has already been shared . It is crucial to take the exam on time as there will be no additional opportunities for those who miss it. We shall be monitoring the Zoom chat during the exam to address any emergency issues that may arise.
  • For ELS students, you should receive emails regarding to individual extra time arrangment by mid day. Please contact us via class account email address if you haven't received the email by then.
• On Thursday's lecture, we will wrap up TCP, before commencing our study of network layer.
• Assignment Consultations starts this week until week 9. They are online and one-to-one sessions to help students debug their codes. Please use this schedule . We will consider adding more sessions depending on the demand.
• Week 7 Programming Tutorial
  
  • This week's in-person lab slots will be allocated for Programming tutorial based on the poll . The objective of the tutorial is to help students with some advance programming concepts that might help with the assignment. There will be no submission and they are not marked and the tutorial will be more workshop style. Specs and starter codes can be found here . All the solutions will be released by the end of the Week 7.
  • Each tutor will do the tutorial in one or two programming languages and students are allowed to move to different class depending on the choice of programming language. Additionally there will be two more online sessions (for C and Java) . Recordings will be made available by the end of the Week 7.

Week 6: Flex Week

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 16 October 2023, 08:35:13 AM.

Hello class,

This is a gentle reminder that Week 6 is a Flex week

• No lecture, no lab/tutorial, no assessment due.
• Mid-term exam will happen on Tuesday Week 7, 24/10 during the lecture time (i.e., 11 - 13). Please see here for the detailed information, sample questions and solutions, hints on how to prepare for the exam etc.
• As announced earlier, sample midterm exam question and solution has been released . Although we prefer Ed forum, we will offer the following consultation hours in Room 606, K-17 to answer any questions or confusions you may have while preparing for the mid-term exam:
• • 10 – 12, Tuesday 17/10
  • 9 – 11, Thursday 19/10
  Please come prepared with your questions (FCFS).

Sample midterm exam question and solution has been released

Posted by Wen Hu Saturday 14 October 2023, 11:54:34 AM, last modified Monday 16 October 2023, 08:35:30 AM.

Upon many requests: Sample Midterm Exam Question Paper with Solution (PDF)

Please post your questions in the Ed Forum . Special consultations are also available in Week 6.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Week 5: Transport layer continue, mid term exam information, assignment V2.0 and tutorial (No lab)

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 09 October 2023, 10:11:39 AM.

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

• We are still receiving enquiries on how to access the Ed forum. Please join the Ed forum via this link before accessing the forum. Everyone is encouraged to discuss the homework questions on the Ed discussion forum . Many of these questions are from past exams. We have provided answers and comments on these discussions.
• Lab 3 is due in 5 minutes. This week, a tutorial will replace the lab (in your usual in-person or online room). 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 exam paper. You can ask your tutor to prioritise questions that you find difficult. The question set is released.
• Lab 2 marks will be released tomorrow. If you have questions about your marks, please connect with your tutor.
• We will continue our journal into Transport Layer .
• We have updated assignment specs (version 2.0) for the benefit of clarity.
• The mid-term exam will take place during the Tuesday lecture time in Week 7 (no in-person lecture at that time).
• Note that there will be no lecture and labs in Week 6, which will give you a good opportunity to prepare for the mid-term exam
• As discussed in last week's lectures, you may provide anonymous feedback about the course through this link .

Week 4: Journey into the transport layer

Posted by Wen Hu Tuesday 03 October 2023, 02:14:15 PM.

Several announcements for Week 4:

• In the lectures, we will warp up Application layer and begin our journey into the Transport Layer. Slides are available for review.
• Lab 2 submission deadline has been extended to 5 pm today (3/10) due to CSE network outage this morning. Late submissions will attract penalties. Lab 3 materials have been released.
• The solutions to Lab 1 and your marks have been released. Please cross-check the solutions to determine why marks were deducted (if any). If you have questions about marking, please 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.
• Here are polls on the pace of the lectures , choice of programming language for the assignment, and Extra Lab and Programming Tutorial . Please make the poll by 5pm, 6/10) so that we can make arrangement as necessary.

Lab 2 submission deadline extended

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige Monday 02 October 2023, 10:00:37 AM.

Dear all,

Due to the public holiday on 2 October. We have extended the Lab2 submission deadline by 24 hours ( Tuesday 3rd 10am). Enjoy the long weekend!

Assignment overview released

Posted by Wen Hu Wednesday 27 September 2023, 09:30:30 AM.

An overview of the assignment and relevant supported materials have been released as promised.

You are encouraged to discuss any issues in ED Forum (under the Assignment tab)

Week 3: wrapping up Application Layer

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 25 September 2023, 09:17:05 AM.

Good morning and welcome to Week 3.

• We will wrap up Application Layer in this week's lecture. We will cover SMTP, DNS, Peer-to-peer Networking, Content Distribution Networks, and the concepts of Socket Programming. Lecture notes have been released.
• Your Lab 1 submission is due in less than 1 hour. Make sure you submit on time to avoid any penalties. Lab 2 materials have been released.
• We will release the assignment on Wednesday (the draft is ready and under final review).

Commencing Week-2: Starting with the Application Layer

Posted by Wen Hu Monday 18 September 2023, 11:55:31 AM.

We hope that you had a great weekend. We are about to start Week 2 and would like to remind you of few things:

• Labs ( Lab 1 ) will start from this week. Make sure you attend the correct lab, the lab slot you are enrolled in, and establish a line of communication with your tutor. Stay in touch with your tutor throughout the term regarding all your labs.
• In Week 2 lectures, we will learn the famous layering concept and the layering architecture that underpin computer networking and the Internet. We will make a start with the Application Layer and try to cover HTTP and Email in this week.
• You are highly encouraged to attend the lectures in-person and shape the interactions and engagements that go on in such face-to-face teaching. In case you miss the in-person lectures, video recordings of lectures are available from Echo360 but you will have to be logged into Moodle to access them.
• We are developing the assignment specs for you, which is expected to be released later next week.
• It's great to see that many of you are already using the Ed forum . Those not sure how to access the forum, please remember that must join the forum first via the following link: https://edstem.org/au/join/tEsbNz
• Homework questions for Week 2 is available. We have also released the sample solutions for Homework questions for Week 1.
• Looking forward to see you in the lecture tomorrow.

Welcome to 2023 Term 3 Offering of COMP3331/9331 Computer Networks and Application

Posted by Wen Hu Thursday 07 September 2023, 11:33:46 AM.

Welcome to COMP3331/9331, Term 3, 2023 . The course webpage is at www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~cs3331

The course is being offered in a hybrid mode, i.e., a mix of in-person and on-line activities. All lectures will be in-person, face-to-face. Most labs are in-person, supplemented with a few online labs. The exams will be held online and shall use the Inspera exam environment.

Please check your enrolment and attend the appropriate lab class. If you have enrolment issues, then please get in touch with the Nucleus Student Hub . The course staff do not have access to the enrolment system.

Please read the course outline carefully .

Our first lecture will be held on Tuesday 12 September, from 11:00-13:00 in Colombo Theatre A (UNSW Kensington Campus).

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

Labs will commence in Week 2, even if your timetable indicates that they start in Week 1. Details are on the Labs page.

We will be using Ed Discussions for the course forum. Please join via this link , or via the QR code below. The forums on both WebCMS and Moodle are disabled.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday.