COMP3331 Notices

Final exam times and information

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 2 days ago.

1. The final exam is in-person, on-campus, and invigilated , and the Inspera Platform shall be used. The schedule is as follows:

COMP3331: 9:45 am to 12 noon on Saturday, 23rd August.

COMP9331: 2:00 pm to 4:15 pm on Saturday, 23rd August.

The exact rooms will be communicated to you soon.

The exam duration is 2 hours plus 15 minutes . ELS students will have their time adjusted and may have special exam schedules.

2. This is a closed-book exam . You will not have access to any material but you will be allowed to bring UNSW-approved calculators. The exam will be in Inspera. You must bring your laptop to the exam room. You must install the prescribed Safe Exam Browser . Please read all instructions about on-campus exams carefully. This page also includes a practice exam that uses the Safe Exam Browser. Please ensure you have installed the browser on the device you will take to the exam and have tried out the practice exam before the exam day.

3. You are responsible for all contents from week 1 through to week 10 with more emphasis on contents from week 7 onwards. There will be no questions on programming or the lab exercises.

4. A past exam paper and solution have been released as a sample to give you an idea of what questions can be asked in the final exam. This is only a guide, and the actual final exam will ask different questions. Also note that security-related questions are not relevant for you as the topic was not covered in the lectures.

5. The lecturer will be available for on-line consultations a few days before the exam—schedule to be announced on the notices page on WebCMS. Discourse forum will be open until 22 August.

6. Special Consideration and Supplementary Exam : Make sure you read carefully the special consideration rules available from the official UNSW site: https://student.unsw.edu.au/special-consideration

A supplementary exam can only be offered if you have a valid special consideration application (be aware of UNSW's Fit-to-Sit policy).

7. Please read all the rules for on-campus exams here .

Week 10: The final Week

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 6 days ago.

Believe it or not, we have reached the final week of the term!

We will cover wireless links and recap the course on Tuesday and reserve the Wednesday lecture to discuss final exam format along with a presentation on the emerging trends in computer networking.

Here are some quick info about the the final exam format:

- 2 hour + 15 minutes reading time

- Inspera

- On-campus invigilated with bring your own laptop with SEB installed

- closed book

- UNSW approved calculators allowed

- Roughwork paper will be supplied, which you'll leave behind

- The exam is expected to be held on 23 August (Sat). Exact session times for COMP3331 and COMP9331 are being finalised and will be announced shortly

- We will release a sample final exam paper on Inspera soon

Please complete the myExperience surveys. The response rate so far is very low (only about 10%). I am sure you all can do better. We would really appreciate your feedback and this year I'd like to hear from each and every student. Your written comments in the survey would be really useful, so please take a few minutes and complete the survey. You have until 14 August to complete the survey.

See you in the lecture tomorrow.

Week-8 and Midterm Results

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 16 days ago, last modified 16 days ago.

We have completed Week-8 and the Network Layer. Congratulations! We are nearly there.

Next week, we will start to cover the data link layer, which sits just below the network layer and the last layer that will be covered in this course (note that we will not cover the physical layer).

We have also completed the marking of mid-term exam. Marks are released in Inspera.

The View Report in Inspera should show you both the correct answer in the feedback per question and where you have lost your marks.

Q17 has been manually marked after we discovered that Inspera is still not using AI to process different ways students expressed the answer. If your answer is correct, you should see the correct mark for it (just ignore if Inspera still says it is incorrect).

Here are some class statistics. The average mark was 14.04 (very similar to last year).

# of students who sat for the exam: 948

Week-7: Let's study the Network Layer

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 26 days ago.

Week 7 Update

• Midterm exam (20 % of the course) : The midterm exam is now behind us! Marking is under way. We expect to release your scores and sample solutions next week.
• Lectures : With two hours allocated to the mid‑term, we have a single two‑hour lecture this week. Today we begin the Network Layer (Layer 3) —shifting our focus from end hosts (phones, laptops) to the routers that move packets through the network but remain invisible to users.
• Assignment support : The submission deadline is approaching; please make full use of the scheduled consultation sessions if you need help.

See you in class this afternoon.

Mid Term Exam: Q14 HTTP Request- missing image

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige 26 days ago, last modified 26 days ago.

Dear Students, Q14 of the Mid term exam should have following get request.

GET /index.html
host: www.example.com 

Programming Tutorial and Assignment Consultations

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige 29 days ago, last modified 28 days ago.

We hope your preparations for the midterm exam are going well. Good luck!

We will begin offering you support for the programming assignment through a programming tutorial in Week 7 and consultation sessions from Weeks 7 to Week 9 (until Thursday, July 31st).

Programming Tutorial (Revised Timetable)

In Week 7, we will hold a programming tutorial instead of the usual lab session. The goal is to help you get started with the programming assignment. Please review the tutorial specifications in advance. We will extend the Webserver from Lab 3 to support additional features, some of which may directly carry over to the assignment. The tutorial will have separate slots for Python, C, and Java, so attend the session based on your preferred language. Please check the revised timetable for week 7. Note that this tutorial is not graded or requires no code submission. Starter code is available for you to practice. Sample solutions will be made available by the end of week 7.

Assignment Consultations

Special assignment-specific consultations will be available weekly from Week 7 to Week 9 as per the schedule here . There are dedicated sessions for C, Java, and Python. You are encouraged to attend these sessions if you need help. The schedule may be updated occasionally, so please check it before attending (e.g. the location of the in-person session). Please note that the purpose of these sessions is to provide general assistance with programming, not for tutors to debug your code.

As the deadline approaches, we will aim to add more consultation slots based on demand, and any changes will be announced accordingly.

However, we expect everyone to attend the programming tutorial in Week 7 to get a solid start on the assignment.

Lecturer's Extra Consultations for Midterm Exam: Monday (14 July) 10am to 11am and 2pm to 3pm

Posted by Mahbub Hassan about a month ago.

The lecturer will offer on-line Zoom consultations to anyone having any questions before the mid-term exam:

Monday 14 July:

10am-11am

and

2pm - 3pm

Zoom Link : https://unsw.zoom.us/j/82121803792

Please have your questions ready before you join the Zoom.

Sample mid-term exam and important information released

Posted by Mahbub Hassan about a month ago.

Your 75-minute midterm exam will start at 16:05 (4:05 pm) on Tuesday the 15th of July.

You can attend a sample mid-term exam on Inspera via Moodle by following this link from 10am tomorrow (04 July until midday 15 July), but you can attempt only once (so attempt it only when you feel ready).

Important information about the mid-term exam is available here .

Important Notice: Labs change to Online Mode – Wednesday, 2nd July

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige about a month ago.

Due to the continuing severe weather forecast for Wednesday, 2nd July , all in-person labs will be held online. This change is to ensure the safety of all students by avoiding travel to campus.

Please note: This schedule change applies only to Wednesday, 2nd July.

Wednesday, 2nd July lecture will be conducted from 14:00 to 16:00 Hrs ( Ainsworth G03 ) as usual in person. This is livestreamed in Echo360. Students who cannot attend due to weather can watch the livestream and high quality recording later.

Week-5: Let's continue transport layer with TCP

Posted by Mahbub Hassan about a month ago.

You have completed 4 weeks of the term. Congratulations!

In week-4, we spent a fair bit of time learning the required constructs and concepts to build a reliable communication system over an unreliable network. This week (Week-5) we shall study in detail how TCP implements them in practice. We shall also learn a number of other useful functions executed by TCP such as congestion control, without which the Internet would collapse.

There will be no lecture or labs in Week-6. Your Mid-term Exam will take place in Week 7, Tuesday (15 July) 4pm. You'll be able to take the exam on-line from anywhere (do not have to be on-campus). Later this week, we shall post more details of the Mid-term exam and also try to release a mock-test on the Inspera platform for you to have a trial.

Due to the severe weather conditions, we will deliver the lecture on-line using Zoom. The Zoom link has been posted in the previous notice.

Stay safe. See you at the Zoom lecture at 4pm.

Important Notice: Lecture and Labs change to Online Mode – Tuesday, 1st July

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige about a month ago, last modified about a month ago.

Due to the severe weather forecast for Tuesday, 1st July , all in-person labs, lectures, and consultations will be held online. This change is to ensure the safety of all students by avoiding travel to campus.

Please note: This schedule change applies only to Tuesday, 1st July .

Lecture and Consultation on Tuesday 1st July

Lecture will not be streamed via Echo360. Please use the following.

Zoom

Meeting ID: 821 2180 3792, Password: 989676

Lecture: 16:00 - 18:00

Labs

Following Labs will also moved to online mode

Please take all necessary precautions during this period of severe weather.

Week-4: Let's begin our journey into the Transport Layer!

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 2 months ago.

We have completed the Application Layer in Week-3. Congratulations!

In Week-4, we shall begin our journey into the Transport Layer of the Internet.

Here is a poll on the pace of the lectures . Let me know your thoughts so I can make adjustments as necessary.

Labs have started in full swing. Note that even you miss attending the actual lab session, you can still submit your lab report by the report submission deadline without any penalty.Enjoy your weekend but don't forget to work hard as always.

See you in the lecture at 4pm.

Week-3: Continuing with the Application Layer

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 2 months ago.

Congratulations! You have completed TWO weeks!

You should have now attended your first lab session during Week-2. Don't forget to submit your lab report by its due date to avoid late submission penalty. Note that the lab marks are only awarded when you submit the lab report.

We shall cover the remaining contents of Application Layer (DNS, P2P, CDN) this week (Week 3).

See you in the lecture today at 4pm.

Reminder to Join the COMP3331/9331 Course Forum

Posted by Isura Bamunusinghe Arachchige 2 months ago.

The course forum is an essential platform for staying up to date with announcements, asking questions, and receiving support from instructors and fellow students.

We strongly encourage you to join the forum as soon as possible to ensure you do not miss any important information or assistance throughout the term.

You can access the forum at the following link:

https://discourse01.cse.unsw.edu.au/25T2/COMP3331/

Please note that questions submitted through Echo360 during live lectures are not monitored.

To enhance your learning experience, we encourage attending lectures in person whenever possible. Alternatively, you can use the course forum to ask questions or discuss lecture-related topics.

Week-2: What's coming up?

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 2 months ago.

Congratulations! You have now completed the first week! Under Week-1 lecture, I have now released an additional slide set with answers to the in-lecture quizzes we discussed during Week-1 lecture.

In Week 2 lectures, we will discuss the layers of the Internet (cake:-), and dive into the top layer (Application Layer) covering networked applications (principles, Web/HTTP, and Email).

Labs will commence in Week 2. Please attend the lab class you have enrolled in, as many classes are at full capacity. Don't forget to submit the lab report by its due date, as they will be assessed.

Several 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 for the collated questions (e.g. Introduction Questions). However, the questions marked " Students to Discuss Solutions " are exclusively left for you to work on. We are happy to provide feedback on your attempts but will not provide ready solutions. Working through these questions will provide good practice for the exams. Please discuss them on the Discourse forum.

See you at 4pm in the lecture.

Welcome to COMP3331/9331 Computer Networks and Applications

Posted by Mahbub Hassan 3 months ago.

Welcome to COMP3331/9331, Term 2, 2025 . We will be using this WebCMS page for the course delivery. Please read the course outline carefully.

All lectures will be in person. Face-to-face lectures will be recorded and available via the echo360 platform in Moodle.

Most labs are in-person, supplemented with a few online labs. The consultations will be hybrid. The exams, both the Midterm and Final, will use the Inspera exam platform. Midtern exam will be a take-home exam, which will be open book and un-invigilated. However, the final exam will be closed book, on-campus, and invigilated.

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

Our first lecture will be held on Tuesday, 3 ^rd of June, from 16:00 - 18:00 in Ainsworth G03 .

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

We will be using Discourse for the course forum. The forum on WebCMS is disabled. Please post any course-related questions on Discourse. If you must email us, use cs3331@cse.unsw.edu.au instead of personal emails.

We would appreciate it if you could complete the following poll: Your Internet Speed .

See you on Tuesday the 3 ^rd of June in Ainsworth G03 at 4pm!