You have completed 4 weeks of the term. Congratulations!
In week-4, we spent a fair bit of time learning the required design constructs and concepts to build a reliable communication system over an unreliable network. Next 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 (31 March) starting 9:05am on Inspera, which you can take from anywhere with good Internet connectivity. More details about the mid-term exam, including a practice test on Inspera will be released in Week 5. There will be no lecture on 31 March due to the mid-term exam.
Have a great weekend, but don't forget to keep yourself up-to-date with the course contents.
We have completed Application Layer, the top layer of the Internet protocol stack, in Week-3. Congratulations!
In Week-4, we shall begin our journey into the Transport Layer of the Internet. As discussed in the first lecture, Transport Layer is the interface for the application developers and supports the end-to-end data delivery over the vast 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. Make sure you always submit your lab report by the report submission deadline without any penalty. Enjoy the rest of your weekend but don't forget to work hard as always.
See you in the lecture next week.
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 tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 9am.
We will be running an online session during Week 2 to explore socket programming in greater depth, including core concepts and programming APIs using Python,C, and Java. The specifications and starter code have also been released.
At the end of the session, there will be a hands on activity where you will build a simple client–server application.
Please note that this session is not assessed , and attendance is optional , although we highly recommend joining.
Socket programming is an essential part of the Programming Assignment, and there are marked exercises in Lab 2 and Lab 3, so attending will help you prepare.
The session times vary depending on your preferred programming language. All sessions will be held on Zoom , and recordings will be available afterwards.
Session Times
Python : Tuesday 24th :12:00 pm to 2:30 pm
C : Wednesday 25th : 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Java : Thursday 26th: 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Welcome to COMP3331/9331, Term 1, 2026 . 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 exams, both the Midterm and Final, will use the Inspera exam platform. Midterm exam 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, 17 Feb, from 9am to 11am in Law Theatre G04 .
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 17th of Feb in Law Theatre G04 at 9am!