Delivery Type	Delivery length / details
Lecture
Seminars / Tutorials	Up to 4 workshop sessions
Practical	Up to 4 x 2hr

Assessment Type	Assessment length / details	Proportion
Semester Assessment	A2 Course Work: Coursework assessment based on private study and reports of laboratory practicals.	20%
Semester Exam	2 Hours A1	80%
Supplementary Exam	Will take the same form, under the terms of the Department's policy.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the module students will be able to:

express a consolidated and extended understanding and knowledge of key network technologies, standards and their associated general concepts; (A1)
critically evaluate emerging technologies, relating them to the evolution of existing technologies and their problems; (A1)
apply the principles of information theory to the coding of information; (A1)
demonstrate the ability to apply general concepts to experimental investigation of a range of specific communication technologies. (A2)
demonstrate an appreciation of the issues involved in the planning and management of networks. (A1)

Brief description

This module deals with networking and communications Technologies. It builds on earlier studies in CS15210.

Aims

This module builds on the base provided by CS15210 or CS14020, extending the students' knowledge of communications technologies. In particular, Ethernet will be studied in detail as an example of a typical local area network. Integrated Services Digital Network technology will also be considered in detail to provide an example of a wide area publicly available technology supporting a variety of services. The module will also provide insights into the concepts and protocols which underly newer fiber optic based fast technologies such as Cell and Frame relay networks.

Content

1. Information and Coding - 3 Lectures
Elements of information theory; formal definition of information content and redundancy. Fixed and variable length codes; optimal coding. Error detecting and error correcting codes; simple examples. The ASCII code and its characteristics.

2. Ethernet - 6 Lectures
Switched 100Mbps Ethernet; Gigabit Ethernet.

3. Wide area and High Speed Network Technologies - 8 Lectures
N-ISDN including HDLC as an example datalink protocol; B-ISDN; ATM; Frame relay; SMDS; MANs; Optical Networking.

4. Residential Services - 3 Lectures
ASDL; HDSL; Set top boxes.

5. Network Planning and Management - 2 Lectures
Network Management; Network Planning.

Course Delivery

Assessment

Learning Outcomes

Brief description

Aims

Content

Notes