COSC441-21S1 (C) Semester One 2021

Wireless Networking Systems and Performance

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 22 February 2021
End Date: Sunday, 27 June 2021
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 7 March 2021
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 14 May 2021

Description

This course provides an introduction to wireless networking, covering the different classes of wireless systems, fundamentals of wireless communications and wireless physical layers, medium access control protocols and routing protocols. Furthermore, students will gain hands-on experience with discrete-event simulation, a key methodology for performance assessment of wireless networking protocols and systems.

The course provides an introduction to wireless networking. After surveying the different types of wireless networks (cellular networks and the various types of infrastructure-less or ad-hoc networks), some fundamentals of wireless communications are discussed, including wave propagation phenomena, modulation and coding and the physical layer of the WiFi standard.
The second half of the course will provide a detailed study of medium access control and multi-hop routing protocols.

In addition, the course also familiarizes students with the methodology and with contemporary tools for discrete-event simulation. In particular, students will engage with the OMNet++ simulation framework, they will design a wireless medium access control protocol, implement this in a simulation and conduct a performance analysis following a well-established simulation methodology.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course students will:
1. Be able to understand and explain the different types of wireless networks and their application areas.
2. Be able to understand and explain fundamentals of wireless communications and how they are used in recent wireless technologies.
3. Be able to understand and explain in detail, and critically evaluate medium access control protocols and their limitations
4. Be able to understand and explain in detail and critically evaluate routing protocols and their limitations.
5. Be able to understand the foundations of discrete-event simulations and of simulation methodology.
6. Be able to understand in detail the operation of a discrete-event simulation package and apply it to implement a simulation of a self-designed medium access control protocol.
7. Be able to design a medium access control protocol, implement it in a simulation and critically evaluate its performance, applying a proper simulation methodology.
8. Have gained experience in pair work.
9. Have practised communicating scientific / performance results

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

Employable, innovative and enterprising

Students will develop key skills and attributes sought by employers that can be used in a range of applications.

Prerequisites

Restrictions

Course Coordinator

Andreas Willig

Assessment

• A mid-term test, worth 25% of final marks, 90 minutes, pen-and-paper based
• A final exam, worth 25% of the final marks, 120 minutes, pen-and-paper-based
• One assignment on the physical layer, worth 20%, due in week six
• One assignment on the MAC layer, worth 30%, reports due in week eleven, one-on-one inspections in week 12

Notes

There are several important documents available online about departmental regulations, policies and guidelines at the following site. We expect all students to be familiar with these.
Notices about this class will be posted to the class forum in the Learn system.

Additional Course Outline Information

Grade moderation

The Computer Science department's grading policy states that in order to pass a course you must meet two requirements:
1. You must achieve an average grade of at least 50% over all assessment items.
2. You must achieve an average mark of at least 45% on invigilated assessment items.
If you satisfy both these criteria, your grade will be determined by the following University- wide scale for converting marks to grades: an average mark of 50% is sufficient for a C- grade, an average mark of 55% earns a C grade, 60% earns a B- grade and so forth. However if you do not satisfy both the passing criteria you will be given either a D or E grade depending on marks. Marks are sometimes scaled to achieve consistency between courses from year to year.

Students may apply for special consideration if their performance in an assessment is affected by extenuating circumstances beyond their control.

Applications for special consideration should be submitted via the Examinations Office website within five days of the assessment.

Where an extension may be granted for an assessment, this will be decided by direct application to the Department and an application to the Examinations Office may not be required.

Special consideration is not available for items worth less than 10% of the course.

Students prevented by extenuating circumstances from completing the course after the final date for withdrawing, may apply for special consideration for late discontinuation of the course. Applications must be submitted to the Examinations Office within five days of the end of the main examination period for the semester.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,033.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Computer Science and Software Engineering .

All COSC441 Occurrences

  • COSC441-21S1 (C) Semester One 2021