The Exam Plan

Question 1: Application Protocols

Lecture 4:

Basic Applications (Telnet and FTP)

Lecture 5:

Applications #2 (Electronic Mail)

Lecture 6:

Applications #3 (HTTP and the Web)

Question 2: Network Protocols

Lecture 3:

The TCP Protocol

Lecture 8:

Introduction to IP

Lecture 9:

Domain Name System

Question 3: Network Technology

Lecture 10:

Point to Point Data Links

Lecture 11:

Multiaccess Networks

Lecture 12:

Telecommunications Services #1

Lecture 13:

Telecommunications Services #2

Question 4: Network Management

Lecture 14:

ASN.1 and BER Intro

Lecture 15:

Network Management #1

Lecture 16:

Network Management #2

Question 5: Security

Lecture 17:

Firewalls and Network Security

Lecture 18:

Encryption #1

Lecture 19:

Encryption #2

Question 6: Electronic Commerce

Lecture 20:

Electronic Commerce basics and EDI

Lecture 21:

FORMs and CGI programming

Lecture 22:

Web Commerce

More Information

• All questions carry equal marks (20 marks per question), for a total of 120 marks for the examination.
• Note, however, that the exam is still worth 60% of the final assessment for the subject.
• Note, also, that each question has many parts, and in some cases, sub parts. It is in your interest to try and keep all the answers to each question together in your answer booklet. Please. If only for the sanity of the assessor...

Exam Hints

1. Questions taken from last year's exam, perhaps with some slight modifications to remove ambiguity or to change the emphasis. At a guess, these would add up to about 50 marks. This means you could almost pass the exam just by studying last year's paper.
2. Questions derived from the tutorials, often with the wording changed slightly to ensure a single correct answer. Questions in this category have not necessarily appeared on exams before. These total about 40 marks this year. This means that if you know the answers to all the tute questions, and you study old exam papers, you could do very well.
3. Brand new questions, taken from the lecture notes, and requiring deeper understanding and appreciation of the discipline to answer fully. In many cases these are developed from tute questions, or older exam papers, but are worded quite differently. These make up the remainder of the paper - about 30 marks, or 25% of the total.

If You Enjoyed It

If you enjoyed this subject, you should investigate: (delivered by Phil Scott):

BITDCO: Data Communications

1. The nature of the subject area. The Network (IP) and Transport (TCP/UDP) layers are covered in both, but in more detail in BITDCO.
2. A large proportion of students take only one of BITCNE and BITDCO, and it's important that they don't miss these important topics.

Finally, if you're sure you've failed (:-( you can probably re-enrol in BITCNE in second semester - I'm not sure who will be teaching it this year, probably me as well.