Students should check the subject’s web site regularly as important information, including details of unavoidable changes in assessment requirements will be posted from time to time. Any information posted to the web site is deemed to have been notified to all students.

Content

This subject explores telecommunications network planning from a strategic perspective. Topics covered will include: (1) Fundamental Networking Concepts: standards, protocols, architectures and technologies

(2) Fundamental Data Networking Concepts: network topologies, network devices, wireless networking, security and applications

(3) Fundamental Voice Networking Concepts: history, network classifications, the telephone system and voice communications, architectures, cellular networks

(4) Convergence Of Voice And Data In Telecommunications: frame/cell relay, broadband networks, emerging technologies.

Objectives

A student who successfully completes this subject should be able to:

1. explain the principles of telecommunications network architecture and standards;

2. debate the current status and future directions of telecommunications networks;

3. evaluate the critical planning issues and the options created by new technology;

4. develop a telecommunications network plan; and,

5. critically analyse the need for culture and social considerations in telecommunications planning.

Attendance Requirements

It is the responsibility of students to attend all lectures/tutorials/labs/seminars/practical work for subjects for which you are enrolled.

It should be noted that according to Course Rule 003{Interpretation Point 2 (t)} each credit point for a single session subject has the value of about two hours per week including class attendance. Therefore, the amount of time spent on each 6 credit point subject should be at least 12 hours per week, which includes lectures/tutorials/labs etc

This subject will be delivered in face to face mode. It is not available in distance education mode. The availability of lectures notes and other course materials online is NOT a substitute for attendance at lectures. Students should note that additional examinable material will be presented during lectures that will not be in the online course content.

Lecture Schedule*

Week	Lecture Topic		Tutorial Activity		Assessment
Week	Main Topic	Subtopic	Tutorial Activity		Assessment
1	Administration	Introduction,	No Tutorial		Essay Handout in Lecture
		Essay Writing and Allocation of Essay Topics	No Tutorial		Essay Handout in Lecture
2	Strategic Planning Overview	Introduction to Course Themes The Need for Network Planning	Seminar discussion & allocation
3	Strategic Planning-Timeframe 1	Frameworks and Processes Business impacts	Essay Workshop		Essay Due
4	Strategic Planning-Timeframe 1	Emerging Technologies Recap of IACT202 themes	Milestone Activity One
5	Strategic Planning-Timeframe 2	Network Protocols A-S	Seminars 1 & 2
6	Strategic Planning-Timeframe 2	Network Protocols N-L	Milestone Activity Two	Group Project Handout in Lecture
	Mid Session Break
7	Strategic Planning-Timeframe 2	Typologies and Architectures	Seminars 3 & 4
8	Strategic Planning-Timeframe 3	Quality of Service and Network Management	Milestone Activity Three
9	Anzac Day Public Holiday	No lecture	No tutorials
10	Bringing it together	What's in a Strategic Network Plan?	Seminars 5 & 6
11	Bringing it all together	Planning for changes in technology	Seminars 7 & 8
12	Bringing it all together. Evolving Future Strategies	Planning for changes in organisations Flow Economy: strategies for next generation content distribution	Seminars 9 & 10	Group Project Due In Tutorial
13	Conclusion	Subject Review	Seminars 11 & 12

Textbook

Panko, R., Business Data Networks and Telecommunications, 6e; ISBN: 0132214415; Pearson Education Australia; 2006

References

Dawson, R., Living Networks: Leading Your Company, Customers, and Partners in the Hyper-Connected Economy. First ed. 2003: Financial Times; Prentice Hall. (Available online through Safari Tech Books Online http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/0130353337) Available in the unicentre bookshop for $49.95
Devaraj, S and Kohli, R, The IT payoff : measuring the business value of information technology investments, 2003: Financial Times; Prentice Hall. (Available online through Safari Tech Books Online http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/0130650749), Available in the library (call No: 658.15/395)
Harris, K, Building the New Enterprise – People, Processes and Technology, Sun Microsystems Press, Prentice Hall, 1998, Available in the library (call No: 658.4038/315)
Kurose, J. and Ross, K. Computer Networking: a top-down approach featuring the Internet, 3^rd edition, 2005, Addison Wesley, Sydney.
Leinwand, A. and K. Fang, Network Management: A Practical Perspective. Second ed. 1995: Prentice Hall International. Available in the unicentre bookshop for $54.90 Available in the library (call No: 004.6/61)
McCabe, J.D., Network Analysis, Architecture and Design. Second ed., Morgan Kaufmann, 2003, Available in the unicentre bookshop for $143.89, Available in the library (call No: 004.65/24)
Terplan, K. Communications Networks Management (2nd ed.), Prentice Hall, 1992, Available in the library (call No: 004.6068/3)
Rowe, S., Telecommunications for Managers (3rd ed or later.), Prentice Hall, 1995, Available in the library (call No: 651.7/10)
Davidow, W.H., and Malone, S., The Virtual Corporation, Harper Business, 1992, Available in the library (call No: 658.5/161)
McClaren, S., Easy Writer: A students Guide to Writing Essays & Reports. First ed., Pascal Press, Available in the library (call No: 808.042/158)

Submission of Assessment Items

If you cannot submit an assessment item on time it must be submitted to the subject coordinator as soon as possible. Late submission of assessment item MUST be accompanied by a special consideration request via SOLs

All submissions must be accompanied by an Assignment Cover Sheet. This is available in hard copy from the student enquiry centre in building three or online at http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/coversheet.pdf

Return of Assessment Items

All assignments except the major project will be returned to students in tutorials.
The major project will be available from the subject coordinator after being marked.

Penalties for late submission of Assessment Items

Penalties may apply to all late work, except if special consideration is deemed necessary or unless an extension has been granted by your subject coordinator or your tutor.
Requests for extensions should be emailed to the tutor, lecturer or coordinator, prior to the due date.
10% of available marks will be deducted from work for each day it is overdue. Work more than one week late may be awarded a mark of zero.

Special consideration

Special consideration applications must be submitted via SOLs and medical certificates or supporting documentation shown to the subject coordinator as well as University Administration.

Electronic submission of Assessment Items

· Faxes and un-receipted mail submissions will NOT be accepted.

Participation

· Students are required to participate in tutorials.

o This means not only attending and listening to the tutorial presentations, but contributing insights to the discussion.

Scaling

To pass this subject, students MUST score at least 40% in the exam. Grades will be calculated as follows:

Final results in this subject may be scaled. The scaling method that will be used in this subject is as follows.

If E is the student exam mark, and A is the student assignment mark, the student final mark will be determined as follows:

if E >= 40% of the maximum exam mark: then student final mark is E + A;

if 35% <= E < 40% of the maximum exam mark: then student final mark is /min/{E+A, 47};

if E < 35% of the maximum exam mark: then student: final mark is /min/{E+A, 42}.

Special Assessment Requirements:

As part of their tutorial activities, students will be required to complete milestone activities during the tutorial and participate in specified group projects.

All written work will be graded with the following criteria in mind:

1. The extent to which the question has been correctly interpreted and answered;

2. Originality;

3. Demonstrated understanding of the main concepts of the course;

4. Awareness of the literature;

5. Clarity and structure of written work and oral presentations

6. The level of communications skills demonstrated.

Assessment Tasks

Essay

The Essay assignment will be handed out during the week one lecture. If you do not attend the first week’s lecture then it is YOUR responsibility to collect the assignment sheet from the lecturer during scheduled consultation times.

The Marking criteria for the essay will focus on:

Introduction;

Does the introduction formally describe the problem and how the essay will respond to this problem?

Development of Ideas;

What ideas have been identified as important? Are they linked together in a way that responds to the problem and makes sense?

Communication of Ideas:

Essay structure, paragraph structure, logical development of argument, spelling, grammar etc

Validity

Is your essay a reliable contribution to the body of knowledge on this topic? Can it be used in research? Does it conform to University acknowledgment practice?

Formalities

Referencing practice, bibliography, presentation (including neatness, legibility, layout, general appearance) and length

Seminars

Seminars will be presented to the class in as a SEMINAR PRESENTATION in pairs. Both students are expected to take an active part in the presentation. Each pair will give a talk to the class on their topic for an absolute maximum of twenty (20) minutes. It is expected that most presentations will take fifteen (15) minutes plus up to five (5) minutes for questions and discussions.

Seminar topics and pairings will be allocated in your first tutorial in week two (2).

Topics will be RANDOMLY assigned to students by the lecturer. Students may NOT choose their own topic; students cannot swap or change topics for any reason.

There will be two (2) student topics presented in each seminar tutorial hour. They will occur in TOPIC ORDER … i.e.: if you draw topic number 1, you will be the first pair to present, if you draw topic number 12, you will be the last one. This is why they MUST be random allocations.

The seminar is worth 10% of your final grade and the mark will be comprised of two parts.

1. Students are required to submit a one page (maximum) summary of their seminar presentation prior to the presentation. This will be worth two (2) marks.

2. The tutor will give a mark out of eight (8) based upon the following criteria

· Relevance and coverage: Is the content relevant? – i.e. has the student prepared the correct subject and established the correct focus? – This is important, as (just as in an essay) it is important that your presentation tackles the issue that you were given to tackle.

· Discussion of Topic/Intellectual stimulus: how interesting was it? Did the presentation “flow”?

· Clarity of presentation: was there a clear structure and logic which you could follow?

· Audibility and clarity of speech: could you follow what was said? How clearly has the student delivered their presentation? –Part of the skills training aspect of presentations is to encourage students to speak fluently and confidently in public.

· Use of audiovisual aids: e.g. handout, whiteboard, PowerPoint – was this appropriate and effective? How well have students prepared and handled their chosen technology: did they arrange slides well? Was the choice of colour appropriate? If they prepared a handout, was it clear and helpful?

· Acknowledgement/References: Have sources been acknowledged in the presentation or handout? (this is important, because your presentation should give pointers to other students as to useful bibliography on a subject)

· Timekeeping: How well have students kept time? Was the presentation balanced in terms of time.

· Response to questions: How well did the student respond to questions?

It is expected that every student will participate by attending tutorials, listening to EVERY presentation and by asking appropriate questions.

Supplementary Exams

While the School normally grants supplementary exams when the student does not sit the standard exam for an acceptable reason, each case will be assessed on its own merit and there is no guarantee a supplementary exam will be granted. If a supplementary exam is granted the date will be determined by the University via ARD. You will be notified via SOLS Mail the time and date of this supplementary exam. You must follow the instructions given in the email message.

Please note that if this is your last session and you are granted a supplementary exam, be aware that your results will not be processed in time to meet the graduation deadline.

Plagiarism

When you submit an assessment task, you are declaring the following

1. It is your own work and you did not collaborate with or copy from others.

2. You have read and understand your responsibilities under the University of Wollongong's policy on plagiarism.

3. You have not plagiarised from published work (including the internet). Where you have used the work from others, you have referenced it in the text and provided a reference list at the end ot the assignment.

4. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

5. Students are responsible for submitting original work for assessment, without plagiarising or cheating, abiding by the University’s policies on Plagiarism as set out in the Calendar under University Policies, and in Faculty handbooks and subject guides. Plagiarism has led to the expulsion from the University.

This outline should be read in conjunction with the following documents:

Code of Practice - Teaching and Assessment

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/teaching_code.html

Key Dates

http://www.uow.edu.au/student/dates.html

Code of Practice - Students

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/cop_students.html

Information Literacies Introduction Program

http://www.library.uow.edu.au/helptraining/workshops/ilip/

Acknowledgement Practice Plagiarism will not be tolerated

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/courserules/plagiarism.html

Student Academic Grievance Policy

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/codesofprac/cop_supervision.html#8

Special Consideration Policy

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/courserules/specialconsideration.html

Code of Practice-Honours

http://www.uow.edu.au/handbook/honourscode.html

Non-Discriminatory Language Practice and Presentation

http://staff.uow.edu.au/eeo/nondiscrimlanguage.html

Intellectual Property Policy

http://www.uow.edu.au/research/researchmanagement/1998IP.html

Occupational Health and Safety

http://staff.uow.edu.au/ohs/commitment/OHS039-ohspolicy.pdf

SISAT Internet Access & Student Resource Centre

http://www.sitacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/internet_access_and_resource.shtml

SISAT Computer Usage Rules

http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/support/labs/rules.shtml

SISAT Style Guide for Footnotes, Documentation, Essay and Report Writing

http://www.sitacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/styleguide.pdf

SISAT Student Guide

http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/regulations.shtml

Informatics Faculty Librarian, Ms Annette Meldrum, phone: 4221 4637,ameldrum@uow.edu.au

SISAT Subject Outlines

http://www.itacs.uow.edu.au/info/current/subject_outlines/

	Mrs Penney McFarlane
Telephone Number:	4221 4864
Email:	penney@uow.edu.au
Location:	3.112

1500 Word Essay	10%	Submit Week 3 to your tutor.
Seminar	10%	Oral presentation and hard copy of summary sheet during tutorial classes weeks 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13
Milestone activities and quizzes	20%	Hard copy during tutorials in weeks 4, 6 & 8
Group component of major project	20%	Hard copy during week 12 tutorial class
Formal Exam	40%	Exam Period

SISAT

General Information

Content

Objectives

Method of Presentation

Textbook

References

Assessment

Notes on Assessment

Additional Information

Supplementary Exams

Day	Time
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday	Monday-Wed 2 – 3, Thursday 10 - 11