Prospective Students

Prospective Students Information - Course work

Prospective Students Information - Research work

Prospective Students Information - Course work

The academic staff from NRL are responsible for the teaching of various subjects on computer networks and wireless networks at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW. We currently run 4 courses on computer network annually and we will be introducing 3 new subjects on wireless and mobile networks from 2007 onwards.
General information relating Courses offered at School of Computer Science and Engineering can be found at CSE courses webpage.

The following courses on computer networks and wireless networks are offered (subject to staff availability).

Computer Networks and Application - COMP3331/9331

Networking technology overview.Protocol design and validation using the finite state automata in conjunction with time-lines. Overview of the IEEE802 network data link protocol standards. Addressing at the data link and network layers. Network layer services. Introduction to routing algorithms such as Distance Vector and Link State. Congestion control mechanisms. Internetworking issues in connecting networks. The Internet Protocol suite overview. The Internet protocols IPv4 and IPv6. Address resolution using ARP and RARP. Transport layer: issues, transport protocols TCP and UDP. Application level protocols such as: File. Transfer Protocol (FTP), Domain Name System (DNS) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). There is a substantial network programming component in the assessable material.

Network Routing and Switching - COMP9332

This course will focus on the routing and switching architectures, algorithms and protocols for packet switching networks, both connectionless and connection oriented networks (such as IP and ATM networks). Advanced Internet addressing : CIDR, VPN, NAT. In depth discussion of interior and exterior routing protocols, such BGP, OSPF. IP over ATM solutions : such as LANE, Classical IP over ATM. IP switching and MPLS. Mobile IP. Internet Multicasting. Overview of emerging switching and routing technologies, such as optical routing and QoS routing. There is a substantial network programming component in the assessable material, for which C prgramming knowledge is assumed.

Advanced Computer Networks - COMP9333

This course teaches the fundamentals and practical solutions to quality of service (Qos) based networks, with an emphasis on the next generation Internet architectures and protocols. Topics include: scheduling policies (fair queueing, priority queueing etc.), congestion avoidance/control schemes (RED, RIO etc), admission control, multimedia protocols (RTP, RTCP etc).This course will also cover recent Qos related developments by IETF/IEEE such as : Intserv, Diffserv, RSVP, LAN, Qos. There will be hands on practical labs on network performance measurement and some network programming. The assessment of the course includes a substantial hands on project on building a network system in Linux/FreeBSD environment. C programming knowledge is assumed for labs and the project.

Capacity Planning of Computer Systems and Networks - COMP9334

Techniques for performance evaluation of distributed systesms. These techniques will then be applied to designing systems to have good performance, and to the analysis of future workloads and the system changes required to cope with them.

Wireless Mesh and Sensor Networks - COMP9335

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are two emerging wireless technologies which will have important impact in the future. In fact, the significance of WSNs has led to it being labelled as one of the most 21 technologies in the 21st century. This course will cover the fundamental design principles behind building scalable WMNs and WSNs. The following aspects on wireless mesh and sensor networks will be covered: medium access control protocol, routing protocol design, transport layer issues, middleware, application and security. It will also cover case studies on deploying wireless mesh and sensor networks. This course includes a laboratory components and minor design projects. It may also include guest lectures from leading industrial and academic researchers.

Mobile Data Networking - COMP9336

This course will examine how mobility affects networks, systems, and applications, and teach fundamental concepts as well as advanced issues in designing next generation mobile data networks. The focus will be on the higher layers of the communication stack (network through to applications). Following key concepts will be covered: protocols to deal with mobility at different layers (e.g., Mobile IP, SCTP, etc.), mobility models (e.g., Random Walk, Brownian Motion, etc.), advanced mobility prediction algorithms and applications (e.g. road topology based predictions), resource reservation and admission control algorithms, mobile extensions to end-to-end congestion control algorithms (e.g. Mobile TCP, Freeze TCP, etc.), and emerging mobile networking architectures, applications, and standards (e.g., vehicle to vehicle communications, on-board mobile communication for mass transit systems, etc.).The course may be taught concurrently with COMP4336.

Securing Wireless Networks - COMP4337/9337

As wireless technology emerges into the mainstream of the networking and communications markets, security becomes a top priority. This course will explore the security vulnerabilities in wireless networks and cover the fundamental concepts and advanced issues for building secure and robust wireless networks, with a particular focus on wireless LANs, mobile ad-hoc networks and sensor networks. Following key concepts will be covered: Wireless LAN Security – Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Wi- Fi Protected Access (WPA), Authentication Servers (RADIUS), 802.11i security standard; Securing Ad- Hoc Networks – MAC layer misbehaviours, secure routing protocols, denial of service attacks, intrusion detection systems; Security Issues in Sensor Networks – security challenges, key management, broadcast authentication, secure location discovery, non-traditional security attacks and solutions; RFID Security Issues. This course includes a hands-on laboratory component and a design project.

Prospective Students Information - Research work

Prospective research (PhD or Master by research) students are welcome to contact the academic staff of NRL to discuss opportunities to pursue research under their supervision.

It would definitely be helpful for you to browse through the academic staff's respective web page to learn something about their research interests before you email them. You should be aware that we generally expect our research students to have a GPA or WAM which is equivalent to a first-class honours undergraduate degree.

Some general pointers to research degree and scholarship information at School of Computer Science and Engineering can be found at School of Computer Science and Engineering Research Studies webpage.

For information on post-graduate study and scholarship at UNSW, check out the UNSW Graduate Research School web pages. 

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