COMP SCI 4092 - Mobile and Wireless Systems

North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2024

This course examines the characteristics of mobile and wireless networks and the impact of these characteristics on the development of software and supporting protocols. Topics covered include: mobile and wireless application design and development environments, middleware support, protocol requirements for ad-hoc and sensor networks, wireless & mobile security vulnerabilities and standards, supporting reliable communication in lossy and intermittently connected networks; challenges and architectures for wireless mobility - 4G networks, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Bluetooth, Mobile IP, convergence of voice and data networks.

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Course Details

Course Code	COMP SCI 4092
Course	Mobile and Wireless Systems
Coordinating Unit	Computer Science
Term	Semester 2
Level	Undergraduate
Location/s	North Terrace Campus
Units	3
Contact	Up to 2 hours per week
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y
Prerequisites	(COMP SCI 1102, COMP SCI 3001, COMP SCI 2103 and COMP SCI 3012) and (COMP SCI 3006 or COMP SCI 3310 or COMP SCI 3311 or COMP SCI 3312 or COMP SCI 3313); All courses from first brackets and one of the courses from second brackets
Incompatible	COMP SCI 4192
Assessment	Assignments and/or group projects

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Damith Ranasinghe

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

Course Learning Outcomes

The learning objectives for Mobile and Wireless Systems are:

To develop the concept of systems thinking in the context of mobile and wireless systems
To develop knowledge of the interplay of concepts and multiple sub-disciplines in mobile and wirless systems
To develop knowledge and experience in mobile interface and applications design, and development techniques and methodologies set in the context of a research project addressing a real-world application
To gain knowledge and experience in applying various computation methods and algorithms as a part of software development
To gain experience in evaluating mobile computing applications, computation methods and algorithms through experiments and simulations
To read and understand scientific research papers and present them in a seminar talk.

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

University Graduate Attribute	Course Learning Outcome(s)
Attribute 1: Deep discipline knowledge and intellectual breadth Graduates have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of their subject area, the ability to engage with different traditions of thought, and the ability to apply their knowledge in practice including in multi-disciplinary or multi-professional contexts.	1,2,3,4
Attribute 2: Creative and critical thinking, and problem solving Graduates are effective problems-solvers, able to apply critical, creative and evidence-based thinking to conceive innovative responses to future challenges.	3,5,6
Attribute 3: Teamwork and communication skills Graduates convey ideas and information effectively to a range of audiences for a variety of purposes and contribute in a positive and collaborative manner to achieving common goals.	6
Attribute 4: Professionalism and leadership readiness Graduates engage in professional behaviour and have the potential to be entrepreneurial and take leadership roles in their chosen occupations or careers and communities.	2, 3, 5, 6
Attribute 5: Intercultural and ethical competency Graduates are responsible and effective global citizens whose personal values and practices are consistent with their roles as responsible members of society.	3
Attribute 6: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural competency Graduates have an understanding of, and respect for, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values, culture and knowledge.	3

Learning Resources

Required Resources

During the course, literature (available online) will be provided as study material.

While not essential, it is useful to have access to your own personal computing platform.

Recommended Resources

"Wireless Internet and Mobile Computing: Interoperability and Performance," Kwok & Lau, Wiley 2007, ISBN 97880847186796884
This reference book is covers some of the concepts you need to master in this course.

"20 Recipes for Programming PhoneGap: Cross-Platform Mobile Development for Android and iPhone," Jamie Munro, O'Reilly Media, 2012.

Additional relevant readings will be indicated by the lecturers.

Online Learning

The Mobile and Wireless Networks course will use a Slack for communication between students, groups and supervisors; GitHub for as a repository for all your work. Students are also expected to check the Announcements on the course page on MyUni at the start of the project and on a regular basis for announcements relating to the course and projects; later on in the course, we will move to Slack for all communications.
Learning & Teaching Activities
Learning & Teaching Modes

The course aims to introduce students to a range of Mobile and Wireless Network technology, research challenges, real-world application areas and systems thinking. The concepts will be studied through readings followed by discussions in groups. The concepts will be practiced and reinforced by participation a research project and seminar presentations with a written research paper.

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

Mobile and Wireless Systems is a 3 unit course. The expectation is that students will be spending 12 hours per week working on the course. Two to three of those hours are contact hours; the remainder of the time should be spent working on research and assessment tasks.

Learning Activities Summary
A selection of these following topics will be covered in this course based on student project choice as well as through knowlege sharing between groups during class presentations:
1. Mobile and wireless interface and application design and development
2. Wireless network technologies
3. Security and privacy
4. Internet of Things
5. m-health
6. Tracking and localisation
Specific Course Requirements
Students must also obtain at least 50% of the total marks to pass the course.

The course relies on a body of assumed knowlege obtained through a Computer Science major in an Undergraduate Program.
- Proficiency in a high level programming lanuage like Java
- Software testing, ability to debug code and understand the process of finding software bugs fnd fixing them.
- Completed a course in computer networks with socket programming
- Completed a course in distributed system
- Completed a course covering computer and network security fundamentals

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

The assessment for this course consists of three components:

Project work (background study, methodology, experiments and results, demonstration or simulation, identification of future research directions) (60%)
Seminar presentation, on-going paper reviews, participation and discussions in group meetings (15%)
Written essay in the format of a research paper: (25%)

Assessment Related Requirements

Project

A project description and related study material is provided for each project. In general the following apply. Work fulfilling aim of the project and developing a demonstrator or simulation to showcase results should include a single parent directory with the following contents:

All source code (and comments)
All configuration files
Documentation including installation and running instructions which contains a brief description of how the program can be run (including commands to compile and run programs with different parameters where applicable)
Students must be able to explain their solutions to the project supervisors

Any material submitted must either be your own work, or where based on other ideas or work a specific acknowledgment has to be made. For example: “the following code was sourced from…” or “the following function is based on…” unless you are using the methods provided in a third party module or a library. Where sources are not acknowledged you may be deemed guilty of plagiarism. These acknowledgements should be placed in the code that you have submitted.

The project is a group project but individual group members must identify and be able to explain their individual contributions. These should be annotated clearly in the code and in any documentation and visible through your activity on Slack, GitHub commits and project Blogs.

Written assessment tasks

Documents submitted should include as the first page a coversheet or title page containing only the report title and submission date followed by the student’s name (or students' names as appropriate) and university id number. All references should be acknowledged and it is encouraged to refer to many sources; in addition any material referred to should not be copied word for word unless placed in quotation marks. The format of this document should follow guidelines placed on the course website.

Provision of feedback to students

Feedback on your progress will be provided at weekly meetings, assignment marks and comments on students work for written assignments. Requests for further explanations, or to ask for an assignment to be remarked an email should be sent to your course co-ordinator.

Extensions for assessment tasks

In general, extensions will not be given. Students who have suffered illness or been hindered in some other way should still hand in what they have done by the due date. They should then lodge a written request (supported by documentary evidence) for special circumstances to be taken into account.

Penalty for late submission

The penalty for late submission of an assignment is a zero mark since we expect work to be done consistently throughout the 12 weeks.

Assessment Detail

Students will need to attend weekly lecture times and project group meetings with supervisors. Students are required to demonstrate consistent progress where progress made in each week is assessed in weekly meetings.

Submission

Submission of paper responses, presentations, and Blogs are to be submitted via the course's page on MyUni. All other documents, including code, should be on GitHub.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

The University of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The University of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.

Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator