Award: Module Title: Assignment Title: Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Studies Examination Cycle: June 2008 Candidate Name: NCC Education Candidate No: Submission Date: Important Notes: It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with the NCC Education Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism Policy. Any thoughts, ideas or quotations which don t belong to you must be fully attributed to their sources using the appropriate in-text citation and bibliography using the Harvard Referencing System. Authors work that is used in your assignment and not referenced is plagiarism. At Diploma level work omitting either citations or bibliography will be limited to a maximum 50%; at Advanced Diploma level to a maximum 45%; at Honours and PgD level to a fail. You must sign the Student Declaration as detailed in the Statement and Confirmation of Own Work found at the back of every NCC Education assignment. You must attach the signed and completed form to your assignment. If you gain an unfair advantage or collude in any way whatsoever (other than on joint assignments) you are liable to be disqualified. Cheating is an offence. You could lose marks if you exceed the recommended word count by more than 10%. A digital copy as well as a paper copy must be submitted (on disk or similarly acceptable medium). Media containing viruses, or media which cannot be run directly, will result in a FAIL grade being awarded for this module. Electronic media will also be checked for plagiarism so beware! Marker's comment: Moderator's comment: Mark: Moderated Final Mark: Mark: June 2008 NCC Education 2007
Introduction assignment gives candidates an assessable opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and application of the module content at Postgraduate level. Compulsory Contents The documentation for the assignment should start with a brief introduction of every task. Students should clearly mention the details of their practical work such as; where, when and how it was done. No joint project will be accepted. Wherever applicable, students are permitted to complete the practical task in their own working environment. Each student is expected to work on different scenarios so as not to produce the same answers and exact screen dumps as their peers in the cohort. Task 1 15 Marks Table 1 below, gives the round-trip time (RTT) for 30 individual segments sent over a TCP connection: Segment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 RTT (ms) 130 138 122 124 131 139 139 121 134 127 Segment 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 RTT (ms) 267 139 126 134 141 137 291 123 134 139 Segment 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 RTT (ms) 141 142 139 122 123 143 215 134 122 134 Table 1 a) For each segment, making any necessary assumptions, calculate the following and plot the data on a graph: The exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) of RTT (sometimes referred to as Estimated RTT). The variability of RTT (sometimes referred to as DevRTT). An appropriate timeout internal for use when transmitting the next TCP segment. b) For the connection data given in Table 1, using your assumptions, determine if premature timeout will occur for any of the segments. If so, which? Task 2 5 Marks A small office / home office (SOHO) LAN has six workstations, connected together via Ethernet. This small network is connected to the Internet via a network address translation (NAT) enabled router. Explain the operation of the NAT enabled router and critically appraise this arrangement. Explain how the workstations may obtain their IP addresses. Explain how the router may obtain the IP address for its Internet interface. June 2008 NCC Education 2007
Task 3 10 Marks a) Discuss the following terms as applied to the HTTP and explain how each can provide performance improvements to HTTP applications: Persistent connections Pipelining Conditional GET / client caching b) Outline THREE different Internet protocols commonly used to retrieve mail from mail servers by e-mail user agents. Compare and contrast these. Task 4 10 Marks a) Explain how the Integrated Services (Intserv) architecture allows an Internet connection to have a guaranteed Quality of Services (QoS). b) Explain how the Differentiated Services (Diffserv) architecture allows an Internet connection to have a differentiated QoS. c) Explain why it is likely to be difficult to implement Intserv in the core of the Internet. Task 5 60 Marks Using available Internet and library resources, research the provisions of the ISO standard 17799: 2005 code of Practice for Information Security Management. a) Identify and outline the 11 Security CLAUSES (1000 words) and CONTROL OBJECTIVES (1500 words) of the standard in an appropriate format (overall total 2500 words). b) Critically appraise, for each of the clauses, how the main control objectives relate to an organisation with which you are familiar and briefly outline what would be required to enable the organisation to meet the objectives, in no more than 2000 words. NOTE: Just copying information from websites without individual interpretation or comments is discouraged and will not gain marks. Also, see notes on plagiarism on the front cover of this assignment. Guidance Complete the tasks sequentially and keep screen dumps for all your practical work, these are required in your submission. Consult with your tutor if you are uncertain about any aspects of the assignment. June 2008 NCC Education 2007
Submission Requirements To pass the assignment students must: Complete all 5 Tasks. Submit a single word processed document containing all reports and other documentation i.e. explanations, output reports and page images of graphic tools etc. pertaining to the Tasks. The document should be properly structured with a table of contents, bibliography (online and literature sources) and appendices (where necessary).the maximum word limit is 7000 words not including the appendices. Produce clear and specific reasoning and argument to justify answers. Objective type answers are not expected. Make appropriate reference to relevant concepts, techniques and theories. Appropriately cite all information sources. An electronic version of the document must also be submitted on disk along with the printed copy of the documentation. Warning: All media must be virus free! Media containing viruses, or media which cannot be run directly, will result in a FAIL grade being awarded for this module. All candidates must read and understand NCC Education s policy on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism and complete the attached form Statement and Confirmation of Own Work. You must attach the completed form to your assignment. June 2008 NCC Education 2007
Statement and Confirmation of Own Work Programme/Qualification name: All NCC Education assessed assignments submitted by students must have this statement as the cover page or it will not be accepted for marking. Please ensure that this statement is either firmly attached to the cover of the assignment or electronically inserted into the front of the assignment. Student declaration I have read and understood NCC Education s Policy on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism. I can confirm the following details: Student ID/Registration number: Name: Centre Name: Module Name: Module Leader: Number of words: I confirm that this is my own work and that I have not plagiarised any part of it. I have also noted the assessment criteria and pass mark for assignments. Due Date: Student Signature: Submitted Date: June 2008 NCC Education 2007