Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.

This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .

Term 1 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 88.89% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 15.98% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

1. Explain the role of hardware and software components in computer networks
2. Recognise the importance of protocols, standards, and layered architectures in building computer networks
3. Explain the selection of network components, topologies, and technologies to meet business requirements
4. Describe challenges and solutions in securing computer networks and infrastructure
5. Interpret the use of forwarding and encapsulation to deliver data securely in computer networks
6. Discuss techniques for managing cyber security, documenting, and troubleshooting computer networks.

The Australian Computer Society (ACS), the professional association for Australia's ICT sector, recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments, and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.

This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 8 (the SFIA code is included):

• Network Support (NTAS)
• IT Infrastructure (ITOP)
• Security Administration (SCAD)
• Systems Installation/Decommissioning (HSIN)
• Problem Management (PBMG)
• Information Security (SCTY).

The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Framework defines knowledge, skills and tasks needed to perform various cyber security roles. Developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the NICE Framework is used by organisations to plan their workforce, including recruit into cyber security positions.

This unit helps prepare you for roles such as Systems Security Analyst, Network Operations Specialist and Systems Administrator, contributing to the following knowledge and skills:

• K0001 Knowledge of computer networking concepts and protocols, and network security methodologies.
• K0010 Knowledge of communication methods, principles, and concepts that support the network infrastructure.
• K0011 Knowledge of capabilities and applications of network equipment including routers, switches, bridges, servers, transmission media, and related hardware.
• K0029 Knowledge of organization's Local and Wide Area Network connections.
• K0050 Knowledge of local area and wide area networking principles and concepts including bandwidth management.
• K0053 Knowledge of measures or indicators of system performance and availability.
• K0060 Knowledge of operating systems.
• K0061 Knowledge of how traffic flows across the network (e.g., Transmission Control Protocol [TCP] and Internet Protocol [IP], Open System Interconnection Model [OSI], Information Technology Infrastructure Library, current version [ITIL]).
• K0071 Knowledge of remote access technology concepts.
• K0077 Knowledge of server and client operating systems.
• K0108 Knowledge of concepts, terminology, and operations of a wide range of communications media (computer and telephone networks, satellite, fiber, wireless).
• K0111 Knowledge of network tools (e.g., ping, traceroute, nslookup)
• K0113 Knowledge of different types of network communication (e.g., LAN, WAN, MAN, WLAN, WWAN).
• K0136 Knowledge of the capabilities of different electronic communication systems and methods (e.g., e-mail, VOIP, IM, web forums, Direct Video Broadcasts).
• K0137 Knowledge of the range of existing networks (e.g., PBX, LANs, WANs, WIFI, SCADA).
• K0138 Knowledge of Wi-Fi.
• K0332 Knowledge of network protocols such as TCP/IP, Dynamic Host Configuration, Domain Name System (DNS), and directory services.
• S0033 Skill in diagnosing connectivity problems.
• S0035 Skill in establishing a routing schema.
• S0041 Skill in installing, configuring, and troubleshooting LAN and WAN components such as routers, hubs, and switches.
• S0073 Skill in using virtual machines. (e.g., Microsoft Hyper-V, VMWare vSphere, Citrix XenDesktop/Server, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, etc.).
• S0151 Skill in troubleshooting failed system components (i.e., servers)
• S0154 Skill in installing system and component upgrades. (i.e., servers, appliances, network devices).

• Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
• Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes