Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
Trimester T2 2019
Unit Code MN504
Unit Title Networked Application Management
Assessment Type Group Assignment
Assessment
Title Network Analysis using Wireshark
Purpose of the assessment
(with ULO
Mapping) This assignment is designed to develop deeper analytical understanding of different distributed network conditions. At the completion of this assessment students should be able to:
d. Analyse performance and deployment issues for networked applications;
e. Compare appropriate industry tools and techniques to manage networked applications;
Weight 20%
Total Marks 60
Word limit 2000
Due Date 29/09/2019 11:55PM (Week 11 Friday)
Submission Guidelines • All work must be submitted on Moodle by the due date along with a title Page.
• The assignment must be in MS Word format, 1.5 spacing, 11-pt Calibri (Body) font and 2.54 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings.
• Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using IEEE referencing style.
Extension • If an extension of time to submit work is required, a Special Consideration Application must be submitted directly on AMS. You must submit this application three working days prior to the due date of the assignment.
Further information is available at:
http://www.mit.edu.au/about-mit/institute-publications/policiesprocedures-and-guidelines/specialconsiderationdeferment
Academic
Misconduct
• Academic Misconduct is a serious offence. Depending on the seriousness of the case, penalties can vary from a written warning or zero marks to exclusion from the course or rescinding the degree. Students should make themselves familiar with the full policy and procedure available at: http://www.mit.edu.au/about-mit/institute-publications/policiesprocedures-and-guidelines/Plagiarism-Academic-Misconduct-PolicyProcedure For further information, please refer to the Academic Integrity Section in your Unit Description.
Dr Lincy Jim Moderated by: Dr Imran Ali Jokhio November, 2017

Assignment Description
The aim of the assignment is to develop an analytical understanding of performance and management of different types of networked applications. The assignment will provide an opportunity to understand network performance and management issues of networked applications using state of the art tools. These exercises provide an opportunity to demonstrate analytical ability of evaluating distributed systems performance, Quality of Service and service management.
Overview and General Instructions of Assignment
Students need to form a group of two in their own lab class and inform tutor about their group during Week 7 Lab. Each group will need to capture packets on their home network and at MIT while accessing the following websites. One website is of a news channel and the other one is a website for live streaming. The students are required to capture packets of multiple images from the news channel website and capture packets from the live stream website while streaming for 10 minutes once at MIT in a group and then on their home network individually. So at the end there will be six trace files, three for each website, two captured on MIT network and four on students’ home networks. The websites to access are: https://edition.cnn.com/
http://www.radio-australia.org/koffee
The complete report must be submitted on Moodle within due date. The report has following four main parts:
Part 1:
The first part of the report should be about general statistics of all six captures using Wireshark that must include:
1. Time of capture
2. Total number of captured packets
3. IP addresses of the client and server
Part 2:
The second part of the report must include screen shots of packet capture, screenshots of different statistics from Wireshark and complete analysis of those screenshots for both websites for all three networks. Only screenshots of the graphs or other statistics will not get any marks, as those must be analysed in detail to discuss the quality of service for a particular application. The students are required to analyse the network performance for the assigned websites considering following aspects:
1. Throughput
2. Round Trip Time
3. TCP retransmissions
While collecting statistics ensure that you are looking at the right flow as your Wireshark file may have packets from other applications and flows. Figure 1 on next page shows the throughput graph generated by Wireshark and source and destination addresses. You need to collect statistics for flows that are from server to client.
Figure 1: Throughput Graph showing source and destination IP addresses
To see the TCP retransmissions you need to enter the following filter in Wireshark: tcp.analysis.retransmission
Part 3:
The third part of the report is about comparing the collected Wireshark statistics of the two different networked applications on three different networks. The throughput graphs and TCP retransmission statistics for web page transfer and live streaming (provided in part 2) need to be compared with each other and for all three networks. The differences of the performance to be identified and reasons must be provided for such differences.
Part 4:
Students need to download, install, use and compare another free network performance measurement tool from the Internet on their home computer. One possible option is Nagios from https://www.nagios.org/downloads/nagios-core/ .The tool should be used to analyse the network traffic captured while accessing one of the websites mentioned in Table 1. The chosen tool should be compared with Wireshark based on following criteria:
1. Ease of access and use: how easy it is to download, install and start using (any changes to be made to the system etc.) as compared to Wireshark
2. GUI: Compare at least four GUI features of the chosen tool with Wireshark
3. Visualisation of traffic: After capturing packets by the chosen tool the effectiveness of the visualisation of the network traffic should be compared with Wireshark.
4. Statistics generation: At least one statistics like throughput, RTT etc. needs to be generated by the chosen tool and to be compared with the same generated by Wireshark.
The comparison must include screenshots for both tools (your chosen tool and Wireshark) to judge the validity of the comparison.
Marking criteria:
Section to be included in the report Description of the section Marks
Introduction Outline of the assignment
Overall structure of the report
4
General Statistics For each capture following should be discussed:
1. Time of capture
2. Total number of captured packets
3. IP addresses of client and server 9
Network Performance Screenshots and analysis of the following:
1. Throughput
2. Round Trip Time
3. TCP retransmissions 5 * 3 = 15
Comparison 1 Comparison of the throughput and TCP retransmissions of both applications on three networks and discussion of the reasons for the difference.
5 * 3 = 15
Comparison 2 Comparison of the chosen tool with Wireshark in terms of:
1. Ease of access and use
2. GUI
3. Visualisation of traffic
4. Statistics generation
The screenshots for both tools should be provided
3 * 4 = 12
Conclusion Complete summary of the report specially the comparison.
3
Reference style Follow IEEE reference style.
2
Total
60
Marking Rubric for Assignment #1: Total Marks 60
Grade Mark HD 80% DI
70-79% CR 60-69% P
50-59% Fail
50%
Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Introduction
/4 Clear and concise outline is provided, report structure is described properly Clear outline is provided, report structure is described. Some outline is provided, report structure is
somewhat discussed Some outline is provided,. This is no relevance to the assignment topic.
General
Statistics
/9 All required aspects are discussed exceptionally well All required aspects are discussed Some aspects are discussed Very few aspects are discussed Not related
Network
Performance
/15 All required matters are analysed in detail and exceptionally well, All screen shots are clear and complete Most of the required matters are analysed in detail , All screen shots are clear and complete Some required matters are analysed in detail and , Some screen shots are clear and complete Few of the required matters are analysed Not related or/and incomplete
Comparison 1
/15 In detail comparison is provided and justification is given exceptionally well Some comparison is provided and justification given Some comparison is provided and
incomplete
justification is there Comparison and
justification is incomplete Not related and/or incomplete
Comparison 2
/12 In detail comparison is provided and justification is given exceptionally well Some comparison is provided and justification given Some comparison is provided and
incomplete
justification is there Comparison and
justification is incomplete Not related and/or incomplete
Conclusion
/3 Logic is clear and easy to follow with strong arguments Consistency logical and convincing Mostly consistent logical and convincing Adequate cohesion and conviction Argument is confused and disjointed
Reference style
/2 Clear styles with excellent source of references. Clear referencing style Generally good referencing style Sometimes clear referencing style Lacks consistency with many errors