Business Data Communications

BA 4323-501
Fall 2005
Course Instructor: Deborah Manica
Information Office: SOM 3.423
Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:30pm-4:30pm
Phone: (972) 883-4412
Email: via Web CT
Time: Monday and Wednesday 5:30-6:45 (SOM 2.722)

Handouts Check WebCT often. You are expected to have all handouts with you when you come to
class. You are responsible for this material irrespective of attendance.

Text The text for the course is “Business Data Communications and Networking” by Jerry
Fitzgerald and Alan Dennis. Eighth Edition, 2002, John Wiley and Sons.

Course “IS managers need to have an in depth understanding of a gamut of issues relating to data
Description communication and distributed processing, including technical, economic, and
managerial details. The course will focus on currently observed industry trends, including
the digital convergence of voice, video and data, enterprise wide connectivity, distributed
computing environments, and the massive demand for Internet-based open systems.
Cannot be used to satisfy degree requirements for majors in the School of Engineering
and Computer Science. Prerequisites: BA 3351, MATH 1326 and MATH 2333.”
(UTD Undergraduate Catalog, 2004-2006)

Using WebCT All class information will be posted on the course website on WebCT. Any
communication to me should also be conducted ONLY via WebCT email. I will not
respond to any email sent to my regular email address. All assignments should be
submitted via WebCT. It is therefore essential that you are familiar with WebCT. It
is also YOUR responsibility to make sure that you can access your WebCT account.

If you are using your home Internet connection to access E-mail or the World Wide Web,
you may have trouble getting connected for various reasons. Make sure that you give
yourself enough lead-time to complete assignments. Because you will almost always
have access to these systems on campus, busy modems or other technical problems are
not accepted as excuses for late assignments

Exams Exams will consist of multiple choice, True/False, and short problems. Any exam
grading disputes must be submitted in writing within two weeks of the results.

No make-up tests will be offered except on medical grounds.

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Homework and Project 1 will be a group project. Each group is responsible of giving a 10 minute in-
Projects class presentation of a technology. The list of topics and possible dates will be
determined on the first day of class. Each group also needs to submit a 10-15 page
paper (double-spaced) along with the technology presentation. The paper needs to
have a cover page, an outline, and a reference page. Both the paper and the power
point presentation need to be submitted 24 hours prior to the presentation date. All
assignments are to be submitted via WebCT as attachments. Groups will be decided
by August 31, 2005.

Project 2 expectations will be explained on 9/28 in-class. This is going to be is a

group assignment and will consist of no more than 2 members. The project may be
worked on in a group; however each individual should submit their own assignment
via WebCT. The deadline for submitting Project 2 is 11:00pm on the due date.

Late submissions must be submitted as an attachment to WebCT email.

Assignments submitted within 24 hours of the due date/time will be subject to a
25% penalty. No late submissions will be accepted 24 hours after the deadline.

The submissions need to have your name and project number as the file name. For
example; Project 1 files for Jane Doe would be named as JaneDoeProject1.doc and
JaneDoeProject1.ppt.

Quizzes Quizzes will be given over the course of the semester to monitor students’ understanding.
The questions in the quizzes will be clearly taken from course lectures and corresponding
material covered in the book. There will be 6 quizzes given over the course of the
semester of which the 4 quizzes with the best performance will be considered in
determining your final grade.

Extra Credit During the course of the semester there will be an opportunity to earn up to 3.5% on
your total course score. This 3.5% increase will NOT raise your grade above 100%.
You will be able to earn extra credit by playing in competitive games and other
activities offered spontaneously in class. As I do not currently know the total
number of points I will offer, we will have to normalize this score at the end of the
course. We will keep track of bonus points over the semester, and normalize the
scores at the end. For example, if student 1 has 6 points, student 2 has 8 points and
the total possible points was 10, then student 1’s grade would increase by 2.1% and
student 2’s grade would increase by 2.8%.

Grading and The distribution of the grades will be as follows.

Grading Policy
Exam I 30%
Exam II 30%
Project I 15%
Project II 15%
Quizzes 10%

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The grading will be based on the following grading scheme.

Range Grade Range Grade

98 - 100 A+ 93 - 97 A
88 - 92 A- 83 - 87 B+
78 - 82 B 73 - 77 B-
70 - 72 C+ 67 - 69 C
64 - 66 C- 61 - 63 D+
58 - 60 D 55 - 57 D-
< 55 F

• There is no generally accepted definition of academic dishonesty. However, there

Academic are elements of dishonesty that are readily identifiable:
Dishonesty • Cheating – intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials,
Offenses information, or study aids in any academic exercise (examples: crib notes, copying,
unauthorized collaboration)
• Fabrication – intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any
information or citation in an academic exercise (examples: making up sources for
the bibliography of a paper or faking the results of a laboratory assignment)
• Plagiarism – deliberate adoption or reproduction of ideas or words or statements of
another person as one’s own without acknowledgement (examples: turning in a
paper written by another person or buying a paper from a commercial source and
failing to properly attribute quotations within a paper)
• Facilitating Academic Dishonesty – intentionally or knowingly helping or
attempting to help another engage in some form of academic dishonesty
• Misrepresentation – providing false information to an instructor concerning an
academic exercise (examples: giving a false excuse for missing a test or deadline or
falsely claiming to have submitted a paper)
• Failure to Contribute to a Collaborative Project – involves not doing one’s fair share
• Sabotage – actions that prevent others from completing their work (examples:
disturbing a lab experiment, removing materials from a reserved reading file). 1
• http://www.utdallas.edu/judicialaffairs/UTDJudicialAffairs-
maintainingintegrity.html

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Tentative Schedule

Week # Date Topics Assignments

1 8/22(M) ƒ Course Introduction Ch 1
ƒ History of Data Comm., IS and the Internet
ƒ Introduction to Networks
ƒ Network Models
ƒ Network Standards
8/24 (W) ƒ Application Architectures Ch 2
ƒ World Wide Web
2 8/29 (M) ƒ E-mail Ch 2
ƒ Applications on the Internet
8/31 (W) ƒ Circuits Ch 3
ƒ Digital Transmission of Digital Data QUIZ I
Groups for
Project 1

3 9/5 (M) ƒ LABOR DAY – NO CLASS

9/7 (W) ƒ Analog Transmission of Digital Data Ch 3
ƒ Digital Transmission of Analog Data
4 9/12 (M) ƒ Analog-Digital Modems Ch 3
ƒ Multiplexing QUIZ II
9/14 (W) ƒ Media Access Control Ch 4
ƒ Error Control
5 9/19 (M) ƒ Data Link Protocols
ƒ Transmission Efficiency Ch 4
9/21 (W) ƒ Transport and Network Layer Protocols Ch 5
ƒ Transport Layer Functions
ƒ Addressing
6 9/26 (M) ƒ Routing Ch 5
ƒ TCP/IP Example QUIZ III
9/28 (W) ƒ Review for Exam I Ch 1-5
ƒ Discuss Project 2
7 10/3 (M) ƒ Bill Erickson, VP of Sales and Marketing Guest Speaker
Fujitsu Network Communications
ƒ Continue Review
10/5(W) ƒ EXAM I EXAM I
8 10/10 (M) ƒ LAN Components Ch 6
ƒ Traditional Ethernet Project Introduction
ƒ Introduce Project
10/12 (W) ƒ Switched Ethernet Ch 6
ƒ The Best Practice LAN Design QUIZ IV
ƒ Improving LAN Performance Groups for
Project 2

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9 10/17 (M) ƒ Wireless Local Area Networks Ch 7
10/19 (W) ƒ Bluetooth Ch 7
ƒ The Best Practice WLAN Design
ƒ Improving WLAN Performance
10 10/24 (M) ƒ Backbone Network Components Ch 8
ƒ Backbone Network Architectures QUIZ V
10/26 (W) ƒ The Best Practice Network Design Ch 8
ƒ Improving Backbone Performance
11 10/31 (M) ƒ How the Internet Works Ch 10
ƒ Internet Access Technologies
11/2 (W) ƒ Internet Governance Ch 10, Ch 11
ƒ Internet 2
ƒ Introduction to Security
12 11/7 (M) ƒ Risk Assessment Ch 11
ƒ Business Continuity Planning PROJECT 2
DUE
11/9 (W) ƒ Controlling Unauthorized Access Ch 11
ƒ Best Practice Recommendations
13 11/14 (M) ƒ Introduction to Network Design Ch 12
ƒ Needs Analysis QUIZ VI
ƒ Technology Design
11/16 (W) ƒ Cost Assessment Ch12
ƒ Designing for Network Performance
14 11/21 (M) Review For Final Chapters 6-12
11/23 (W) NO CLASS – Happy Thanksgiving!
15 11/28 (M) EXAM II EXAM II

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