T324: Keeping ahead in ICTs
Tutor-Marked Assignment, Fall 2016 2017
Cut-Off Date: 8/12/2016 Total Marks: 100
Question 1 (30 marks)………………………………………………………………2
Question 2 (30 marks)………………………………………………………………2
Question 3 (40 marks)………………………………………………………………3
Plagiarism Warning:
As per AOU rules and regulations, all students are required to submit their own TMA work and avoid plagiarism. The AOU has implemented sophisticated techniques for plagiarism detection. You must provide all references in case you use and quote another person's work in your TMA. You will be penalized for any act of plagiarism as per the AOU's rules and regulations.
Declaration of No Plagiarism by Student (to be signed and submitted by student with TMA work):
I hereby declare that this submitted TMA work is a result of my own efforts and I have not plagiarized any other person's work. I have provided all references of information that I have used and quoted in my TMA work.
Name of Student:………………………………
Signature:………………………………………
Arab Open University
2
TMA T324 Fall 2016/2017
Q1. Investigating socio-technical system
You have studied in block three of the course materials the socio-technical system approach for investigating system failures. To demonstrate your understanding of this part of the course, we are asking you to make some investigations regarding a specific type of socio-technical system which is academic social networks as for example Academia. For being able to complete this study, you should create an account in Academia.edu and start building your academic social network. It is mandatory that you provide snapshot from your Academia account to prove your participation in this social network. Then, answer to the following questions:
1. Draw the system map that you think representative for the given system. The system map must show at least two technical components, two social components, and two components that belong to the system environment. (10 marks)
2. Present briefly two processes of the given system. (10 marks)
3. Provide one major non-technical reason that may lead such system to failure? (10 marks)
Q2. Innovation in IEEE 802.11
You have studied in Block 1 the fundamental concepts, techniques, and mechanisms used in wireless communication in general and in more particularly in IEEE 802.11 standard. Nevertheless, the course does not emphasize on the evolution of this standard. In this problem, you will discover the innovative standard IEEE 802.11ac. Using the AOU e-library and Internet resources, you are asked to write an essay presenting an overview on the standard IEEE 802.11ac while providing its major physical layer specifications (e.g., throughput, RF bandwidth, channel bonding, number of MIMO spatial streams, modulation technique). Your essay should contain at least 500 words and the list of references. It should not include unapproved websites as Wikipedia or like citation. Marks will be deducted in case of essay lacking reliable references or containing errors in syntax, structure, and style.
3
TMA T324 Fall 2016/2017
Q3. Sniffing traffic using Wireshark
Wireshark is the world’s most popular network protocol analyzer. It is used for troubleshooting, analysis, development and education. The software and its user guide could be downloaded from its home page (i.e., http://www.wireshark.org/). Besides, you can find attached to the TMA a file entitled “Introduction to Wireshark” that can help you to start working rapidly with this software.
In this question, you will make some traffic analysis using this passive measurement tool. To start the experiment, you should install and run the software on your mobile device. We recommend that you use laptop having Microsoft Windows as operating system and connected to the network through Wi-Fi. While Wireshark is running, enter the URL of Moodle to navigate to its homepage and then enter your login credentials. During this communication, your browser will contact the server hosting Moodle and exchange messages with it. The frames containing these messages will be captured by Wireshark.
After your browser has displayed your Moodle homepage, stop Wireshark packet capture by selecting stop in the Wireshark capture window. This will cause the main Wireshark window to display all packets captured since you began packet capture. You now have live packet data that contains all protocol messages exchanged between your laptop and other network entities. The message exchanges with the web server should appear somewhere in the listing of packets captured. But there will be many other types of packets displayed as well.
For answering the following questions, you should look at the details of frames and subfields in the middle Wireshark window. It is mandatory that you provide snapshots from the software to prove the accuracy of your answers. Otherwise, no grades will be allocated.
1. What is the MAC and IP addresses of the wireless network connection of your laptop? (5 marks)
2. What is the MAC address of the wireless access point to which you are connecting? (5 marks)
3. What is the IP address of the server hosting Moodle? (5 marks)
4. Try to find the username and password of your Moodle account if they are in plaintext format or encrypted. (5 marks)
5.What do you conclude about the security of the server hosting Moodle in your branch?(5mark)
6. Provide an overview on HTTPS. Your essay should include at least 200 words and the references. (15 marks)