INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

TECHNOLOGY PARK MALAYSIA

(CT098-3-2-RMCT)

Research Methods for Computing and Technology

UC2F1708IT(NC)

NAME: ABDURRAOUF FATHI ALI SAWEHLI

TP042816

HAND OUT DATE: 26th February 2017

HAND IN DATE: 7th May 2018

WEIGHTAGE: 100%

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

1 Submit your assignment at the administrative counter

2 Late submission will be awarded zero (0) unless Extenuating Circumstances (EC) are
upheld.
3 Cases of plagiarism will be penalized.
4 The assignment should be bound in an appropriate style (comb bound or stapled).

5 Where the assignment should be submitted in both hardcopy and softcopy, the
softcopy of the written assignment and source code (where appropriate) should be on
a CD in an envelope / CD cover and attached to the hardcopy.
6 You must obtain 50% overall to pass this module
Contents
1. Introduction:.......................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Problem background: ............................................................................................................................ 4
3. Problem statement:................................................................................................................................ 5
4. Literature view: ..................................................................................................................................... 6
4.1 Review of an existing system: ............................................................................................................ 9
4.2 Screenshots of the similar system: .............................................................................................. 11
5.Aim: ......................................................................................................................................................... 12
6.Objectives: ............................................................................................................................................... 12
7. Research Questions: ............................................................................................................................ 13
7.1 Domain questions: ...................................................................................................................... 13
7.2 Technical questions:.......................................................................................................................... 13
8. Research Design: ................................................................................................................................ 14
8.1 Interview: .................................................................................................................................... 14
8.2 Questionnaire: ................................................................................................................................... 15
8.3 Gantt Chart:....................................................................................................................................... 15
9. Personal Reflection: ............................................................................................................................ 16
10. References:...................................................................................................................................... 17

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 APU High-Speed Internet Access

1. Introduction:

Internet access is the capability of individuals and organizations to connect to

the Internet utilizing terminals, computers, and other devices such as mobile phone and IPADs and
it is used to access services such as email and browse the World Wide Web. Various technologies
and methods with different rate of speeds have been utilized by Internet service providers (ISPs)
to give this service to the end users.

Gaining a reliable internet speed connection is quite challenging especially in places where
a big number of users are accessing in the same time such as universities. Systems that manages
the dedicated bandwidth of the provided internet by the ISP plays a pivotal role in which the
performance of the network.

APU High-Speed Internet Access service provides a mean through which users are
redirected to a landing page where they are asked to log in to the network using their TP numbers
and then they can buy a voucher using their APcard if they have a sufficient amount on it to get
this service. A dedicated bandwidth and time are located for the users. Moreover, different access
types may be listed to choose among them. With the ease and utilizing of this system, the internet
connection will not be an issue even if the high-speed connections demands continue to grow.

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 2. Problem background:

Asia Pacific University is one of the leading organizations in Malaysia which provides
various courses for all levels of education stating from diploma and before it to Ph.D. researchers.
APU has an international student’s community from more than 110 countries which imply the
significant number of its student. APU is a place where technology, innovation, and creativity are
the first concern to prepare ready and professional graduates who can play vital roles in their future
career (Apu, 2018).

Also, they have a big new campus where most of the courses are held, and they are still
expanding it, so all the group facilities will be in the same place. The network infrastructure of the
building needs to be improved as all these significant changes. With the rapid growth of the
university and the increasing in the number of students, the need to provide high-speed internet
access has become an essential service to the students and staff. This kind of service is being
needed to boost up the university network infrastructure in a more efficient way where users can
get a better experience of the internet access, and they can indeed rely on it for their daily
operations, and in the peak times also that keep things not done effectively and efficiently.

The demand for bandwidth within a university as APU in which technology is the first
thing that will pop up in your mind is at all-time high whatever in the current situation or the nearby
future. However, the problem of providing a reliable internet connection is evident as it been
observed and noticed since the end of 2017 where most of the courses are shifted in the new
campus. The demand of having a sufficient bandwidth was raising among the students and thus,
an upgrade or provide a practical solution is needed. Also, bandwidth management system that has
some advanced features such as time allocation and getting payment of using the service as well
as allocate different bandwidth dynamically based on the user type is required.

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 3. Problem statement:

The existing network infrastructure of Asia Pacific University has some problems that are
various in different aspects as it has been observed. The internet connection regarding speed in the
peak times is one of the issues that sometimes carry out some limitation in the ping number as well
as the download and upload rates. That leads to some obstacles in situations when accessing the
network resources is highly needed for both staff and students. Online streaming, VOIP and
uploading or downloading big size of data are examples that you might face or affected by it
(Chitanana, 2017). Moreover, the university is getting bigger day by another, and the number of
students is increasing in a tremendous rhythm where the normal internet access can be exasperating
and does not function properly. To add on that, the existing system does not provide a service of
getting payment for optional services such as the high-speed internet access and that will aid the
business goals regarding efficiency and profitably as well as boost up the university facilities with
a high- level of quality, high tech and cutting-edge services.

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 4. Literature review:

The internet has become a vital key in all learning institutions which provides helpful
resources to aid in research and communication. With the increased number of students in all
learning places, more demand for internet bandwidth is required as the internet connection
becomes quite slow. This cause also makes the provided bandwidth shrink which ends up with
ineffective academic resource access. However, most of the universities are dealing with this issue
by buying more bandwidth and upgrading the network infrastructure which is an uneconomical
way to overcome the issue and only resolve short-term desires, so the need to come up with a
solution that optimizes and makes efficient use of available bandwidth is required. Moreover, a
proper design and implementation of an application that manages the bandwidth of the university’s
students based on the technical network features is needed to allow traffic classification, bandwidth
allocation and bandwidth sharing in a way that proofs it can be used as efficient bandwidth
management in learning institutions. Most of the surveys that were done in universities found that
the provided bandwidth does not meet the user’s demands nor can get an ideal usage especially
since internet application such as VOIP and video streaming are gradually becoming essential
services that should d be carried with a high degree of reliability as any other services. To add on
that, network administrators are facing a challenge to handle the utilization of bandwidth without
an effective management strategy that lessens the waste of it. Therefore, developing dynamic
bandwidth management that overcomes the issues encountered in applying the practical use of
internet bandwidth will inevitably come up with the best usage of internet resources hereafter make
the most of the benefits of internet learning (JOSEPH, 2015).

Moreover, most of the universities are experiencing strain to provide their students and
staff with a reliable Internet connection. As internet availability is progressively turning into a vital
asset for them, robust network connectivity to the Internet is never again an extravagance to a
college, in undeniable reality, it is currently a fundamental need. Web availability is essential for
any college to take an interest adequately in the worldwide information society which enhances
the education quality. Indeed, internet network gives a door to vast amounts of date, so it helps
and improves research efforts by both students and lecturers. Even with significant investment in
buying more bandwidth to satisfy the demands, a significant number of colleges are still
considering themselves do not have reliable Internet access. The need for more bandwidth in

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universities is continually increasing as this request is happening due to the increased number of
student, the expanded use of electronic resources for instructing and learning as well as using
websites that have many images, video, and interactive content. Therefore, the necessity for a
coordinated effort to get the most of bandwidth utilization and the development of an efficient
bandwidth management system is gradually significant to confirm excellent service delivery.
However, the nonattendance of a good bandwidth management system will leave the network in
danger of being pitifully hindered as students and lecturers will be kept away from access to a
valuable resource. Indeed, even in circumstances where a significant amount of bandwidth is
provided, monitoring and optimization are still essential as clients will always use all the available
amount of bandwidth. Then, the final system should aid the universities to utilize the bandwidth
as it is a valued organized assist that should be managed and optimized. Controlling the bandwidth
advances the performance of internet access by eliminating needless traffic and making Internet
much more reliable (Sanga, 2013).

The necessity for an effective management system of all the network resources especially
the internet access is important in the universities to ensure that all users are satisfied and have the
best experience. Captive system portal delivers a mean over which the network admin can control
and manage the bandwidth between users of the network by redirecting all of them to the main
page where they are required to log in using their ID. The system is widely used in public places
where users are organized into different layers, and each layer is given its privileges. This sort of
management system is required in most of the leading universities as the growth of some students
and staff and to manage the provided bandwidth regarding student’s usage and staff usage in a way
that high-speed access is always a top priority. Bandwidth is characterized as the amount of
information that is transmitted within a specific time, and it is typically estimated in bits every
second or bytes every second. Bandwidth management is also called as traffic shaping which
implies the selection of a set of policies intended to guarantee the ideal utilization of the system
assets to meet the needs of vital requests before meeting that of the low need applications or
devices. Network management is another term that has a very various scope and uses some tools
to manage, maintain, and guarantee that all users use the network resources based on their
predefined configurations which avoid congestion on the network. If congestion happens on our
network, it will carry out a poor network performance that slows down the output of devices on

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the network. As a result, bandwidth management system is a vital networking concept that is used
to manage the available bandwidth resources for efficient use (Aref, 2017).

Bandwidth management is a nonspecific term that depicts the different techniques and tools
utilized by any organization to empower the most effective utilization of its bandwidth resources.
Effective use implies both the reduction of needless bandwidth use and the delivery of the ideal
service to clients. The networking infrastructure is a standout amongst the most basic resources
for any organization to help and deliver various key services, and its connectivity is critical to
access the internet seamlessly. However, bandwidth management is the fundamental problem that
attracts attention to deliver that seamless stream of data. The bandwidth is the media capacity to
transmit information from source to destination. If the route that transmits data is large, more
packets can be transmitted to the client’s devices. Besides, the bandwidth is in charge of
information exchange speed and usually used in Intranet connections. Larger the bandwidth
allocation is, the connection speed is higher, and thus faster it can upload and download data. The
measurement unit of bandwidth is bits per second (bps), kilobits per second (kbps), megabits per
second (Mbps) and gigabits per second (Gbps). Different internet connections have various
bandwidth standards. Most of the big accessed networks are suffering from not having reliable,
usable internet access despite the large investment, especially during the peak times. Enhancing
the execution of the data delivery is critical if the workplace has a necessary need of accessing to
the internet and be benefited from it. To optimize the performance of any existing network, a
monitoring and controlling mechanism which is known as bandwidth management are highly
required, and it is no longer a luxury to do so. The request for more bandwidth is continuously
increasing, and the general bandwidth usage remains in its rising trend since the majority usage of
heavy bandwidth consuming applications raises and the number of network users is too. Therefore,
the necessity for an efficient bandwidth monitor and utilization management becomes gradually
significant to guarantee first-rate service delivery, and that always should be a priority (Tripathi
and Bharti, 2015).

With the development of the networking field nowadays and increasing the number of
clients as well as rising new technologies like cloud computing and big data, handling traditional
networks becomes very hard. Thus, changing the traditional network architecture becomes
important. Recently, to address this problem, a technology called software-defined network (SDN)

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has been presented that improves the network resources management and make it more
conformable. One of the focuses that must be measured is load balancing issue as network
resources are restricted and need to meet the prerequisites of quality of service QoS. Load
balancing is the act that allocates data traffic among various resources with a specific end goal to
make the most of the efficiency and reliability of the network. Load balancing is built up in the
light of a regular network, hereafter, it is not very efficient. SDN controllers have a worldwide
perspective of the network and can deliver enhanced load balance systems. Load balancing is a
procedure to separate the workload onto numerous assets to keep away from overload on any of
the network resources. It is used mainly for boosting throughput, reducing the response time and
optimizing the traffic as well as improving the overall cluster performance. Load balancing can be
applied to software or as physical equipment that is used to distribute the overall load between
multiple resources of the same type. Load balancing has diverse approaches; these techniques can
be static, dynamic or a mix of both. A reasonable load balancing aids in maximizing scalability
and throughput in addition to minimize the response time and resource consumption which will
avoid overload of any single resource and so forth (Neghabi et al., 2018).

4.1 Review of an existing system:

There are many tools and systems available to manage the bandwidth and balance the
network load, and each one of them has its features and services. Some of them are paid while
others are for free, yet, the free ones have only limited solutions. One of the most appropriate
systems is Antamedia Bandwidth Manager.

Antamedia Bandwidth Manager is an easy setup application that can be used from a small
cafe shop or medium networks or enterprise one with a simple interface (Antamedia, 2018). It is
used to limit the available bandwidth and the download and upload speeds all clients in the network
with a feature of filtering blacklisted websites. It helps network administrators to manage and
restrict internet usage, download and upload, data traffic for all hosts in the network. Also, this
system can work on any version of Windows or Server OS and is simple to integrate and utilize.
Hosts can be constrained with indicated time and quota in each session, daytime when they are
permitted to access and set to log out once they are inactive. The system can carry out statistics,
reports and other features as well as does not require any installation in the client's site. It also has
a DNS web filter feature that blocks certain websites or stops access them. To add on that, it can
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define the upload and download speeds for the whole network or clients individually and enables
new clients to get to the network with pre-defined rates or restrict Internet access only to known
clients to save the bandwidth charges. Antamedia Bandwidth Manager also effectively configure
the speed for all clients in the network or create individual user accounts such as all understudies
have 100 Kb/s while lecturers have 1 Mbit/s. It can simply allocate monthly or daily limits. For
example, a client can get 4 GB in a month, with 200 MB by a day in a restricted way (Antamedia,
2018).

This system also has some more advanced features such as allowing clients to access some
specific websites without and authentication required. Moreover, it can manage the guest users in
the network by specifying a pre-defined download and upload rates, quota and daily limits, etc.
each connected device will be stored in a log file with its IP, MAC, Port number and allocated
time and bandwidth and that secured from unauthorized changes. Below is a summary table of the
similar system (Antamedia, 2018).

Limit Usage Time IP and Port Filtering

Control Access to the Internet URL Tracking

API Integration Limit data transfer

Autologin Sessions MAC Whitelist

Restricted Area Control Host Whitelist

No Client Installation No Client Installation

Manage Upload & Download Limits Manage Upload & Download Limits

Connection Sharing Connection Sharing

High-security level No Client Installation

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 4.2 Screenshots of the similar system:

The following pictures shows how Antamedia bandwidth management system is

assigning users and what is the allocated bandwidth and the duration as well as the rates and
quota.

Figure 1 of the similar system (Antamedia, 2018)

The following picture shows the active users of the system alongside with their IP addresses and
how much bandwidth has been consumed by them and the duration of their session.

Figure 2 of the similar system (Antamedia, 2018)

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5.Aim:

The primary aim of this system is to provide a reliable and fast internet connection that will
expand the functions of the existing network infrastructure and control and manage the network
bandwidth in a way that speed is the first concern.

6.Objectives:

by implementing the high-speed internet access system in APU, users will have a fast and
reliable internet connection. The system that will be developed should have the following
functions.

1. To enhance the existing network infrastructure by developing an efficient bandwidth

management system that allocates high internet speed for users.
2. To develop a system where users will be required to purchase vouchers to get this
service using their APcards or buying them directly from the convince store.
3. To manage users who will be using the service by implementing time allocation for
different access duration.
4. To allow visitors to access the network for a limited time and quota then can use the
service through purchasing the vouchers, yet, different fees may be charged.

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 7. Research Questions:

The research question is one of the fundamentals steps in investigating a current problem,
carrying out research or writing a literature review. In this task, the questions are divided into
two groups, domain questions, and technical questions.

7.1 Domain questions:

1. What are the specific elements and characteristics of utilizing the bandwidth to make it
effective?
2. What are the factors that can enhance the exiting network infrastructure?

7.2 Technical questions:

1. What technologies and classifications are used in the most effective bandwidth systems?
2. What are the required Hardware and software to deploy the system?
3. What are the features that need to be included in the bandwidth management systems to be
efficient?

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 8. Research Design:

Gathering information from different sources is a fundamental technique for building up any
system to assemble enough thoughts and ideas to aid in system development process. There are
many, and various techniques that used to collect data and each one of them has its way and
process. However, Interviews and questionnaire techniques will be used to accomplish this phase.

8.1 Interview:

Interviews can be characterized as a qualitative research method which includes holding

concentrated individual meetings with few respondents to investigate their points of view on a
specific thought, program or problem. Thus, the gathered information by an interview will give a
more profound comprehension of the research area (Research-Methodology, 2016).

There are three different formats of interviews: structured, semi-structured and unstructured.
The one which will be used is the Structured interviews. It comprises of several pre-defined
questions that all interviewees need to reply in. The analysis of the collected data generally will be
straightforward since the interviewer can investigate changed answers given to similar questions.
Moreover, the interviews should not exceed more than 20 minutes and the location is decided by
the interviewee.

As discussed earlier, one of the research questions is the Technical part. Technical questions
and related can be done by conducting interviews with network computer experts and specialists
to ease solving the issue. Specific technical questions will be asked to obtain a thorough
understanding of the technical section of the research and get their opinions on how to develop the
system effectively with high performance. Also, conducting interviews with some professional
programmers is also necessary to determine the agile language to be used and how to come up
with a solution that can be utilized easily.

Therefore, the motivation behind interviewing them is to uncover data like how operative the
existing system is and what are the limitations. Then, a deep analysis will be carried to figure out
the answers and how can be matched with the proposed system.

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 8.2 Questionnaire:

While the first method which is interview used to collect qualitative data, the questionnaire
is used to collect quantitative data. The questionnaire is required to collect a large amount of data
from a big number of people and the acquired results compared and measured easily by giving a
set of question that can be the open or closed type to fill out their answers.

To carry out the questionnaire in this project, a list of question that selected from the
domain and related are given for audience or users of the system as well as anyone interested in
the IT field generally. Lecturers, students, and staffs need to give their opinions about any specific
requirements or features that should be added in developing the system as well as the limitation
that they are facing. The questionnaire will be delivered face to face to them, so if there are any
unclear points or explanation of the questionnaire can be provided. Also, a brief explanation of
the overall system and its features should be told too. Lastly, an analysis of them will be done to
get the most important and needed information.

8.3 Gantt Chart:

Week 1 2 3 4-7 8 9 10-11 12-14

Activity
1.Introduction
2. Problem Background
3. Problem Statement
4. Literature view
5.Prepare the research questions for the
interviews
6.Prepare the research questions for the
questionnaires
7.conduct the interviews
8.Distribute the questionnaires
9.Analyze the collected data

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 9. Personal Reflection:

Generally, each project has some challenges that the proposer will surely face. On the same
line, there are many topics and techniques need to be learned to overcome those challenges simply.
Also, the research methodologies and how to carry out a professional documentation also need to
be considered as they are the basis of deploying any system, yet, the majority are ignoring it and
focusing on the technical parts. Lack of information and finding proper citations and references
that comply with the standards is also another challenge. However, it is the researcher problem
that needs to be overcome. Despite that, critical thinking and getting full understating of the issue
and its reflections should be meticulously done to come up with an effective solution.

Moreover, conducting the interviews with networking experts to answer the

research questions can be a bit hard as the how busy they are, and their time is usually limited, and
they will not be available all time, so the response should be taken carefully. This also goes for
giving the questionnaire to the university’s staff as they have the same condition. Besides that,
there is a possibility where the university does not accept or agree with the proposed system as it
may be considered an optional solution for them. Student’s perspective will not be an issue as they
know the background of the problem.

Developing an efficient and high-performance system that can compete other

vendors might also have its boundaries as well as how to make the system usable for other
universities or enterprise networks. Also, time is another challenge that needs to be planned
carefully to develop the system in the selected time.

However, deploying like these systems will bring several advantages such enhancing the
user’s experience of using the internet, save the cost of buying more bandwidth and monitor who
are connected to the network with their IP addresses and the session details. Beside, an easy way
of getting the payemnt using the APcard system is a main advange which saves time and effort.

Another approach to develop the system is to keep the existing system and enhance it by
buying more bandwidth and dynamically assign the bandwidth based on the student’s faculty or
by mining the network’s data report to know which department need to have a higher bandwidth
than the others instead of implementing the proposed solution in which everyone can get a high
internet speed by only buying the vouchers.

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 10. References:

Aref, A. (2017). Captive system portals. Kuala Lumpur: IKUL.

Apu.edu.my. (2018). (APU). [online] Available at: http://www.apu.edu.my/ [Accessed 23

Apr. 2018].

JOSEPH, K. (2015). INTERNET BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT FOR TERTIARY

INSTITUTIONS. [online] Ijcat.com. Available at:
http://ijcat.com/admin/uploads/ijcatrthesis02132017153139-ijcatrth2001.pdf [Accessed 23 Apr.
2018].

Neghabi, A., Jafari Navimipour, N., Hosseinzadeh, M. and Rezaee, A. (2018). Load
Balancing Mechanisms in the Software Defined Networks: A Systematic and Comprehensive
Review of the Literature. IEEE Access, [online] 6, pp.14159-14178. Available at:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8306964 [Accessed 11 Mar. 2018].

Research-Methodology. (2016). interviews - Research-Methodology. [online] Available

at: https://research-methodology.net/research-methods/qualitative-research/interviews/ [Accessed
23 Apr. 2018].

Sanga, C. (2013). Optimizing Internet Bandwidth in Higher Learning Institutions: A Case

of the Sokoine University of Agriculture. [online] researchgate. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225188688_Optimizing_Internet_Bandwidth_in_Highe
r_Learning_Institutions_A_Case_of_Sokoine_University_of_Agriculture [Accessed 23 Apr.
2018].

Tripathi, A. and Bharti, A. (2015). AN EFFECTIVE BANDWIDTH MANAGEMENT BY

COMPRESSION TECHNIQUE FOR PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT IN A SYSTEM.
[online] Ijsret.org. Available at: http://www.ijsret.org/pdf/121191.pdf [Accessed 23 Apr. 2018].

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