There are two parts to this assignment, i.e. part A and part B.

Write a review article for the following topics depending on the last digit of your ID: select Topic 1 if it ends in an odd number or Topic 2 if it ends in an even number. 90 marks

Presentation 10 marks

Part A description:

Topic 1 - Significance of VPN for contemporary organisations that have branches nationally and internationally

A virtual private network uses a public networks infrastructure to make the connections among geographically dispersed nodes, instead of using cables owned or leased exclusively for one single networks use, eg using of network that as is typical for a wide area network (WAN). To the user, a VPN looks like a private network, even though it shares the network with other users. There are several uses for a VPN. Analyse and discuss the significance of VPN for these contemporary organisations. List the concerns of contemporary organizations in communicating among their employees and clients, and comment if VPN can address their concerns. Discuss how VPN can be advantageous for securing computer communications. Address the issue of VPN security in details as described in section 3.

Topic 2 VPN Replacement Technologies

Legacy VPNs has had some major drawbacks and problems such as the ones described below. There have been attempts to resolve the issues, and some technologies are being deployed as alternatives, e.g. Microsoft DirectAccess, SoftEther VPN etc. List the limitations/problems existed in legacy VPNs and review alternative options to resolve and overcome the problems of legacy VPNs. Address the issue of VPN security in details as described in section 3.

Common Part VPN Security Issues

Fundamentally, VPN is known as being secure and safe; however, there are still many issues with regards to security aspects. A simple Google search of VPN security displays 135 million results. Search the internet for relevant articles/papers, and compare and analyze what these security issues are and what solutions they propose.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2943472/vpn-users-beware-you-may-not-be-as-safe-as-you-think-you-are.html

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/commercial-vpn-huge-security-flaws/

https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/89017/what-are-security-risks-of-connecting-to-my-home-vpn-from-my-work

https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/vpns/remote-access-vpn-security-concerns-policy-enforcement-881

Instructions:

Prepare your article as below

Go to the IEEE website and download the WORD template for the format. https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/author_templates.html

Another link for the template: https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/journmag/ieee_tj_template_17.pdf

Read and familiarize yourself with the instructions carefully.

Prepare a paper using the IEEE format and the example attached. Follow the template if there are any confusions. Also, refer to the link below to have ideas how to start (see section 6). (https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/author_guide_interactive.pdf)

Complete the assignment (minimum 5 and maximum 8 pages) including all the sections below. The number of words will be counted thoroughly and you must keep the minimum number of words to avoid any penalties.

Title (maximum 15 words)

Abstract (200 250 words)

Introduction (500 1000 words)

Literature Review (500 1000 words)

Main body (1000 1500 words)

Conclusion (200 300 words)

Future Works (150 300 words)

References (minimum 10 references)

The article must be a Review^[1] article including at least 5 references and not more than 25.

Strictly follow the IEEE reference format for in-body citations and the references section.

See the attached files for guidance on how to prepare a review paper. You can also find thorough instructions from IEEE and the Internet.

Contents must include:

History and background of the topic

What are the challenges and drawbacks, what solutions and workouts they found

Possible options (solutions) and future research areas proposed

Scopes of topic, progress of developments such as requirements, benchmarking, purposes & objectives, stakeholders, owners, roles and responsibilities where applicable.

Flowchart

Include a minimum of two (2) figures to show the overall concept and summarized overview of the topic from the review of minimum 10 15 (but not limited to) papers.

Include a couple of tables to summarize the result of findings

How each organization approaches, initiates, develops procedures and ownerships, and what results they got, and how it affected their businesses.

What you conclude in terms of the topic/solutions to implement in an organization. Consider other aspects to include for a good review paper.

[1] See http://www.editage.com/insights/6-article-types-that-journals-publish-a-guide-for-early-career-researchers