Master-/Bachelor Thesis

Title

Submitted by:
First examiner:
Second examiner:
Date of start:
Date of submission:

Statement

I confirm that I have written this thesis on my own. No other sources were used except those referenced. Content which is taken literally or analogously from published or unpublished sources is identified as such. The drawings or figures of this work have been created by myself or are provided with an appropriate reference. This work has not been submitted in the same or similar form or to any other examination board.

_______________________________

Date, Signature of the Student

Content

1	Introduction	4

2	Theoretical Background	5

2.1	Theoretical Background	5

2.1.1	Heading	5

2.2	Figures	5

2.2.1	Self-created Figures/Drawings	6

2.2.2	Screenshots	6

2.3	Tables	6

2.4	Tips for Numbering of Figures and Tables	7

2.5	Mathematical Formulas	8

2.6	Source Code	8

2.7	The Size of Bachelor and Master Thesis	8

2.8	Literature and References	8

3	Requirements Analysis	11

3.1	General Objectives	11

3.2	Clarifying the Requirements	11

3.3	Time frames	12

3.4	Target state / Target Objectives	12

3.5	Use Cases for the Prototype	13

4	Realisation / Implementation	15

5	Summary and Perspectives	16

6	Abbreviations	17

7	References	18

8	Appendix	19

Introduction

Welcome to your thesis in the Laboratory for Telecommunications Networks of Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences! This Word document contains some information for your thesis and also serves as a template for dealing with headlines and highlights, the titling of images and tables as well as for the use of abbreviations and references.

Scientific texts are basically never written in first person ("I have chosen the program XY ...", "In my thesis ..."). Better is: "The program XY has been chosen...", "In this thesis ..." etc.

The use of the imperative or the second person ("Push the button ...") is limited to specific instructions in the chapter Realisation.

The names of the main chapters in the table of contents are always the same (see table of contents). The chapters are named as followed:

1.	Introduction

2.	Theoretical Background

3.	Requirements Analysis

4.	Realisation

5.	Summary and Future Perspectives

6.	Abbreviations

7.	References

Note: This paragraph is followed by a section change, which should not be deleted. It allows for a clean separation of chapters. More information about section breaks below. Press <CTRL>+<SHIFT>+<PLUS> to show or hide invisible control characters and thus the section break.

Theoretical Background

Each chapter (= chapter heading of the first order) starts on a new page. Each chapter begins with a new number (e.g. 2 Theoretical Background). All others are sections (e.g. 2.1 or 2.1.1).

The theoretical background and the required technologies are content of this chapter. It is not allowed that the theoretical background of a topic is copied-and- pasted from other sources. Only the parts that are relevant for this work, have been specially adapted by the student and are therefore not found in other sources in this form, are described in this chapter. For a general description of a technology it is sufficient to cite the relevant source.

Note: On the View tab, under Show/Hide, click Navigation Pane. The structure of your document is then displayed on the left-hand side. Very helpful for jumping quickly from heading to heading in the document.

Theoretical Background

Heading

Heading third order

Please use only headlines up to the third order. Therefore, only headlines up to third level are represented in the table of contents. It is recommended to use the default Word formats for headers. This will simplify the creation of the table of contents enormously.

This is standard text. Highlighting can be made bold, italics or alternatively, by underlining. However, accentua-tions should generally be used sparingly. Standard text has to be written in justified print, font Times, font size 10.

Font: (Default) Times, Justified

Line spacing: At least 12 pt, Space

After: 7 pt, Widow/Orphan control

Figures

A figure is always provided with a caption underneath with a short but precise description of the figure. The caption is written in italics and begins with the word “Figure”, followed by a number. This is created based on the number of the current main chapter heading and, separated by a dot, a sequential number in the current main chapter (see caption to Figure 2.1).

Each figure must be mentioned and explained in the text. The figure must be mentioned first in the text above the picture.

This is how you label an image:

click on the right side of the picture and go to "Insert Caption“.

Click on OK.

Label your image.

Note: Make sure that the content of the image is always clearly visible. Blurring and too small details should be avoided.

Figure 2.1: Insert a Caption

Self-created Figures/Drawings

It is recommended to create figures and drawings for the thesis with MS PowerPoint or MS Visio. Store the figures created by PowerPoint or Visio in the appropriate format and in a safe place! Normally, do not copy and paste figures only e.g. to describe a software installation procedure with screenshots. Figures just copied from other publications are not accepted.

Screenshots

Creating screenshots in Windows is pretty simple. With the key combination <Alt> + <Print> the active window can be captured. Thereafter, the image is available in the clipboard and can be added, edited and stored in any conventional image editing programs (e.g. Paint). Afterwards the picture can be inserted into Word.

In some cases, it may be useful to capture the contents of the entire screen (not just a single window). Press the <Print> key and then paste the image into an image editing program.

Advantageously also the Snipping Tool could be used.

Figure 2.2: Snipping Tool

Tables

Unlike figures, tables have no captions but a headline. The numbering of tables is performed according to the same principle as the numbering of figures. However, the numbering of figures and tables are independent of one another. There can be a Figure 2.1 as well as a Table 2.1 (see headline of Table 2.1).

Table 2.1: General Structure of a Master or Bachelor thesis

Chapter number	Chapter name
1	Scope of work
2	Theoretical background
3	Requirement analysis
4	Realisation
5	Summary and future prospective
6	Abbreviations
7	References

How to label a table:

mark the complete table, right click and go to "Insert Caption“.

click on OK.

Label your table.

Bild 2.3: Table Caption

Tips for Numbering of Figures and Tables

Word provides functionality for the automatic numbering of figures and tables. This can avoid issues with the numbering of figures and tables, which are subsequently inserted into the current text or removed from the cur-rent text. It is also possible to use table numbers or figure numbers in the text as a link. In this case, the number-ing of figures or tables changes automatically when changing the number of captions or the table heading. Use the Word Help for more information.

Mathematical Formulas

You can even create formulas with Word. With <Alt> + <Shift> + <*> you call the formula editor.

Source Code

Source texts should always be well formatted. Consider line breaks, indents and readability of the source code. Sometimes it can also be helpful to number the lines to make the reference in the text easier.

1	package java.beans;
2
3	/**
4	* A "PropertyChange" event gets fired whenever a bean changes a "bound"
5	* property. You can register a PropertyChangeListener with a source
6	* bean so as to be notified of any bound property updates.
7	*/
8
9	public interface PropertyChangeListener extends java.util.EventListener {
10
11	/**
12	* This method gets called when a bound property is changed.
13	* @param evt A PropertyChangeEvent object describing the event source
14	* and the property that has changed.
15	*/
16
17	void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent evt);
18
19	}

The Size of Bachelor and Master Thesis

The required minimum size of a thesis depends on the type of the thesis. A bachelor thesis should target a mini-mum size of 40 pages and a master thesis a minimum size of 80 pages, each without appendix.

Literature and References

For the references in bachelor or master theses the so-called IEEE style is used [1].

Requirements Analysis

The requirement analysis asks for the “what”, not for the “how”!

General Objectives

What is to be investigated / achieved?

General structure of the system

Initial state (e.g. Architecture overview)

Previous work(s)

Description of the work environment

Existing hardware and software infrastructure, general conditions

…

Example:

In this work, a software has to be developed that enables the copying of files from a client to a server and vice versa. The software shall therefore consist of a client component and a server component. With the client component, the files are uploaded, downloaded and manipulated on the server. The server component offers a web interface to allow the administrator a remote configuration of the server. The server shall support a multi-client communication.

Clarifying the Requirements

Through discussions with supervisors and literature research from books, papers – IEEE (www.ieee.org), ACM (http://dl.acm.org/), access via FRA-UAS Intranet – as well as standardisation organisations – ETSI (http://www.etsi.org/), ITU-T (http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Pages/default.aspx), 3GPP (http://www.3gpp.org/), IETF (www.ietf.org) – the requirements are to be defined (Trick and Weber 2015).

Requirements for the project:

Clarification of the main functionality

Narrowing the problem area

Derivation of functional requirements

Derivation of non-functional requirements

Example:

The developed software shall allow storing files to the server in the Internet. Furthermore, it shall be possible to copy files from the client to the server and vice versa, to delete files, and to rename files. The files should be stored on the server in the Internet. The software consists of a client software on the computer of the user and a server software on the server in the Internet.

The access to the files should be allowed with a user name and password combination. Anyone who knows this username and password, can access the files on the server with the client software, even from another computer.

The user manages his files with a graphical user interface that supports all the addressed functionalities. With this software, it shall also be possible to exchange files with other servers in the Internet.

The server shall support to store files from multiple users. The administrator of the server shall have the possibil-ity to configure the server with a web interface. He can manage the users and the passwords on the server, can define the files which can be accessed by a user, the number of files and the size of the files which can be copied by a specific user.

Time frames

In the section time frames, the timetable including the start and end time and the milestones of work are pre-sented. One week after the start of work, the requirements analysis must be submitted to the supervisor. Four weeks (three weeks for bachelor) before the final deadline, a draft has to be submitted. Two weeks before the deadline, the complete thesis draft must be submitted. These dates must also be part of the requirements analysis.

Example:

Milestones:

10.05.2015 to 17.05.2015:	Analysis of the requirements
17.05.2015:	Submission of the requirements analysis
10.05.2015 to 10.06.2015:	Literature review and learning the theoretical background
10.05.2015 to 27.07.2015:	Writing up the thesis and the documentation
11.06.2015 to 30.06.2015:	Elaborating of the concept and planning of the prototype
11.06.2015 to 10.08.2015:	Implementation of the prototype
27.07.2015:	Submission of the Thesis draft to supervisor
27.07.2015 to 10.08.2015:	Revise the thesis based on the proposals from the supervisor
10.08.2015:	Submitting the Thesis to the examination office

Target state / Target Objectives

Example

For the implementation of the prototype, the final state shown in Figure 3.1 is expected. A computer on the Internet is provided with the server component of the developed prototype and a computer in the lab network with the client component. By using the graphical user interface, the user of the client computer can copy files from the client computer to the server and vice versa. The server shall be multi-client capable but should provide only the files owned by the user to this user. For security reasons, the client must authenticate to the server be-fore it can download, upload and manipulate files.

With the help of the graphical user interface on the client, the uploaded files can be stored on the server, deleted, renamed, downloaded and managed. The administrator of the server shall have the possibility to configure the server via a web interface. He can manage the users and the passwords on the server, defines the files that can be accessed by a user, the number of files and the size of the files which can be copied by a specific user.

Figure 3.1: Target System in an Overview

Use Cases for the Prototype

Investigated and prototypically implemented cases?

Example:

For a demonstration of the functionality, a prototype of the client software and a prototype of the server software has to be implemented.

The prototype of the server software has the ability to connect with multiple clients.

With the help of the client software a user can connect to the server using user name and password.

…

The client software has a graphical interface with the functionality to:

Log on to the server

Log out of the server

Stopping the Client software

Manage multiple users

Managing multiple server profiles for each user

Selecting files on the local file system for upload or manipulation

Selecting files on the server for download or manipulation

Rename, delete and copy files on the local file system

Rename, delete and copy files on the server

Upload the selected files to the server

Download the selected files from the server

Cancel the upload and download process

Selecting / creating the destination directory on the server

Selecting / creating the destination directory on the client

…

The server software with the Web Interface has the functionality to:

Authenticating the user

Establishing multiple connections simultaneously with the clients

Manage multiple users with its files via the web interface

Managing the directory structure of each user

Web-based configuration of the server

Secure transfer of files

Repeat the file transfer on errors

…

Realisation / Implementation

In the chapter Realisation the „how“ is described, how the project is realised. The source code of the implemen-tation should not be printed into this chapter. It is possible to use and describe relevant code snippets and self-created flow diagrams, sequence diagrams or similar.

Summary and Perspectives

New Ideas

To take the discussion further

Criticism of one´s own work

Why it went wrong?

Example:

The developed prototype confirmed the concept of the software for exchanging files between server and client computers. File and user management on the server has been solved with a MySQL database. The server component has a web interface. With this web interface, the server administrator can configure the server, can manage files and can manage the authorized user. The client computer uses a graphical user interface that enables the user to log on to the server and upload and download files. To transfer the files between the computers, file transfer protocol (FTP) was used.

Multiple users can simultaneously log on to the server component. Each user only sees the files uploaded by him. Each user must be authenticated with his user name and password in order to get access to his files.

The architecture can be extended with an option for a simultaneous upload of multiple files in order to exploit the available bandwidth optimally. In order to exchange files also between server and smartphone, a corresponding smartphone app should be created as a supplement for the client component.

…

Abbreviations

0
…
3
3GPP	Third Generation Partnership Project
…
A
…
G
GSM	Global System for Mobile communications
GUI	Graphical User Interface
GW	Gateway
H
HSS	Home Subscriber Server
HTML	Hypertext Mark-up Language
HTTP	Hypertext Transfer Protocol
…
Z
…

A list of abbreviations contains only subject-specific abbreviations that are not listed in the Spelling Dictionary or are in general use.

The abbreviations are listed here in an invisible table without frames.

References

IEEE Editorial Style Manual. Accessed: Apr. 22, 2024. [Online.] Available: https://journals.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/create-your-ieee-journal-article/create-the-text-of-your-article/ieee-editorial-style-manual/

Appendix

Attached CD/DVD content