Course Policy and Outline (Syllabus):
Telecommunications Networking I (Winter 2000-2001)
Instructor: S.D. Personick (SDP):, Commonwealth 7-420
TA: Ivan Bradaric
Course Web Site:
Prerequisites: None, other than an interest in learning about the technical aspects of modern telecommunications networking, and the ability to quickly grasp new technical concepts. Normal, everyday experience using telecommunications and computer communications applications.
Welcome to Telecommunications Networking I. This is the first quarter of a two-quarter sequence covering the fundamentals of modern telecommunications networks, systems, technologies, and their associated applications. This quarter, we will cover the following traditional/basic telecommunications networking topic areas:
- Capturing and representing information within a “signal” that can be stored or communicated over distance. Quantifying the number of bits needed to represent information in digital form
- Measures of quality of communication (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio and bit-error-rate)
- Wire-pair and coaxial cable communication links and systems
- Optical fiber communication links and systems
- Wireless communication links
- Circuit switching and circuit-switched telecommunications networks
Next quarter we will cover “hot” topics and emerging areas in telecommunications networking as outlined below, and described in more detail in the course policy and outline for Telecommunications Networking II.
A detailed schedule of lectures is provided below.
Our objectives are as follows:
- To review, and understand how audio, images, and video are abstractly represented; and to understand how these information types can be captured and placed within analog and digital signals for storage, and for communication over distance. To be able to calculate the number of bits required to represent various types of audio, images/graphics, and video information, with varying degrees of objective fidelity and subjective perceived quality; including the use of compression coding.
- To review and understand the concepts and mathematical approaches used to quantitatively describe the accuracy with which information, or a signal representing information, is: captured, converted to digital form, communicated over distance, and/or re-converted to analog form in communications applications. To be able to calculate the effects of noise, interference, quantization, and distortion on information that passes through communication systems.
- To review and understand the capabilities and limitations of wire-pair and coaxial cable transmission systems. To understand the concepts and the implications of: additive thermal noise, frequency-dependent loss, equalization, and crosstalk. To understand what an “eye diagram” is. To be able to calculate the transmission distances that can be achieved with wire pair and coaxial cable media as a function of the data rate, the cable characteristics, and the transmitter and receiver characteristics.
- To review and understand the capabilities and limitations of optical fiber transmission systems. To understand the concepts and the implications of: multimode and single mode fiber, loss, pulse spreading (“dispersion”), and noise in optical fiber system receivers. To be able to calculate the transmission distances that can be achieved with optical fiber media as a function of the data rate, the fiber characteristics, and the source and receiver characteristics.
- To review and understand the capabilities and limitations of wireless communication systems. To understand the concepts and the implications of: antenna radiation patterns, noise sources in wireless systems, and wireless system receiver sensitivity. To be able to calculate the transmission distances that can be achieved with wireless systems as a function of the transmitter and receiver antenna sizes, the radiated power level, and the receiver equivalent noise temperature.
- To understand the concepts of circuit switching, and the various approaches to designing and implementing circuit switches and circuit-switched networks, including: alternative switching matrix designs, blocking, traffic engineering, time-space-time switching, and “intelligent networks”.
Resources:
The instructor and the teaching assistant are available to you as resources. We will be glad to help you succeed. Feel free to make an appointment using E-mail (preferred method), or just stop by. We can help you with: concepts you are having difficulty with; questions you have; and we can suggest references for further study. If you have a question, your classmates may have the same question. Asking questions helps us to anticipate problems that your fellow students may be having.
The bookstore will have a complete set of notes for this course. All of the slides used in lectures will be posted on the course Web site, and these may include some additional or modified slides (vs. the complete set in the bookstore). Slides will generally be posted in advance of the lectures. Notes may be brought to exams for reference.
Suggested reading materials will be posted on the Web site; and additional, suggested reading materials will be provided, on request, by the instructor.
Doing the homework will not only provide you with credit toward your final grade, but will also provide you with practice in applying what has been presented in the lectures. Doing the homework may help you identify concepts that you don’t yet understand.
Policies:
Attendance-
Students are expected to attend all scheduled lectures and homework review sessions. Occasional absences are understandable. Excessive absences may result in a grade of incomplete. Dependence upon posted course notes in lieu of attendance is not recommended. Attendance will be taken during most lectures and homework review sessions. Registered students who miss more than three (3) lectures and/or homework review sessions will have 3.33 points deducted from their “raw score” in the course (see below) for each absence in excess of three (3).(All absences are equivalent…there are no “excused” absences)
Homework-
Each homework assignment will be graded on a scale of 0-5. Homework will generally be assigned at least one week prior to the corresponding homework review session. Homework must be submitted to the course TA (in paper form, or using electronic mail) prior to the beginning of the homework review session in which the solutions to that homework will be discussed. Homework handed in late will receive no credit. (No exceptions)
Grading-
Grading will be based on the following algorithm:
Raw Score =0.30 homework grade + 0.25 midterm exam grade + 0.30 final exam grade + 0.15 term paper grade
The homework grade will be 100 x total homework credits received (0 - 5 for each homework) / ( 5 x total number of homework assignments)
Midterm and final exams will be “open book” (notes ok)
Students achieving a raw score of 90 or greater, based on the above formula, will receive a grade of A. Students achieving a raw score of between 80-89 will receive a grade of B. Students achieving a raw score of between 70-79 will receive a grade of C. Students who receive a raw score of between 50-69 will receive a grade of D. Students receiving a raw score of less than 50 will receive a failing grade. The instructor reserves the option of moving the cutoff between C and B to 75; and of moving the cutoff between D and C to 60 or 65. In no case will a student, whose raw score is below 50, receive a passing grade.
Students may work together on homework problems; but depending upon others to solve your homework problems is likely to negatively impact on your learning and your exam scores.
Cheating on exams, of any form, is prohibited.
Term paper:
You are working in the R&D Department of a telecommunications and networking
equipment manufacturing firm. Each morning, your boss drops by to say hello, and
to ask you what you are going to do that day that is worth the $50,000 a year salary that the company is paying you. This morning, your boss asked you to provide a technology assessment report on a "new" technology that a competitor has just announced. The announcement implies that this new technology is a breakthrough. You job is to do some library research, to make some telephone calls, and to integrate and distill all the information you can gather into a report that addresses the following questions:
1. Is this really a new technology, or just some old stuff being "dusted off" to
impress the stock analysts?
2. What are the real implications of this technology...looking beyond the hype of the press release? I.e., what impact will it likely have on the cost and/or performance of products or system applications that it can be applied to?
3. Is this technology ready to be incorporated into real products and system applications, or is it just a research laboratory result that is years from being ready to be applied to real products and system applications?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this technology, vs. existing, alternative technologies?
Term paper assignment: Pick a "new" technology that has been announced in the last 12 months, and produce a technology assessment report that addresses the questions listed above. Your task is to (first) use what you have learned at Drexel, on your coop assignments, etc., to figure out what specific questions you need to ask about this new
technology...and then to find answers to those questions.
Example: A cable manufacturer announces a new type of copper alloy "monster" cable that can be used to connect audio speakers to an amplifier. According to the announcement, this breakthrough technology significantly improves the quality of the sound produced by any audio system.
The first question that would come to my mind (SDP) is: what, if anything, can this "monster" cable do to affect the current that flows through it at audio frequencies...vs. standard 16 gauge speaker wire? If, after analyzing this, I conclude that the answer is “nothing”, then my next question would be: how can it affect the sound produced by the speakers?
A 1-page proposal for your topic will be due to your “writing intensive” tutor (to be assigned to you) at the end of week 4. This one-page proposal should identify the “new” technology you are going to assess, it should give some preliminary indication of what you think the questions are that you should be asking about this particular technology, and it should outline the approach you plan to use to perform your assessment. I.e., it should identify the sources of information you expect to draw upon. Based on feedback, you may wish to submit an revised version of your one-page proposal. Three points (out of a possible 15 points) will be deducted from the score of any student who does not submit a substantive proposal by the end of week 4.
The rough draft of your term paper will be due to your writing intensive tutor by the end of week 7.
The final version will be due to SDP by the end of week 10.
The end of a week is defined as Friday, 22:00 UTC. When you hand in the final version, you must give SDP: your draft, the “peer edit sheet” that your tutor will give you, and the final version to be graded.
Format: Up to 5 pages (longer papers are not necessarily better, because your boss gets grumpy when she reads long papers that could have been more succinct), Microsoft Word format, font size:12, double-spaced. Your paper should include a listing of all references and other sources of information (i.e., people who provided you with information). It should answer the four (4) questions given above. Answering these questions solely on the basis of the announcement (press release) of the new technology is useless (i.e., if that is all you are going to do, you might as well just hand your boss a copy of the announcement to read). You can (and should) ask for help, but the technical content of the report must represent your own opinions based on the information you have gathered. It is a bad idea to put down any opinions that you don’t thoroughly understand.
Course outline:
Telecommunication Networking I-II
Summary
Telecommunications Networking I
Overview---1 hour
Representing Information as a Signal ---2 hours
Quantifying the Performance of Communication Systems ---3 hours
Point-to-Point Telecommunications Links: Wire Pairs, Coaxial Cable, Fiber, Wireless --- 10 hours
Circuit Switching, and Circuit-Switched Telecommunication Networks --- 2 hours
Telecommunications Networking II
Wireless Systems and Networks (cellular/ PCS, direct broadcast satellite, 2-way satellite) --- 5 hours
Local Area Networks (packet switching, the protocol stack, wireline and wireless LANs) --- 5 hours
Internet (IP, TCP, the Domain Name System, mobile IP, IPv6, RSVP) --- 5 hours
Next generation systems, networks, issues, and applications (broadband access,
3rd generation wireless, Internet telephony, information assurance)--- 3 hours
Telecommunications Networking I
1. Overview of Telecommunications Networking I&II
- Representing analog information (voice, audio, images/graphics, video, compression coding)
- Continuation of 2
- Noise, Interference, and Distortion; Signal-to-Noise Ratio and Bit Error Rate
- Continuation of 4
- Continuation of 5
- Point-to-point wire-pair and coaxial cable systems: transmitters, receivers, amplifiers, regenerators, sources of noise, frequency-dependent loss, equalization, crosstalk, eye-diagrams, calculation of link performance vs. bit rate
- Continuation of 7
- Continuation of 8
- Continuation of 9
- Fiber Optics: multimode and single mode fibers, loss, modal and chromatic dispersion, transmitters/optical emitters (LEDs and lasers), receivers/optical detectors, calculation of link performance vs. bit rate
- Continuation of 11
- Continuation of 12
- Wireless: Antenna radiation patterns vs size and design, sources of noise in wireless links, wireless receivers, link loss budget calculations for wireless links
- Continuation of 14
- Continuation of 15
- Circuit Switching and Circuit-Switched Networks (switching fabric design alternatives, blocking and traffic engineering, intelligent networks)
- Continuation of 17