ME503 Telecommunication System EngineeringPage 1 of 9

Assignment One

ME503 - Telecommunication System Engineering

Assessment Details and Submission Guidelines
School / SITE
Course Name / Meng
Unit Code / ME503
Unit Title / Telecommunication System Engineering
Assessment Author / Dr Rajan Kadel
Assessment Type / Individual Assessment
Assessment Title / Understanding the fundamental systems engineering principles and their applications in telecommunication systems.
Unit Learning Outcomes covered in this assessment /
  1. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of system engineering and understand how to make a system more reliable and efficient;
  2. Acquire in-depth technical knowledge of signalling, switching and call routing in Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and population queuing models;
  3. Obtain conceptual knowledge and understanding of system reliability, maintainability, costing and design for affordability and human factors;
  4. Demonstrate an in-depth understanding and knowledge of Digital Microwave Radio Systems;
  5. Design Microwave links, path profile construction and acquire a comprehensive understanding of atmospheric effects on the performance of microwave links ;

Weight / 15%
Total Marks / 60
Word limit / 1200
Release Date / Week 3
Due Date / 27 April 2018, 11:55pm
Submission Guidelines /
  • All work must be submitted on Moodle by the due date along with a completed Assignment Cover Page.
  • The assignment must be in MS Word format, 1.5 spacing, 11-pt Calibri (Body) font and 2 cm margins on all four sides of your page with appropriate section headings.
  • Reference sources must be cited in the text of the report, and listed appropriately at the end in a reference list using APA or IEEE referencing style for School of Business and School of Information Technology and Engineering respectively.

Extension /
  • If an extension of time to submit work is required, a Special Consideration Application must be submitted directly to the School's Administration Officer, in Melbourne on Level 6 or in Sydney on Level 7. You must submit this application three working days prior to the due date of the assignment. Further information is available at:

Academic Misconduct /
  • Academic Misconduct is a serious offence. Depending on the seriousness of the case, penalties can vary from a written warning or zero marks to exclusion from the course or rescinding the degree. Students should make themselves familiar with the full policy and procedure available at:.For further information, please refer to the Academic Integrity Section in your Unit Description.

Assignment Description

The purpose of this assignment is to motivate students to seek to understand the fundamental systems engineering principles and their applications in telecommunication systems. The assignment has two parts: Part A and Part B.

Part A (40 marks)

Telecommunications Problems

Question 1: Reliability of a Parallel System (5x2 marks = 10 marks)

Consider the system shown in Figure 1, which is a model of an active redundant generator at a main exchange of Telecommunication Company.

Input

Figure 1: Active redundant generator pair

a)Assume that the reliability of each subsystem (or component) i has the reliability of Ri.

Calculate the reliability of the overall system RS as a function of Ri.

b)If the reliability of component i at time t is Ri(t)=e-λit, what is the reliability function of the overall system at time t?

c)Evaluate the mean time to failure (MTTF) of the overall system as a function of λi using the reliability function in part (b).

d)Calculate the failure rate of the overall system with exponential reliability. Hint use binomial distribution.

e)What is the mean time before failure (MTBF) of the above system?

Question 2 Digital Microwave Radio System (4x2.5 Marks = 10 marks)

A point-to-point digital microwave radio system is required by a bank to link the LANs of two of its branches at 2.048 Mbps transmission speed. The handbook delivered by the manufacturer has dimensioned the entire radio terminal with the reliability:

MTBF (mean time between failures): 100,000 hours

MTTR (mean time to repair): 2 hours (equipment only)

The radio path availability was calculated for ???=10-8 and found to be 99.999% for the average worst case. The system configuration is shown in Figure 1.

a)Calculate the overall system availability

b)Draw the reliability diagram of the system

c)How would you increase the availability of the system required by the bank?

d)The useful life of the equipment shown in Figure 2 is 15 years. Calculate the reliability of the one radio terminal at the end of it life.

Figure 2: Microwave system

Question 3 High Seed Connectivity(10 marks)

Access to the Internet has arguably become an essential service. However, the quality of the service varies widely in Australia. Multiple governments had promised (and begun to deliver) a high-speed connectivity throughout Australia via the NBN. Discuss and briefly explain the NBN technology. The discussion must be based on research findings, e.g. reference must be made of at least two journals.

Question 4 Functions of a Telecommunication Network(5 + 5 = 10 marks)

The functions of a telecommunication network, whether it is wired or wireless, are specified by the size of its coverage area and traffic carrying capacity. On the other hand, the performance of the network is specified by its quality of service.

a)What limits the size of the coverage area of a telephone exchange?

b)What limits the traffic carrying capacity of a telephone exchange?

Marking Rubric for Telecommunications Problems

Grade
Mark / HD
80%+ / D
70%-79% / CR
60%-69% / P
50%-59% / Fail
< 50%
Excellent / Very Good / Good / Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory
Evaluation / Logic is clear and easy to follow with strong arguments / Consistency logical and convincing / Mostly consistent and convincing / Adequate cohesion and conviction / Argument is confused and disjointed
Sophistication and effectivity / The presented solution demonstrated an extreme degree of sophistication and effective. / The presented solution demonstrated a high degree of sophistication and effective. / The presented solution demonstrated an average degree of sophistication and effective. / The presented solution demonstrated a low degree of sophistication and effective. / The presented solution demonstrated a poor degree of sophistication and effective.
Explanation / All elements are present and well integrated. / Components present with good cohesion / Components present and mostly well integrated / Most components present / Lacks structure.
Reference style / Clear styles with excellent source of references. / Clear referencing/ style / Generally good referencing/style / Unclear referencing/style / Lacks consistency with many errors
Report structure and report presentation / Proper writing. Professionally presented / Properly written, with some minor deficiencies / Mostly good, but some structure or presentation problems / Acceptable presentation / Poor structure, careless presentation

Part B(20 marks)

Reflective Journal

Every student has to watch all the weekly YouTube videos relating to the topic for the week and write reflective journal weekly from week one (1) to five (5).

The purpose of this assignment is to identify new learning, self-realization and plan for improvement. Students will have an opportunity to explore the use of the online tools (eg: online blogs) to record and reflect on their learning in different ways. Students are required to:

  • record the development of their ideas or insights
  • reflect upon the unit content and personal experiences
  • analyse their own learning and self-development
  • plan to improve on identified strengths and weaknesses and

Students are required to explore situations from a personal perspective, and/or based on previous learning/industry experience. They may use the DEEP method to reflective writing. The four steps in this method are:

  • D - Describe experience (past or present)
  • E - Explore or consolidate new learning
  • E - Evaluate/analyse/self reaction
  • P - Plan future learning

Description
Week No
Describe
Explore
Evaluate
Plan

Mark allocations:

Section to be included in the report / Description of the section / Marks
Part A: Reflective journal for five weeks (4*5=20 Marks)
Weekly reflective journal / Overall quality of reflective journal / 1
Technical relevance / Depth (technical) of the review presented to the subject matter. / 2
Critical reflection / Does the report submitted by the student demonstrate reflection? / 1
Plagiarism / Did the student do any of these without reference and reflection?
-Copy from other student(s)
-Copy from Internet source/textbook
-Copy from other sources / -4

Marking criteria for Reflective Journal

MARKING CRITERIA / Very good / Good / Average / Poor / Very poor
Description / Clear & comprehensive description of an event/issue in a professional matter / Clear description of an event/issue in a professional matter with minimal elaboration of a comprehensive nature / Includes description of events, and a little further consideration behind the eventsand a little further consideration behind the events / Only includes mere descriptions of theoretical knowledge; unclear reflection is demonstrated beyond the descriptions / Unclear or disjoint description of the event; no reflection is demonstrated
Explore / Writing is well-focused; arguments or perspectives are precisely defined and explained / Arguments or perspectives are clearly stated; organized flow in writing but not deep enough to be very insightful / Arguments or perspectives are vaguely mentioned; the writing lacked an organized flow and the ideas were hard to follow / Unclear arguments or perspectives; the writing lacks the original perspectives / Do not show any original thinking or perspectives; chaotic in organization and presentation of ideas
Evaluate / Critical analysis and evaluation of the event; writing demonstrated objectified thinking; evidence of critical analysis and integration of relevant literature / Minimal analysis of the event or issue;
Contemplation of the event or issue for the purpose of deeper understanding;
Integration of evidence based literature and other resources to inform practice / Superficial analysis of the event or issue; minimal integration of theory and evidence based literature and other resources / basic analysis
and/or evaluation of the event;
does not employ any critical thinking approach. / fails to analyse or evaluate adequately; cannot
apply critical thinking
approaches
Plan / Makes meaning of the experience and its implication of the future practice / Demonstrates plan with a view to improving practice / Development gained from the learning process is hardly observed / Make entries are mere descriptions of events rather than showing a plan for the future learning / Demonstrates no plans for future learning

The End

Lasted Updated: March, 2018