Comp 346/446 - Intro to Telecommunications

TTh 6:00-9:10, LT-412 (linux lab)

Text: Data and Computer Communications, William Stallings, Eighth Edition (Seventh is ok), Prentice-Hall, 2007, ISBN-10: 0132433109, ISBN-13: 978-0132433105.

General course groundrules are here. Exams will count for between 70% to 80% of your grade, with homework and programs making up the The final will be Thursday, June 28, at our usual class time.

Spring 2025:
I am generally in my office on Mondays from 10:00 to noon, and from 1:45 to 3:45.
Sometimes I have meetings or come in late, so check first.
I am also available other times via Zoom, by appointment. Contact me via email for the Zoom meeting ID.

The midterm study guide is here. Answers are available here.

You will be provided with the following formula sheet during the exam.

Course notes

Programming assignments

Assignment 2: echo and bandpass filter (with correction!)

Extra-credit assignment, definitely optional

Java files

• convolution.java, starter file for convolutions in Assignment 2.
• WavReader.java, my current "library" (prev versions: 2 and 1)
• reader.java: converts a wav file to ascii
• stats.java: prints some wav-file statistics
• play.java: plays a sound file; taken from Barnes & Kolling

Here is my brief doco on spread spectrum, for those missing the 7th edition's chapter 9 on this.

More documentation

• A good exposition of the Strowger switch
• Notes on CSMA by Jeff Andrews
• ATM Forum Traffic Management document, contains definition of GCRA (section 4), but tends to refer to things before they are defined.
• Here's a Lily Tomlin bit on what life was like under the telephone-company monopoly.
• RFC 2205, the defining document for RSVP.

Course Outline:

What is telecommunications? How is it different from data communications?
Characteristics of voice traffic: minimal delay, even smaller variation in delay, reservations
POTS; circuit switching
Connecting exchanges
Long lines, physical transmission issues
Digitization; encoding of voice
TDM, FDM (note that there are some subtle encoding issues)
Basics of packet switching
Basics of routing
Brief review of TCP/IP

Packet switching again
ATM
Congestion management
SONET, optical fiber
Frame Relay, ISDN
Cellular phones

Chapters in book to be read are listed in parenthesis.

1. Introduction, OSI Model, Protocols and Architecture (Ch. 1,Ch. 2)