TCOM 500  Modern Telecommunications Section 002 Spring 2008

 

Syllabus    revised 10 Dec 2007

Logistics

Day‑time:      Thursday, 7:20-10:00 p.m.

Location:       Fairfax Campus
Bldg/Room - TBD.

Instructor:
Roger Wilson
Email:      rwilson9@gmu.edu  
Office hours:     TBD
Phone: 703-967-7337

Teaching Assistant:
TBD

Course Description

            From http://www.gmu.edu/catalog/courses/tcom.html

Student Abilities

No prior knowledge of telecommunications is required for this course.

This course requires the abilities to read, comprehend and write clearly and concisely, at a professional level.  Homework assignments and exams will include short answers (to be written in the student's own words, not quoted verbatim from the textbook, lecture slides or other sources) and essays (wherein the student demonstrates understanding of and ability to apply the concepts learned in class).

This course also includes a significant amount of work using mathematical formulae.  Students should be proficient with algebra (including the ability to manipulate a formula depending on the known data), exponents and logarithms, without the use of a calculator or computer.  The prerequisite course, IT 500 Quantitative Foundations for Information Systems Analysis, was designed to provide the necessary background to prepare students for this course.

Note:    As of Fall 2005, IT 500 will be replaced as the prerequisite for this course by
            TCOM 575 Quantitative Foundations for Telecommunications.

Textbook

Telecommunications, 4^th edition
Warren Hioki
2001; Prentice-Hall, Inc.; Upper Saddle River, NJ

Grading

Grades will be awarded in accordance with the GMU Grading System for graduate students.  See http://www.gmu.edu/catalog/apolicies/graduate.html under Graduate Academic Standards, Grades for more information.

The grading scale for this course is:
     97 – 100%  A+       Passing, satisfactory
     93 –  96%  A          Passing, satisfactory
     90 –  92%  A-       Passing, satisfactory
     87 –  89%  B+       Passing, satisfactory
     83 –  86%  B          Passing, satisfactory
     80 –  82%  B-       Passing, satisfactory*
     70 –  79%  C          Passing, unsatisfactory
      0 –  69%  F          Failing

* The MS in Telecommunications program requires a minimum grade
   of "B" for all core courses.  This course is a core course in that program.
   See http://ece.gmu.edu/msdegree/ms_TCOM_req_rev2.htm
   for more information.

Raw scores may be adjusted by the Instructor to calculate final grades.

Final grades will be determined based on the following components:

Test #1                                     30%
Test #2                                     30%
Final exam                                40%

These components are outlined in the following sections.

Test #1

The first test will be conducted during class time in Week 4 and will cover material discussed in Lectures 1-3

Test #2

The first test will be conducted during class time in Week 10 and will cover material discussed in Lectures 4-8.

Final exam

The final exam will be held the week after the final lecture in the same room used for lectures. The final exam will be cumulative.

Schedule

Week	Lecture	Date	Content	Reading
1	1	24 Jan	Introductions, Logistics Course overview, Basic concepts Signals and noise	Chapter 1 Chapter 2
2	2	31 Jan	Amplitude modulation and Frequency Modulation	Chapter 3 Chapter 4
3	3	7 Feb	Digital signals:      Pulse modulation      Transmission codes      Error detection and correction	Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 17
4		14 Feb	Test #1
5	4	21 Feb	Serial interfaces; The UART Modems.	Chapters 8, 9, Section 10.1.1 Chapter 13
6	5	28 Feb	Telephony Multiplexing	Chapters 11, 12
7	6	6 Mar	Switching Local area networks	Section 14.5, Chapter 15
-	-	13 Mar	Spring Break – No Class
8	7	20 Mar	Telecommunications standards Interconnection and internetworks	Sections 14.1, 14.2 Section 15.12
9	8	27 Mar	Fiber optics	Chapter 18
10		3 Apr	TEST #2
11	9	10 Apr	The Internet and the World‑Wide Web Internet‑enabled applications Emergent technologies	Chapter 16
12	10	17 Apr	Wireless communications:      Cellular telephony	As assigned
13	11	24 Apr	Wireless communications:      Satellites; WiFi	As assigned
14	12	1 May	Any other material Review for final exam	As assigned
15		8 May	Final exam

This schedule is subject to revision before and throughout the course.

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to attend each class, to complete any required preparatory work (including assigned reading) and to participate actively in lectures, discussions and exercises.  As members of the academic community, all students are expected to contribute regardless of their proficiency with the subject matter.

Students are expected to make prior arrangements with Instructor if they know in advance that they will miss any class and to consult with the Instructor if they miss any class without prior notice.

Departmental policy requires students to take exams at the scheduled time and place, unless there are truly compelling circumstances supported by appropriate documentation.  Except in such circumstances, failure to attend a scheduled exam may result in a score of zero (0) for that exam.

Communications

Official email messages from the University are sent to students' GMU email addresses.
If you use another email account as your primary address, you should forward your GMU email to that account.

Registered students will be given access to a section of WebCT (see webct41.gmu.edu)
for this course.  WebCT will used as the primary mechanism (outside of lectures) to disseminate non‑urgent course information, including announcements, lecture slides, homework and other assignments, and unofficial scores for homework and exams.

Lecture slides are complements to the lecture process, not substitutes for it - access to lecture slides will be provided in WebCT as a courtesy to students provided acceptable attendance is maintained.

All course materials (lecture slides, homework assignments, etc) are published on WebCT in Adobe^® Portable Document Format (PDF).  This allows users of most computing platforms to view and print these files.  Microsoft^® Word (or a compatible word processing application) is required for assignments.

Communication on issues relating to the individual student should be conducted using WebCT email, Internet email, telephone or in person, not the public forums on WebCT.  WebCT email is the preferred method – for urgent messages, you should also attempt to contact the Instructor via telephone.

Privacy

Instructors respect and protect the privacy of information related to individual students.

As described above, issues relating to an individual student will discussed via WebCT email, Internet email, telephone or in person.  Instructors will not discuss issues relating to an individual student with other students (or anyone without a need to know) without prior permission of the student.

Homework, exams and other assessable work will be returned to individual students directly by the Instructor (or faculty or staff member designated by the Instructor, or via another secure method).  Under no circumstances will a student's graded work be returned to another student.

Instructors and teaching assistants will take care to protect the privacy of each student's scores and grades.

Honor Code

Students are required to be familiar with and to comply with the requirements of the GMU Honor System and Code[1].  The Honor Code will be strictly enforced in this course.

All assessable work is to be completed by the individual student.

All work must be newly created by the individual student for this course for this semester.
Any usage of work developed for another course or for this course in a prior semester is strictly prohibited without prior approval from the instructor.

Students may seek assistance with assigned homework
(and are encouraged to do so if they feel the need), provided:

§   such assistance is acknowledged in the submitted homework, clearly identifying the person(s) giving assistance and the nature of the assistance given;

§   each student completes his/her own work to be submitted.