M&IS 44042-001

TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING

Fall 2001

TR 1:45-3 pm, 210 BSA

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Catherine Bakes

OFFICE: A-405 BSA

OFFICE HOURS: Tues 3-4 & 6:45-7:15 pm; Wed 2:30-4:30 pm; & Thurs 3-4 & 6:45-7:15 pm

OFFICE PHONE: (330) 672‑1162

E-MAIL: cbakes@bsa3.kent.edu

TEXT: Business Data Communications, Fourth Edition, William Stallings, Prentice-Hall, 2001 (ISBN 0-13-088263-1)

URL: http://business.kent.edu/courses/fall2001/m&is/44042/index.html

LISTSERV: telecom@listserv.kent.edu

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course provides an introduction to the basic concepts underlying local and wide area telecommunications networks and an understanding of the relevant terminology. It includes an overview of transmission media, data communications protocols, and network configurations, a description of modulation, error control, multiplexing, and switching techniques, and a discussion of current telecommunications technologies, services, standards, and regulations. In addition, students are to complete a team research project focusing on some topic from the field of telecommunications.

IMPORTANT DATES

Thu 9/6, 5 pm	Listserv membership due
Tue 9/11	Quiz 1
Fri 9/21, 5 pm	Project topics due
Tue 9/25	Quiz 2
Tue 10/9	Quiz 3
Tue 10/23	Quiz 4
Sat 11/3	Last day to withdraw
Tue 11/6	Quiz 5
Thu 11/15	Quiz 6
Thu 11/22	Thanksgiving; no classes
Tue 11/27	Project reports due
Thu 11/29	Project presentations
Tue 12/4	Project presentations; Quiz 7
Thu 12/6	Project presentations
Tue 12/11, 12:45-3 pm	Project presentations; Peer evaluation forms due
Wed 12/12, 5 pm	Presentation summaries due

GRADING POLICY

Quizzes (best 6 out of 7)	72 points
Project report	12 points
Project presentation	8 points
Required presentation summaries (4 summaries)	8 points
Extra credit listserv membership	1 points
Extra credit presentation summaries (2 summaries)	4 points
Total	105 points

You are expected to take each quiz in class on the day that it is scheduled. A makeup quiz (which may be different from the original quiz) will only be given if you have a legitimate excuse, obtain my permission prior to the scheduled quiz time, and provide written documentation (e.g., a medical excuse from a doctor) explaining why you were not able to take the quiz at the scheduled time. Otherwise, you will receive a zero for a missed quiz. If you have any questions concerning a grade you receive on a quiz, it is your responsibility to inform me within one week of the quiz being returned to you. Quiz grades will not be discussed after that time.

Your project report is to be turned in at the beginning of class on 11/27 and your 4 required presentation summaries are to be turned in by 5 pm on 12/12. If either is turned in late, 1 point will be deducted from your course grade for each calendar day that it is late, up to a maximum deduction of 5 points. If you omit the project team number or the presentation date from any presentation summary, you will receive a zero for that summary.

Each student is required to join the course listserv. If you join by 5 pm on 9/6, you will receive 1 point of extra credit. In addition to the 4 required presentation summaries, each student has the option of submitting 2 extra credit summaries. This option is worth up to a maximum of 4 points added to your course grade. The extra credit summaries are due by 5 pm on 12/12 and will not be accepted after that time.

After rounding your numeric score to the nearest integer, your course letter grade will be assigned initially according to the scale: A = 90-105, B = 80‑89, C = 70‑79, D = 60‑69, and F = 0‑59. However, I reserve the right to shift these ranges downward if I think it appropriate.

COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY POLICIES

Prerequisites: Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisites risk being deregistered from the class.

Course registration: Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes. You are advised to review your official class schedule during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section. Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until 9/7 to correct it with your advising office. If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

Academic honesty: Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit. The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense. It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade for the work or course. Repeat offenses result in dismissal from the University.

Course withdrawal: For Fall 2001 the course withdrawal deadline is 11/3. Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

Students with disabilities: In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this course, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester or when given an assignment for which an accommodation is required. Students with disabilities must verify their eligibility through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) in the Michael Schwartz Service Center (672-3391).

COURSE LISTSERV

In order to join the course listserv, send an e-mail message to listserv@listserv.kent.edu with the one-line command “Sub Telecom Firstname Lastname” (where “Firstname” and “Lastname” are your first name and last name) in the body of the message. You do not need to specify a subject.

In order to post a message to the listserv, e-mail your message to telecom@listserv.kent.edu.

QUIZZES

There will be 7 quizzes, of which your best 6 will be worth 12 points each and your worst will be dropped. Their emphasis will be on the material discussed in class. Each quiz will be approximately 15 minutes long and given at the beginning or end of a class period. While taking the quiz, you may refer to one 1-sided 8 ½ x 11” page of notes which you are to show me when you turn in your quiz. Except for this page of notes, each quiz will be closed book and closed notes.

RESEARCH PROJECT

Each team of 3 to 5 students is to write a project report on some topic from the field of telecommunications and present it in class. The topic you select should be relevant to the course and add new information beyond the material that I cover. For ideas on possible project areas, I suggest that you browse through the text, visit the libraries at Kent State, Akron, Cleveland State, and/or CWRU, explore the Internet, and consult the following list:

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)

Cable modems

Compression techniques (data, audio, video)

Directory services (DEN, LDAP)

Domain Name System (DNS)

Digital subscriber line (DSL)

Electronic commerce

Fiber optic networks (LANs, MANs, SONET, WDM)

Frame relay

High speed networks (Internet2, Abilene, vBNS)

Internet/IP Telephony

Internetworking devices (bridges, routers, switches, gateways)

Intranets and extranets

Integrated services digital network (ISDN)

LANs: Ethernet (fast, Gigabit, switched), Fibre Channel, Token Ring, FDDI, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth

Network security (data encryption, firewalls)

Private branch exchanges (PBXs)

Protocols (TCP/IP, IPv6)

Quality of service (DiffServ, IEEE 802.1 p/Q, MPLS, RSVP, VLANs)

Regulation, deregulation, and divestiture (Telecom Act of 1996)

Satellite communications

Video communications (HDTV, videoconferencing)

Wireless/mobile/cellular communications

You have the choice of selecting your team members and project topic or having me assign your project team and topic for you. If you choose the former option, your team must discuss your project with me and obtain my approval of your topic selection by 5 pm on 9/21. You may do this in person during my office hours, or by phone or e-mail. If you do not obtain my approval by 9/21, I will assign a team and topic for you. Note that the topics listed above are suggestions only. Your team’s topic does not have to be on the list, nor is it guaranteed that I will approve your selection of a topic that is on the list.

PROJECT REPORT

The project report should have a cover page that includes the project title, team number, team members’ names, and date. Each page (starting with the second page of text) should be numbered and the report should have an introduction, a section for each subtopic, a conclusion, a bibliography (make sure to cite your references at appropriate locations within the report), and illustrative figures and/or tables. The figures and tables should be placed in an appendix, be numbered appropriately, have captions, and be discussed in the text of the report. In addition to the cover page, bibliography, figures, and tables, the report should have 3 to 5 pages of text per team member. While there may be individual grade adjustments based on feedback from the peer evaluation forms, the report will be graded initially according to the following scheme:

Breadth	15%
Depth	15%
Clarity	10%
Organization	10%
Difficulty/Effort/New Information	10%
Professionalism	10%
Figures/Tables	10%
References	10%
Relevance to Course	10%
Total	100%

PROJECT PRESENTATION

Each team is to present their project in class at the end of the semester. When giving your presentation, it is not necessary to include all the details in your report. You are strongly encouraged to use PowerPoint (do not read the information you present), to include a hands-on demonstration if appropriate, and to rehearse your presentation to ensure that it fits the allotted time (this will be based on the class size and announced in class approx. 2 weeks before the presentations begin). You may assume that an overhead projector, computer, and computer projector will be provided, although I strongly recommend that you have a backup plan in case of equipment failures. If you wish to use any additional equipment, you should notify me at least one week in advance, schedule a time to test the equipment in the classroom, and coordinate your presentation with the other teams presenting on the same day. While there may be individual grade adjustments based on feedback from the peer evaluation forms, the presentation will be graded initially according to the following scheme:

Breadth	10%
Depth	10%
Clarity	10%
Organization/Teamwork	10%
Difficulty/Effort/New Information	10%
Professionalism	10%
Visual aids	10%
Enthusiasm/Innovation	10%
Diction/Pace/Time Management	10%
Eye Contact	10%
Total	100%

PEER EVALUATIONS

All team members are expected to contribute equally to creating a high-quality project report and project presentation. However, each project team will be self-managed and responsible for determining the roles played by its members, and the nature of the contributions may differ across team members. For example, one team member might be responsible for the introduction and conclusion, as well as proofreading the paper and ensuring that there are smooth transitions between subtopics, while others might be responsible for one or 2 subtopics each. It is up to the team to make these decisions appropriately and all team members should ensure that their contributions are on track and sufficient.

The project report and project presentation grades will be assigned initially using the grading schemes outlined above. However, I reserve the right to make adjustments to individual grades based on information from the peer evaluation forms which you are to download from the course web site and complete. You are to use these forms, which are due at the beginning of class on 12/11, to award points that indicate the value of the project contributions of each member of your team and to provide written comments justifying the points you award. Failure to complete and submit a peer evaluation form is likely to result in a negative adjustment to your own project report and presentation grades.

PRESENTATION SUMMARIES

Each student is required to attend all the project presentations at the end of the semester and to submit a summary of one presentation from each of the 4 class meetings in which projects are presented. If you wish, you may also avail of the extra credit option to submit up to 2 additional summaries. Clearly indicate the project team number and presentation date on every summary and then write at least one page (excluding headers, titles, etc.) reviewing the significant points that were made.

NOTES

1. For the written assignments (i.e., the project report and presentation summaries), use size 12 Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins, and 1.5 line spacing. Also, instead of separating paragraphs with blank lines, start each paragraph with a tab character.

2. I will make every effort to follow the schedule below and to cover the topics in the order listed. However, depending on the pace of the class, we may cover some topics earlier or later than scheduled.

TENTATIVE WEEKLY CLASS SCHEDULE

Week of 8/27: Ch. 2

Introduction to course

Analog and digital data

PBX and Centrex

Data codes and ASCII communications control characters

Week of 9/3: Ch. 6-7, 13.6-13.7

Analog and digital signals

Transmission impairments, conditioning, and channel capacity

Transmission media (twisted-pair, coaxial cable, fiber, microwave, satellite, radio, IR)

Leased/private and switched/dial-up lines

Weeks of 9/10 & 9/17: Ch. 8

Analog and digital encoding techniques

Modems, ISDN, and DSL

Asynchronous and synchronous transmission

Serial and parallel transmission and DTE/DCE interface

Weeks of 9/24 & 10/1: Ch. 9

Flow control (stop‑and‑wait and sliding-window)

Error detection (parity, checksum, CRC) and correction (stop‑and‑wait and go-back-N ARQ)

Multipoint lines and polling

Data link control protocols (SDLC, HDLC)

Week of 10/8: Ch. 10.1-10.4

Multiplexing (FDM, TDM, STDM), T carrier system, and SONET

Inverse multiplexing

Week of 10/15: Ch. 4.2, 4.4-4.5, 5

TCP/IP and OSI protocol architectures

Internet addressing and services

Weeks of 10/22 & 10/29: Ch. 4.3, 14, 15.1-15.3, 15.5

LAN topologies (star, tree, bus, ring) and access methods (CSMA/CD and token-passing)

LAN implementations (Ethernet, Token Ring, Wireless LANs) and standards

Bridges, routers, switches, and gateways

Week of 11/5: Ch. 5.1, 11-12

Circuit, message, and packet switching

ISDN, frame relay, and ATM

Week of 11/12: Ch. 13.1-13.5

Wireless Networks

Weeks of 11/19 & 11/26: Ch. 16.1 and App. A

Electronic mail

Regulation and standards

Project presentations

Weeks of 12/3 & 12/10: Project presentations