Module ICE-4411:
Broadband Communication Systems

Module Facts

Run by School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering

20.000 Credits or 10.000 ECTS Credits

Semester 1

Organiser: Dr Roger Giddings

Overall aims and purpose

This module aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of current and emerging broadband communications techniques employed in local, access and backbone networks. Particular emphasis will be focused on the following aspects: 1) fundamental concepts, 2) operating principles and practice of widely implemented communications systems; 3) importance of emerging techniques and technologies and 4) requirements and challenges for future deployment of broadband communications systems.

Course content

•Fundamentals: Digital and analogue signal concepts in both the time and frequency domains, circuit and packet switching, transmission channel properties, digital line codes, carrier modulation/demodulation, transmission media, transmitter and receiver architectures, Shannon’s Law, key factors affecting transmission performance, multiplexing and multiple access methods (TDM, FDM, WDM, FDMA, TDMA), The OSI reference model, general network architectures of communication systems. •The Core Network: Optical transmission systems, optical fibres (light propagation, loss, dispersion effects), WDM and DWDM, PDH and SDH/SONET systems, network topologies. •Fixed Access Networks: Fixed access evolution, ADSL, VDSL, OFDM, Fibre-to-the-Home, Passive Optical Network (PON) evolution and standards, optical link budgets. •Mobile Access Networks: characteristics of mobile channels, the cellular principle, radio access technologies, radio access network architecture, mobile backhaul and fronthaul. •Local Area Networks: Fixed LANs (implementation evolution, cabling, Ethernet standards, MAC protocols, hubs/switches), Wireless LANs (Wi-Fi standard, MAC Protocol, MIMO techniques) •Advanced/Emerging technologies: All-optical networking (ROADMs), Ultra-fast Ethernet, Coherent Optical Transceivers, Technologies for 5G.

Assessment Criteria

excellent

70%

threshold

50%

good

60%

Learning outcomes

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of key techniques involved in various types of broadband communication network.

  2. Understand fundamental concepts, terminology and general architectures of communications systems.

  3. Demonstrate an understanding of widely implemented communications systems.

  4. Understand the importance of emerging techniques and technologies.

Assessment Methods

Type Name Description Weight
Exam 60.00
Formal Report 25.00
Technical Questions 15.00

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Lecture 24
Tutorial 6
Private study 170

Transferable skills

  • Literacy - Proficiency in reading and writing through a variety of media
  • Information retrieval - Able to access different and multiple sources of information
  • Inter-personal - Able to question, actively listen, examine given answers and interact sentistevely with others

Subject specific skills

  • Identify emerging technologies and technology trends;
  • Solve problems logically and systematically;
  • Access and synthesize information and literature sources;
  • Demonstrate an awareness of the need to work safely and comply within relevant legislative and regulatory frameworks;
  • Knowledge and understanding of facts, concepts, principles & theories
  • Knowledge of systems architecture

Resources

Talis Reading list

http://readinglists.bangor.ac.uk/modules/ice-4411.html

Reading list

Recommended text books: 1. Lillian Goleniewski, "Telecommunications Essentials: The Complete Global Source", Addison Wesley; 2nd edition (2006). 2. Andy Valdar, "Understanding Telecommunications Networks", IET (2006). 3. James Farmer et. al. "FTTx Networks: Technology Implementation and Operation", Morgan Kaufmann (2016)

Courses including this module