T822 is a distance taught course presented in May.
Summary
This introduction to the structure of digital communication networks is primarily for professional engineers and technical managers, or graduate engineers. Digital communication networks increasingly support multiple services - voice, text, images. Some of these services have different network requirements, such as the maximum signal delay and how much it may vary. The course discusses the structure of communication networks with the general theme of supporting multiple services. In particular, it deals with the importance of protocols, transmission media, modulation and switching for acceptable performance of communication systems.
Description
Traditionally, different communication services have been provided by different kinds of network. Voice telephony, for example, was carried over an analogue public switched telephone network while computer data was carried over digital packet-switched networks. With increasing use of digital signals, including digital speech coding for telephony, has come the possibility of multi-service communication networks that can carry not only both speech and computer data but also new services such as e-mail and digital video. The course looks at the network structures that are required to support multiple services on a single network, but its topics will apply to any digital communication network.
Course aims
To make you aware of the main aspects of communication networks that affect performance.
To give you an appreciation of some fundamental limitations of transmission.
To give you an understanding of the variation in network performance that results from the random nature of events in communication networks.
Excluded combinations
Because the subject-matter of T822 overlaps with T821Digital telecommunication systems and T305Digital communications and the discontinued courses T322 and T820 you can only count one of the five towards each Open University qualification.
Contact
David Reed is happy to answer any questions about this course.
