T305 Digital Communications
Being presented for the last time in 2008, as some of the content is now slightly dated, this was a rather heavy going look at Digital Comms, from TCP/IP, via probability of failure, Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, modulation schemes, network management, sinusoidal waveforms, Fourier Transforms to fibre optics.
As the course notes state, a good grounding in maths is very helpful and the course work was relentless; 7 TMA & 6 CMA's, followed by a final exam, well this is a Level 3 60point course...
A lot of the technical content was taught through various modelling activities, a full breakdown of the course content is as follows:
Block 1
Part 1: Communication Network Architectures
Part 2: Communication Network Protocols
Modelling Activities:
Representing Systems
Block 2
Part 1: Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
Part 2: Network Management
Modelling Activities: Probability and Reliability
Block 3
Message Coding
Modelling Activities Part 1: Sinusoids and Fourier
Series
Modelling Activities Part 2: Information Theory
Block 4
Part 1: Routeing and Switching
Part 2: Signalling
Modelling Activities: Traffic
Block 5
Part 1: Channel Coding
Part 2: Modulation
Modelling Activities: Pulses and Systems
Block 6
Part 1: Optical-fibre Communications
Part 2: Multi-service Networks
Modelling Activities: Signal Impairments
This course was hard work, but well worth the effort.
The final exam is made up of two parts; 8 short answer questions taken from any of the 6 blocks (you must answer all 8 questions); and 6 long answer questions, with each question being on of of the blocks. You must answer 3 of these questions.
To be replaced by T324 Keeping ahead in ICT, which is being presented for the first time in 2007 (and interestingly is NOT an excluded combination with T305), and in 2009 by T325. Both T324 & T325 are 30 point courses.