Graduate Courses for Telecommunications (ENTS)

Schedule of Classes: Fall | Winter | Spring | Summer
(Only current and next semester available)

ENTS 609 Telecommunications Project (3 credits)
Consists of a student project in the area of telecommunication system applications, management, or policy. Specific projects will be supervised individually by faculty members associated with the M.S Program in Telecommunications.

ENTS 620 Principles of Telecommunications (3 credits)
Time and frequency domain representation of signals; behavior of linear time-invariant systems; probability and random processes; and detection and estimation issues. Examples from the design and analysis of communication systems will be used to illustrate the concepts.

ENTS 621 Design and Analysis of Telecommunication Systems (3 credits)
Prerequisite: ENTS 620 or permission of instructor.
Concentrates on the design and analysis of various components in a 'typical' modern telecommunications system. Topics to be investigated are commercial radio broadcasting, A/D and D/A conversion, data compression, telephone line modem design, and coding for enhanced performance.

ENTS 625 Management and Organizational Behavior in the Telecommunications Industry (3 credits)
Roles of the general manager in: determining target markets and designing strategies for them; formulating and implementing corporate and business level strategies; and staffing, developing, and managing human resources and coordinating them with the organization's financial and physical resources. Also emphasizes the building of interpersonal skills with respect to the selection of members for work teams and team formation, leadership of teams toward the achievement of strategic goals and total quality, the development and motivation of team members, and the evaluation of team and individual performance.

ENTS 630 The Economics of International Telecommunications (3 credits)
Economic analysis in telecommunications: the demand for services, the nature of production, competition, optimal pricing, and alternative regulatory options.

ENTS 631 Competitive Strategies and Public Policies in Telecommunications (3 credits)
Describes and applies the tools of industry economics, competitive strategy and policy analysis to telecommunications policy. Basic principles of antitrust and regulatory policy will be presented and applied to current telecommunications issues. Uses a global perspective to explore the manner in which other countries regulate their telecommunications industries and draws comparisons to the United States.

ENTS 632 Telecommunications Marketing Management (3 credits)
Strategic marketing, sales and customer service challenges confronting organizations in the computer, communications and media industries. Volatile technology, regulatory and competitive environments as a backdrop to strategic planning and management in the marketing domain.

ENTS 635 Decision Support Methods for Telecommunication Managers (3 credits)
Prerequisite: MATH 241 and ENEE 324 or equivalent.
The aim of this course is to introduce management science techniques for informed decision making. Topics covered will include data analysis and regression, optimization models and applications (workforce scheduling, manufacturing, network design, facility location), sensitivity analysis, decision trees, risk analysis and business simulation models. Emphasis will be on telecommunications managerial problems, model development and the use of software packages for decision support.

ENTS 640 Telecommunication Networks (3 credits)
An overview of design issues and the important industry standards for digital communications networks.

ENTS 641 Communication Protocols (3 credits)
Prerequisite: ENTS 640.
Techniques for the specification, design, analysis, verification and testing of communication protocols are developed. Various protocol services will be discussed and example protocols given.

ENTS 650 Network Security (3 credits)
Various approaches to design, specification, and verification of security protocols used in large systems and networks. Topics of network security, security threats and countermeasures, communication security and basic encryption techniques, data confidentiality and integrity, analysis of cryptographic protocols, and access control in large systems and networks.

ENTS 653 PCS System Implementation (3 credits)
Restricted to ENTS majors. All non-majors will need to obtain permission of department. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: ENTS653 or ENTS689A. Formerly ENTS689A.
Engineering issues associated with designing and deploying a PCS cellular wireless communications system in the current world environment will be examined. It will focus on implementation issues such as the impact of real world concerns on the deployment strategy and the use of good engineering paractice to overcome obstacles. Students will create and modify mock deployments using professional tools for cell planning and interference analysis. Students will also be exposed to drive testing tools and concepts for migration to future technologies(3G and beyond).

ENTS 654 Optimization and Analysis of GSM Networks (3 credits)
Prerequisite: ENTS689A or ENTS653; and permission of department. Restricted to ENTS majors. All non-majors will need to obtain permission of department. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: ENTS654 or ENTS689B.
The techniques needed to successfully optimize a functioning GSM network will be examined. Students will conduct extensive drive tests of a working network in the Washington DC area using state-of-the-art drive test equipment and will analyze the recorded data with post-processing analysis tools. Also, they will learn to recognize problems based on network behaviors and what courses of action are available to correct them. Lab work and data collection will constitute a majority of the class work.

ENTS 655 Digital Signal Processing (3 credits)
Prerequisite: linear system concepts and transfer in methods at senior electrical engineering level.
Knowledge of linear system concepts and transform methods taught in a typical electrical engineering undergraduate course on signals and systems. Ideal periodic sampling and the sampling theorem; forward and inverse Z-transforms; system analysis by the Z-transform; designing FIR and IIR digital filters; quantization and finite word-length arithmetic; the DFT and FFT; decimation and interpolation; power spectral density estimation.

ENTS 656 Introduction to Cellular Communication Networks (3 credits)
Prerequisite: ENTS 620 or equivalent.
Concepts and techniques involved in wireless digital communications with emphasis on cellular and PCS systems. Properties of Mobile radio channels; intersymbol interference, multipath, and fading effects; interleaving and diversity; multiple access schemes (TDMA, FDMA, CDMA, SDMA); interuser interference, traffic issues, and cell capacity; power control strategies; frequency reuse and channel assignment; handoff, paging, and location update; cell layout; introduction to cellular and PCS standards.

ENTS 657 Satellite Communication Systems (3 credits)
Formerly ENTS689S.

ENTS 665 Advanced Wireless Communications Networks (3 credits)
Prerequisite: ENTS689A or ENTS656. Restricted to ENTS majors. All non-majors will need to obtain permission from the department. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: ENTS689E or ENTS665.
Some of the key concepts and technologies used in the design of third generation (3G) wireless networks and standards are presented. It will start with a review of wireless CDMA concepts and terminolgies followed by a more detailed discussion of new concepts and methodologies adopted in the next generation systems of efficiently support multimedia high-speed data traffic. Some of the key concepts include link adaptation, scheduling, space-time and other diversity techniques as well as advanced channel and source coding. As many techniques and concepts are similar across different 3G standards, which will initially focus on details of channelization and protocol designs for one of 3G technologies, i.e. CDMA2000 family of standards. Based on this foundation, we will then present overviews of other standards, e.g. EDGE, WCDMA and TD-CDMA emphasizing on their similarities and differences with CDMA2000. In addition to air interface features the course also presents network elements and architectures and as well as engineering considerations for 3G radio network dimensioning.

ENTS 670 Introduction to Business and Enterpreneurship (3 credits)
Restricted to ENTS majors. All non-majors will need to obtain permission of department. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: ENTS670 or ENTS689J.
This is a fundamental course that provides a broad introduction to various business issues faced by any small business or starup. Course instructors present the key issues involved in outlining a clear value proposition and profitable business model, managing and monitoring finances, developing a winning team, addressing legal considerations, executing on operations including marketing sales, manufacturing and service.

ENTS 672 Global Economic Environment (3 credits)
Restricted to ENTS majors. All non-majors will need to obtain permission of department. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: ENTS672 or ENTS689O. Formerly ENTS689O.
This course is intended to provide the future manager, particularly in the telecommunications industry, with the tools necessary to intelligently interpret the national and international economic environment including the impact of economic policies on the economy and the firm. It develops basic macroeconomic theory to enable managers to critically evaluate economic forecasts and policy recommendations, and then applies these concepts in a searies of case studies.

ENTS 675 Network Planning and Design (3 credits)
Prerequisite: ENTS 635 and ENTS 640. 3 semester hours. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: ENTS 660 or ENTS 675.
Tools and techniques for the economic design of telecommunication networks that meet the requirement (for example, reliability or performance) goals of an organization. In particular, it emphasizes the application of queuing methods, optimization & network models, and heuristic search techniques for the design of modern communication networks. Applications to Call Center Design, Virtual Private Network Design, Local Distance Networks, and Wireless & Satellite Communications will be discussed.

ENTS 689 Special Topics (3 credits)
Repeatable to any number of credits if content differs.
Selected topics of current importance in telecommunications.

ENTS 699 Independent Study in Telecommunications (1-3 credits)
Repeatable to 03 credits if content differs.
Individual instruction course. See ENTS program office for section number.