Signal impairments

Target audience:

This course is designed for those who require an introduction to the fundamental technical concepts that underpin modern telecommunications. The course is suitable for those joining the industry in a technical role especially those in an apprenticeship.

 

Course aim:

To introduce the causes of signal impairments and their effect on the transmission of information over telecommunications and data links.

 

Course prerequisites:

A basic understanding of electronic signals and electrical circuit theory. It is recommended that the PTT course "Analogue and digital signals" is studied before attempting this course.

 

Course objectives:
By the end of this course you will be able to:

• explain the cause and effects of noise and loss on information transfer using analogue signals.
• state the formula for expressing loss in decibel units and explain the advantages of using decibel units when comparing power levels.
• give a definition for, and describe the significance of, signal to noise ratio.
• describe the causes, effects and measurement of crosstalk.
• explain the causes and effects of various types of distortion including harmonic distortion and delay distortion.
• list the causes of delay in a network and describe how excessive delay can degrade telephony services and those involved in the transfer of data.
• describe the causes of digital errors including noise, jitter and dispersion.
• define the term Bit Error Ratio (BER) and describe how BER is expressed.
• explain that some types of encoded information are more affected by errors than others.
• explain that a digital signal can tolerate a large reduction in signal to noise ratio before its bit error rate increases.
• explain the concept and significance of noise margin.

 

Approximate study time: 4 hours 

 

Delivery platform requirements:
To access the course, a computer/tablet running a browser such as Chrome, Safari, Edge etc. is required. The device should have an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024x768.