Telecommunications infrastructure and administration

What you will learn:

You'll learn how the physical infrastructure of a telecoms system is structured - from access networks to core networks - and gain a working understanding of the regulatory environment overseen by national regulators such as Ofcom, the role of international standards bodies, and how operators negotiate interconnection and roaming agreements. The course also covers key legal concepts such as wayleaves, code powers, and lawful interception obligations.

 

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

• describe and compare the roles and structure of telecommunications networks with reference to their resilience to faults and the transmission media employed.
• describe the measures taken to maximise the capacity and coverage area of a mobile system’s radio access network.
• describe how all or part of the infrastructure of a mobile network can be shared by operators to reduce costs. 
• describe the structure and role of the physical elements of a PSTN local access network with reference to the benefits of employing optical fibre.
• describe how the infrastructure of an access network can be shared by different operators.
• describe the need for technical standards and the roles of, and relationships between, the various standards bodies. 
• describe the regulation and licensing of telecoms services, including legal aspects such as wayleaves and code powers, the role of national regulators, and lawful interception legislation.
• describe the interconnection of networks with reference to topics such as roaming, peering arrangements, and interconnection agreements between operators. 
• describe the role and facilities typically provided by clearing houses, roaming hubs and IP exchanges for mobile operators.  
• discuss financial considerations such as billing, accounting rates, and call termination charges.
• explain the term “net neutrality” and describe how regulators view issues relating to traffic discrimination on the Internet.

 

Course prerequisites:

This course does not assume any prior knowledge of telecommunications.

 

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.