FUNDAMENTALS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Covers the Public Switched Telephone Network, equipment and call centers, the telecom business, carriers, digital voice transmission, T1, fiber and SONET backbones, and wireless ... the groundwork for understanding everything.
1 Fundamentals of Telephony available
Whether you're interested in telecom, datacom, wireless, Wide Area Networking or Voice over IP, everything begins with the Public Switched Telephone Network and Plain Ordinary Telephone Service. We'll begin with a model for the PSTN, explaining analog circuits and circuit switching, as well as common telephony buzzwords and jargon, and an overview of SS7.
A. History of Telecommunications
B. The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
C. Analog Circuits
D. What is Sound?
E. The Voiceband
F. Plain Ordinary Telephone Service (POTS)
G. DTMF Address Signaling
H. Signaling System 7 (SS7)
2 Telecom Equipment
We’ll round out our discussion of telephony with a practical overview of different types of equipment that can be connected to the telephone network. Without bogging down on details, we'll sort out switches, PBXs, ACDs, IVRs, Call Centers and modems, including a discussion of DSL and how it is provided.
A. Telephone Switches
B. PBXs vs. Centrex
C. Voice VPNs
D. Call Centers: IVRs and ACDs
E. Modems
F. DSL Technologies: Beyond the Voiceband
G. DSLAMs
3 The Telecommunications Industry
With a basic framework in place, we'll review the telecommunications business, including companies, alliances, services and competition, and understand how each organization fits into the picture, including the mature competitive environment: regional rings, POPs and MANs, CLECs and ILECs.
A. Local Exchange Carriers (LECs)
B. PSTN Switching Centers
C. Inter-Exchange Carriers (IXCs)
D. The Last Mile: Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs)
E. The Mature Competitive Environment: POPs and MANs
4 Digital Communications
With the fundamental structure in place, we'll understand how - and why - voice is digitized. We'll discuss what is really meant by "digital" and explain DS0s, channels, the 64 kb/s rate and the DS0-DS1-DS3 digital hierarchy. We'll provide a practical overview of digital services, including T1, T3, SONET and ISDN. At a high level, we'll explore the different types of traffic that can be carried over these circuits, and how voice, data and video can be integrated.
A. Why Digital?
B. Analog and Digital: What Do We Really Mean?
C. Voice Digitization (Analog-Digital Conversion)
D. The Digital Hierarchy: DS0-DS3
E. Carrier Systems Overview: T1, T3, SONET, ISDN
F. Digital Circuit Applications
G. Integration: Voice, Video, Data
5 Transmission Systems and Fiber Optics
Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and digital carrier systems are technologies at the heart of traditional telecommunications. Without getting bogged down on technical details, we'll use T1 as an example to explain multiplexers and how TDM and channels are implemented and what repeaters do. With concepts in place, we'll cover fiber optics, SONET rings and Dense Wave-Division Multiplexing (DWDM): the backbone of networks.
A. Channelized Time Division Multiplexing
B. TDM Example: T1 Carrier System
C. Multiplexers
D. Framing and Channels
E. Pulses and Repeaters
F. How T1 is Actually Provided
G. Fiber Optics and Fiber Cables
H. SONET and DWDM: Core Networks
I. International Digital Hierarchies
6 Wireless Communications
We'll round out your knowledge of telecom fundamentals with wireless. We'll cover jargon and buzzwords in the mobility business, the idea of cellular, and sort out different cellular technologies, including analog, PCS and 3G and understand CDMA vs. TDMA/GSM and how we are headed toward a global 4G standard called LTE. We'll conclude with an overview of Wi-Fi and satellite communications
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A. Wireless
B. Mobile Networks and Cellular Concepts
C. First Generation: AMPS
D. Second Generation: PCS
E. Digital Cellular
F. CDMA vs. TDMA/GSM
G. 3G CDMA
H. 4G LTE
I. Wireless LANs and Wi-Fi
J. Satellite Communications
UNDERSTANDING DATA COMMUNICATIONS
Covers datacom basics including the crucial concepts of IP packets and LAN frames; all about modems including DSL and cable modems, data over digital cellular, how digital circuits and services are provided, muxes vs. switches vs. routers, and finishes with LANs: building blocks for the Networking part.
1 Introduction to Datacom and Networking
We'll begin the second module by introducing a model for data circuits, reviewing each component in the model, and exploring practical examples of circuit and network configurations. With this framework in place, you'll be able to categorize and compare different types of equipment and circuit configurations.
A. Data Circuit Model: DTEs and DCEs
B. Analog and Digital Data Circuits
C. Serial and Parallel
D. Multidrop Circuits
E. Local Area Networks (LANs)
F. Wide Area Networks: Routers
2 Data Coding, Frames and Packets
In this chapter, we'll put in place a solid understanding of the key concepts of IP packets and LAN frames, ensuring that you have a solid foundation on which to build an understanding of routers, bandwidth-on-demand services and the Internet.
A. Bits and Bytes
B. Binary and Hexadecimal
C. Coding, Framing and Error Detection
D. ASCII and Unicode
E. Frames
F. Packets
G. Packets and IP Addresses vs. Frames and MAC Addresses
H. IP Packets
3 Modems: Voiceband, Radio, DSL and Cable
In this chapter, we'll learn how modems transmit 1s and 0s over 'analog' circuits, then understand voiceband modems, wireless modems, DSL and VDSL vs. Cable modems on CATV systems.
A. Representing Data in a Frequency Channel
B. Modulation Techniques
C. Jargon and Buzzwords; Bauds
D. DSL and VDSL
E. Cable TV or Broadband Systems
F. Cable Modems
4 The Network "Cloud" and Service Implementation
In this chapter, we'll build on the basic discussion of digital from module 1 to show how digital circuits are used for data communication. We'll show you the three basic kinds of datacom services available, and the circuits and equipment used by carriers to actually provide these services... highly useful knowledge when evaluating, ordering or troubleshooting carrier services. We'll introduce the idea of statistical multiplexing and bandwidth-on-demand to prepare for the discussion of packet networks and services in Module 3.
A. Digital Access and Transmission Technologies
B. Anatomy of a Digital Circuit
C. Common Carriers' Transmission Networks
... How Circuits are Actually Implemented by Carriers
E. Network Equipment: How and Where Each Is Used
... Routers vs. muxes. vs. switches
G. Channelized TDM
H. Statistical TDM
I. Summary: How Circuits are Actually Provided
5 LANs available
LANs are the standard method of implementing circuits in-building. We'll complete this module with a basic, solid understanding of LANs: Ethernet and the original idea of a bus, how this changed to 100 Mb/s and now Gigabit Ethernet connected with LAN switches. You'll learn about categories of cables, hubs and switches. We'll conclude interconnecting LANs using routers and TCP/IP to form a WAN... leading in to Module 3.
A. Bus Topology
B. 802.3 and Ethernet
C. Evolution of Ethernet
D. Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet
E. LAN Cables: Category 5, 5e and 6
F. Repeaters and Bridges
G. Ethernet Switches
H. Interconnecting LANs with Routers
UNDERSTANDING IP AND NETWORKING
The third part brings it all together with a structured discussion of networking: protocol stacks, routers, IP addresses, bandwidth-on-demand services, Voice over IP (VoIP) and IP VPNs, the Internet, and finishes with a top-down review and templates for mainstream solutions you can put to immediate use.
1 The OSI Layers and Protocol Stacks available
Standards and protocols play a key role in the understanding of networks, particularly how TCP, IP and LANs fit together. We'll begin the third module by exploring the Open Systems Interconnect 7-layer reference model. You'll learn what a layer is, the purpose of each layer, see examples of protocols used to implement each layer, and learn how a protocol stack really works.
A. Protocols and Standards
B. Open Systems vs. Proprietary Solutions
C. Protocol Stacks: The ISO OSI 7-Layer Reference Model
D. Understanding the Layers
E. Understanding How a Protocol Stack Works
F. Key Standards Organizations
2 IP Addresses, Packets, Routers and Networks
With a structure in place for discussing what we need to do, we'll look at popular mainstream solutions for how networks are implemented. The first stop is private networks, composed of dedicated lines connected with routers, allowing us to understand the functions routers perform and cover what you need to know about IP: IP addressing, dynamic addresses and DHCP, private addresses and NATs. You'll learn how multiple computers can share a single Internet connection. We'll complete the chapter with practical guidelines on how to order and manage dedicated lines and deal with carriers.
A. Review: Integrating Applications on High-Speed Circuits
B. Efficient Use of Voice Channels for Bursty Data
C. Case Study: Dedicated-Line WAN - Integrated Data, Voice, Video
D. Edge Routers as a Point of Control
E. IP Address Classes
F. Dynamic IP Addresses and DHCP
G. Private IP Addresses
H. Network Address Translation
... Connect Multiple Computers to a Single Internet Connection
I. Case Study: Private Network Using LANs, T1, Routers and TCP/IP
J. Practical Issues
... Dealing With Carriers - Ordering Circuits
... Circuit Troubleshooting Basics; BERT
... In-Service Monitoring and ESF
3 Packet Networks and MPLS
Bandwidth on demand "packet-switched" services have strong cost and flexibility advantages over dedicated lines. We'll understand packet network concepts, how and why Virtual Circuits are implemented, and what the jargon and buzzwords really mean. You will understand how MPLS is the replacement for Frame Relay and ATM and discuss performance issues... which leads into understanding the need for Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees for VoIP. We'll finish off this chapter understanding TCP/IP over MPLS... commercial data communications.
A. Bandwidth on Demand Service Concepts
B. Virtual Circuit Technologies
C. X.25 and Jargon
D. Frame Relay: DLCIs, CIR and BIR
E. TCP/IP over Frame Relay to implement a WAN
F. Frame Relay Performance: CIR and BIR
G. QoS Requirements for Voice over IP
H. ATM
I. MPLS
J. TCP/IP over MPLS
K. The "MPLS Service" Quiz
4 VoIP and VPNs
In this chapter, we focus on two primary services that can run on an IP/MPLS network: voice and secure data communications. We'll begin with an introduction to Voice over IP components, jargon and buzzwords, and understand how VoIP will mesh with the PSTN covered in Module 1. You'll also understand how IPsec protocols and equipment implement IP VPNs for secure business data communications over IP networks.
A. Voice over IP
B. Net to Phone: Reseller-Type VSPs (DS0 Interconnect to LEC)
C. Internet Telephony from LEC / CATV
D. Managed-IP Telephone Service (MIPT)
E. Customer-Premise-Based VPN
F. Carrier VPNs: Network-based IPsec with QoS
5 The Internet
Let's not forget the Internet! In this chapter, we'll review the Internet's past and present, understand what an ISP does, and gain a real understanding of TCP and IP. We'll review HTML, HTTP, secure web pages, Web servers and browsers, and details like the Domain Name System, MIME and Base-64 encoding. We'll complete the picture with a review of connection methods and current Internet issues including IPv6.
A. Internet History
B. Internet Fundamentals: connectionless, unreliable service; routing tables
C. TCP and UDP
D. Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
E. Commonly Used Internet Protocols
F. Domain Name System
G. MIME and Base-64 encoding
H. The World Wide Web, HTML, HTTP and SSL
I. Accessing the Internet: Residences and Organizations
J. Current Internet Issues
