Between September 29 and November 22,
the Academic Director’s Office for the CITEL/ITU Program ran an
eight-week distance learning course, using ITU software, on “Planning
and Design of Mobile Cellular Networks.”
This course corresponds to one on the
Telecommunication Engineering curriculum and is therefore worth 6
credits.
The courses offered by the University
are based on excellence, in terms of knowledge, within a framework of
applied ethics and high professional standards.
This course covers the three
technological generations of mobile cellular networks. It explains
how the technology was gradually consolidated and the ground laid for
a series of transitions as new forms of services were developed. The
course also describes how greater efficiency was achieved in the
technological phases that managed to improve quality and how
increasingly stringent operating procedures were established.
At the same time, the course allowed
for the fact that the recognized technological generations succeeded
one another at a pace that varied from one American state to another.
The course naturally examined the first generation, which is already
disappearing, although it is still operating in some countries in the
region.
The course also addressed progress
made in making the most of the radio spectrum, one of humanity’s scare
goods, in order to establish technical requirements in each cell of a
cellular network. Different forms of modulation were analyzed to see
how performance improved as one generation gave way to another.
Special attention was paid to the size of cellular phones and to the
increasingly long time needed to recharge batteries.
Another noteworthy development was
the changing regulatory environment, from one generation to another.
Finally, as the course progressed,
participants learned about the cutting-edge ideas that paved the way
for new technologically more advanced developments.
The “Planning and Design of Mobile
Cellular Networks” course, which has been translated into English,
will be repeated this year (2004), in Spanish and in English, as a
distance education course using ITU software. The contents of the
course were described above and will be complemented by references to
any further technological developments in this field.
A new course being offered in 2004 is
“Project Costing and Evaluation Applied to Decision-Making.” This
course looks at the economic and financial side of projects, which are
first developed as technical ideas, but only become feasible after
they have passed through an economic and financial “sieve.” Above
all, it can be tailored very easily to communication network planning,
such as that addressed in the above-mentioned course on mobile
cellular networks. It, too, is based on curriculum courses and, those
passing it will therefore earn 6 credits. While the course addresses
the whole range of economic and financial project evaluation tools, it
focuses in particular on a study of the costs associated with
telephonic access. It analyzes the network aspects of services, and
support and corporate activities. Then costing models are made for
copper and switching access and other complementary items. Finally,
the course includes exercises on the topics dealt with.
The course programs can be found on
the CITEL and ITU web
sites.
Luis Peluffo
Academic Director for the CITEL/ITU Program
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Catholic University of Uruguay
Telephone: 598 2 487 2717 Ext. 339
Fax: 598 2 487 0323
e-mail: [email protected]
Additional Information: CITEL/OAS
will provide fellowships of full tuition costs for enrollment
in these distance learning courses. These
courses are offered
through
the ITU Center of
Excellence for the Americas platform.
For more information please visit the
CITEL fellowships web
page. |
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