Courses

101 Consumer Issues in Information and Telecom Systems (4)
Provides a broad overview of issues in voice, data, and image communications. Topics focus on consumer issues, technological advancements, and the impact of communication systems on society.

201 Understanding Internet Technology (4)
A survey of the technologies that make the Internet useful.  Most visibly, this includes the world-wide web, email, file transfer, and packet telephony.  At the network level, this includes layered protocols, packet switching, LANs, WANs, routing, TCP/IP.  Security issues - worms, viruses, and spyware - will be discussed.

214 Introduction to Information and Telecom Systems (4)
General principles and techniques of point-to-point telecommunications. Includes brief history of field and general introduction to technology of voice, data, and image transmissions.

220 Communication Systems and Applications I (4)
Prereq: 214, major. Principles of operation and design of typical voice and imaging communication systems. Includes switching, transmission, traffic studies, queuing techniques, and broadband networks.

222 Communication Systems and Applications II (4)
Prereq: 214, major. Principles, theories, and technology of data networks are explored in this course. Topics include coding and timing of data, components of data networks, and protocols.

302 Fundamentals of Common Carrier Regulation (4)
Prereq: 214, 220, ECON 103, major. Study of regulatory systems, tariff structures, and costing of telecommunications across the state and national boundaries. Basic policy development at state and federal levels. Impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

304 Applications of Common Carrier Regulation (4)
Prereq: C or better in 302, major. Provides applications of materials learned in 302. Topics include the tariff filing process, rate making methodologies, the Computer Inquiries, and regulation of emerging technologies.

310 Technologies Basics of Communication Systems (4)
Prereq: 220 and 222, major. Investigation of the technical issues common to all communications systems. Topics include basic electrical and electromagnetic theory, fundamentals of circuits and components, and operation of the telephone and other communications equipment.

312 Technology of Voice/Data Systems (3)
Prereq: 310, major. Basic laboratory experience in the technologies commonly found in voice and data telecommunication systems. Students design, examine, and build basic telecommunication circuits; and develop both competency in the use of telecommunication test equipment and skills in system problem analysis.

325 Data Network (4)
Prereq: 220 and 222, major. Provides the understanding needed to use telecommunication protocols and access methods to design and implement applications software in a data communications environment. Topics will include: TCP/IP, selected other protocols, and the OSI model.

339 Applications of Voice Telecommunications (4)
Prereq: C or better in 220.  Study of Voice Application systems based on the integration of computers and voice switching equipment: voice mail, automated attendant, interactive voice response, audiotex, speech recognition, predictive dialers, unified messaging, automatic speech recognition and automatic call distribution systems.  Interaction with switching services of the PSTN: ANI, DNIS, SS7.  Introduction to digital signal processing.  TAPI, TSAPI and other telephony application standards.  Practical ACD experience in the lab.

343 Switched Carrier Networks (4)
Prereq: C or better in 220, 222.  Examination of the technical components of deployed telecommunication networks.  Attention is given to the functional elements of switch technologies and switched services, to carrier technologies and their utilization, and to integration of these technologies for the public switched network and PSN-based services, such as Switched Multimegabit Data Service, Fiber Distributed Data Interface, Frame Relay, and ISDN.

351 Privacy in the Information Age (4)
Prereq: C or better in 220.  This course examines the impact of communication and information technologies on personal privacy. Theories of privacy, constitutional bases for privacy, and privacy laws are discussed. The impact of technologies like computer databases and surveillance cameras and of methods like data mining, telemarketing and cookies on financial, medical, and workplace privacy are considered. The information technology aspects of the war on terrorism, and the related privacy issues, are also addressed.

379 Protection of Communication Systems (3)
Prereq: 220, 222, major. Examination of security and protection of communications systems and networks. Topics will include disaster prevention and recovery, securing voice and data systems against hackers, and securing sensitive information.

391 Topical Seminar (3-4)
Prereq: 220, 222, major. Specialized topics, taught by faculty or visiting professionals. Illustrative examples have included wireless communications, voice applications, encryption, and voice over IP.

401 Internship in Communication (1-12)
Prereq: written proposal and perm. Internship with approved company, agency, or organization. Application necessary; comprehensive paper required. Students may not apply both 401 and 495 toward COMT elective requirement.

405 Competition and Market Structure in Network Industries (4)
Prereq: 304, 310, major. An in-depth analysis of policy and market issues of fundamental concern to the voice/data communication environment. Examples of such issues could include markets for bandwidth, antitrust and software markets, cost allocation, and data network traffic pricing.

407 International Communication Networks (4)
Prereq: 302, 310, major. A study of international communication organizations (PTTs, the ITU, etc.), international satellite organizations, and other international record carriers. The course will explore current issues in international standards and regulations.

411 Pricing of Telecommunication Services (4)
Prereq: 302.  Examination of pricing, price-setting and price changes for telecommunication services.   Pricing topics examined include: competitive market pricing; regulated pricing; multi-part tariffs; bundled and unbundled pricing; flat-rate and measured service pricing; pricing of equipment; pricing of local, interconnection, and long-distance services; and the pricing of mobile and internet-based telephone services.

429 Communication Network Analysis and Design (4)
Prereq: 220, 222, 304, statistics, major. An extensive examination of the process of designing communications networks. Topic will include statistical distribution of voice, data, and image traffic; definition of limitations in communication networks; and experiences in modeling various network topologies.

431 Senior Seminar (2)
Prereq: 302, 222, major. Weekly discussions with faculty and telecommunication professionals; position papers required for discussion and presentation.

437 Wireless Telecommunication Networking (4)
Prereq: C or better in 220, 222.  Study of wireless networking. Radio communication: RF propagation, communication over noisy channels, S/N ratio, antennas, frequency assignment.  Satellite basics: components, operations, orbits, frequencies, earthstations.  Wide area terrestrial wireless systems: analog and digital cellular, PCS.  Wireless local area networks: structure, security, deployment planning.

441 Voice Over IP (4)
Prereq: C or better in 220, 222.  Study of transmission of voice information using Internet Protocol techniques.  Topics include: consumer-oriented services such as Vonage or Digital Voice, use of VoIP to replace traditional PBXs, VoIP as a tool for connectivity in the corporate enterprise, E911 and VoIP, use of VoIP to avoid toll charges, codecs, gateways, and methods to achieve high-quality audio using VoIP.  Voice-related protocols: H.323, SIP, Megaco, and others.  Practical experience in the lab.

444 Management of Communication Resources (4)
Prereq: 304, major. Case studies in costing communication carriers; developing and responding to RFPs/RFQs; and needs analysis of communication installations. Extensive paper required.

491 Topical Seminar (3-4)
Prereq: 222, 302, major. Specialized topics taught by faculty of J. Warren McClure Distinguished Visiting Professor. Illustrative examples have included privacy and GIS telecommunications.

493 Special Studies (1-4, max 12)
Prereq: 214, major, and proposal. Independent study, supervised by faculty.

495 Practicum in Communication Systems (3-5, max 12)
Prereq: perm. Faculty-supervised first-hand experience with installing, designing, configuring, maintaining, or otherwise managing communication systems. A written report is required. Students may not apply both 401 and 495 toward COMT elective requirement.

451 Telecommunication Network Security (4)
Prereq: 325.  Securing telecom networks against malicious intrusion.  The basic concepts of data security: availability, confidentiality, authentication, non-repudiation.  The nature of the hazard: hackers, malware (including viruses, worms, Trojans, adware and spyware), denial of service attacks.  Tools and strategies to mitigate the hazard are discussed, including firewalls, NAT, DMZs, virtual LANs, WLANs.

453 Encrypted Communication (4)
Prereq: C or better in 222. The basic principles and technology of telecommunication using encryption as a security tool, including hash functions, symmetric key encryption, and asymmetric key encryption. The basic concepts of data security: availability, confidentiality, authentication, non-repudiation. Digital signatures. Some topics are: SSH, VPN, IPsec, Kerberos. A key topic will be PKI - Public Key Infrastructure – systems.

455 Network Security Planning (4)
Prereq: C or better in 220, 222 and MGT 202.  Network security from a manager’s perspective.  Threats, risks, and risk assessment. The basic concepts of data security: availability, confidentiality, authentication, non-repudiation.  Network reliability, availability and downtime.  Business continuity planning.  Backup and hot sites, redundancy.  Security policies, including acceptable use.