Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Railway Telecommunication Systems and Networks

Final Examination
Instruction
 Be brief but do not omit necessary  Total of 100 points
details
 Time allowed 2.5 Hours
1. Ten voice signals, each having a bandwidth from 0 to 4kHz, are to be transmitted over a
communication channel using time division multiplexing. PCM is used to convert the
analog signals to digital. What is the output bit rate? State your assumptions. (6 Pts)

2. In the T1 system, 24 time slots (or voice channels) are byte interleaved to form one frame. See
the figure below. Each frame contains 1 bit for framing.
a. What is the data rate of this frame? Show how you arrive at this rate.
b. In each time slot, the 8th bit is ‘robbed’ or stolen from the voice for signaling purpose.
i. Typically, the list significant bit (LSB) is used for this purpose. Why?
ii. What is the percentage overhead on a T1 carrier?

(10 Pts.)
3. Consider a linear point-to-point SONET architecture.
a. Diagrammatically show the device layer relationship.
b. Compute the data rate of an STS-1 SONET frame.
c. Explain how SONET handles data rates lower than STS-1.
(12 Pts.)

4. One departure of ATM networks from previous data transmission networks is the concept of a
cell.
a. What is a cell?
b. Discuss two advantages of reducing the size of a frame/or packet to form a cell. Discuss
one disadvantage. (10 Pts.)

5. One improvement of xDSL over voice-grade modem is that, higher data rate is supported in the
former modem. What is/are the basic source(s) of this improvement? (8 Pts.)
6. One limitation of IEEE 802.11a standard is that of backward compatibility with IEEE 802.11b
protocols. Why is it not backward compatible?
(8 Pts.)
7. Explain the basic architecture of GPRS in GSM networks. Properly define the main functions of
basic GPRS network elements and use sketch to support your explanation.
(12 Pts.)
8. As the mobile system evolves from 1st to 3rd generation, what are the major achievements (or
improvements) in terms of services provided and technologies used?
(10 Pts.)
9. Briefly explain the differences between macro and micro levels of mobility managements in GSM
networks. (10 Pts.)

10. Answer the following questions (14 Pts)

a. Assuming a 1.1 MHz local loop twisted pair copper wire, discuss briefly the
channel allocation and operation of ADSL that uses the Discrete MultiTone
(DMT) modulation.
b. An ADSL system using DMT allocates ¾ of the available data channels to the
downstream link. It uses QAM-64 modulation on each channel. What is the
capacity of the downstream link?