Quantitative Foundations for Telecommunications

TCOM 575

Syllabus for Fall 2008

TCOM-575Instructor: Dr. Tuna A. AlperFairfax Campuse-mail: talper1@gmu.eduOffice hours: By appointment in Room 235 STII 1. Announcements The class will meet in IN 139 (Innovation Hall Building, Room

139) every Wednesday, 7:20 – 10:00 p.m., beginning on August 27, 2008. The exact set of class meeting days is given below. The Final Exam is scheduled for Wednesday, December 10, 2008, from 7:30 – 10:15 p.m., although the exam should not take more than 2 hours.

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2. Expected Learning Experience This course is intended to provide students with the

quantitative background that they will need to complete the core courses in the MS Telecommunications degree and certificate programs successfully. The course will give students the necessary problem solving skills to solve algebra problems as applied to telecommunication scenarios.

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3. Required Books and Calculator

A. Mandatory Textbook is Textbook Title: College Algebra and Trigonometry, 4th Edition

Authors: Margaret L. Lial, John Horsby, and David I. SchneiderPublisher: Addison Wesley, 2008ISBN - 10 0-321-49744-9; ISBN – 13 978-0-321-49744-4

Supplementary Textbook is Textbook Title: Telecommunications, 4th Edition

Author: Warren HiokiPublisher: Prentice Hall 2001ISBN No. 0-13-020031-X

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B. Calculator Students should have a calculator, with the following

functions as a minimum: LOG , 10x , SIN, COS, TAN, and SIN-1 , COS-1 , TAN-1

A number of examples in class will require the conversion

from normal numerical values into logarithms (i.e. log10), and vice versa, in addition to using the standard geometrical functions sine, cosine, and tangent. Calculators will be required in the tests and exams.

TCOM-575 C. Please give all intermediate steps in answering a

question so that partial credit may be given, even though you may not have reached the correct solution. And PLEASE put your name and ID number on each sheet of paper and staple the sheets together.

D. Homework will not normally be accepted by Email unless prior permission has been given.

E. Late homework will only be accepted:a. With prior permission, andb. If the graded homework has not yet been

handed back to the class.

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4. Lecture Notes As noted earlier, Power Point slides for the lectures will be

distributed by Email to the class. 5. Homework A. Homework Exercises will be assigned periodically and

are due the following week at the beginning of the class. B. Homework will be collected in hard copy only, unless

there is a specific requirement to provide a ‘soft’ copy. Homework with the lowest grade will be disregarded. In grading, the process in which the questions have been answered, not the answer itself, will be important.

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6. Quizzes There will be three quizzes during the course of the

semester. They will be approximately 30 minutes in duration and will have questions on subjects presented in previous weeks’ lectures.

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7. Tests Two Tests will be given (in class) during the semester.

They will be closed book, closed notes tests of about one hour each. The first test will cover class work up to and including the lecture prior to the day of the first test. The second test will cover class work, from after the first test, up to and including the lecture prior to the day of the second test. Tests will be closely based on the homework questions and quizzes, and again, it will be the process of calculating the answer that is the most important, not the precise answer obtained.

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8. Final Exam A closed book, closed notes final exam of about two

hours duration will be given on December 10, 2008. The work covered in this exam will concentrate on class-work after the second test, but it will also include questions on previous topics covered in the course.

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9. Course Grades: Final Grades will be determined by a weighted

average of the homework (the lowest scoring homework being dropped from this calculation), three quizzes, two tests, and the final exam in approximately the following manner:

- Homework 15% - Quiz 10% - Test 1 20% - Test 2 20% - Final Exam 35%

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10. Course Outline and Book Sections to be Covered:

Week 1: Wednesday, August 27 Course Outline

Review of Basic Concepts

Week 2: Wednesday, September 3 Lecture 1: Sections R.1 – R.4

(Review Sections)

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Week 3: Wednesday, September 10 Lecture 2: Sections R.5 – R.7, 1.1 - 1.3

(Review Sections, Equations and Inequalities)

HW No.1 is Due

Week 4: Wednesday, September 17 Lecture 3: Sections 1.4 – 1.6 and 1.8 (Equations and Inequalities)

HW No.2 is Due Quiz No.1

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Week 5: Wednesday, September 24 Lecture 4: Sections 3.1 – 3.3

(Polynomial and Rational Functions) Review of Chapter R and Chapter 1

HW No.3 is Due

Week 6: Wednesday, October 1 Test No.1        HW No.4 is Due

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Week 7: Wednesday, October 8 Lecture 5: Sections 4.2-4.4

(Exponential and Logarithmic Functions)

Week 8: Wednesday, October 15 Lecture 6: Sections 5.1 - 5.3 and Section 6.3

(Trigonometric Functions, and Circular Functions)

HW No.5 is Due

TCOM-575Week 9: Wednesday, October 22

Lecture 7: Sections 9.1 – 9.2           (Systems and Matrices)

Quiz No.2 HW No. 6 is Due

Week 10: Wednesday, October 29 Lecture 8: Sections 9.5, 9.7 and 9.8

(Partial Fractions and Solving Nonlinear System of Equations)

HW No.7 is Due

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Week 11: Wednesday, November 5 Test No.2

Week 12: Wednesday, November 12Lecture 9: Special Topics

   (Representing information in binary form; decimal, binary, octal and hexadecimal formats; S/N, BER, Channel Capacity, etc.)

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Week 13: Wednesday, November 19Lecture 10: Special Topics - Continued

   (Representing information in binary form; decimal, binary, octal and hexadecimal formats; S/N, BER, Channel Capacity, etc.)

Week 14: Wednesday, November 26 No Class – Thanksgiving Recess

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Week 15: Wednesday, December 3Review of all Course MaterialsHW No.8 is DueQuiz No.3

Week 16: Wednesday, December 10 Final Exam