Digital Communications and Wireless Technologies, Diploma

Program Overview

The Digital Communications and Wireless Technologies program at BCIT is a two-year, full-time program that prepares students for careers as technicians and technical specialists in the data and wireless/radio frequency (RF) telecommunications industries. The program covers a wide range of topics, including basic electrical and electronic theory, structured cabling systems, networking concepts, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, Wide Area Network (WAN) design and maintenance, and wireless communications systems. Graduates of the program are employed as technicians and technical specialists in companies that provide the services, infrastructure, and technologies that support these different channels of telecommunication.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Overview:

The Digital Communications and Wireless Technologies program at BCIT is a two-year, full-time program that prepares students for careers as technicians and technical specialists in the data and wireless/radio frequency (RF) telecommunications industries. Graduates of the program are employed as technicians and technical specialists in companies that provide the services, infrastructure, and technologies that support these different channels of telecommunication.

Objectives:

The program's objectives are to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to work in the wide-ranging telecommunications industry. The goal of the program is to touch on all the vital topics needed to produce a well-rounded digital communications professional.

Program Description:

The program covers a wide range of topics, including:

• Basic electrical and electronic theory
• Structured cabling systems
• Networking concepts
• Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems
• Wide Area Network (WAN) design and maintenance
• Wireless communications systems
The program also includes a strong focus on digital communications concepts and introduces the Internet of Things (IoT) using Raspberry Pi and the Arduino microcontroller. The program culminates in an IoT project as well as a short industry placement in the form of a practicum.

Outline:

Course Schedule:

Year 1

• Term 1:
• Technical Skills
• DC Circuits
• AC Circuits
• Analog Electronics
• Digital Electronics
• Term 2:
• Network Essentials
• Structured Cabling
• Telecommunications Essentials
• RF Principles 1
• Routing and Wireless Networks
• Linux Fundamentals
• Voice Networks

Year 2

• Term 3:
• Professional Skills
• Enterprise Networking and Security
• RF Principles 2
• Transmission Lines and Antennas
• Navigation and Location
• Term 4:
• Fiber Optics and Telecommunications Design
• VoIP Systems
• Wide Area Network Design and Maintenance
• Managing Connected Devices
• RF Applications
• Practicum

Individual Modules:

Technical Skills

This foundational course aims to prepare students to develop the skills to perform the tasks they will encounter as they progress through the Digital Communications and Wireless Technologies program. The course will include theoretical concepts, as well as practical application of knowledge. With a focus on electrical safety, the course also includes Workplace Hazardous Material Information System (WHMIS) training. Students will learn the basic skills needed to prepare and solder wires to connectors and electronic components, as well as how to build circuits on a breadboard from a schematic diagram. Students will develop the math skills typically used by a telecom technician, including power of ten and engineering notation, metric prefixes, logarithms, and trigonometric functions, among others. Students will also learn basic technical writing and graphing for technical reports.

DC Circuits

This course provides the foundation required for understanding resistive electronic circuits, including basic electrical principles and components. The concepts of the quantities of charge, voltage, current, resistance, energy and power are developed. Ohm's Law, Kirchhoff's Voltage Law and Kirchhoff's Current Law are used to analyze series, parallel and series-parallel direct current (DC) circuits. DC test equipment will be used for measurements. General troubleshooting strategies and techniques are introduced, with emphasis on methods used to isolate faults in an efficient and logical manner. Analysis of capacitors and inductors in DC circuits is covered. Electromagnetism and the operation of relays is introduced. Theory is reinforced with hands-on practice.

AC Circuits

This course provides the foundation required for the understanding of electronic circuits with alternating current (AC) sources. The characteristics of various AC waveforms are discussed and measured. Students will learn how to operate AC test equipment (the oscilloscope and function generator). The concepts and calculations of reactive values are emphasized, including phase shift. Students will study the response to AC of various circuit configurations and apply this knowledge to the analysis of resistor capacitor (RC), resistor inductor (RL), and resonant (RLC) circuits. Various practical applications of circuit configurations are explored, including integrators, differentiators and frequency filters. The operation of transformers is covered, including voltage/current ratios and impedance matching. Theory is reinforced with hands-on practice and exposure to troubleshooting techniques.

Analog Electronics

This course provides the theoretical and practical knowledge necessary to install, maintain, and troubleshoot circuits that employ discrete and integrated semiconductor devices. These include rectifier diodes, Zener diodes, 3-terminal regulator ICs, bipolar junction transistors, field effect transistors, operational amplifiers and switching regulator ICs. Applications of semiconductors as switches, amplifiers, oscillators and regulators are explored. Circuits are built from schematic diagrams and are tested and measured for their operating parameters. Students further develop soldering techniques, including insertion and soldering of components on a printed circuit board, resulting in a complete audio amplifier circuit as a small project.

Digital Electronics

This course provides the foundation required for understanding digital electronic circuits. The binary, hexadecimal, and decimal number systems are explained, and techniques for converting from one system to another are introduced. Students will learn analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion techniques, as well as how to interface a digital output to a load (sinking and sourcing). In addition, students will use standard symbols, schematic diagrams, truth tables, waveform representations, timing diagrams and Boolean expressions to represent digital logic functions and circuits. Theory is reinforced with hands-on practice and exposure to troubleshooting techniques.

Network Essentials

The course will introduce basic networking concepts by exploring how networks function in today's world. Basic switch device and end device configuration will be introduced, including the protocols and models used to describe how data is packaged and transported on modern networks. Numbering systems used by communications protocols, including binary and hex, are introduced. Ethernet switching is examined in both theory and lab exercises. IPv4 and IPv6 are introduced and examined in detail using both network hardware and network simulation software. Security fundamentals are introduced in order to identify network vulnerabilities. The course will culminate in the building and configuration of a small network.

Structured Cabling

This course introduces the installation and test practices associated with telecommunications cabling. The curriculum is aligned with the Telecommunications Industry Association/Electronics Industry Association (TIA/EIA) standards for commercial buildings. The course provides hands-on training for common cable termination systems. Students will use cable scanners to certify and analyze cable performance. This course also introduces Structured Cable System (SCS) infrastructure design and advanced cabling techniques.

Telecommunications Essentials

In this course, the major elements of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) are introduced. The components of the PSTN are examined, including outside plant, switching and trunks. The process of setting up a voice circuit across the network is detailed. The conversion of an analog voice signal to a digital equivalent using the Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) process is discussed. The North American Digital Hierarchy for digital communications networks