This document discusses telecommunications, wireless technologies, and computer networks. It covers fundamentals of data communications including choosing communication mediums. It examines networking components like media, devices and software. It also describes popular wireless technologies such as cell phones, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Finally, it discusses different types of computer networks and the benefits of wireless home networks.

1. Telecommunications, Wireless Technologies, and
Computer Networks
Author: Kenneth j. Baldauf
Ralph m. Stair
Learning Objectives:
1. Understand the fundamentals of data communications and the criteria for choosing a
communications medium.
2. Explain how networking media, devices, and software work together to provide data-
networking services, and describe the benefits of various types of media.
3. List and describe the most popular forms of wireless telecommunications technologies.
4. List the different classifications of computer networks and their defining characteristics,
and understand the basics of wireless home networking.
Chapter Content:
1. Fundamentals of Telecommunications
2. Networking Media, Devices, and Software
3. Wireless Telecommunications Technologies
4. Networks and distributed computing
Introduction:
A network is fundamentally a communication system, it empowers individuals and
groups to interact and access resources that would otherwise be more difficult or impossible to
access. At home, networking allows household members to share documents, music, photos,
and other media among home computers, as well as to access a world of resources on the
Internet. In an organization, networks act as circulatory system, providing flow o information
between group members. For organization, teamwork is synonymous with success. The better
the flow of information among group members, the more productive group becomes. To reach
goals more efficiently and effectively, an organization needs to ensure that its network can
properly support its information and communication needs.
In selecting the components of a network, you must consider the speed and capacity of
the medium that carries the communication signal. The communications medium works in
conjunction with communication devices and software to provide a data communications
network. There are numerous types of networks, each supporting unique needs of its
environment. Wireless mobile technologies are making it increasingly common to access

2. networks anywhere, anytime. This chapter examines a variety of network types and their
components to provide an understanding of how networks help us be connected and more
productive in business, at home, and while travelling.
CHAPTER 1: FUNDAMENTALS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Today’s telecommunication networks play a vital role in our daily activities. From the
global telecom networks that make up the internet to short-range wireless technologies that
pass data back and forth between a cell phone and headset, telecommunications technologies
keep us connected. In the first part of this chapter, you will learn the basics about
telecommunications systems, how they work, and how their performance is measured. Next
you learn about the components that make up telecommunications systems: media, devices,
and software. Section three of this chapter delves into wireless networking technologies
including cell phones, the Global Positioning System, Wi-Fi, WiMax, Blue-tooth, and radio
frequency ID (RFID). The chapter then turns its focus to the different types of computer
networks and examines some of the benefits of a wireless home network.
Abstraction:
Communications can be defined as the transmission of a signal from a sender to a
receiver by way of a medium such as wires or radio waves. The signal can contain a message
composed of data information. It is important to note two characteristics of communications.
First, the message is not communicated directly; rather, it is communicated by way of a signal.
Second, the signal itself goes through a communications medium, which is anything that carries
a signal between a sender and receiver.
You can easily recognize these aspects of communication if you consider what happens
when humans communicate. When you talk to someone face to face, you send messages to
each other. One person may be the sender at one moment in time and the receiver a few
seconds later. This is typical of two-way synchronous communication.
In face to face communications, the transmission medium is the air, and the signal is the sound
wave.