Telecommunication Systems

th
Final exam Date: January 8 2015
Provisional scores: 13/01/15 (14 h)
Claims and revisions until: 20/01/15 (14 h)
Final revised scores: 21/01/15 (14 h)
Additional information:
• Exam duration: 2 hours.
• The exam is organised in two parts:
o Part A with 16 multiple-choice questions (50% of the exam grade). All questions having equal weight. Correct answers score
1 positive point. Incorrect answers score (-1/3) points.
o Part B with 4 open questions, freely selected among 8 questions (50% of the exam grade). All questions have equal weight.

Part A. Multiple-choice questions (only an answer is valid)

1. With regard to bearer services:

a) Bearer services are typically categorised by their information transfer characteristics, methods of
accessing the service, interworking requirements (to other networks), and other general attributes.
b) A bearer service is a type of telecommunication service that provides the complete capability, including
terminal equipment functions
c) A bearer service is a type of telecommunication service that modifies or supplements a basic service.
d) Telephony and SMS are two examples of bearer services.
2. All of the following considerations are true with regard to “Bit stream access” services except:
a) It’s typically offered by a wireline telecom incumbent, who owns the high-speed access links to the
customer's premises and then makes the links available to third parties, enabling them to provide high
speed services to customers.
b) It’s a type of retail service offered to business users for fixed Internet access
c) It’s also known as indirect fixed broadband access
d) It supports handover points at various levels (e.g., DSLAM, ATM and IP levels)
3. A “media maven” telecom company is said of a telecommunications service provider with the following focus:
a) Specialist firm managing physical network plant assets (towers, fiber) for shared use.
b) A consumer-focused telco aiming to be primary lifestyle services (entertainment & content) as well as
connectivity provider to clients
c) A telco provider of connectivity-centric services to one or multiple client segments (e.g., service
providers, enterprises, consumers).
d) An enterprise-focused telco asserting prime contractor role for multi-sourced service delivery and
assurance across IT and telecom domains.
4. About the EU's regulatory framework for electronic communications, it’s not true that:
a) The regulatory framework covers fixed and wireless telecoms, internet, broadcasting and transmission
services.
b) The framework regulates, among others, the “contents” sent through electronic communications
networks
c) The regulation is intended to encourage competition, improve the functioning of the market and
guarantee basic user rights.
d) The framework includes a package of five Directives (“Telecoms Package”) and two Regulations.
5. In Next Generation Networks (NGN), the Resource and Admission Control Subsystem (RACS) provides, among
others:
a) Dynamic provision of IP addresses and other terminal configuration parameters.
b) Procedures and mechanisms handling policy-based admission control in access networks, core networks
and customer premises networks.
c) Media mapping and/or transcoding functions between an IP-transport domain and switched circuit
network facilities.
 d) Enforcement of opening and closing gate functionality (i.e. packets filtering depending on "IP
address/port") and packet marking for outgoing traffic
6. About VDSL technology, it is not true that:
a) Unlike ADSL technology that covers the entire loop, VDSL technology is intended to cover only those last
meters of the loop, providing, in this case, greater transmission capacity.
b) Supports symmetrical as well as different levels of asymmetrical data rates
c) VDSL transceivers use time-division duplexing (TDD) to separate upstream and downstream
transmissions
d) As order of magnitude, VDSL2 solution can deliver data rates up to 100Mbit/s in both upstream and
downstream over distances around 350m.
7. Among the main enhancements brought in by DOCSIS 3.0 with respect to previous versions, we cannot mention:
a) Frequency range extension
b) Channel bonding, allowing the simultaneous demodulation of several carriers.
c) Two new downstream modulation formats (64-QAM and 256-QAM)
d) Support for IPv6
8. About WiMAX technology, it’s false that:
a) It can be operated in both licensed and unlicensed bands.
b) Defines several physical layer technologies, including single carrier and multiple-carrier options.
c) Can be used to deploy mobile communications networks
d) The specifications of the radio interface as well as the overall network architecture are both included in
the IEEE 802.16 series of standards.
9. In a 3GPP mobile communication system, the activation of resources in the access network is controlled by
a) the core network
b) the access network
c) the UE
d) a combination of all the above nodes
10. An increase in the capacity of cellular communications in 4G will be mostly achieved by:
a) An increase of the radio frequency bands available
b) A higher densification of the network with small cells
c) More spectrally efficient modulation and coding schemes
d) The adoption of MIMO structures
11. In UMTS/CDMA:
a) Uplink bit rates up to 384 kb/s per user can be provided regardless the number of users
b) HSDPA works by allocating in parallel several orthogonal codes to one user
c) HSDPA supports higher data rate transmissions (compared to UMTS R99) in both uplink and downlink
d) The initial UMTS core network technology was “inherited” from GPRS and has been kept unmodified in
the successive UMTS releases

12. In a LTE system, it’s not true that:

a) The radio access network implements a flat architecture
b) A scheduler is placed in the eNB
c) Low and high bit rate connections can coexist without any problem
d) It supports circuit-switched voice services

13. When designing a Radio Link system, which answer is incorrect?

a) Refraction may originate values of fading as high as 40dB when atmospheric turbulence comes through
and the corresponding different ray trajectories cause multipath propagation
b) Diffraction effect is negligible if the clearance is 60 %
 c) Reflection on the soil originates a deeper fading in flat terrain or over the water than in hilly or
mountainous terrain
d) Rain effects are negligible in Ka bands
14. As for satellite orbits, which is the incorrect answer?
a) Two GEO satellites can cover any point on the Earth’s surface
b) The higher is the latitude of an Earth Station pointing to a GEO satellite, the higher are the Antenna
Temperature and the Atmospheric losses, for a given longitude.
c) Communication with a specific LEO satellite needs a continuous Earth Station antenna pointing.
d) The geostationary orbit of the satellite is on the Earth equator plane
15. In a satellite telecommunication system, which is the correct answer?
a) The EIRP and the Merit Factor define completely the free space propagation loss for a GEO system, for a
given frequency.
b) The Radio Resource Management function is carried out in the Space Segment
c) The Attitude Control aims at keeping the satellite at the correct orbit coordinates.
d) A Bent Pipe transponder is needed for satellite on-board switching
16. In a VSAT system, which is the incorrect answer?
a) The outbound carrier has a larger share of the output transponder power in a FDMA–SCPC
inbound/TDM–MCPC outbound VSAT star configuration
b) Outbound denotes the following link : VSAT toward SAT toward HUB
c) When DAMA (Demand Assigned Multiple Access) is used, only one VSAT channel is used when required
d) A VSAT Mesh configuration calls for higher performant satellites but presents lower round trip delay

Part B. Choose 4 of the following questions. Limit your answer to half page per question.

1. Briefly describe the concept of NGN and its key characteristics.

2. Briefly explain what are (1) the Radio Regulations (RR) and (2) the National Tables of Frequency Allocations
(NTFAs). Also comment on the relation between RR and NTFAs.

3. List at least three “flagship” standards produced by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI)
and briefly point out at least three areas on which ETSI is currently addressing its standardization activities.

4. Explain the difference between retail and whole sale communications services. Give at least three examples of
types of services that fall below each category.

5. Identify all the stakeholders of the mobile communication systems and at least two associated objectives

6. Point out the major improvement that LTE successive releases have brought up

7. Describe with the help of a figure the Radio Link migration options for TDM backhaul networks and TDM RBS
interfaces to packet-switched networks an IP/ETH RBS interfaces

8. Describe the main features and architectures of the satellite transponders. Use proper schematic figures to
accompany the description.