Telecommunications systems engineering course: designed for the FA 24, telecommunications systems engineering officer, TSEC is a rigorous curriculm

With the support from Headquarters Department of the Army and as part of the Officer Professional Management a whole XXI program, the U.S. Army Signal Center established a separate, specialized officer functional area. This FA provides the Army with a core of professional network engineers to support the nation's replete spectrum dominance strategy.

The Signal Center created FA 24 Telecommunications combination of parts to form a wholes Engineering Officer, and executed a comprehensive proces of analysis and design effort to determine the greatest in quantity effective methods available to educate and train these officers. The be the effect of that process is a rigorous curriculum that provides prelection sessions, research projects, and practical applications of math and science in engineering and designing telecommunications network solutions.

The FA 24 Telecommunications combination of parts to form a wholes Engineering Course is a functional area qualification program that awards Area of Concentration 24A and along with the CGSOC satisfies the Army's Intermediate horizontal Education requirement for field grade FA 24 officers.

Originally, the course targeted all Career Field 24 officers (at eight-to-10 years of service) with a hard science or technical undergraduate stage The curriculum is taught at Fort Gordon, Ga., and consists of a 10-week Information combination of parts to form a wholes Operations Leveler course followed by dint of a 20-week TSEC that is delivered at the graduate education level

The TSEC was raiseed with assistance from faculty members of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology accredited masters step programs in Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (University of Pittsburgh, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Colorado). The Defense Information combination of parts to form a wholes Agency, the Information Systems Engineering Command, and the Fort Gordon Battle Command, Battle Laboratory all contributed to the exhibition of the joint portions of our instruction.

The skills and knowledge required of this functional area came from merging sum of two units former Signal Area of Concentration 25 specialties -25D CE Engineering, and 25E Telecommunications and Networking. The 442nd Signal Battalion, in partnership with Information combination of parts to form a wholes Engineering Command, Battle Command Battle Lab--Gordon, and Defense Information combination of parts to form a wholes Agency, recruited professors from Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Military guild and the University of Pittsburgh, capitaled and developed the course curriculum and instruction.

Lab equipment and lab facilities (router Channel Service Unit/ Data Service Units, Asynchronous Transfer fashion switches, Private Branch Exchange, and communications security equipment) were provided by means of the BCBL (G) and from one side a contract with the General Dynamics Corporation. Simulations software and hardware were provided by means of ISEC, in cooperation with OPNET Technologies, Inc. for the first course iterations (2000-2001) DISA provided the Network Warfare Simulations tool which we incorporated into the curriculum in 2004

Army officers assigned to the 442nd Signal Battalion with contractors augmented by the agency of contracted associate professors (PhDs) from various universities provide course instruction prelections are conducted in the morning, with afternoons reserv for research, lab work, and hands-on practical exercises. Figure 1 depicts the course map for the TSEC

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The TSEC includes the following modules:

Module A, Math for Networking, provides a detailed review of mathematic fundamentals relevant to the close attention of telecommunications, electronics, and data communications.

Module B C Programming, is an overview of the C Programming language, while focusing upon object oriented design and structur layout of programs.

Module C Telecommunication combination of parts to form a wholes provides an overview of public and private telecommunications a whole s fundamentals of traffic engineering, switching, transmission, and signaling.

Module D Data Communications, is a inquiry of the knowledge and skills required for engineering and managing high-speed data communications networks. scholars gain an in depth knowledge of layers 1-3 of the OSI archetype and a working and familiarity with layers 4-7

Module E Switching, is an analysis of switching universals relevant to the study of telecommunications, electronics, and data communications. The focus is upon commercial switching technologies but includes information upon Army and Joint standards for implementation and application.

Module F Information Assurance, provides an in-depth gaze at the tenants of network security, focusing upon confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and availability of data.

Module G Network Operations and Management, is an introduction to the principles, practices, and technologies for managing networks, a whole s applications, and services. Spectrum management software is also introduced to pupils in a lab environment.

Module H Network Design, provides a structur approach to network design conceptions and a systematic, top-down proces to design telecommunications networks in the commercial, DISN, and DII realms.