Course overview

Communication systems and networks provide a means of linking people and businesses on a global scale and have become vital to modern society. As new technologies develop, communication systems have ever increasing potential, but also become increasingly diverse and complex.

The School of Engineering has a long tradition of providing industrially relevant education. We have a distinguished record of running very successful degree courses and pride ourselves on working at the leading edge of technology and learning methods. Our academic staff maintain close links with the world of work, both in Portsmouth and further afield, ensuring that our courses reflect the current and future needs of commerce and industry.

We provide a supportive and friendly atmosphere in which our students can quickly settle and enjoy their studies. By coming to the University of Portsmouth you will experience a lively and modern learning environment with lectures, tutorials and web-based learning sessions.

Our emphasis is on understanding system-level principles and on the design and implementation of systems to meet customer requirements, rather than the detailed design of how the individual building blocks of a communication system work. You will therefore probably have a background in some aspect of computing, electronics or communications and an interest in system-level rather than circuit-level design.

You will be interested in developing and commissioning a mobile phone network for a new geographical region or introducing wireless network multimedia to a company.

Professionally accredited course that meets the needs of industry

This course has been accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) under licence from the UK regulator, the Engineering Council. Accreditation is a mark of assurance that this degree meets the standards set by the Engineering Council in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC).

This accredited degree will provide you with some of the underpinning knowledge, understanding and skills for eventual registration as an Incorporated (IEng) or Chartered Engineer (CEng). Some employers recruit preferentially from accredited degrees and an accredited degree is likely to be recognised by other countries that are signatories to international accords.

Course content

You will study six units on this course, followed by an individual project. Currently, the units are:

• ICT Configuration and Administration
• Communication Systems Analysis
• Data Communications and Networking
• Network Design and Management
• Mobile and Satellite Systems
• Communications Security

The course ends with a four-month individual project in which you apply your knowledge to a significant communications system or network planning problem. Projects are tailored to your individual interests and may take place in our own laboratories or, by agreement, in industry.

Further information about the content of units covered in this course can be found at our online unit web search: www.port.ac.uk/unitwebsearch.

Teaching and assessment

You will be taught using a mixture of lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions and project work. Each unit typically has about 48 hours scheduled for lectures and supervised activities. In addition, you will need to spend significant time in our electronic, communications and computer laboratories, as well as in private study as directed by lecturers.

Lecturers generally spend part of the scheduled time in tutorial sessions to help you with any technical aspects of the course of which you are unsure. You will also have a personal tutor who can help with any other personal or academic problems should they arise.

Assessment is geared towards the subject matter in a way that encourages a deeper understanding and allows you to develop your skills. It includes examinations, assessed coursework, laboratory work and a dissertation that can often be linked with industry.

Career prospects

This course is designed to allow you to work in this fast-changing environment and will prepare you to design, install and manage new communication networks where existing ones are no longer able to meet the demand or where there is no existing communications infrastructure. Such networks include global, national, regional, local and company-based systems, and may integrate data, audio, video, multimedia and broadcast information. The growing worldwide demand for technologists who can translate a client's communication needs and aspirations into a secure and reliable communication network, will open up a range of opportunities.

Facilities and features

The School provides a range of facilities to support your learning experience. Lectures, tutorials and seminars take place in the well equipped multimedia lecture theatres and classrooms.

You will have access to a wide range of state-of-the-art laboratory facilities to familiarise you with industry-standard equipment and software packages. The telecommunications and signal processing laboratory is equipped with instruments for generating, receiving and analysing high-frequency signals. Signal generators and spectrum analysers cover the communication bands up to 22 GHz. We also have an anechoic chamber for the measurement of antennas. A range of electronic circuit boards that can be interconnected to form a number of typical communication systems are also available for your use.

The School's teaching of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is supported by both hardware and software laboratory facilities. The DSP kits will allow you to implement your knowledge of signal processing techniques.

Our digital electronics and microprocessor laboratory has 45 fully equipped benches including scopes, network analysers, PCs and other standard electronic equipment for measurement purposes. There are also hardware/software development tools for design, development and implementation of microcontroller systems. In addition, there are professional hardware/software programming/testing VHDL environments for CPLD and FPGAs devices.

The analogue electronics laboratory has 24 fully equipped benches for testing and measurements of a wide range of electronic systems. All benches have PCs with relevant software suites such as circuit simulations (Gesseca, Spice Age, Microcap and Eagle) and Matlab.

The School has its own autonomous computer network, consisting of about 200 PCs running Linux and Windows. The School runs its own servers for anything that the network needs (DNS, DHCP, Kerberos, NIS etc). The network is a multiplatform transparent network; all computers can be accessed remotely for greater flexibility and use from home. Great care is given to security, with sophisticated Firewalls and VPNs in place.

You will also get the chance to learn and experiment with different networking technologies, as well as learning programming languages such as Java, HTML and C, and use a wide range of application packages such as OPNET and Wireshark to enable learning in all areas of computer networks and communication systems.

Entry requirements

The entry requirements for MSc Communication Network Planning and Management are shown above, for more detailed information please contact:

Department: School of Engineering (ENG)
Tel: +44 (0)23 9284 2555
Email: technology.admissions@port.ac.uk