The Institute for Wireless Education, a nonprofit corporation that has been training wireless engineers and technicians for about a year, recently added a segment dedicated to Code Division Multiple Access technology to its two-week course, “Basic Wireless Telephony.”
“We cut our teeth on Time Division Multiple Access, there’s no doubt about it,” said John Rooks, executive director of IWE. The institute’s primary client until recently has been AT&T Wireless Services Inc.
The institute developed the CDMA segment through a variety of industry sources. During the second week of the course, students split into digital segments dedicated either to TDMA or CDMA technology.
Rooks said Global System for Mobile communications technology is taught in conjunction with the TDMA segment, although a separate GSM segment could be developed in the future.
The institute was formed to fill an educational void in the industry.
“The program catches people’s attention because nothing like it existed in the industry before,” commented Rooks.
The course takes place monthly in Mankato, Minn., on the campuses of Mankato State University and South Central Technical College. The curriculum emphasizes organization and operation of modern cellular and personal communications services wireless telephone systems and their technical principles, said IWE.
During the first week, students review electrical theory and study radio transmission, signals, call handling, antennas, base stations, the mobile switching center, transmission testing and digital transmission. The second week includes training in circuit terminology, power systems, cellular networks, roaming, digital speech coding, digital radio modulation, error control, digital communications, Cellular Digital Packet Data and PCS.
IWE aims to keep its classes small-usually between 15 and 25 students-and interactive. Rooks said the institute provides students with multimedia programs that visually illustrate roaming, hand-offs, call routing and other call transfer functions. Students are then quizzed to help them understand incorrect answers, said Rooks.
The institute also maintains an operational, but not live, cell station, on which students can gain hands-on experience.
Interaction with the instructors, who are industry veterans themselves, is encouraged after students graduate from the course. This allows instructors to stay up-to-date on technical issues facing the engineers and technicians as well as providing graduates with an additional resource when solving problems.
Rooks said the institute considers its course text a “living document” that will be updated as changes in technology and the industry occur. The institute will provide updated materials to graduates, although distribution has yet to be determined.
