Telecommunications Technologies and Systems (TST)

The TST curriculum prepares engineers in the fields of telecommunications, networking hardware and signal propagation.

The objectives of the Telecommunications Technologies and Systems (TST) degree programme, relative to the qualification that graduates will obtain, are to acquire knowledge and skills in:

• understanding the phenomena of transmission and reception of information;
• characteristics of different telecommunications technologies and networks;
• selection, installation and operation of telecommunications equipment;
• the design of equipment specific to different telecommunications technologies;
• the ability to apply the techniques and tools needed to develop complex communication software systems;
• a global and integrative view of fixed and mobile communications networks, data, voice, video and multimedia services.

In the bachelor cycle, the aim is to assimilate basic elements that will allow the consolidation of the above-mentioned objectives in the master cycle.

Skills provided by the study programme:

• use fundamental knowledge of electronic devices, circuits and instrumentation;
• applying basic electrical and non-electrical signal processing methods in typical situations and implementing procedures of medium complexity on signal processors;
• understanding and use of fundamental concepts in the field of communications and information transmission;
• application of fundamental knowledge, concepts and methods of computer systems architecture, microcontrollers, programming languages and techniques;
• the selection, installation and operation of fixed or mobile telecommunications equipment, as well as the design of the provision of a site with usual telecommunications networks;
• use of the main protocols and specific software tools based on a global vision of data, voice, video, multimedia services;
• addressing electromagnetic field propagation problems with application in radio communications (planning, coverage, antenna selection and placement);
• methodical analysis of the problems encountered in the activity, identifying the elements for which there are established solutions, thus ensuring the fulfillment of professional tasks;
• flexible adaptation, at user level, to new systems and technologies in the field, within work teams with well defined tasks.

Romanian language curriculum / English curriculum

In the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology the training of future specialists in the field of communications is provided in two study programmes: Telecommunications Technologies and Systems (TST) and Telecommunications Networks and Software (RST).

The telecommunications industry, networks and services are decisively influenced by society's growing demands for communications and information. The main objectives of telecommunications manufacturers and operators can be concisely expressed as follows: to offer multiple diversified services, to make telecommunications networks as wide and as fast as possible, with a high degree of coverage and accessibility, meeting the quality of service requirements for an increasing number of applications. Telecommunications networks allow the transmission of voice, audio, video, text, image and data signals. The digital processing and transmission of signals representing these different types of messages allows them to be handled together in a digital network with integrated services.

The TST and RST study programmes are coordinated by the Department of Telecommunications. The Department collaborates, through cooperation/sponsorship contracts, with major telecommunications operators and companies in our country (Orange, Vodafone, Huawei, Luxoft, Telekom, Ericsson, etc.) and also participates in international research contracts.

As a result of these cooperations, places are offered for the conduct of practice, appropriate to the training of students from the two communications majors, at year 3 level.

The students of the two specialisations have benefited from a generous private scholarship programme and there are offers from economic agents to extend them. In many cases, these programmes are followed up with various forms of internships and diploma projects in the companies concerned.

The development of diploma projects can also be carried out in the laboratories of the faculty, possibly through participation in the many projects in which the Telecommunications department is involved. These are national, European (FP6, FP7) or NATO projects.

Some companies (Orange, Vodafone, Luxoft, Huawei) offer or sponsor packages of optional courses completed with company certificates.

There are various forms of incentives for high achieving students, such as the annual Erricson Telecommunications Excellence Awards.

The analytical programmes of the subjects taught to students in the Telecommunications Technologies and Systems specialisation aim to provide a solid fundamental training in the broad area of telecommunications (subjects provided for in the curriculum in semesters 3, 4 and, in particular, in semesters 5 and 6), coupled with a specialisation in various telecommunications technologies and systems (subjects provided for in the curriculum in semesters 7 and 8). Specific to this stream is the priority orientation towards modern communications technologies and equipment.

The curriculum has been designed with a broad outreach, using programs from elite universities with similar majors as models.

Fundamental training in the field is provided by subjects such as Information Transmission Theory, Signals and Systems, Decision and Estimation in Information Processing, Circuit Analysis and Synthesis, Microwave, Electronic Measurement Instrumentation, Digital Signal Processing, Analog and Digital Communications, Network Architectures and Internet.

The development of the telecommunications field cannot be conceived without the involvement of computing systems (hardware and software). Under these circumstances, the curriculum includes an important series of courses oriented towards the architecture and use of computers such as: Computer Systems Architecture, Operating Systems, Databases, etc. These subjects start from general computer science problems and then, through applications, the specific problems of the study programme are studied in depth. This provides a good general education, useful in a wide range of fields.

The specialisation in Telecommunications Technologies and Systems is completed in Semesters 7 (partial) and 8. In order to give an idea of the skills that graduates of this specialisation can acquire, we will briefly present the topics covered in the subjects taught in year 4.

Unit of study Communication Networks provides knowledge of some fundamentals of circuit switching, packet switching, signaling associated with communication links, traffic in telecommunication networks, etc.

Discipline Data communications aims to present the principles and methods of data transmission from baseband transmission, with and without a carrier signal, to data protection techniques and computer-to-computer data transmission networks.

Discipline Signal processors in communications general characteristics of signal processors are studied in order to realize digital signal processing systems and real-time applications for telecommunications. The architectures of different families of signal processors, assembly languages specific to signal processors, techniques for adapting and optimizing applications written in C language for these processors, methods for designing digital signal processing systems and signal processing applications, and the realization of integrated systems for signal processing are presented.

Within the disciplines of Multiplex Transmission Systems, Transmission Media, Optical Communications the basic elements of the techniques used for the simultaneous, independent, reliable and faithful transmission of several analogue or digital messages on the same physical medium (metallic line or optical fibre) over a distance - sometimes very long, of the order of tens of thousands of kilometres - are presented. The essential characteristics of the transmission media used in telecommunications and their influence on the structure of analogue and digital transmission systems are highlighted. The systems are broken down into functional blocks without going into the details of technological implementation. Emphasis is placed on operational and link planning issues in accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) Recommendations.

Discipline Multimedia signal compression techniques aims to present the main audio/video compression and encoding techniques in a unified way. In this context, the most widely used methods for compressing still images, video sequences and audio signals, whether voice, music, narrowband or wideband, are reviewed. The compression techniques presented are then aggregated into complex audio/video applications, both in the storage or distribution of multimedia content and in the communications category.

Discipline Antennas and Propagation familiarises students with issues ranging from the fundamentals of radio wave production, capture and propagation to the principles of operation and construction of the most common types of antennas.

In order for part of the training to be carried out in a diversified way, according to the personal preferences of the trainee, packages of optional subjects have been introduced in each semester. For example, in the fourth year two packages stand out: Radar, Transmission media, Signal processors in communications, and respectively Multiple Access Techniques, Optical Communications and Traffic Engineering.

All the specialist subjects in the TST specialisation benefit from laboratories that are equipped with the latest generation of hardware (measurement and control equipment, workstations, computers and computer networks) and software (software packages), as well as older ones. Integrative projects have also been programmed every semester where students apply the theoretical knowledge acquired during the semester to solve concrete problems.