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NSWEngineering StudiesQuick questions
HSC Module: Telecommunications Engineering
Quick questions on Network topologies and cellular systems: HSC Engineering Studies Telecommunications Engineering
12short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What are cellular networks?Show answer
Cellular networks solved the problem of serving many mobile users with limited radio spectrum. The key idea: divide service area into small geographic cells, each served by its own base station, then REUSE radio frequencies in non-adjacent cells.
What are cellular generations?Show answer
Each generation adds capabilities while typically reducing latency and increasing peak throughput. Modern devices typically support multiple generations simultaneously for backward compatibility.
What are satellite communications?Show answer
Satellite is the engineering choice for remote-area coverage where terrestrial cabling or microwave is uneconomic, and for global broadcast. LEO constellations are eroding the latency disadvantage that traditionally favoured terrestrial links for interactive applications.
What is star?Show answer
All nodes connect to a central hub. Simple, cheap, easy to add or remove nodes. If the hub fails, the whole network fails.
What is bus?Show answer
All nodes share a single backbone cable. Cheap and simple in concept; common in early Ethernet (10BASE-2 coaxial). One cable break disrupts the whole network.
What is ring?Show answer
Nodes connect in a closed loop. Each node receives data and passes it on. Token Ring (older IBM technology) and SONET (fibre rings in telco networks) use this.
What is mesh?Show answer
Many nodes connect to many other nodes. Full mesh has every node connected to every other. Highly resilient (multiple paths between nodes) but expensive (n(n-1)/2 links for n nodes).
What is tree?Show answer
Hierarchical, with a root node branching to children. Common in larger enterprise networks and cable TV distribution.
What is generational specifications as a single number?Show answer
Each cellular generation includes mandatory and optional features; deployed networks may use only a subset. "5G" in marketing covers low-band, mid-band and mmWave deployments that perform very differently.
What is q1?Show answer
Compare a star and a mesh network topology on reliability and cost. [4 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Explain the role of frequency reuse in cellular networks. [4 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
A regional Australian engineer is designing connectivity for a rural community 200 km from the nearest fibre point. Compare a 4G/5G fixed-wireless solution, a GEO satellite link, and a LEO satellite link on latency, throughput, and reliability. [6 marks]