حل واجب t215a

T215A: Communication and information technologies

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Tutor-Marked Assignment

Question 1: A GPS Based Application at AOU                      (40 Marks)

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a location system developed by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for its tremendous application as a military locating utility. Over the past years, the GPS has proven to be a useful tool in non-military mapping applications.

Suppose that the Research and Development department (R&D) at the Arab Open University intends to implement GPS based applications and that its research members are currently searching for novel student-ended applications. Your role in this question of your TMA is to help the AOU R&D department in understanding what GPS is and finding interesting GPS applications. To do so, you are supposed to edit a short report that fairly answers the following questions:

§        What is GPS and how it works? (≈200 Words).          

                                   (8 Marks)

§        How accurate is it? What limits its performance and affects its accuracy? Illustrate at least two limitations (≈200 Words).

                                                           (8 Marks)

In your report, you should also:

§        Mention and briefly explain two different GPS applications that might be used by the Arab Open University; (≈200 Words)                                                (8 Marks)

§        Recommend one of these applications and provide strong arguments for your recommendation. (≈100 Words)                                                              (4 Marks)

Notes for Question 1:

ü     Your report should be between 700 and 800 words in length. Under-length and over-length reports will be penalized.                                                                    (2 Marks)

ü     Your report should include at least two figures and/or tables. Do not forget to include a caption for each figure/table and to use cross-referencing.                           (3 Marks)

ü     Ensure that your report meets the objectives, has an appropriate structure and style, and that its technical level is appropriate for the audience, purpose and medium. For more details, you can refer to the T215 textbooks (Block 1 – Part 7; Block 2 – Part 7 and Block 3).                                                                                                           (4 Marks)

ü     Your report should be based on reliable resources (i.e. journal articles, technical reports, conference papers, international textbooks) and you should provide a reference list at the end of your report. The references should be in a standard form.                   (3 Marks)

ü     You are advised to remind yourself of the issues concerning plagiarism.

Question 2: The all-singing, all-dancing mobile device                   (25 Marks)

T215A permitted you to learn many concepts related to Communication and Information technologies such as: Mobile devices, WLAN, storage devices, etc. Consequently, you are supposed to use what you learned in real-life situations.

Suppose that you are a seller in a well-known mobiles shop and a curious customer is interested in buying the new “Samsung Galaxy Note 3 LTE” mobile device. This curious customer downloaded and printed the mobile phone’s technical specifications from the official Samsung Website (http://www.samsung.com/ae/consumer/mobile-phones/mobile-phones/galaxy-note/SM-N9005ZKEXSI-spec) and is asking you, as a specialist, about specific technical features.

Read carefully the pdf file entitled “Samsung_Galaxy_Note3_TechSpec.pdf” provided in your TMA folder, then, answer each the following customer’s questions:

a)      This mobile phone permits the user to connect to several types of mobile networks: GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G, 4G, etc. What is GSM? and why is the GSM connectivity included in such a novel smartphone device while it seems to be very old compared to 4G LTE? (Explain).                                                                                                   (4 Marks)

b)      What does “802.11a/b/g/n/ac” mean? What kind of details does it provide? Explain and give examples.                                                                                                         (4 Marks)

c)      What does AMOLED stand for? What does it mean? And what are its advantages?

(4 Marks)

d)      How many processors does this mobile phone contain? What is its processing speed?

(2 Marks)

e)      How much internal memory storage capacity does this mobile phone contain? RAM storage capacity? Can we consider these capacities as high and why?        (4 Marks)

f)        Under the Battery section, what is “3200 mAh”? And why the maximum usage time differs when the mobile is used for different purposes?                          (4 Marks)

g)      What is the mean current in the mobile phone’s circuit when Wi-Fi is used for 13h of continuous internet browsing? (Show the formula you used and the calculation steps clearly).                                                                                                         (3 Marks)

Notes for Question 2:

ü     In no more than 100 words per answer, edit the answers that directly respond the customer’s enquiries. Over-length answers will be penalized. 

ü     Questions “d and g” can be answered in less than 50 words.

ü     You can use external reliable resource(s) to elaborate your answers but ensure that you provide its (their) reference(s) at the end of your answer. The reference(s) should be in a standard form.

ü     You are advised to remind yourself of the issues concerning plagiarism.

Question 3: Data Compression                                                         (35 Marks)

A T215A student bought a 50GB blue-ray disc and is willing to use this disc in order to store a 40GB raw video file. Help this student in more efficiently using the blue-ray disc as a storage device by answering the following questions:

a)      In no more than 200 words, explain the main idea behind the blue-ray disc technology: what does a blue-ray disc mean? What technology is used for storing and reading data?     Draw a comparison table between CDs, DVDs, and Blue-Ray discs.      (8 Marks)

b)      Express the storage capacity of this blue ray disc in bits.                                    (4 Marks)

c)      Using a writing speed of 576 Mbits/s. How long would it take to store a 40GB raw video file on this blue ray disk?                                                                                     (4 Marks)

d)      In no more than 200 words, explain what data compression is and give a brief overview about the well-known MPEG2 compression technique.                                   (8 Marks)

e)      How small would the 40GB raw video file become if it is compressed with a compression ratio of 15?                                                                                                   (4 Marks)

f)        Use the same writing speed in “question c” to calculate how long it would take to store the same video file after its compression.                                                    (4 Marks)

g)      Would you recommend compressing the video file before storing it on the blue-ray disc? Why/Why not? Justify.                                                                         (3 Marks)

Notes for Question 3:

ü     You are required to respect the word length specified in each question. Over-length answers will be penalized.

ü     When calculations are needed, clearly show the formulas you used; how have you applied them numerically and your numerical final results.

ü     When an external resource(s) is (are) used to answer a given question, ensure that your resource(s) is (are) reliable and that you provide its (their) reference(s) at the end of your answer. The reference(s) should be in a standard form.

ü     You are advised to remind yourself of the issues concerning plagiarism.

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End of TMA