EC3731 Mobile Telecommunications Network Assessment Short Course

This classified, eight-day short course establishes a foundation for advanced study in mobile telecommunications pertinent to DoD and DoN missions. The majority of the course focuses on communications associated with commercial mobile telecommunications of interest to the DoD and DoN, to include protocols, signaling procedures, security, and management. The course has a significant lab component. The course will address all standardized generations of mobile telecommunications (GSM, CDMA, CDMA2000, UMTS, LTE, NR). It will examine underlying principles of lawful intercept (LI) implementation and discusses the evolution of LI capability from the PSTN through 5G networks.

Prerequisite

EC2700 or consent of instructor.

Lecture Hours

1

Lab Hours

2

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Students will be able to describe the incremental differences between each generation of mobile network technology to include Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, 5G.
  • For a given generation of mobile network technology, students will be able to illustrate the architectural components and identify their connectivity.
  • Students will be able to dictate the mechanics of location-based services in conjunction with methods for emitter geographic location and direction finding.
  • Students will be able to describe signalling and handover messages in registering and processing subscribers.
  • Students will be able to conduct common network attacks such as Silent SMS and IMSI catching using a software defined radio and open-source software.
  • Students will demonstrate the use of software defined radios to interact with and exploit mobile network communications.