Course Title: Monitor, analyse and action telecommunications network alarms

Part B: Course Detail

Teaching Period: Term2 2011

Course Code: EEET6719C

Course Title: Monitor, analyse and action telecommunications network alarms

School: 130T Vocational Engineering

Campus: City Campus

Program: C6080 - Advanced Diploma of Telecommunications Engineering

Course Contact: Program Manager

Course Contact Phone: +61 3 9925 4468

Course Contact Email: engineering-tafe@rmit.edu.au


Name and Contact Details of All Other Relevant Staff

Mohammad Hassan mohammad.hasan@rmit.edu.au

George Listopad george.listopad@rmit.edu.au

Ken Falzon kenneth.falzon@rmit.edu.au

Nominal Hours: 60

Regardless of the mode of delivery, represent a guide to the relative teaching time and student effort required to successfully achieve a particular competency/module. This may include not only scheduled classes or workplace visits but also the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and complete all assessment requirements, including any non-classroom activities.

Pre-requisites and Co-requisites

None

Course Description

This course is to assist the learner to gain knowledge in electrical principles and network alarms and develop the diagnostic skills and rectification of problem in electrical circuit.


National Codes, Titles, Elements and Performance Criteria

National Element Code & Title:

ICTTC085C Monitor, analyse and action telecommunications network alarms

Element:

Analyse alarm conditions

Performance Criteria:

  1. Alarm presentation is checked and identified

  2. Severity and level of alarm is identified

  3. Specific network element affected is identified

  4. Particular software and/or hardware is identified where possible

  5. Likely customer impact is identified

  6. Agreements with affected customers are studied and action initiated to avoid breach of the agreement

  7. All appropriate areas are notified of both the alarm and the likely impact in accordance with enterprise policy

  8. Alarm is acknowledged in accordance with enterprise policy where required

Element:

Finalise action

Performance Criteria:

  1. Alarm priority is determined and actioned in accordance with enterprise policy

  2. Any outage situation, its extent and impact is identified

  3. Fault history is gathered and analysed

  4. Service level agreements with affected customers are analysed for impact on priority determination

  5. Discussions are held with other relevant organisation groups in an attempt to isolate and identify both the problem and the likely cause where applicable

  6. Further reports are gathered and analysed

  7. Likely areas of failures are identified and analysed

  8. Enterprise policy relating to outages is implemented immediately when required

Element:

Identify alarms

Performance Criteria:

  1. Fault/problem rectification is undertaken where appropriate priority applies, capability exists and time restrictions can be met

  2. Remote interrogation is undertaken to further identify the problem where possible

  3. Escalation procedures are enacted in accordance with alarm priority and enterprise policy

  4. Faults/problems not clearly identified by an alarm or incapable of rectification remotely are allocated to appropriate area

  5. Hardware faults/replacement are allocated to appropriate area

  6. Instructions given to field staff are clear, concise and delivered in a manner which enables quick and effective repair

  7. Fault repair progress is monitored on at regular intervals

  8. Alarms requiring no further action are documented and recorded in accordance with enterprise policy

  9. Advice is prepared and submitted to appropriate area in the event that further action to address the problem is required

Element:

Locate and arrange rectification of problem

Performance Criteria:

  1. Alarms are either reset or arrangements are made with the relevant authorised group to reset alarms

  2. All relevant parties including customers are notified of problem rectification

  3. Alarms are monitored to ensure no re-occurrence of the problem

  4. Appropriate cause and effect studies are undertaken, results analysed and action taken to prevent re-occurrence

  5. Reports are prepared and signed in accordance with enterprise policy


Learning Outcomes



Details of Learning Activities

In this unit you will learn industry recognized skills in designing, implementing and managing a local and wide area network.
Classroom activities:
Lectures: to introduce the important concepts.
• Attending lectures will make it much easier for you to understand the central concepts of the course
• You will feel more comfortable and you will learn more if you read the relevant material before you attend the lectures
Tutorials: to enable you to ask questions and to clarify unresolved issues
• Review the material and prepare your questions before you come to class.
• There will be an overview of course content with a focus on the material students find difficult
• If something is unclear or if you find yourself falling behind please ask for help immediately
• You may be given worksheets to complete during the tutorial
Reflective Lab Journal: You will perform the exercise and write it up in a reflective lab journal.
The reflective journal will be an Online Blog created in the Learning Hub.
A reflective lab journal is a means to reflect on your learning (and learning experiences) in different ways. They are used to:
• record the development of your ideas and insights and / or those of a group in a given context and can include concepts, ideas and main points from experience and theory
• reflect upon the subject content and personal experiences as a means to increase your understanding
• analyse your own learning in and for self development.
They are used to explore situations from a personal perspective, but generally within the context of learning from your experiences. They are used to reflect on, in and for action. Common questions arising from ’reflection’ are:
• What happened? (Reflecting on actions)
• Why did it happen? (Reflecting in actions)
• What can be learnt from this for future actions? (Reflecting for actions)
The write up will be a record of your actions as they are performed and your corresponding observations.
The write up must be performed in the class as you perform the exercise, not at a later date.
o Write ups not in the Blog will not be marked.
o Write ups which are not done concurrently with the performance of the exercise will not be marked.
In general the detail of the write up must be sufficient for you to be able to comfortably perform the practical exercise a year or more lately directly from the reflective lab journal
Any difficult or tricky points should be especially noted in the reflective journal for future reference.
The neatness, completeness and the presentation of the reflective journal must be of a quality such that you would be prepared to show it to a future employer as an example of your work.
Work simulated activities: you will progressively implement a networking scenario as you would be expected to do in industry.
• You will be expected to work on a networking scenario progressively as you learn the material required for you to be able to do so.
• Leaving the work to a late stage and then rushing to complete it is bad industrial practice. It will be strongly discouraged and marked down heavily. You will be expected to meet progressive milestones in the completion of this activity.
Occupational Health and Safety:
• Conduct in lecture theatres, classrooms and laboratories will be of a standard required by OH&S legislation as applied to industry.
• You must behave in such a way as not to place the health and safety of yourself or anyone else at risk
• Covered shoes must be worn in all labs
• Thongs and sandals must not be worn in any lab
Preparation for the Work place:
All skills and knowledge in this course are oriented towards current industry practices and technologies. An essential industry expectation is that you are responsible for your behaviour and actions. When you are in employment you will be expected to attend work on time on a regular basis, perform you work on time to an accepted standard and be responsible for what you do. Industry will expect you to comprehend and follow both verbal and written instructions. All industry expectations will be applied to you in this course.
You will be expected to:
• Observe all Occupational Health and Safety requirements
• You must behave in such a way as not to place the health and safety of yourself or anyone else at risk
• Prepare for classes
• Attend all classes regularly and on time
• Use your class time in a productive and responsible way
• Finish your work on time to an accepted standard
• Pay attention to, comprehend and follow both verbal and written instructions.
• It is your personal responsibility to be aware of course requirements and timelines
• Please ask if something is not clear
The Preparation for the Workplace component will be an essential part of the assessment for this course. It will be included in the assessment of the practical and work simulated activities.
Activities Outside of Class:
It is expected that students allocate at least 60% of course hours for reading, independent study, project research, design, implementation, testing and problem solving activities.


Teaching Schedule

See EEET6558C (ICTTC087C) for teaching schedule as it is the other half of this cluster.


Learning Resources

Prescribed Texts

Rick Graziani, Allan Johnson, Routing Protocols and Concepts, CCNA Exploration Companion Guide (2e), Cisco Press, ISBN: 9781587132049


References

Google Book: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=i4nwxZjpOa8C&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146&dq=Telecommunication+Alarm+conditions&source=bl&ots=bnrv_lpRXT&sig=sHSlzecMS8fstQ6tQQWGIAtkjt0&hl=en&ei=oZc-TJDVK47BcfiJzZEF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Telecommunication%20Alarm%20conditions&f=false

Network Alarm Management Systemhttp://www.dpstele.com/layers/tmonxm/l1/index.php

Alarm Management in Telecommunications Networks http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HPJ/is_n5_v47/ai_18895246/?tag=content;col1


Other Resources


Overview of Assessment

This is a progressive assessment, the underpinning knowledge will be assessed on the completion of each course, but the competency itself will not be signed off until this and the further course EEET6574C related to same competency are completed and the student is deemed competent.
The students are required to undertake summative assessments that bring together skills and knowledge as follows:
• Written assessment
• A Pass in schedule practical exercises


Assessment Tasks

 The assessment for this course is a combination of assessable laboratory experiments via reflective journal, two practical tests, a case study and final assessment.

You will be assessed progressively during the course. The assessments consist of:

Reflective lab Journal - 20%
Laboratory reports, completing all the activities/practice sheets and submitting a reflective lab journal.
The first Feedback from the teacher about student’s Reflective Journal will be available in Week 5 on Learning HUB and then second feedback will appear on Week 13. The final feedback is based on all the labs.

Laboratory Test – 30%
There would two Laboratory Tests. Each is worth of 15%. See EEET6558C (ICTTC087C) as it is the other half of this cluster.

Case Study- 10%

Final Assessment- 40%
The students are expected to do CCNA 2 online exams and their marks will be extracted from the online exams as below-
- Online CCNA 2 Chapter Exam - 10%
- Online CCNA 2 Final Exam - 30%
Otherwise, students need to sit for a consolidated internal written exam of 40%.

(The laboratory activities are a compulsory part of the assessment to successfully complete the course.)
In order to pass the course, you are required to obtain at least 50% in the final examination and at least 50% in the combination of laboratory tests, laboratory exercises and project work.
Each lab must be completed and laboratory reports are a compulsory part of the assessment to successfully complete the course.


Assessment Matrix

 

Other Information

See EEET6558C (ICTTC087C) as it is the other half of this cluster.

Course Overview: Access Course Overview