3k Cellular & Satellite Phones *

Question 0

The regional Mountain Rescue Organisation often sends members to assist in international relief operations.
Discuss the implications for members of the regional Mountain Rescue Organisation of being able to communicate using mobile technology whilst assisting with international relief operations (11 marks)

Answer 0

Points for discussion may include for example;
 never out of contact
 mobile phone coverage most places
 satellite phones for use in disaster area
 digital cameras, video cameras, upload to website
Possible Impacts may include for example:
 never out of contact so can reassure families and rest of team at home when
arrive and if any problems
 can take lots of pictures not limited to films or carry lots of films around uploading
to website or blog
 not the right contract for use in that area
 technology allows you to know what is happening in the rest of the world; can
check up on flights; confirm bookings etc.
Possible Consequences for discussion may include for example;
 not completely relaxed; can take the work with you
 people from home can contact you with other matters
 prank texting
 increase in insurance and claims if devices damaged or lost [11]

Question 1

Describe how the emergency services can find the exact location of a mobile phone that is being used to make an emergency call in the UK.(6 marks)

Answer 1

5-6 covers the whole process
Points may include:
 each cell has a cell tower and a cell base station/base station transceiver (BST)
 the Mobile Telecommunications Switching Office (MTSO) / Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) keeps track of the mobile phone’s location in a database
 MTSOs / MSCs from different service providers communicate if the mobile telephone enters the cells of other service providers
 the emergency services contact the mobile telephone companies monitoring their MTSOs / MSCs
 the emergency services ascertain the mobile telephone’s location (and its pattern of movement) by triangulating the signal from more than one base station (which are controlled by the MTSOs / MSCs)

Question 2

Give two comparisons between ADSL and a leased line for accessing the internet from Awburn House Surgery(4 marks)

Answer 2

12 (a)
Data is separated based on fields.
(f)
4 3 2 1
Two complete comparisons for full marks
bandwidth
 both ADSL and leased lines offer large bandwidths which allow more data to be sent at the same time meaning large volumes of data can be handled at once.
contention
 a leased line has no contention ratios (as the connection is direct between one router and another) whereas ADSL from a household may experience contention ratios ((despite a provider’s claims) as a number of households share the same fibre-optic link from street to provider).
symmetry
 leased lines are symmetrical (meaning the same amount of upstream and downstream bandwidth is available) whereas ADSL is asymmetric (meaning downstream has a much higher bandwidth than upstream).
cost
 a leased line is installed especially for an organisation which vastly increases set-up costs whereas ADSL connections utilise the provider’s infrastructure which limits set-up costs to just local connection.