<center> </center>SCHOOL ON DATA AND MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATIONS USING TERRESTRIAL AND SATELLITE RADIO LINKS 7 - 25 February 2000 Miramare - Trieste, Italy <center> </center> The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP - Trieste, Italy), in co-operation with the International Union of Radio Science (U.R.S.I. - Gent, Belgium) and the International Telecommunication Union (BDT-ITU, Geneva, Switzerland) is organizing the "School on Data and Multimedia Communications using Terrestrial and Satellite Radio Links" to be held from 7 to 25 February 2000. It will be directed by Prof. S. M. Radicella (Head of the Aeronomy and Radiopropagation Laboratory - ICTP) and Prof. R. Struzak (Member of the Radio Regulation Board - ITU). The School is part of the activities which ICTP carries out under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1993 by the Centre, the URSI and the Telecommunications Development Bureau of ITU. This School is the follow-up of the previous "ICTP-URSI-ITU/BDT Schools on the Use of Radio for Digital Communications in Developing Countries, including Spectrum Management" held in 1998 and 1999. These two Schools had on their turn replaced the past series of Colleges on Radiopropagation carried out at ICTP with the collaboration of URSI and ITU/BDT. Because of the growing importance of computer networking the School will cover also topics related to this subject. PROGRAMME The Second School will include one week of tutorial lectures and two weeks of laboratory work, where both computer networking and radio techniques for digital communications will be demonstrated, complemented by some case studies to be presented by the participants. The programme will consist of: 1. A first week of tutorial lectures given by international experts on the following topics: - Introduction: modern communication potential and needs in developing countries. - Perspectives of the information society and global information infrastructure. - Recent developments in satellite-based and terrestrial-based broad band systems. - Access to the spectrum/orbit resources and principles of spectrum management. - Principles of TDMA, FDMA, CDMA and spread-spectrum techniques. - Earth-to-earth and earth-to-space radiopropagation issues of interest to broad band systems. 2. The last two weeks foresee laboratory work to be carried out by using the digital communications facilities available at ICTP. This activity will simulate the planning and implementation of a campus computer network with simple multimedia facilities using radio links. The work will include practical exercises on: � Computer networking using terrestrial and satellite radio links, � Intranet multimedia campus networks, � Videoconferencing hardware and software. Time will also be devoted to analyses and discussions of case studies to be presented by the participants on issues related to the programme of the School. Technical experts from telecommunication enterprises will be invited to participate in this part of the School. The scheme proposed for the School is the result of experience gained during previous activities. PARTICIPATION Scientists and students from all countries that are members of the United Nations, UNESCO or IAEA can attend the School. The main purpose of the Centre is to help research workers from developing countries through a programme of training activities within a framework of international co-operation. However students and post-doctoral scientists from developed countries are also welcome to attend. As the School will be conducted in English, participants should have an adequate working knowledge of that language. As a rule, travel and subsistence expenses of the participants should be borne by the home institutions. However, limited funds are available for some scientists from developing countries. As scarcity of funds allows travel to be granted only in few exceptional cases, every effort should be made by candidates to secure support for their fares (or at least half-fare) from their home country. It is stressed that participants whose travel expenses are paid by the ICTP are required to attend the entire School. For logistics reasons, connected with the number of Personal Computers available, the total number of participants in the School is limited. There is no registration fee for attending the School. The closing date for requesting participation is 15 November 1999. The completed request for participation form, to be found at the back of this Bulletin (also obtainable via e-mail: smr1217@ictp.trieste.it, and by typing on the subject line "get index" or via the WWW Server: http://www.ictp.trieste.it/) should be completed, signed and posted to: <center> </center>The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics School on Data and Multimedia Communications using Terrestrial and Satellite Radio Links Strada Costiera, 11 I-34100 Trieste Italy Telephone: +39-0402240111 Telex: 460392 ICTP I Telefax: +39-040224163 E-mail: smr1217@ictp.trieste.it <center> </center> <center> </center>