IIT Kharagpur's G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications is gearing-up to offer several courses targeting the increasing infrastructure and networks demands of the telecommunications industry.

Saswat Chakraborti, head of G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications at IIT-KGP says: "We offered three short-term courses so far in 2007, and would introduce one more this December. We are planning several new courses targeted at B-tech graduates, industry professionals, as well as teachers from engineering institutes."

The courses are expected to address all kinds of next generation telecom network needs and relevant infrastructure development.

The courses will train students on mobile handset designing and bandwidth management so that existing telecom infrastructure could be utilised to the fullest.

"With the growing number of mobile users, we will train students on how to accommodate new users without hampering the performance committed to the existing mobile users. The courses will also train on how to expand within the limited resources," Chakraborti added.

The school, at present, offers MS in telecommunication engineering, PhD in telecommunication engineering, Post graduate diploma in telecommunication network planning and management and several one-week short-term courses for professionals and teachers alike.

Under short-term courses, the institute will introduce a course on 'optical & wireless networks' this December. This will cover overview of wireless networks; cellular air-interface; wireless medium access; wireless LAN; ad hoc and sensor networks; broadband networks; diversity techniques and MIMO systems; traffic engineering; network planning and operation.

Most short-term courses offered by the institute are availed by telecom services providers, telecom software and hardware developers and organisations that are into research and development.

The institute also has plans to convert the diploma programme into a full-time M-tech programme. IIT-KGP recently inaugurated its Vodafone Essar-IIT Center of Excellence in Telecommunications.

According to Chakraborti, the existing telecommunications school is likely to be merged into the recently inaugurated centre of excellence with Vodafone. The Vodafone-supported IIT-KGP centre, in association with Department of Telecom, will focus on next generation telecom networks and network technology.

Recently, mobile operators, top academic institutes and the Government of India joined hands to set up telecom Centres of Excellence, in a bid to beef up R&D infrastructure in the telecom sector.