Communications Engineering: Courses, job opportunities & salaries offered

Telecommunication engineers have tremendous scope for placements in two major industries, namely Telecom industries and software companies. Telecommunications engineer can work in Aviation and Avionics sector, in radio and television industries, in the manufacturing units of diagnostic equipment by offshore companies, etc.

Bachelors of Engineering in Telecommunication Engineering is a four-year undergraduate course, offered in numerous engineering colleges of India with an objective to offer long term engineering career in engineering for budding graduates. As a discipline, Communications Engineering is focussed on the hardware and the design of the telecommunication systems.

Required skillset for Communications Engineering

Communications engineers design and modify the electrical circuits and communication systems for industrial, commercial and scientific applications. It is a stream of engineering that demands in-depth technical knowledge on the subject. Communication engineers work for different telecommunications manufacturers and companies and serve as installers of communication systems and devices. For performing these tasks diligently, it is important for these professionals to have the following skillset.

• Be an active team player and monitor and manage the performance of electronic circuits
• Agree to work within project deadlines and within the allocated budget.
• Produce, test and also implement different circuit designs
• Have sound written communication skills so as to write reports and document them appropriately.
• Make project-related presentations and manage resources.
• Liaising with the other team members, customer, vendors, and suppliers
• Analyze and interpret data
• Offer expert technical support
• Organise and attend relevant meetings.

Communication Engineering Eligibility Criteria

Engineering colleges in India offer study programmes in communications engineering at both the undergraduate level (B.E. / B.Tech) and at the Masters level (M.E./M.Tech). To study these programmes, a student must fulfil certain eligibility criteria. The include: 

• The student should have completed XIIth class with Maths, Physics, and Chemistry as their major subjects.
• The student should have a minimum of 60 per cent marks in the qualifying exams to apply for communications engineering courses. Students belonging to the SC and ST category should have 55 per cent marks in the qualifying exams.
• Some states in India require the student to take up common entrance tests for engineering admission and offer them admission on the basis of their merit scores. Some states, however, admit students based on their cut off in their +2 examinations.
• For admission into UG courses, the students have to appear for JEE Main examinations. It is a national level exam conducted to screen students for various UG engineering courses.
• To apply for the Master’s degree in Communications Engineering, the candidate should possess 60 per cent marks in their UG degree. A relaxation of five per cent in the marks is offered for students belonging to the SC and ST categories.
• To apply for the postgraduate course, it is important to take up GATE entrance examinations. Students will be offered admission based on their marks in this qualifying examination.

Course Curriculum for Communications Engineering

Communications engineering is offered as a four years course with eight semesters. In the third and fourth years, the students are required to select their elective courses according to their choices. The communication engineering subject list can be summarized as follows:

Semester 1	Semester II
Engineering Mathematics – I and II	Language
Engineering physics	Elements of Mechanical engineering
Engineering Chemistry	Basic electrical engineering
Programming in C and Data structures	Basic electronics
Computer Programming laboratory	Professional ethics and the constitution of India
Elements of engineering mechanics	Environmental studies
Computer-Aided Engineering Drawing	Engineering Physics Lab
	Engineering Chemistry Lab
	Workshop Practice
Semester III	Semester IV
Engineering Mathematics III	Engineering Mathematics IV
Analog Electronic circuits	Microcontrollers
Digital electronic circuits	Signals and systems
Network Analysis	Fundamental of HDL
Electronic instrumentation	Control systems
Signals and systems	Linear integral circuits and Applications
Analog Electronics lab	Microcontroller lab
Digital lab for electronics	HDL lab
Semester V	Semester VI
Management and entrepreneurship	Microprocessors
Transmission lines and antennas	Microwaves and Radar
Analog communications	Antenna and propagation
Digital signal processing	Information theory and coding
Fundamentals of CMOS VLSI	Elective 1 ( Group A)
Analog communication + LIC lab	Microwave and antenna lab
DSP lab	Microprocessors lab
Digital communication
Semester VII	Semester VIII
Computer communications networks	Optical communications networking
Optical fiber communication	Global systems for mobile communication
Wireless communication	Elective 2 (Group D)
DSP algorithms and Architecture	Elective 3 (Group E)
Elective 2 (Group B)	Project work
Elective 3 (Group C)	Seminar
Project work
Seminars
Electives ( Students can choose from any of the following elective subjects)
Elective Group A	Elective Group B
Programming in C ++	Operating systems
RF integrated circuits	Digital signal compression
Random processes	Artificial neural network
Adaptive signal processing	Image processing
Digital system design using Verilog	Video engineering
Modern control theory	Micro and smart system technique
Elective Group C	Elective Group D
Data structures using C++	Network security
Real time systems	Internet engineering
Pattern recognition	Mobile computing
Wavelet transforms	Network security
Speech processing	High performance computer networks
Embedded systems design	Fuzzy logic
Elective Group E
Multimedia communications
Real time operating systems
Modeling and simulation of data networks
Wireless sensor networks
Ad-hoc wireless networks
Optical computing

Telecommunication Engineering: Job Opportunities & Career Scope

Most of the engineering colleges in India offer an engineering degree in Communications. The average course fee ranges from Rs 2-5 lakh. However, the money invested can give a student an ROI within a year or two. A student can get a starting annual salary of Rs 1.5-3 lakh, depending on the college of study, student’s caliber and the recruiting organisation.

The top Communications Engineering colleges in India are IIT Kharagpur - Indian Institute of Technology (IITKGP), IIT Roorkee - Indian Institute of Technology (IITR), IIT Guwahati - Indian Institute of Technology (IITG), NIT Trichy - National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NITT), VIT University - Vellore Institute of Technology, Dr. C.V. Raman University, etc. The most popular telecommunication courses are:

• Diploma in telecommunications engineering
• B.Tech + M.Tech combined course
• B.Tech lateral entry after diploma course
• B.Tech in telecommunications engineering
• B.Tech in telecommunications engineering

Telecommunication engineers have tremendous scope for placements in two major industries, namely Telecom industries and software companies. Telecommunications engineer can work in Aviation and Avionics sector, in radio and television industries, in the manufacturing units of diagnostic equipment by offshore companies, etc. Some of the job profiles, these engineers can take are field test engineers, network planning engineer, a telecommunications consultant, Associate technician, service engineers, sales managers, etc. Some of the major employers of telecommunication engineers are BEL, Siemens, Intel, DRDO, ISRO, etc.