Acting Out Phone Call Routing: Hello, Are You Listening?
How does a phone call find you?Copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. All rights reserved.
Students gain a basic understanding of the engineering components behind telecommunications, in particular, the way telephone communication works to link one phone to another for conventional landline and cellular telephones. During this entire-class activity, students simulate how phone calls are connected by acting out a variety of searches for both local and long-distance calls. Students end up with a good understanding of how phone calls are transmitted from callers to recipients.
Since the invention of the telephone, human communication devices have increased in their variety, complexity and pervasiveness in our lives. Engineers are big players in these changes, and the solution for call routing has existed for decades. By developing their own strategies and understanding of what type of information is required to get calls from one location to another, students develop a more thorough understanding of how this type of communication operates. The activity also illustrates how engineers approach solutions to systems that require the transfer of large amounts of information.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Understand technology as a system with inputs and outputs.
- Make decisions related to advantages and disadvantages of products and processes.
- Gain knowledge by using resources, such as people, references and the internet.
- Use mathematical scaling.
- Consider environmental impact of designs.