Discrete event simulation as didactic support to the teaching of telecommunications systems: Applications in digital telephony

The development of telecommunications in Brazil demands increasingly skilled professionals. Professional training in this area is mainly acquired in the courses of technical and technological training. In the teaching of telecommunications, an alternative to the rapid technological progress and the cost of equipment for laboratory practice is the use of didactic simulators. Animation models were developed to represent concepts in digital telephony, specifically in time-division multiplexing, demultiplexing and switching time. Visualization tests were made with multimedia resource for the teacher in the classroom and with personal computers for each student in the computer lab. The models were adequate as an additional tool in teaching telecommunications and as a complement of the laboratory practice in the discipline of telephony. We noticed the potential of discrete simulation software to make animation models for technical and technological education in other subjects in the course of telecommunications.