Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non‑Engineers

Did you know that MPLS VPNs enable millisecond failover, Carrier Ethernet connects enterprise sites as one LAN, and cloud migrations reduce downtime while improving security. The Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non Engineers course builds essential telecom and networking literacy so non technical professionals can make confident, informed decisions.

Course Overview

The Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers course by Rcademy is designed to equip non-engineering professionals in operations, management, sales, finance, procurement, and IT with solid foundational understanding of telecommunications, data communications, and networking concepts in plain English without requiring technical depth or mathematics backgrounds. Participants gain accessible knowledge of convergence, broadband, IP, Ethernet, MPLS, carrier networks, wireless, fiber, copper transmission technologies, and cloud computing so they can evaluate vendor proposals, participate in technology discussions, and make informed recommendations about network services and investments.

Without foundational telecom training, non-engineers may struggle to understand service options, assess provider capabilities, or contribute effectively to network transformation projects, limiting their ability to support business strategy, evaluate contracts, or advance into cross-functional roles. This vendor-neutral course provides a structured path to competency across carrier networks, IP networking, MPLS VPNs, OSI layers, and modern enterprise architectures, preparing attendees to bridge technical and business conversations confidently.

The Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers course covers broadband telecommunications introduction, telecom fundamentals, network fundamentals, the Internet and cloud computing, telecom services overview, digital media encoding, wireless networks, fiber optic networks, copper wire networks, telecom equipment, carriers and interconnection, OSI layers and protocol stacks, Ethernet and VLANs, IP networks and routers, MPLS and carrier packet networks, and comprehensive course wrap-up. Participants learn to understand convergence of voice, video, and data over IP, grasp how packets traverse carrier networks, evaluate residential and business service models, comprehend cloud and web services architecture, master the OSI Reference Model, and develop competency in hybrid cloud and SD-WAN concepts.

Real-world cases show how Verizon’s MPLS VPNs deliver inherent infrastructure redundancy rerouting traffic around failures in milliseconds, Class of Service capabilities prioritizing delay-sensitive traffic, and the same security level as private-line networks, demonstrating why understanding MPLS fundamentals remains essential for enterprise network planning even as SD-WAN emerges.

Studies also show that Carrier Ethernet services with automated provisioning, guaranteed bandwidth, and simplified operations enable service providers to deliver EVP-LAN L2VPN connectivity making all enterprise sites appear on the same LAN with access to shared servers and applications, transforming traditional LAN technology into carrier-class services for MANs and WANs.

Take charge of your telecom knowledge. Enroll now in the Rcademy Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers course to build the foundational skills that enable effective participation in technology decisions.

Who Should Attend?

The Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers course by Rcademy is ideal for:

• Non-engineering professionals in operations and management
• Business development and product managers
• Sales and marketing professionals in telecom
• Finance and procurement professionals overseeing telecom spending
• IT and systems administrators transitioning to telecom roles
• Analysts and consultants making technology recommendations
• Compliance and regulatory professionals
• Call center and customer service teams
• Career changers new to telecommunications
• Administrative staff supporting technical teams
• Project managers coordinating telecom initiatives
• Legal professionals handling telecom contracts
• Executives seeking foundational telecom literacy
• Anyone needing vendor-neutral telecom knowledge
• Professionals frustrated by technical buzzwords

What are the Training Goals?

The main objectives of The Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers course by Rcademy are to enable professionals to:

• Build a solid foundational understanding of telecommunications, data communications, and networking concepts in plain English without technical depth requirements.​
• Eliminate buzzword frustration by mastering fundamental ideas: convergence, broadband, IP, Ethernet, MPLS, and how they work together end-to-end.​
• Understand carrier network structure, service delivery models, and interconnection between carriers for voice, data, and video services.​
• Master the three transmission technologies wireless, fiber, and copper and their roles in modern broadband networks.​
• Develop competency in IP networking: addresses, routers, packets, DHCP, NAT, and IPv6 at a conceptual level for informed decision-making.​
• Grasp network layering via the OSI Reference Model and protocol stacks to understand how applications, transport, and physical layers integrate.​
• Understand MPLS as a traffic management system for VPNs, Classes of Service, and service integration in carrier networks.​
• Gain career-enhancing knowledge of cloud computing, web services, data centers, and the Internet as a business model.​
• Equip yourself with vendor-neutral, structured knowledge enabling effective participation in telecom projects, strategy, and vendor discussions.

How Will This Training Course Be Presented?

At Rcademy, the extensive focus is laid on the relevance of the training content to the audience. Thus, content is reviewed and customised as per the professional backgrounds of the audience.

The training framework includes:

• Expert-led lectures by senior telecom professionals using audio-visual sessions
• Plain-English explanations without requiring technical depth
• Interactive discussions around real-world service scenarios
• Case studies covering MPLS VPNs, Carrier Ethernet, and cloud migrations
• Practical exercises evaluating vendor proposals and service options

The theoretical part of training is delivered by an experienced professional from the relevant domain, using audio-visual presentations. This accessible approach ensures non-technical participants build confidence through conceptual understanding, real-world examples, and vendor-neutral knowledge applicable across roles.

This beginner-friendly model ensures participants gain both foundational concepts and practical knowledge to immediately contribute to telecom discussions, vendor evaluations, and technology decisions.

Register now to experience a supportive, non-technical learning journey designed to make telecommunications accessible and immediately useful for business professionals.

Course Syllabus

Module 1: Introduction to Broadband Telecommunications

• The telecommunications revolution: convergence of voice, video, and data over IP networks.​
• What broadband means and its impact on modern networks.​
• Overview of converged telecom architecture: core, aggregation, and access layers.​
• Residential, business, and wholesale telecom services overview.​
• Understanding the Internet and carrier networks from a business perspective.​

Module 2: Telecom Fundamentals

• Elements of a circuit: terminals, clients, servers, and peers.​
• How bits are represented on fiber using pulses and on wireless/cable using modems.​
• Fundamentals of circuits: simplex, half-duplex, and full-duplex communication.​
• Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), and bandwidth sharing.​
• Overbooking and Bandwidth on Demand concepts.​

Module 3: Network Fundamentals

• Routers, switches, and packet relaying: how information is transmitted between devices.​
• IP packets: what they are, structure, and routing fundamentals.​
• MAC (Media Access Control) frames and Ethernet basics.​
• MPLS labels and their role in traffic management.​
• How packets, frames, and labels work together end-to-end.​

Module 4: The Internet, Cloud Computing, Web Services and Data Centers

• What an Internet Service Provider (ISP) does and how they deliver packets globally.​
• Web clients, browsers, apps, and web servers: client-server computing basics.​
• Web services and cloud computing: AWS, Microsoft Azure, and scalability concepts.​
• Data center architecture and supporting millions of concurrent users.​
• The growing $50 billion web services industry and career implications.​

Module 5: Telecom Services Overview

• Residential broadband Internet services and video streaming options.​
• Residential voice: Internet VoIP and PSTN phone numbers.​
• Business services: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), SIP trunking, PRI, and Centrex.​
• Wholesale services: dark fiber, wavelengths, Carrier Ethernet, and IP transit.​
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and recurring billing models.​

Module 6: Digital Media: Voice, Video, Images, Quantities, and Text

• Digitizing voice: codec fundamentals and G.711 64 kb/s standard.​
• How sound is converted to 1s and 0s for packet transmission.​
• Digital video: compression, formats (MP4, H.264), and streaming fundamentals.​
• Digital images: JPEG and PNG compression and quality tradeoffs.​
• Binary and hexadecimal number systems for understanding digital data.​
• Unicode, text encoding, and emoji representation in digital networks.​

Module 7: Wireless Networks and Technologies

• Wireless spectrum: bands, frequencies, and regulatory allocation by country.​
• Mobile network components and operation: base stations, controllers, and backhaul.​
• Coverage, capacity, and mobility requirements in cellular design.​
• PSTN phone calls via mobile networks: handoffs and roaming.​
• Mobile Internet: data plans, 4G LTE, and 5G technologies overview.​
• Fixed wireless broadband Internet for homes and businesses.​
• Wi-Fi and 802.11 standards: residential and enterprise deployment.​
• Satellite communications and their role in global connectivity.​

Module 8: Fiber Optic Networks

• Fiber optic basics: how light transmits data on glass fibers.​
• Fiber cable makeup, types, and physical characteristics.​
• Wavelengths and Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) for capacity.​
• Optical Ethernet and point-to-point fiber links in networks.​
• Fiber deployment in core, metro, and access networks.​
• Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) and Passive Optical Networks (PONs).​

Module 9: Copper Wire Networks

• Twisted pair copper wires: POTS telephone service and DSL broadband.​
• How DSL broadband operates on legacy phone copper infrastructure.​
• Cable modems and Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) systems for cable TV and broadband.​
• T1 circuits: applications, structure, and data rates.​
• LAN cable categories (Cat 5e, Cat 6, Cat 6A) and specifications.​
• Fiber-to-neighborhood, copper-to-premise architecture in modern networks.​

Module 10: Telecom Equipment

• Ethernet switches and IP/MPLS routers: roles, costs, and capabilities.​
• Customer premises equipment (CPE): modems, gateways, and routers.​
• Legacy Central Office (CO) switches vs. modern soft switches and call managers.​
• SIP servers and their role in VoIP call management.​
• Gateways: converting between packet-based and circuit-based calls.​

Module 11: Carriers and Interconnection

• Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs), Competitive LECs (CLECs), and Mobile Carriers.​
• How carriers interconnect at Points of Presence (POPs) in toll centers.​
• Internet Exchange (IX) buildings and peering/transit agreements.​
• Signaling System 7 (SS7) for setting up PSTN calls between carriers.​
• How CLEC equipment is collocated in wire centers.​

Module 12: The OSI Layers and Protocol Stacks

• ISO Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) 7-Layer Reference Model structure.​
• What each layer is, its purpose, and the protocols that implement each layer.​
• Layer 1 (Physical): fiber, copper, wireless transmission media.​
• Layer 2 (Data Link): LANs, MAC addresses, and frame transmission.​
• Layer 3 (Network): IP, routers, and packet routing fundamentals.​
• Layer 4 (Transport): TCP, UDP, and connection reliability.​
• Layer 5 (Session), Layer 6 (Presentation), and Layer 7 (Application) protocols.​
• Protocol stacks and encapsulation: how layers work together.​

Module 13: Ethernet, LANs and VLANs

• Ethernet fundamentals and IEEE 802.3 standards overview.​
• MAC (Media Access Control) addresses and their role in local networks.​
• MAC frames: structure, headers, and transmission on physical media.​
• LAN switches (Layer 2 switches) and how they connect devices.​
• Broadcast domains and the scope of ARP and broadcasts.​
• Virtual LANs (VLANs): segmentation, isolation, and security benefits.​

Module 14: IP Networks, Routers and Addresses

• IPv4 addressing: classes, subnets, and CIDR notation fundamentals.​
• Static and dynamic addressing; DHCP role in address assignment.​
• Public vs. private IP addresses (RFC 1918) and address conservation.​
• Network Address Translation (NAT) and its purpose in networks.​
• IP routers: routing decisions, forwarding tables, and packet relay.​
• Firewalls: access control based on IP address and port numbers.​
• IPv6 addressing: format, allocation, and transition concepts.​

Module 15: MPLS and Carrier Packet Networks

• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): what carriers promise and how they’re measured.​
• Virtual circuits: concept and carrier implementation using MPLS.​
• MPLS fundamentals: labels, label switching, and forwarding.​
• Classes of Service in carrier networks using MPLS priorities.​
• MPLS VPNs: implementing private enterprise networks over carrier infrastructure.​
• Traffic aggregation and label stacking for managing aggregates.​
• Service integration: combining voice, data, and video over MPLS.​

Module 16: Wrapping Up Course 101

• Top-down review of telecom technologies, services, and solutions.​
• Telecom project management and methodology fundamentals.​
• Where the money is: recurring revenue, subscription models, and business drivers.​
• Future of telecommunications: convergence of telephone network and Internet.​
• Building structured knowledge for career advancement and informed decision-making.

Training Impact

The impact of Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non‑Engineers training is evident in how organizations design secure VPNs, deploy Carrier Ethernet for cloud access, and execute cloud migrations with improved efficiency using shared conceptual understanding across technical and non‑technical teams.​

Verizon – MPLS VPNs Delivering Secure, Resilient Connectivity

Implementation: Verizon positions MPLS‑based VPNs as evolutionary migrations from Layer 2 networks, enabling enterprises to reuse existing CPE while eliminating the need for multiple Layer 2 networks and virtual point‑to‑point links, since traffic is routed between sites based on IP addresses once an MPLS port is activated on the VPN. Verizon’s Private IP service runs over a closed MPLS infrastructure with no internet reachability, engineered with QoS, resiliency, capacity flexibility, and business continuity, offering any‑to‑any connectivity so enterprise sites and mobile users can exchange voice, data, and video traffic directly rather than hairpinning through a hub.​

Results: MPLS VPNs provide inherent infrastructure redundancy that reroutes traffic around failures in milliseconds, CoS controls that ensure delay‑sensitive traffic such as voice and conferencing is prioritized, and security comparable to private lines since sites can only communicate within their VPN, making them ideal for mission‑critical enterprise workloads. Verizon notes that SD‑WAN should be seen as an enhancement rather than a replacement, often running over MPLS for non‑critical cloud access in hybrid designs, demonstrating the ongoing importance of understanding MPLS when planning modern enterprise networks.​

Ciena / XYZ Communications – Carrier Ethernet Business Services

Implementation: Ciena’s True Carrier Ethernet case study describes XYZ Communications delivering managed Carrier Ethernet business services using CESD switches and an Element and Service Manager to provide multipoint EVP‑LAN services that connect four enterprise sites into a single Layer 2 VPN so all locations appear on the same LAN with access to shared servers and applications. The architecture supports rapid automated service activation, granular bandwidth increases, and point‑and‑click provisioning of differentiated services using traffic classification templates while maintaining carrier‑grade resiliency comparable to SONET but at lower cost.​

Results: The enterprise gains a scalable, reliable, and cost‑effective Metro/WAN solution for cloud interconnection, branch‑to‑HQ connectivity, and disaster recovery, with guaranteed bandwidth and simplified operations compared with traditional private lines or multiple Layer 2 networks. The provider differentiates its offerings through enhanced Carrier Ethernet capabilities beyond MEF minimums, such as flexible EVC options and ring resiliency, demonstrating how understanding Carrier Ethernet helps non‑engineers evaluate real‑world connectivity options in RFPs and solution designs.​

Caylent and Time & Attendance Provider – Azure to AWS Cloud Migration

Implementation: Caylent helped a time and attendance solutions provider consolidate IT after an acquisition by migrating 25 VMs from Azure to AWS with minimal downtime, first inventorying all workloads, mapping dependencies, and then establishing secure VPN connections between Azure and AWS, setting up Amazon Managed Active Directory, and configuring AWS VPN so end users could continue using Remote Desktop to access systems. The team used AWS migration tools to move VMs, re‑created firewall rules and IAM policies to preserve access controls, and implemented logging and auditing via AWS CloudTrail, followed by knowledge transfer so the customer’s Azure‑trained staff could operate the new AWS environment.​

Results: The migration consolidated infrastructure into AWS, reducing management overhead, improving resource allocation, and strengthening security through AWS best practices while maintaining business continuity and preserving the familiar user experience. Comprehensive documentation and training enabled the customer’s team to manage the environment effectively, illustrating how foundational understanding of networking, VPNs, IP addressing, and cloud services underpins successful transformation projects, exactly the type of literacy this course builds for non‑engineers.​

Enterprises rely on MPLS VPNs, Carrier Ethernet, and cloud migration to stay secure and resilient. Join the Rcademy Broadband, Telecom, Datacom and Networking for Non-Engineers course and gain the network literacy that makes you indispensable.