SA105: Introduction to Multiplexers

SA105: Introduction to Multiplexers provides students with a foundational understanding of how multiple data streams are combined, transported, and separated within modern communication systems. The course introduces multiplexing as a core concept that bridges signal generation, binary structure, and protocol behavior, emphasizing how multiplexers are created and used in communication.
 
Students will examine common multiplexing techniques including time-division multiplexing (TDM), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), statistical multiplexing, and hybrid approaches used in real-world systems. The course focuses on how multiplexing impacts data rates, timing, framing, synchronization, and error propagation, and how these effects manifest in captured signals and binary data.
 
Through guided instruction and hands-on analysis, learners will explore how multiplexed streams appear at different stages of the analysis pipeline. Students will practice identifying multiplexing patterns, distinguishing between single-channel and multi-channel data, and recognizing artifacts introduced by framing, interleaving, and channelization. Emphasis is placed on understanding both the intent of multiplexing designs and the analytic challenges they introduce.
 
By the end of SA105, students will be able to recognize multiplexed communication structures, reason about channel organization and timing, and prepare multiplexed data for demultiplexing, binary carving, and downstream protocol analysis in advanced Digital Atlas courses.