SA106: Introduction to Comms Analysis

SA106: Introduction to Communications Analysis provides students with an integrated view of how modern communication systems operate as end-to-end architectures, bringing together signal generation, modulation, multiplexing, binary structure, and protocol behavior into a unified analytic framework. This course emphasizes systems-level reasoning, teaching students how to analyze communications holistically rather than as isolated technical components.
 
Building on prior courses in signal analysis, binary systems, and multiplexing, students learn how information flows from source to destination across layered communication stacks. The course explores how design choices at each stage—such as modulation schemes, channelization methods, framing strategies, and protocol structures—affect what analysts observe during collection and exploitation.
 
Through applied exercises and scenario-based analysis, learners practice tracing data through the full communications lifecycle: from waveform characteristics and symbol mapping, through multiplexed channels and binary framing, to application-level messaging. Students develop the ability to form and test analytic hypotheses, identify where in the chain anomalies or artifacts are introduced, and select appropriate tools and techniques to isolate and interpret communications of interest.
 
By the end of SA106, students will be able to assess unfamiliar communication systems, determine how their components interact, and design effective analysis strategies that span the RF, binary, and protocol layers. This course serves as a bridge between foundational concepts and advanced exploitation, reverse engineering, and operational communications analysis in later Digital Atlas modules.