Entry requirements

120 credits within Science and Technology including Signals and Systems.

Learning outcomes

After a successfully completed course the student should be able to:

• explain how information can be transmitted from a source to a receiver,
• explain how the quality of the received information can be quantified,
• explain some commonly used modulation methods,
• explain the most important properties of channel codes, and be able to choose an appropriate code for a given
• application,
• analyse the capacity of a communication channel with given statistical properties, such as as Rayleigh fading or
• log-normal shadow fading,
• determine modulation and transmit power for a given radio channel under performance condition and also be able
• to use diversity based or adaptive transmission methods,
• explain the properties of the different main principles for multiple access,
• construct proposals for radio resource management in cellular systems under prescribed system requirements.

Content

Data formatting: Sampling and quantisation. Base band and pass-band signalling. Techniques for modulation and demodulation: Pulse-amplitude modulation, phase shift modulation frequency modulation and quadrature amplitude modulation. Error sources: Thermal noise, interference and inter-symbol interference. Matched filtering, pulse shaping and channel equalisation. Optimal detection. Error rates and spectral efficiency. Channel coding: Linear block codes and convolutional codes. Structure of coders and decoders. The properties of channel codes and their ability to detect and to correct errors. Comparison between different methods for modulation and coding. Bit error probabilities, delays and utilised bandwidth. Radio channels: Link budgets, fading, multiplath propagation. Diversity-based transmission and adaptive transmission. Multiple-input multiple output links. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. Multi-user systems and multiple access: Frequency division, time division, code division and spatial division multiple access. Radio resource management: Strategies and some algorithms for scheduling of packet data over fading wireless channels. The trade-off between user quality-of-service and maximal sum data rates. System architecture: cellular systems, interference management, heterogeneous wireless networks. Orientation on wireless technologies and standards: GSM, WCDMA, LTE, WLAN and digital television.

Instruction

Lectures, hand-in assignments, tutorial sessions and laboratory exercises.

Assessment

Written test (8 credits). Hand-in assignments (2 credits).