Digital and Wireless Communications

Aim

After completing this course, the student should be able to:

• describe and explain the characteristics and modeling of wireless channels;
• describe and design the transmission of information bits through wireless channels for single or multiple users;
• describe, design, and analyze the performance of the reception of transmitted bits for single or multiple users;
• implement, validate, and compare the main theoretical digital and wireless communication concepts via computer simulations.

Content

This course provides fundamental knowledge about the design and analysis of modern digital wireless communication links and systems. The course builds on the knowledge acquired during previous courses within the area of telecommunications. It puts this knowledge in a system perspective, with a focus on digital communication over wireless channels. The course covers the following topics:

• Introduction to digital wireless communication systems;
• Signal propagation; Radio design; Large-scale fading (path loss and shadowing); Small-scale fading;
• Digital communication over frequency-flat channels;
• Digital communication over frequency-selective channels: equalization and sequential ML detection, and OFDM;
• Diversity, multiplexing, multiple antennas;
• Error control coding for the radio channel;
• Multi-user (multiple access) communications;
• Wireless packet transmissions: ARQ and wireless access protocols;
• Wireless cellular networks;
• Overview of modern topics in wireless communications.