Academic year 2014-15

Mobile Communications

Degree:	Code:	Type:
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science	21468	Optional subject
Bachelor's Degree in Telematics Engineering	21731	Compulsory subject, 3rd year
Bachelor's Degree in Audiovisual Systems Engineering	22654	Optional subject

 

ECTS credits:

4

Workload:

100 hours

Trimester:

1st

 

Department:	Dept. of Information and Communication Technologies
Coordinator:	Angel Lozano
Teaching staff:	Angel Lozano and Miguel A. Cordobés
Language:	English
Timetable:
Building:	Communication campus - Poblenou

 

Introduction

This is a mandatory course (21731) offered within the corresponding degree at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. It is worth 4 ECTS credits and it is taight in the first term of the third academic year.

As all others, this course has been designed according to the EECS principles. The main goal of this design is to involve the student through practice and individual study.

The course materials are integrally prepated in English, and the instruction is also partially in English.

The course has as its main objective the understanding of all those concepts that are essential in the analysis, design, and functioning of wireless communication systems. The course spans all such systems, with focus on cellular systems as guiding axis. These systems have achieved, in recent years, penetration rates that have no precedent in the history of technology.

The course rests on concepts acquired in others courses of the first two academic years.

The material is grouped in a series of themes, taught in class, and complemented by a process of solving problems and of individual study. In addition, during the practice sessions a class project is to be performed in small groups.

 

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of random variables and probability.

Basic Matlab notions.

 

Associated competences

Cross-disciplinary competences	Specific competences
Instrumental: Problem resolution Data mining Analysis and synthesis English Personal Capacity to criticize Teamwork Ability to turn theory into practice Ability to schedule activities Project management	Capacity to apply knowledge of math, science and engineering Capacity to design and interpret computer simulations Capacity to utilize Matlab or Octave Capacity to design, evaluate and compare wireless communication systems Capacity yo determine the parameters necessary for a communication system to achieve a certain performance Familiarity with the main wireless communication systems

 

Learning goals:

• Evolution of wireless communications
• Elements and functioning of a wireless sytem
• Wireles generations and transitions
• Existing and future applications
• Types of wireless communication systems
• Channel modeling
• Frequency reuse
• Number of sectors per cell
• Theoretical capacity of a wireless channel
• Linear v. nonlinear modulation
• Evaluation of error probabilities
• Link adaptation
• Diversity schemes

 

Assessment

The final grade depends on:

- Homeworks (20%).

- Class project (30%).

- Final Exam (50%).

The student must obtain at least 40 over 100 points in the final exam, and 50/100 according to the above weighted average.

For those students failing, there will be a chance to retake the final exam in July. The homework and project grades will be preserved.

 

Contents

• Theme 1. Introduction

-       Motivation

-       Fun facts

-       Vision and challenges

-       A (not so) brief historical chronicle

 

• Theme 2.  Wireless systems

-       The cellular concept

-       Spectrum regulation & standards

-       Multiple access techniques

-       Random access techniques

-       Classification of wireless systems.

 

• Theme 3. Wireless channels

-       Review: log representation, antennas, random variables

-       The radio channel

-       Path loss

-       Shadow fading

-       Multipath fading

 

• Theme 4. Cellular system design

-       The cellular concept, revisited

-       Coverage area

-       Co-channel interference

-       Sectorization

-       Cell splitting

 

• Theme 5. Capacity of wireless channels

-       Review: signal representation

-       Shannon capacity

-       Impact of multipath fading

 

• Theme 6. Digital transmission over wireless channels

-       Digital modulation & detection

-       Linear modulations

• • PAM
  • PSK
  • QAM
  • General approximations

-       Differential modulation

-       Performance in fading channels

-       Link adaptation

-       Interleaving

 

• Theme 7. Fading mitigation

-       The concept of diversity

-       Receiver diversity

• • Selection combining
  • Maximum ratio combining
  • Equal gain combining

-       Transmit diversity

• • With channel knowledge at transmitter
  • Without channel knowledge at transmitter

 

 

Methodology

This course will involve attendance to class, individual work, and teamwork.

Class sessions will involve theory, seminars, and lab work. Theory sessions will last 2 hours, seminars will last 1 hour.

During the seminars, the students will have to resol problems. Before the start of each seminar, deliverables will have to be turned in.

During the lab sessions, the students will assemble in small groups a wireless system simulator.

All the course materials (slides, etc) will be disseminated through moodle. This will facilitate the activity of users unable to physically attend sessions.

 

	In-class activity			Out-of-class activity	Assessment activity
Topic	Full group	Medium group	Small group
Introduction	1
Wireless Systems	1		2	Deliverables	Yes
Wireless Channels	1		2	Deliverables	Yes
Cellular System Design	1		2	Deliverables	Yes
Channel Capacity	1		2	Deliverables	Yes
Digital Communication over Wireless Channels	1		2	Deliverables	Yes
Diversity	1		2	Deliverables	Yes
Total:						Total:

 

Resources

• P. M. Shankar, “Introduction to Wireless Systems”, John Wiley & Sons, 2002
• A. Goldsmith, “Wireless Communications”, Cambridge University Press 2005
• A. F. Molisch, “Wireless Communications”, John Wiley & Sons, 2005