Basic Course on Wireless Communications (5cr)

Objectives

In this course, the focus is on the basic techniques of the radio interface in all wireless systems and networks, on top of which, e.g., the Internet network protocols are built. Upon completing the course, the student can explain and compare the structures, principles, and possible applications of different wireless communication systems. More specifically, the student should be able to:- explain the general principles how the different phenomena in mobile radio channels have to be taken into consideration in the design of a reliable radio communication link;- compute the path loss encountered in wireless transmission, using basic path loss models - explain the whole transmission chain in a wireless communication or navigation system- describe the significance of different transmitter and receiver signal processing modules (coding, modulation, channel equalization,...) on the performance of a radio link;- describe the general principles of sharing the channel in duplex and multiuser radio communications, as well as basic operation of the most common medium access (MAC) protocols; - describe the general structure and main elements and functionalities of a cellular mobile communication system, as well as analyze the commonalities and differences in GSM, UMTS/HSPA, LTE , 5G and beyond 5G networks; - compute the load and capacity of basic cellular network configurations - explain the general principles how it is possible to extract useful information from radio signals for positioning applications- describe the concepts of Internet of Things, Machine-to-Machine Communications, and tactile Internet.

Content

Core contentBASIC ELEMENTS OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS - Basics of antennas; - Multiplexing and modulation methods;- Basic ideas of spread-spectrum and multicarrier techniques;- Multiple access techniques;- Medium access (MAC) protocols, WLAN MAC. PROPERTIES AND MODELING OF THE RADIO CHANNEL:- Path loss models;- Large-scale fading;- Small-scale fading.CELLULAR NETWORK CONCEPT:- Elements, structure and functionalities of a mobile radio network; - Basic radio network planning principles. PRINCIPLES OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS: - GSM, UMTS/HSPA, LTE, 5G, beyond 5G- WLAN/WiFi, - IoT, M2M- Broadcast networks;- Satellite communications; - Positioning systems (cellular network based, GPS, Galileo). RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT BASICS:- Power control; - Handover (cell/sector, frequency, system);- Packet scheduling; - Access control mechanisms.FUTURE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS- 5G concept- IoT concepBASICS OF WIRELESS POSITIONING- GNSS basics- cellular positioning basics- Wifi positioning basicsComplementary knowledgeHistory of wireless communications.Statistical modelling of fading.Other wireless systems (RF-ID, Bluetooth,...)

Prerequisites

PrerequisiteCode: COMM.100 (or ELT-40007)Name: Basic Course on Communications EngineeringECTS credits: 5Mandatory: Advisable

Further information

Partial completions of the course must be carried out during the same implementation round.