ECEN 478 Introduction of Wireless Communications

Spring of 2012

(For senior or first-year graduate students)

 

1.    Instructor:

 

2.    Course Description:

This course will cover various basic topics in wireless communications for voice, data, and multimedia. It begins with an overview of current wireless systems and standards. It then characterizes the wireless channel, including path loss for different environments, random log-normal shadowing due to signal attenuation, and the flat vs. frequency-selective properties of multipath fading. It then examines the fundamental capacity limits of wireless channels and the characteristics of the capacity-achieving transmission strategies. The next focus will be on practical digital modulation techniques and their performance under wireless channel impairments. The next part of the course is spent investigating techniques to improve the speed and performance of wireless links, which includes the design and performance analysis of diversity techniques to compensate for flat-fading, with an introduction to multi-antenna systems. Multicarrier techniques to combat frequency-selective fading are then examined and the course concludes with discussing various practical multiple access schemes in wireless systems. 

 

Class website: http://ece.tamu.edu/~cui/ECEN478

 

3.    Class Time and Location: T/Th, 8:00am~9:15am, Zachry 223B.

 

  1. Prerequisite: Signals and systems, probabilities, and random variables. This class is designed for seniors or first-year graduate students.

 

5.    Textbook:

·            Andrea Goldsmith, Wireless Communications, Cambridge University Press, 2005.

The list of typos from the publisher.

6.    Exams and homework

·            One midterm exam and one final

·            Weekly homework assignments

 

7.    Grading Policy

·            Homework 20%

·            Quizzes and class participation 10%

·            Midterm 25%

·            Final 45%

 

8.    Handouts

·            Class syllabus

·            Lecture 1: Introduction

·            Lecture 2: Channel Modeling

·            Lecture 3: Wireless Channel Capacity

·            Lecture 4: Wireless Modulation Schemes

·            Lecture 5: Diversity