FUNDAMENTALS OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

The educational objectives of the Fundamentals of Telecommunications course are as follows:

1. Knowledge and understanding: the student will learn the basic knowledge of analog and digital techniques for the remote transmission of information and the fundamentals of telecommunication networks, in particular the architecture and network protocols;

2. Applying knowledge and understanding: the knowledge of an applicative nature, acquired through the exercises and the laboratory, will concern the ability to design and configure telecommunications systems starting from a knowledge and understanding of all the techniques that characterize the different phases of signal processing and information management between source and destination; the student will acquire problem solving and teamwork skills.

3. Making judgments: the teaching will stimulate autonomy of judgment and evaluation of the conditions in which to apply the techniques and tools for the design of the physical level that characterizes a telecommunications system;

4. Communication skills: the teaching is based on the use of a language specific to the studies relating to telecommunication techniques and systems which will become the basis of the communication activity set up by the student;

5. Learning skills: learning skills will be stimulated by critical knowledge of the topics covered in the teaching, made possible by attendance at lectures, laboratory activities and the study of reference texts.

The course, which consists of 89 hours of teaching, exercises and laboratory, is delivered in co-teaching (6 + 3 CFU). The 3 CFUs concern in particular section n. 9 of the program.

The teachers are also available for online reception meetings, by appointment.

Should teaching be carried out in mixed mode or remotely, it may be necessary to introduce changes with respect to previous statements, in line with the programme planned and outlined in the syllabus.

 

The course does not have mandatory attendance, but it is strongly suggested for passing the written test.

Participation in the lab hours will allow the student to acquire a 10 % bonus that is added to the evaluation of the written test.

1 Introduction

Organization of the course, the history of TLC, general description of a communication system, analog and digital sources, transducers. Telephone signal features. Transducers. Definitions of bit-rate, SNR, BER, SER. Performance parameters of a communication system. Audio frequencies, sound pressure, distribution of telephone signal amplitude, loss of hearing sensitivity.

2 Communication channels

Ideal, perfect, linear and continuous, linear and non-permanent, non-linear channel. Harmonic distortion coefficient. Equalization. Noisy channels. Frequency division multiplexing (FDM). Guard band. Emphasis and de-emphasis filters. Exercises.

3 Information Theory

Measure of information and entropy. Discrete sources and examples. Source coding: codes properties, length of a code, block coding, Gray, Shannon-Fano, Huffman codes. Exercises.

4 PCM and line coding

A/D conversion. Sampling. Uniform and non-uniform quantization. PCM, A and μ law. ITU-T and ETSI voice coding standard. Transmission and regeneration of PCM signals over noisy channels. Main binary line codes. Multilevel coding. Exercises and laboratory.

5 Channel coding

Block codes. Code rate. Coding delay. Linear and systematic code. Generator matrix. Repetition and disparity code. Weight and Hamming distance. Decoding delay. Interleaver. Convolutional codes.

6 Noisy quadripoles

Equivalent noise bandwidth, equivalent noise temperature, noise figure. Exercises.

7 Modulation and transmission of analog signals

Amplitude modulation and demodulation: DSB, SSB, VSB and AM; angular modulation: FM and PM; effect of noise; modulators and demodulators; modulation techniques comparison.

8 Baseband and passband digital transmission

Binary and M-ary PAM baseband transmission. Numerical modulation: ASK, FSK, PSK, QAM, OFDM. Laboratory.

9. Telecommunication networks and systems

Network systems: General information on telecommunication networks and the Internet; network protocols and services; layered architectures; multiplexing and switching techniques; circuit and packet switching; network equipment and infrastructures; error and flow control; multiple access techniques (CSMA, CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA, token passing) and their applications: Ethernet and WiFi; routing functions; congestion control; main Internet protocols.

[1] K. Sam, Shanmugam “Digital and Analog Communication Systems”, John Wiley & Sons.

[2] Couch Leon, “Fondamenti di Telecomunicazioni”, Apogeo Education, 2002.

[3] S. Haykin, M. Moher “Introduzione alle telecomunicazioni analogiche e digitali”, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana, 2007

[4] J. Kurose, K. Ross "Reti di calcolatori e Internet", Pearson

[5] Notes of the teacher

The examination consists of a written and oral test. The written test, which includes the possibility of one or more in-progress tests, typically consists of 2 exercises to be completed in no more than 2 hours. The grade is expressed as a percentage (0-100 %) of correct performance of the exercises; the written test is passed if a minimum score of 50 % correct performance is obtained. The final grade takes into account the grade of the written paper. The in-progress test is valid for 1 year, the written test for the relevant appeal and the next one.

The oral test consists of 2 or 3 questions on program topics.

Learning assessment may also be carried out on line, should the conditions require it.