Digital communications A - L

Knowledge and understanding the most important elements regarding digital communications

Capture and understanding the basic elements to analyze digital transmission techniques, and the procedures for achieving the main parameters characterizing a digital and analog communication system.
Improving capabilities to analyze both vector spaces to represent signals, and techniques for analog-to-digital conversion.

Applying knowledge and understanding of the state-of-art technologies of digital communications systems, also targeted to the practical application in non-usual contexts

Skills development for analysis of reference systems of analog and digital communications systems, also aimed at the individuation of the main system parameters (signal-to-noise ratio, bit error rate, bandwidth, energy consumption, circuit complexity). The target is to allow the student to use this knowledge also for future systems, although different from the ones studied in this course.

Making judgements of the main topics of this course

Outgrowth of a sufficient level of making judgements in discovering the main peculiarities of analog and digital communications systems and of the available tools not only for the design of simple systems like the ones studied during the course, but also of more complex systems, like satellite communications and 5G, which require further maturation of what studied during the course.

Communication skills finalized to heterogeneous interlocutors

Outgrowth of an effective and high-level communications skill for topics regarding analog and digital transmission, modulation systems and transmission devices.

Learning skills of the evolutions of the topics studied during the course, independently

Outgrowth of skills for autonomous training regarding scientific evolution and specific digital communications technologies to deepen new transmission technologies for cables, fiber and wireless, also with reference to techniques applied to ADSL, LTE, 4G, 5G and 6G.

The course is composed of a part of theory (35 hours), and a part of practice (15 hours).

In the case lectures will be partially or fully realized remotely by a video-communications platform, what declared above could undergo some changes, in order to achieve the objectives targeted in this syllabus.

Convolution

Bandwidth of a base-band and passband signal

Power spectrum and autocorrelation function

Periodical signals

Probability theory, random variables and random processes

Time-invariant linear systems and distortions

The course is structured in the following Elementary Teaching Units (ETU):

1. [Cou] Leon W. Couch, Digital & Analog Communication Systems (8th Edition), Pearson Education Limited, 2013.
2. [Pro] J. G. Proakis, M. Salehi, Communication System Engineering, Prentice Hall

The exam consists of an optional in-itinere test and an oral exam.

The in-itinere test, lasting 3 hours, is evaluated with a score that will be taken into account during the oral examination.

In particular:

·         who pass the test with a “A” score will be able to participate to the exam with a reduced program, in which there will not be any numerical exercise. He will also have to answer only two questions, while the third will be considered passed with a correct answer.

·         who pass the test with a “B” score will be able to take the exam with a reduced program, in which there will be only some supplementary exercises to cover the gaps shown in the in-itinere test. He will also have to answer only two questions, while the third will be considered passed with a correct answer.

·         who do not pass the in-itinere test will have to take an exam with the full program, as well as those who have not participated in the in-itinere test.

Who pass the in-itinere test with a “B” score will be able to take the exam as “A” score, but obtaining a final score that cannot exceed 27/30.