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 79 hours of teaching, exercises and laboratory, is delivered in co-teaching (6 + 3 CFU). 

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 in general does not require compulsory attendance, but it is strongly recommended for passing the exam. The laboratory is mandatory for at least 70% of attendance.

1 Introduction

Organization of the course, the history of TLC, general description of a communication system, analog and digital sources, transducers. 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 Noisy quadripoles

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

4 Telephone signal

Telephone signal features. A/D conversion. Sampling. Uniform and non-uniform quantization. PCM, A and μ law. ITU-T and ETSI voice coding standard.

5 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.

6 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.

7 Line coding

 Transmission and regeneration of PCM signals over noisy channels. Main binary line codes. Multilevel coding. Exercises and laboratory.

8 Baseband digital transmission 

Binary and M-ary PAM systems. ISI interference. Error probability. Pulsed carrier transmissions: PAM, PPM, PDM. 

9 Modulation and digital transmission in bandpass channels

DSB, SSB, AM and VSB amplitude modulation and demodulation; FM and PM angle modulation; phase and frequency offset; balanced and interrupted DSB modulator (*); comparison of modulation techniques; SNR for analog transmissions in baseband and shifted band (*). Frequency division multiplexing (FDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM). ASK, FSK, PSK digital modulation. M-ary modulations (*): M-ASK, M-FSK, M-PSK, APSK, QAM, OFDM.

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

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

[3] Teacher's Notes

Type of assessment 1 (interim test, essay, oral exam):

- Interim test of 2 exercises in 90 minutes on the first 5 parts of the program

- Essay (groups of ¾ people) – valid for 1 year

- Oral exam of 2 questions on a reduced program

Type of assessment 2 (essay, oral exam + exercise):

- Interim test not passed or completed

- Essay (groups of ¾ people) – valid for 1 year

- Oral exam of 3 questions on a complete program + 1 exercise on the first 5 parts of the program

To ensure equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students may request a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures based on educational objectives and specific needs. Students can also contact the CInAP (Centro per l’integrazione Attiva e Partecipata - Servizi per le Disabilità e/o i DSA) referring teacher within their department.

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

The questions cover all topics covered in class.