Wireless Transmission Technologies

Course URL : 18-552 Blackboard location.
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Course description
The demand for wireless communication products is growing at an exponential rate. Wireless services existing today and planned for the future cover a bewildering range of applications, each of which requires solving a unique set of problems. The engineer must understand the basics of the wireless transmission problem and existing solutions, so that he/she can tackle the next new application with confidence. Transmission technologies specify the 'physical layer' of the communications product. In ethernet, the physical layer is trivial, but in high speed communications, especially wireless communications, physical layer design poses a major challenge. In this course, wireless communication channels will be introduced, and their peculiarities such as fading and co-channel interference will be emphasized. Solutions to combat the problems will be described, covering equalization and detection, coding, diversity ideas, and elementary interference cancellation. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be on discovering unifying ideas in transmission, rather than specifying the details of each application. Illustrative examples will be chosen from two existing wireless standards (e.g. GSM and W-CDMA). Medium access control procotols (TDMA/CDMA/Random access) will also be discussed. A Matlab Simulink based course project will enable visualization of the theoretical ideas presented in the course. Possible research directions will be pointed out for students interested in a more detailed understanding.
Schedule: 4 hrs. lec.
Prerequisites: 18-396 or equivalent, and 36-217 or equivalent. Some exposure to MATLAB. Knowledge of 18-550 or 18-758 would be helpful, but not necessary.