ECE 146A - Digital Communication Theory and Techniques

Fall 2014

Instructor: Prof. Yasamin Mostofi

Time: MW 11:00-12:15

Place: HSSB 2201

Course description:

This course is on the fundamentals of the analysis and design of communication systems, as relevant to several existing communication systems today such as cellular systems, WLANS, and internet. We begin by reviewing the basics of signals and systems, Fourier transforms, energy and power spectral density. We then focus on different analog modulation techniques, such as AM and FM, and their performance in the presence of noise; digital modulation techniques such as PAM, QAM, and PSK and the associated bit error rate analysis.

Prerequisites:

Signals and systems, Probability theory (recommended)

Instructor Information:

Instructor: Professor Yasamin Mostofi
Office: HFH 5121
Email: ymostofi[at]ece[dot]ucsb[dot]edu
Office Hour: Monday 2:30pm-3:30pm

Teaching Assistant:

Anant Gupta
Email: gupta.anant17@gmail.com
Office Hours: Fridays 10-11:50am at ECE TA Office, Trailer 699 in front of Harold Frank Hall.

Textbook:

  • Introduction to Communication Systems, U. Madhow
    • http://www.ece.ucsb.edu/wcsl/Publications/intro_comm_systems_madhow_jan2014b.pdf

    Supplementary Reading:

    1. Modern Digital and Analog Communication Systems, 4th edition, B.P. Lathi, Oxford University Press, 2009
    2. Communication Systems, 5th edition, A. B. Carlson, McGraw-Hill, 2009
    3. Communication Systems, 5th edition, S. Haykin, Wiley, 2009
    4. Signals and Systems, 2nd edition, A. V. Oppenheim, Prentice Hall, 1996
    5. Probability, Random Variables and Statistic Processes, 4th edition, A. Papoulis, 2001

    Grading:

  • Homework-15%, Lab:20%, Midterm-25%, Final-40%.
  • EXAMS: Exams will be closed book.

    • Labs:

    The labs in ECE 146A are all software, and are designed to give students a hands on and visual feel for the communication systems being discussed. The main software tools are Matlab and its toolboxes, which are extensively used for simulations in industry. While you will probably spend a lot of time outside lab hours working on the assignments, attendance during at least part of the regular lab hours is mandatory.

    Lab Report:

    There are two lab sections on Thursday 2-4:50pm and Thursday 7-9:50pm. Late submissions will not be accepted. The format is as follows:
    1. The lab report should be an electronic document (pdf format preferred, although .doc is also acceptable) which contains plots, results, answers and discussion. In addition, you must separately include the Matlab scripts (.m files) for all the problems.
    2. These files should be contained in a zip file. The name of the zip file should be the format, "Lab#_your name.zip". For example,"Lab1_HsinYehChen.zip".
    3. Please indicate your name in the lab report document as well.
    4. The .m files should have clear comments that make your code comprehensible to anyone.
    5. Email all to the TA.

    MID TERM: Wednesday Nov 5 in the class


    FINAL: Thursday Dec 18 in HSSB2201, 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM


    COLLABORATION POLICY:

    Collaboration on homeworks and labs is highly encouraged for the purpose of problem solving. However, each person must individually complete all the work, including writing code, and must individually document the results. Copying is strictly prohibited, including from work done in prior years, and will have severe consequences.