6 ECTS credits
150 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 4016447ENR for all students in the 1st semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.
The course first introduces all the basic concepts encountered in a modern telecommunication system. The aim is to recap various concepts that are required to understand the rest of the course.
After this introduction, the concepts and transformations are described to convert the physical signal (e.g. the electrical signal from the microphone) into a data stream with the highest possible quality (highest possible signal to noise ratio). This includes quantization in time (sampling) and in value (quantization) to represent the signal in a digital format. Afterwards the data is compressed using both lossless compression (Huffman coding) and lossy compression techniques (mp3 coding).
After reducing the data size to its minimum, channel coding is used to protect the data transmission against errors. The chapter on channel coding gives an overview of the different channel coding techniques that can be used to both detect and correct errors in a (corrupted) data stream. The focus will be on linear coding techniques, and in particular to both block coding and convolutional coding. The concept of soft and hard decoding strategies will be covered and demonstrated. In order to work with large blocks of data, the theory of Galois field will be introduced to enable computations at symbol (e.g. byte) level instead of bit level. Additionally, techniques to concatenated coding strategies (both serial and parallel) will be discussed. All the techniques above will be demonstrated on a wide variety of applications including Hamming code, CD player (Cross-Interleaved Reed-Solomon), Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC), Hard disks (LDPC), ECC ram used in computer servers, Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), Turbo decoding used in e.g. deep space communication, and convolutional codes in DAB, Bluetooth, WiFi.
Data streams need to be buffered if they are either don’t have a constant rate or if multiple independent data sources are present. The chapter of queueing systems introduces the theoretical framework using Markov Processes. Both infinite queues and finite queues with loss will be studied and described using Kendall's (A/S/C) notation. These concepts are generally applicable whenever a queue or a buffer needs to be designed (e.g. data buffer on telecom switches, in industrial production, and even to compute the number of pay desks in a super marked).
After preparing the digital data, the data needs to be modulated such that it can be transmitted over the wired and wireless media. After introducing the basic modulation schemes and concepts, the three different type of multiplexing will be considered, namely time, frequency and code domain multiplexing. All these will be illustrated using practical applications such as GSM, xDSL, WiFi, DAB+, 1G-5G communication…
The wired and wireless transmission media will be studied. The wired media will cover different types of transmission lines such as twisted pair, coaxial lines, and fiber technologies. The wireless media will cover both the antenna characteristics to transmit and receive the signals, as well as the propagation models that can be used to predict the performance of the communication system. Additionally, cell and frequency reuse will be considered. All these concepts will be illustrated in the context of the different standards in 1G to 5G communication.
Finally, localization (such as GPS and indoor localization) and ranging using radar technologies will be covered. This includes techniques to measured distances using methods in the time domain (using pulses in e.g. pulsed radar), frequency domain (using FM-based techniques in CW-radar) and code domain (e.g. in GPS).
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The students need to get insight in the different aspects of a telecommunication link starting with the sampling and the compression of the signal.
The students need to get insight in the different types of channel coding schemes that are used to detect and correct transmission errors. It is important that the students known an understand the different pros and cons of the different types of channel coding such that they can make a motivated decision when choosing an appropriate channel coding.
The students also need to have a good overview of the different types of wired and wireless communication channels and methods.
The students also need to have a good overview of the different types of positioning systems and be able to determine which (set of) positioning systems are appropriate for their problem.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 70% of the final mark.
PRAC Lab Work determines 30% of the final mark.
Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
Within the PRAC Lab Work category, the following assignments need to be completed:
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This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master in Applied Sciences and Engineering: Applied Computer Science: Standaard traject
Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering: Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence
Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering: Computer Science: Multimedia
Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering: Computer Science: Software Languages and Software Engineering
Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering: Computer Science: Data Management and Analytics
Master of Photonics Engineering: On campus traject
Master of Photonics Engineering: Online/Digital traject
Master of Electrical Engineering: Standaard traject BRUFACE J