Title Digital Communications
Lesson Code 321-10300
Semester 7
ECTS 5
Hours (Theory) 3
Hours (Lab) 2
Faculty Department Secretary

Syllabus

Characteristics of a digital communications system. Characteristics of telecommunications channels. Mathematical models of telecommunications channels. Coding of discrete information sources: PCM, differential PCM, adaptive PCM. Binary representation of signals: PAM, PSK, QAM, FSK, CPFSK, MSK. Spectral characteristics of digitally modulated signals. Optimal receiver for white Gaussian noise. Bit error rate performance of the optimal receiver for different digital modulation techniques. Synchronization. Inter-symbol interference. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) transmission.

Learning Outcomes

The main goal of the course is to familiarize the students with the theory of modern digital communications and to deepen their knowledge on the philosophy of digital communication systems. The course allows the students to develop their skills in performance evaluation of communication systems using Matlab and Simulink and to understand various relevant performance metrics. Finally, by simulating modern communication systems (digital modulaton, coding, OFDM, MIMO), the student will understand their mode of operation.

The students after the successful completion of the course will:

  • Have the knowledge to analyze the performance of various digital communication systems, in terms of spectral-power efficiency, error probability. He/she will be able to extract the advantages and limitations of each technique and evaluate performance depending on the targeted application.
  • He/she will be able to apply techniques that will enable the extraction of the error probability under noise for digital modulation schemes such as (PAM, PPM, PSK, DPSK and QAM) and to apply techniques for optimising the efficiency of signal detection.
  • He/she will be able to develop simulation scenarios of a full scale communication system, where parameters such as BER will be extracted for different system architecture and channel impairments.

Prerequisite Courses

Not required.

Basic Textbooks

1. B. Sklar, Digital Communications, 2nd version, ISBN 978-960-491-019-9.

2. J. Proakis & M. Salehi, Telecommunications Systems, ISBN: 960-8313-04-Χ.

Additional References

1. IEEE Communications Magazine

2. IEEE Wireless Communications

3. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials

4. IEEE Transactions on Communications

5. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

6. IEEE Access

Teaching and Learning Methods

 

Activity Semester workload
Lectures 39 hours
Laboratory hours 30 hours
Personal study 42 hours
Group Exercises 11 hours
Final exams 3 hours
Course total 125 hours (5 ECTS)

 

Student Performance Evaluation

Written exam on the theory of digital communication system (60% of the overall score)

Reports of laboratory excercises (30% of the overall score)

Two semester projects based on litarature survey (10% of the overall score)

Language of Instruction and Examinations

Greek, English (for Erasmus students)

Delivery Mode

Face-to-face