At the end of the course, the student will acquire the following knowledges and abilities: - knowledge of the main wireless and wired communication channels in terms of their attenuation and available bandwidth - knowledge of the methodologies to mathematically model electrical noise sources and their impact in transmission systems - ability to solve simple signal-to-noise ratio and power budget exercises - knowledge of the basic digital modulations (i.e. PAM, PSK and QAM) - knowledge of linear distortion effects on digital modulations - ability to solve simple numerical design exercises on transmission systems - ability to program in Matlab/Simulink some basic simulation algorithms for the emulation of the performance of digital transmission systems (inside the TLC Virtual Laboratory activity)

This course has no formal pre-requisite, but anyway it has the following “practical” pre-requisites: • a good understanding of the mathematical topics presented in the first two years in Engineering (with a particular focus on Geometry and Probability Theory) • an excellent understanding of the methodologies and techniques given during the "Signals and Systems" course of the previous semester

• Introduction to wireless and wired communication channels in terms of attenuation and available bandwidth. (lessons: 4 hours) • Noise in electronic circuits (noise figure concepts) (lessons: 4 hours) • Baseband digital modulation (PAM), geometrical representation of signals, bit error probability (lessons: 12 hours) • Spectral properties of baseband digital modulation (lessons: 4 hours) • Inter-symbol Interference, Nyquist Theorem and spectral occupation (lessons: 8 hours) • Passband modulation formats (PSK, QAM, FSK): bit error probability and spectral properties. (lessons: 10 hours) • Block diagram of digital receivers (lessons: 4 hours) • Final system examples: hints on some selected physical layer standards, such as ADSL or DVB-T (lessons: 1 hours, exact topics will be selected in each Academic Year depending on time availability) • Numerical exercises on each of the previous topics (18 hours) • Matlab/Simulink simulations of some selected topics from the previous list (15 hours, in the so-called Telecommunication TLC Virtual Laboratory)

Theoretical lectures will be complemented by practice classes, which will be devoted to the solution of numerical problems and of small design projects on the course main topics. The numerical exercises will be of two different types: - Exercises allowing either a symbolic solution or a numerical solution using a pocket calculator (about 30 hours) - TLC Virtual Laboratory: numerical exercises requiring the development of a code in Matlab/Simulink and the analysis of the obtained results (about 15 hours). For this part, each student should use her/his own personal laptop PC in class.

The slides and the handouts used by the Course Professors during the classes will be available on the POLITO Didattica web portal. A draft of the course online book in pdf will be given to the students at the beginning of the course. An excellent reference textbook is: • Benedetto, S., Biglieri, E., “Principles of Digital Transmission With Wireless Applications”, Kluwer Academic Publishers, eISBN: 9780306469619 The book is available in the POLITO library system, as reported in the following link: https://pico.polito.it/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990002003050107866&context=L&vid=39PTO_INST:VU&lang=it&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,benedetto%20biglieri&offset=0 When possible, the lecture will follow some Chapters of this book and use the same notation.

Lecture slides; Lecture notes; Video lectures (previous years);

Exam: Written test; Optional oral exam; Individual essay;

The final grade is a composition of several parts that are described in the following. The COMPULSORY parts to pass the exam are the WRITTEN EXAM and the FINAL PROJECT, both described in the following: WRITTEN EXAM It is based on: - 2 numerical exercises, similar to those that will be solved during the course. - 2-3 theoretical questions, requiring a free-text answer. The written exam will last for two hours and it will be scored on a full scale up to 30 points. The evaluation of the written exam is based on the correct development of the proposed exercises from the description of the symbolic-formula solutions up to the numerical results. The theoretical questions will be judged according to the completeness of the answers, but also on the ability of the students to reply in a concise way. The written exam proposes exercises that allows to judge if the student knows the topic of the course and is able to apply this knowledge to solve some simplified design examples on modern digital transmission systems. The open questions allows to judge if the student has acquired the most relevant theoretical topic of the course. This written exam is a “closed-book exam”. During the written exam the student can use only: • A pocket calculator (NO laptop, tablets etc. Any type of cellphone should be switched OFF) • A 4 pages (max) summary of formulas written by the student herself/himself (4 pages total, meaning 2 sheets if one writes on the front and back of each sheet) • Optionally, the tables of numerical values for the erfc function and of Fourier transforms • No other technical material is allowed (thus no books, handouts, old exercises, etc) FINAL PROJECT The final project requires: - To develop the code for the TLC Virtual Laboratory #2 - To obtain numerical/graphical results and prepare a written report - To discuss orally the written reports. This individual oral exam will be maximum 15 minutes long, where the students should demonstrate its personal contribution and understanding of the written report The final project will be scored on a full scale up to 30 points Further specifications for the FINAL PROJECT: The final project is obligatory and consists of developing the Matlab code that implements a simple application of the methods and techniques learned in the course. The report should concisely and clearly: - describe the methodology used to solve the problem - illustrate the structure of the code written to implement the solution - show some of the main results and discuss them. The final project is meant to assess the ability of the students to confront a practical design problem on their own and to show their soft-skills proficiency (in particular, writing skills). OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES The following activities are optional from the student side: - TLC Virtual Laboratory #1 and its report, scored up to 2 points - Two-three short homeworks (called “Instant Assignment”) , scored up to 3 points overall - An oral exam to be taken optionally, by student request, after the written exam, scored from -3 to +3 points. Details on the optional oral exam are the following: The students who will get a score above 15/30 at the written exam can ask for an optional oral exam, where the questions will mostly regard the theoretical aspects of the course. The optional oral exam is always organized a few days after the written exams. FINAL GRADE The following formula will be used for determining the final grade: 0.8*Written_exam+0.2*Final_project+Optional_Activities If this final sum is above 32, the Student will get “30 cum laude”. Example #1: - Written exam: 27 points - Final Project: 26 points - TLC Virtual Laboratory #1: 1 point - Instant Assignments: 2 points total - No optional oral exam =Round(0.8*27+0.2*26+1+2)=29.8 --> Final grade is 30 Example #2: - Written exam: 29 points - Final Project: 28 points - TLC Virtual Laboratory #1: 2 point - Instant Assignments: 2 points total - No optional oral exam =Round(0.8*29+0.2*28+2+2)=32.8 --> Final grade is 30 cum laude

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.