The course is fully given in English.
This course introduces the mathematical foundations of modern digital transmission.

- Knowledge of the main wireless and wired communication channels in terms of their attenuation
- Knowledge of the methodologies to represent the noise in transmission systems
- Ability to solve simple loss, signal-to-noise ratio and power budget exercises
- Knowledge of the basic digital modulations
- Knowledge of linear distortion effect on digital modulations
- Ability to solve simple numerical and design exercised on transmission systems
- Introduction to information theory


The ability to apply the gained knowledge will be verified during the oral examination. The oral examination will also help students in improving their communication skills.

This course has the following pre-requisites:

- a good understanding of the mathematical topics presented in the first two years of the Telecommunication degree
- an excellent understanding of the methodologies and techniques given during the "Signal Theory" course in the first semester of the third year

Main topics and approximate weight in credits:

- Introduction to wireless and wired communication channels in terms of attenuation (0.5 CFU)
- Noise in electronic circuits (noise figure concepts) (0.5 CFU)
- Analytic signal and complex envelope representation for bandpass signals (0.5 CFU)
- Baseband digital modulation (PAM) and their bit error probability (1.5 CFU)
- Spectral properties of baseband digital modulation (1 CFU)
- Inter-symbol Interference, eye-diagrams, Nyquist Theorem (1 CFU)
- Geometrical representation of signal and signal spaces (1 CFU)
- Optimal detection theory in gaussian noise (2 CFU)
- Passband modulation formats (PSK, QAM, FSK): bit error probability, spectral properties and comparison (1 CFU)
- Block diagrams of modern digital receivers (0.5 CFU)
- Hints on information theory (0.5 CFU)


The theoretical lessons (approximately 70 hours) will be complemented by 30 hours of numerical exercises aimed at solving design problems related to the main topics of the class.

A part of the available hours will be devoted to the solution of numerical exercises and small projects related to all the main topics of the course. An actual laboratory activity is not planned, since the laboratory related to this course will actually be partially held in the course "Telecommunication and networking laboratory" that takes place in parallel in the same semester. The programs of these two classes are highly coordinated, so that the theory explained in Digital Transmission is applied in the laboratories that take place in the second half of the course "Telecommunication and networking laboratory"

The official textbook for this class 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 at the following address http://opac.biblio.polito.it/F/?func=direct&doc_number=000200305&local_base=PTOW
It is also available as an electronic document: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/polito/docDetail.action?docID=10053266
When possible, I will use the same notation of this book, and indicate during the lesson the book chapter I am using

The exercise material will be given step-by-step during the semester, and put on the web site
This exam is given for the first time in this Academic Year, so there are not previous examples of texts for the written exams. We will anyway give many extra-exercises during the semester.

The teaching material will be made available by the class teacher on the “Didattica” web portal.

The exam will be a written exams, approximately 2-hour long, based on:

- 2-3 numerical exercises, similar to those that will be solved during the course.
- 2-3 theoretical questions, requiring a free-text answer.

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. It gives rise to -3 to +3 points that are added to the result of the written exam.

During the semester, we propose 1-2 homeworks for the "Prova Finale", that may give you up to 2 additional points each. These points will be given using a balance between the following two criteria:
- The student that sends back the solutions first
- The quality of the solutions

The written exam proposes exercises that allows to judge if the student knows the topic of the course and is able to apply this knownledge to solve some simplified design example of modern digital transmission systems. The open questions allows to judge if the student has aquired the most relevant theoretical topic of the course.