At the end of this course, the students will know the key characteristics of modern communication systems, the most advanced techniques used for wireless and wired systems, and the practical scenarios and applications where they are used (especially space communication and 5G). In particular, they will have an in-depth knowledge of the physical layer constituent blocks from the bits to the OFDM modulator. Moreover, thanks to the course structure based on assignments and learning-by-doing, they will be able to understand, analyze the key blocks of any Communication Systemsm to write programs in Matlab or Python to simulate them and describe the results by a professional technical report.

Basic notions of probability and signal processing (Fourier Transform).

Main topics of the course: - Introduction to Communication Systems (2h) - Introduction to error detection (CRC) (9h) - Introduction to error correction (block codes) (9h) - Randomizer (3h) - Introduction to frame synchronization (3h) - Multiplexing (TDM/FDM) and Multiple Access (TDMA, FDMA, CDMA, introduction to NOMA) (6h) - Introduction to wireless channels (AWGN, multipath fading, Doppler) (8h) - Recap on QAM modulations (2h) - OFDM modulation (12h) - Use cases and relative link budgets: space links and 5G (6h)

The course is organized in four sections. For each section, the teacher presents the topic and proposes an assignment. The students must write Matlab programs to solve the problems and prepare a presentation to discuss the results. For each section, we will offer tutoring to help the students with their programs.

Teacher material, available on the course web portal. Suggested books: Proakis-Salehi "Communication Systems Engineering" Erik Dahlman, Stefan Parkvall, Johan Skold, "5G NR The next generation wireless access technology"

Lecture slides;

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

The purpose of the exam for the Communication Systems course is to assess students' understanding of key concepts and their ability to apply them in real-world communication scenarios. The exam will verify that the student is able to understand, simulate, and discuss the key blocks of a wireless communication system, including multiple access, error detection, error correction, modulation, multi-carrier OFDM. Students should be able to understand a communication systems problem, model it, write a program to evaluate its performance, and critically discuss it in a report. There are two examination modes. Type 1 = written exam of type A plus assignments or Type 2 = written exam of type B plus optional oral exam. Type 1 exam description: The course is divided in 4 sections. For each section an assignment (to be solved in groups of up to 3 students) is proposed. The student must deliver: - a presentation containing all the results, the figures and the required answers - all the Matlab programs. Each assignment is evaluated and receives a mark (max = 30). Bonuses are available for early submission of the assignment: the following bonus structure applies based on the submission timing relative to the assignment date - If submitted within 2 weeks: a bonus of +2 points is awarded (maximum score = 32). - If submitted within 3 weeks: a bonus of +1 point is awarded (maximum score = 31). - If submitted by the second exam session of the first semester: no bonus is awarded (maximum score = 30). - Submissions after the end of the first semester will not be accepted. The average assignment grade is obtained as the average of the four assignment grades. The final grade for type 1 exam is obtained as: - Weighted average between average assignment grade (60%) and the grade of a written exam of type A (40%). Students who reach at least 30.5 get 30L. Type 2 exam description: - Written exam of type B without assignments (maximum grade = 25). The student can further take an optional oral exam on five extra-questions, where each question may increase by one or decrease by one the final grade (then, with the optional oral exam, the maximum grade is 30). The written exam A consists of three questions taken from a list of questions made of about 20 questions (time available = 1 hour, closed-book exam, maximum mark = 32). The written exam B consists of six questions from a list of questions made of about 50 questions (time available = 2 hours, closed-book exam, maximum mark = 25).

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.