At the end of the course, students know the key characteristics and the most advanced techniques used for wireless communication systems. They have an in-depth knowledge of the physical layer constituent blocks of uplink and downlink wireless communications, of multiple-antenna communications, and of the advanced coding techniques required for the protection of data transmission from channel errors.

Probability, signal processing, linear algebra, information theory, digital modulations, and channel codes.

Main topics of the course: • Multiuser techniques for the uplink channel (~20h) - Orthogonal techniques: FDMA/TDMA/CDMA - Multiuser detection techniques • Multiuser techniques for the downlink channel (~20h) - Information-theoretical broadcast channel - Nonorthogonal techniques: NOMA • Multiple-antenna communications (~20h) - Capacity of MIMO channels - Linear and orthogonal space-time codes - Optimum and linear receivers • Iterative receiver techniques (~20h) - Polar codes and their decoder - Coding for high spectral efficiency - Turbo equalization

The project assignments require a personal laptop with MATLAB for their development.

The structure of the course is based on 4 main topics. Each topic has a theoretical part followed by an assignment. The assignment requires the use of a personal notebook for the solution of proposed MATLAB exercises and the preparation of a report.

The course is based on lecture notes available to the students through the web site and more references are given during the course, as required. Book references: • S. Verdù, Multiuser Detection, CUP 1998 • T.M. Cover and J.A. Thomas, Elements of Information Theory. Wiley, 2006 • A. El Gamal and Y.-H. Kim, Network Information Theory. CUP, 2011 • R.W. Heath and A. Lozano, Foundations of MIMO Communication, CUP, 2019 • D. Tse and P. Viswanath, Fundamentals of Wireless Communication, CUP, 2004 • D.J.C. McKay, Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms, CUP, 2003 • T. Richardson and R. Urbanke, Modern Coding Theory, CUP, 2008

Lecture slides; Video lectures (current year);

Exam: Written test; Group project;

Exam: Written test; Group project. The assessment verifies that students have acquired the basic notions presented during the course and are able to develop a MATLAB application for a project. The maximum grade is “30 e lode”, assigned if the final grade, rounded to the nearest integer, is at least 31. The final grade is computed as the weighted average of the project grade (60%) and the written-exam grade (40%). 1. Project assignment The project grade is the arithmetic average of four project grades. Each project consists of the development of a MATLAB application with a graphical user interface based on MATLAB App Designer, accompanied by a report describing the application, its use, and some results obtained with it. Projects may be developed individually or in groups of up to four students sharing the same project grade. Projects are evaluated according to correctness, accuracy, user-friendliness of the interface, efficiency, and comprehensiveness. The maximum grade depends on the delivery time. If the project is delivered within the assignment period, namely from the first to the last lesson devoted to a project, plus N weeks, the maximum grade is 33 - N, for N = 0,1,2,3. The project delivery is not accepted after the end of the assignment period plus 3 weeks or, when applicable, later than one week before the exam date. If one or more projects are not delivered, or are delivered after the maximum period of three weeks, the corresponding grade is 0, but the average project grade is still used for the final grade. For example, if project 1 obtains 30 and projects 2, 3, and 4 are not delivered, the average project grade is (30+0+0+0)/4 = 7.5; therefore, 4.5 points, corresponding to 60% of 7.5, are added to the final grade. 2. Written exam The written exam is based on the response to four theoretical questions, one for each course part, covering all the course program developed during the classes. The duration of the written exam is 90 minutes. The maximum grade for the written exam is 30. 3. Oral-only option A student may opt out of the assignment grading scheme by sending a mandatory preliminary communication to the lecturers by institutional email. In this case, the student takes only an oral exam. The final grade is rescaled to a maximum of 24. For example, if the oral-exam evaluation is 24/30, the assigned final grade is round(24/30 × 24) = round(19.2) = 19, rounded to the nearest integer.

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.