EC4550 Digital Communications

This course presents the advantages and limitations of modern military M-ary digital communications systems. M-ary modulation formats, matched filter receivers, probability of symbol error calculations, coherent and non-coherent receivers, carrier and symbol synchronization, modems, bandwidth and signal energy, diversity combining, and fading channels are covered. Examples of current operational and proposed military and commercial space and earth links are treated.

Prerequisite

EC3510

Lecture Hours

4

Lab Hours

0

Course Learning Outcomes

·       To obtain an understanding of the basic concepts of M-ary digital communication systems, multipath and fading channels, and diversity.

·       To obtain a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the performance characteristics of M-ary digital communication systems, and the capability to specify system parameters to achieve specified performance objectives.

·       To obtain the capability to determine the sensitivity of alternate system realizations to common vagaries of propagation, implementation and interference, and to analyze the trade-offs among signal-to-noise ratio, error rate, information rate, bandwidth, complexity, and robustness.