Midterms Examinations I & II: 25% (subject to confirmation)
Final Examination: 55%
Failure to get a passing grade on laboratory reports will result in an FNS.
To obtain a final grade higher than F, students must obtain a passing
grade on the final exam.
Text Books:
S. Haykin, Communication systems, 3rd ed., John Wiley, 1994,
ISBN:0-471-57176-8
94.460 Digital Communications Laboratory Manual, 1999 edition
(available in bookstore)
References:
B. Sklar, Digital Communications: Fundamentals and applications,
Prentice Hall, 1988, ISBN: 0-13-211939-0
L. W. Couch II, Digital and Analog Communication systems, 5th ed.,
Prentice Hall, 1997, ISBN: 0-13-522583-3
I. A. Glover and P. M. Grant, Digital Communications, Prentice Hall,
1998, ISBN: 0-13-565391-6
J. A. Anderson, Digital Transmission Engineering, IEEE Press - Prentice
Hall, 1999, ISBN: 0-13-082961-7
Course Objective:
The objective of this course is to introduce the student to modern digital
communication engineering in a way that developes understanding of the
theory and practice of both physical and logical aspects of digital
communication systems.
In this communication engineering course emphasis will be given to
representation of signals in terms of digital waveforms and the methods to
transmit them over communication channels which usually suffer from a
number of impairments such as noise, fading, multipath etc. The objective
is to design a waveform and to present it to the channel and receive it at
the destination with desired reliability.
The required reliability is achieved in several ways: waveform designs,
modulation tools to familiarize the students the students with methods, of
coding and signal processing at the receiver.
The course is accompanied by and innovative laboratory using MATLAB
simulation tool to familiarize the students with methods of studying,
analyzing and understanding modern digital communications. Computer
simulation, to verify performance and to determine limitations due to
transmission and other impairments, is an important tool in the design of
modern communications systems. Students are advised to purchase "The
Student's Edition of MATLAB" to do laboratory experiments at home. Each
student is required to do five experiments. The topics covered in the
laboratory range from power spectrum of random signals to error control
coding.
Topics and Their Location in the Text by Haykin:
Topic 0: Selected topics from Chapters 1 (Introduction),
2 (Representation of Signals and Systms), and 4 (Random Processes)
Topic 1: Pulse modulation - Chapter 6
Topic 2: Baseband pulse Transmission - Chapter 7
Topic 3: Digital Passband Transmission - Chapter 8
Topic 4: Error Control Coding - Chapter 11
Topic 5: Information Theory - Chapter 10
In addition, selected topics from Chapters 1 (Introduction), 2 (Representation of Signals
and Systms), and 4 (Random Processes).
Laboratory:
Aim
The aim of the 94.460 laboratory is to illustrate basic digital
communications concepts introduced in the lectures: baseband and bandpass
digital modulation; quantization; detection; and coding. The laboratory
uses computer simulation with Matlab, a popular tool used in the design of
digital communications systems.
Schedule
The class will be divided into four sections, each will have it's own lab
periods, and each will be sub-divided into two person groups. The schedule
for each group will be determined in the first week of the classes.
Lab Reports
Only one report per group is to be done and turned in. Put the names
and numbers of group members on each report turned in.
Answer the questions and exercises in the lab instruction manual. Be
Brief. Record observations as you do the experiment in the lab.
Lab reports will be graded for accuracy and clarity, as well as for the
level of understanding of the concepts of the experiment.
Lab reports are due at 1:00 p.m. on the day one week after the lab was
scheduled.
Late reports and assignments are docked one mark for each day late.
Hand in lab reports and assignments in slots outside Room 4436 ME.
Lab Schedule (subject to change depending on the number of students
registered)
Place: AA 507 (Architecture)
Times:
Section 01 8:30 AM Even Mondays
Section 02 8:30 AM Odd Tuesdays
Section 03 8:30 AM Even Tuesdays
Section 04 8:30 AM Odd Wednesdays
Sign up in lab groups of two during the 1st week of classes on a
first-come-first-serve basis.
Laboratory sessions start the week of September 27 (subject to change).
Experiments
Please read the experiment instructions and any background references a day
or two before doing the experiment.
Students with Disabilities:
Students with disabilities, who require academic accommodations, please
feel free to come discuss this with me.
Students must also contact Paul
Menton Centre to complete the required forms at least two weeks prior to
the first in-class test, and no later then November 5th for fall course and
March 10th for winter courses.
New Features:
New text book and revised curriculum
Revised lab manual
No collected assignments
Tutorial hour (subject to conformation)
Updated information at the course web site and online discussions at the
course newsgroup
(September 9, 1999) Tentative tutorial schedule: Mondays 17:30-18:30
(subject to conformation). First tutorial: September 20.
(September 14, 1999) Midterm exam dates:
Midterm I: Thursday, October 7, 1999, 16:30-17:30
Midterm II: Wednesday, November 10, 1999, 14:30-15:30
(September 14, 1999) Lab manual is available at the Bookstore.
(September 16, 1999) Odd-Tuesdays and even-Tuesdays lab sessions
are merged and will be conducted on odd-Tuesdays. So, there are 3 lab sessions
as follows:
Odd-Tuesdays: September 28, October 12, 26, November 9, 23
Odd-Wednesdays: September 29, October 13, 27, November 10, 24
Even-Mondays: October 4, 18, November 1, 15, 29
(September 16, 1999) Tutorial hour and room confirmed: Mondays 17:30-18:30,
ME 3235, with Laszlo Hazy.
(September 16, 1999) At the first tutorial session, Monday, September 20,
there will be a lecture. Laszlo Hazy will give one-hour lecture and one-hour
tutorial on September 23 and 24.
(September 17, 1999) Assignment #1:
From the text (Communication Systems, 3rd. edition, Simon Haykin):
6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8, 6.11, 6.14, 6.15, 6.16, 6.17, 6.19.
Note that as of September 16, 1999, with the material covered
in the class, you can solve only problems 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3.
(September 20, 1999) The course schedule for the week of September 20
(back to the normal schedule starting on Monday, September 27):
Monday, September 20, 15:30-16:30 -> lecture by Halim Yanikomeroglu
Monday, September 20, 17:30-18:30 -> lecture by Halim Yanikomeroglu
Wednesday, September 22, 14:30-15:30 -> lecture by Laszlo Hazy
Thursday, September 23, 16:30-17:30 -> tutorial by Laszlo Hazy
(September 25, 1999) The office hour of Laszlo Hazy (the tutorial TA):
Tuesdays 16:30-17:30 (Minto 4038).
(September 25, 1999) I was informed that
the laser printer usage is limited to 50 pages per student per course.
This quota should be more than enough for 94.460 labs.
Pleae note that there is no limit
for the dot-matrix printer usage.
(September 28, 1999) Check out the
tutorial web page
prepared by Laszlo Hazy.
(September 30, 1999) Information about the Midterm Exam I:
Place: 329PA (Paterson Hall).
Date & Time: Thursday, October 7, 1999, 16:35 - 17:25.
Duration and Weight: 50 minutes, 12.5 % of the final mark.
Material: topics covered in the lectures, up to the end of the
lecture on Monday, October 4.
(October 1, 1999) The course textbook and references are available in
the library under the short-term loan section. Loan periods are as follows:
Haykin: 4 hours
Sklar: 1 day
Couch II: 1 day
Glover and Grant: 1 day
Anderson: 1 day
(October 1, 1999) Assignment #2:
From the text (Communication Systems, 3rd. edition, Simon Haykin):
4.4, 4.6, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 4.15, 4.17, 4.19.
(October 1, 1999) Solutions for assignments #1 and #2 are posted on the board
next to the classroom 4276ME. Please note the following two points:
These are photocopies from the solution manual
and might have errors in them. If you do not agree with the solution of a particular
problem, you are more than welcome to discuss it in the course newsgroup.
There may be many ways of solving a problem correctly.
The posted ones constitute only one set of such possible solutions.
(October 1, 1999) Further information about Midterm I:
Closed-book. No aid is allowed, no calculators.
The material included in the exam is as follows:
Chapter 6: upto Section 6.11 (p.391), excluding pages 365, 368-372,
and also excluding the details of encoding (pages 381-384).
Probability Theory: handouts and the corresponding sections of Ch. 4
of the text until the end of the discussion on autocorrelation;
that is, upto the middle of page 247 of the text.
Note that the entire Assignment I and questions
4, 6(a)(b), 8, 9(a)(b), 10(a), 11, 15 from
Assignment II can be solved by the material included in the exam.
(October 7, 1999) The office hour of Sebastien Roy (the lab TA):
Wednesdays 12:00-13:00 (ME 4463).
(October 11, 1999) In experiment #2, the prelabs will be collected
with the lab reports (that is, the prelabs will not be collected
in advance). In order to do the prelab,
you can use the last handout distributed in class which is on obtaining
the PSDs of various line coding techniques.
(October 18, 1999) In experiment #3, you are not responsible from the
part on correlative-level coding in the lab manual.
(October 18, 1999) Midterm #2 date has been changed to Thursday, November 11.
Location: 329PA (Paterson Hall), Duration: 60 min.s, 16:35-17:35.
(October 21, 1999) Assignment #3:
From the text (Communication Systems, 3rd. edition, Simon Haykin):
7.1, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.8, 7.10, 7.11, 7.12, 7.13, 7.14, 7.15, 7.23.
Solutions will be available at the IEEE office.
(November 4, 1999) Further information about Midterm II:
55 minutes. Closed-book. No aid-sheet is allowed. Calculators can
be used, but writing the formulas to calculator memory is strictly
forbidden, and may cause disciplinary action.
The material included in the exam is as follows:
Upto the end of Ch. 7 from the book; this corresponds to
upto page 61 from class notes.
Note that the entire Assignment III can be solved by
the material included in the exam.
(November 4, 1999) In experiment #4, only question #1 of the prelab
is required to be submitted before the lab. The remaining three questions
will be collected with the lab reports.
From the text (Communication Systems, 3rd. edition, Simon Haykin):
8.1, 8.2, 8.6, 8.10(a)(c), 8.15, 8.16, 8.18, 8.19, 8.27.
Solutions are available at the IEEE office.
On Monday, November 15, "supplementary problems on signal space
analysis"
will be distributed in the class. Solutions are not available for these problems.
Laszlo Hazy will solve some of them at the tutorial hour on Monday.
(November 18, 1999) Lab #5 is cancelled. The 20% lab mark will
be calculated from the first 4 labs; in other words, each lab will
have a weight of 5%. The topic of error control coding will briefly
be covered at the end of the term, but will not be included in the
final exam.
(December 6, 1999) All the marks upto the final exam are available:
[MARKS.ascii]. An histogram is also generated from the
marks upto the final exam (that is, 45% of the overall mark which corresponds
to the last column of the list MARKS.ascii): [94460hist.eps].
Please check your marks with those
stated in the list and report any discrepancy immediately.
(December 6, 1999) Information on the final exam:
3 hours. Closed-book. No aid-sheet is allowed. Calculators can
be used, but writing the formulas to calculator memory is strictly
forbidden.
The material included in the exam is as follows: everything covered in the
lectures, until the end of Chapter 8 from Haykin.
The final exam will be composed of five questions with the following weights and
suggested solving times:
Q1: 12 points (19 min.s)
Q2: 10 points (16 min.s)
Q3: 39 points (60 min.s)
Q4: 37 points (58 min.s)
Q5: 17 points (27 min.s)
The total weight is 115 points, that is, there are 15 bonus points.
(December 6, 1999) Minh Tran and Teyarajah Thambirajah: according to the list
given to me by lab TA's, you did not submit lab #3 report; therefore, your mark
for lab #3 is only from the pre-lab. Please contact me if this is incorrect.
(December 6, 1999) I suggest that you pick up your marked lab reports and
pre-labs from Sebastien Roy (otherwise they will be thrown away [recycled]).
Those of you who did not collect their first and/or
second midterm papers can get them from my office.
(December 6, 1999) Marking sceheme for the final:
The marks will be given only for solving the problems.
Rewriting the questions and giving some formulas will not get any partial
marks.
Partial marks will be given only if I the partial statements indicate
that you know, at least in principle, how to solve the question.
(December 9, 1999) Please note that the distributed class notes
are selectively covered. For instance, MSK, offset-QPSK, and the parts
related to Hilbert Transform are not covered. Those of you who did not
attend the lectures regularly should check the covered material from the
students who did attend.
(December 20, 1999) In the final exam answer sheet there is a mistake
as follows: in 4(i), it is stated that since the two signalling schemes
have the same
constellation, they will have the same performance if the energies are
equated (that is, D=sqrt(5)*A). However, this answer is incorrect.
Although in both constellations the signal points are located on a circle
with the same radius (after adjusting D), the relative positions of the
signal points are not the same; that is, the two constellations are not
identical. In 8-PSK, all the points are uniformly located on the circle,
but this is not the case for the 8-ary baseband signalling scheme.
Those students who answered the question as "yes" with D=sqrt(5)*A got 6/7.
Only two students answered this question correctly, and in return,
got 3 or 4 extra points (10/7 or 11/7).
(December 20, 1999) The final exam results and the letter grades are
now available: [MARKS2.ascii].
