ECE 461 - Spring 2019

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Course description: Reliable communication of one bit of information over three types of channels: additive Gaussian noise, wireline, and wireless. Emphasis on the impact of bandwidth and power on the data rate and reliability, using discrete-time models. Technological examples used as case studies.

Lectures: TR, 9.30am-10.50am, 3013 Electrical & Computer Eng Bldg.

Instructor: Prof. Juan Alvarez, alvarez@, 3046 Electrical & Computer Eng Bldg (ECEB), 300-5452.

Teaching Assistant: Keven Feng, klfeng2@.

Lecture Attendance Policy: We invite relevant questions and comments during lectures. Address your questions and comments to the entire class; avoid disruptive behavior such as talking to neighbors, unless the instructor invites you to form discussion groups. Kindly turn off or mute cell phones, laptop computers, and other electronic devices during lectures.

Course notes:

Prerequisite: The basic prerequisites are a probability course (such as ECE 313 or STAT 410) and some basic signal processing background (such as ECE 210).


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Course Outline

Communication Systems are the basic workhorses behind the information age. Examples include high speed communication networks, wireless and wireline telephone systems, high speed modems, etc. The basic currency of information is digital: bits . Broadly speaking, this course is centered around a single theme: reliably communicate bits over an unreliable physical medium. The emphasis is on how to transfer this currency between a transmitter-receiver pair. The transfer involves a physical medium, whose input-output characteristics are not deterministically known. The curriculum has three broad parts:

These three parts are discussed in the course in the context of three specific physical media:



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Office hours

Office hours (starting January 22, through May 1):





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Homework

HW # 7

due: Tuesday, April 30 @ 10.50m

solution

HW # 6

due: Tuesday, April 16 @ 10.50m

solution

HW # 5

due: Tuesday, April 2 @ 10.50m

solution

HW # 4

due: Tuesday, March 12 @ 10.50m

solution

HW # 3

due: Tuesday, February 26 @ 10.50m

solution

HW # 2

due: Tuesday, February 12 @ 10.50m

solution

HW # 1

due: Tuesday, January 29 @ 10.50m

solution


Written homework assignments will be posted above every other Tuesday (starting on 1/15) and will be due by 10.50m on Tuesdays on the due date by handing it to the instructor or by dropping it in box # 49 at the northwest corner of the 3rd floor next to the service elevator.

Late homework will receive no credit.


Homework format: Your homework assignment should be readable, clearly written. In the case it isn't, students will be penalized with reduction of points or zero credits. The header should be in the following format: left side up corner: course number, section, and semester; right side up corner: student name and netID; and in the middle HW # 1, #2, etc. See the following picture as an example:



Regrades: If you want to request a regrade of your homework, you must do so within a week of it being initially handed back during lecture (if you pick it up late you do not get an extension). To request a regrade, on a separate piece of paper, write why you think you should get more credit. Staple this paper to your homework and then hand it to the instructor.





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Exams

Exams scheduled for these dates:


There are no scheduled make-up exams. If you have an unavoidable medical or personal emergency, an exception might be granted. To be eligible for a make-up exam, you must notify the instructor (not the TA) before the scheduled starting time of the exam, and you must fully document your absence.

Students with documented disabilities must notify the lecture instructor at least two weeks before Exam 1.


Regrades: If when you receive your graded exam, and after looking at the posted solutions, you feel there was an inaccuracy in the grading of your exam, fill out this exam regrade request form and staple it to your exam BUT do not write on or alter in any way your original exam paper. Turn in such regrade requests to your instructor by the end of the second lecture after the graded exam is handed back (if you pick it up late you do not get an extension).

Old exams

Exam 1

Spring 2016

Spring 2015

Spring 2014

Spring 2016 solution

Spring 2015 solution

Exam 2

Spring 2017

Spring 2016

Spring 2015

Spring 2014

Spring 2017

Spring 2016 solution

Spring 2015 solution

Spring 2014 solution

Solutions to additional problems

Final

Spring 2017

Spring 2016

Spring 2015

Spring 2014

Spring 2017

Spring 2016 solution

Spring 2015 solution

Spring 2014 solution

Solutions to additional problems

Solutions to more additional problems






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Grading policy

It is the student's responsibility to check that the correct grades are entered in COMPASS2g. There will be no changes after a week past the lecture date when the corresponding hw, exam or quiz is returned (missing that lecture or not picking up the document does not extend the timeframe).

The final grade will be calculated as follows:






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Tentative Course Schedule

Date Lecture in notes Learning Objectives Supplements
1/15 Lecture 1: Discrete Nature of Information
1/17 Review of Probability
slides
Review notes from 313
 
1/22 Lecture 2: Statistical Channel Model
slides
1/24 Lecture 3: Histogram to Optimum Receiver
slides
1/29 Lecture 4: Sequential and Block Communication
slides
  • matlab code: MAP decoding over additive white Laplacian noise.
1/31 Lecture 5: Energy-Efficient Communication
slides
2/5 Lecture 6: Rate-Efficient Reliable Communication
slides (full)
2/7 Lecture 7: Reliable Communication with Erasures
slides (full)
  • Fountain codes, describes the application of erasure codes for packet communication over the internet.
2/12 Lecture 8: Capacity of the AWGN Channel
slides
  • diagram: sphere packing argument
  • Hypersphere, Weisstein, strangely the hypersurface area of hyperspheres reaches its maximum at 7 dimensions.
  • Vesica Piscis, the fish bladder shape that is the intersection of two circles.
2/14 Exam 1. Location: ECEB 3013.
2/19 Review of Fourier Analysis 
slides
2/21 Lecture 9: Pulse Shaping and Sampling
slides
2/26 Lecture 10: Capacity of the Continuous-Time AWGN Channel
slides
2/28 Lecture 11: Modeling the Wireline Channel: Intersymbol Interference
slides
3/5 Lecture 12:  Intersymbol Interference Management: Low SNR Regime
slides
3/7 Lecture 13: Intersymbol Interference Management: High SNR Regime
slides
 
3/12 Lecture 14:  Interference Management at all SNRs
slides
 
3/14 Lecture 14: continued...
3/19 Spring break - No class
3/21 Spring break - No class
3/26 Lecture 15: Transmitter-Centric ISI Management: Precoding
slides
3/28 Lecture 16:  Transmitter-Centric ISI Harnessing: OFDM
slides
4/2 Lecture 17:  OFDM and Capacity of the Wireline Channel
slides
4/4 Exam 2. Location: ECEB 3013.
4/9 Lecture 18: Passband Wireless Communication
slides
4/11 Lecture 19: The Discrete Time Complex Baseband Wireless Channel
slides
4/16 Lecture 20: Sequential Communication over a Slow Fading Wireless Channel
slides
4/18 Lecture 21: Typical Error Event in a Slow Fading Wireless Channel
slides
4/23 Lecture 22: Time diversity
slides
4/25 Lecture 23:Frequency diversity
slides
4/30 Lecture 24:Antenna diversity
slides
5/9 Final Exam
1:30-4:30 p.m
Location: ECEB 3081



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