Course Description: The goal of this course is to give students hands-on experience in the design, configuration and evaluation of digital communication systems through software defined radios. The course will introduce students to various components of a digital transceiver. It will also cover various Internet of Things (IoT) communication technologies used today. Students will learn through lab driven experiments on USRP software defined radios.

Lectures: W, 2-2.50pm, 4070 Electrical & Computer Eng Bldg.

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

Labs:

• AB2, WF 9-10.50am, 5080 Electrical & Computer Eng Bldg.
• AB4, WF 12-1.50pm, 5080 Electrical & Computer Eng Bldg.

Lab instructor: Dr. Thomas Moon, tmoon@.

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.

Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of communications from ECE 461 or ECE 459.

Recommended Textbooks (available in reserves at Grainger Library):

• Signal Processing Techniques for Software Radio by Behrouz Farhang- Boroujeny. 2nd Edition.
• Software Receiver Design: Build your Own Digital Communication System in Five Easy Steps, 1st ed., by Johnson, Sethares & Klein, Cambridge Univ. Press publisher.

Office hours

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

• Tuesdays, 11am-12pm, ECEB 3036 (Prof. Alvarez)

Labs

There is no lab the first Wednesday, January 16.

Each lab will start on a Friday, and might be finished that same day, or it might take longer and be finished the following Wednesday.

Lab reports are due as a hard copy at the beginning of each Friday lab, except for week 1, and those labs that take two weeks (labs 8, 9 and 10; those are due on the second Friday). Submit the answers, figures and the discussions on all the questions.

Exams

Exams scheduled for these dates:

• Exam 1, Wednesday, March 13, 2-2.50pm, Location: 4070 ECEB.

  • Exam 1 and solutions.

• Exam 2, Wednesday, May 1, 2-2.50pm, Location: 4070 ECEB.

  • Exam 2 and solutions.

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).

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:

• Participation: 10%
• Labs: 50%
• Exam 1: 20%
• Exam 2: 20%

Tentative Course Schedule