Part-Time Programs in Engineering and Applied Science, Johns Hopkins University

Digital Communication
525.740


Course Description
The course presents the basic theory of modulation and detection systems for digital communications. The basic tools of the discrete Fourier transform, the Z-transform, and complex signal representations are first briefly presented. The optimum receiver and the resulting probability of error are then discussed for memoryless modulation schemes with the additive white Gaussian noise channel. The bandwidth requirement for digital modulation schemes is considered, as well as noncoherent detection and intersymbol interference. Additional topics may include equalization, synchronization, the Viterbi algorithm, and hard vs. soft decision decoding.

Syllabus

  1. Review of Probability and Stochastic Processes
  2. Bandpass Signals and Systems; Signal Space Representations
  3. Power Spectra of Digitally Modulated Signals
  4. Optimum Receiver for Signals Corrupted by AWGN
  5. Block and Bit Error Rate of Various Digital Modulation Schemes
  6. Noncoherent Detection; Regenerative Repeaters and Link Budget Analysis
  7. Mid-term Exam
  8. Channel Capacity and Coding
  9. Linear Block Codes
  10. Convolutional Codes and the Viterbi Algorithm
  11. Hard-Decision vs. Soft-Decision Decoding
  12. Signal Design for Band-Limited Channels
  13. Communication through Band-Limited Linear Filter Channels
  14. Final Exam

Prerequisites
525.414 Probability and Stochastic Processes for Engineers, 525.416 Communication Systems Engineering, and the basics of linear vector space theory.

Instructor
Nader Moayeri is the Manager of the Wireless Communications Technologies Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD. His areas of research are wireless communications, data compression, and image/video processing. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering-systems from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, in 1986.

Textbook
Digital Communications by John G. Proakis


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Fall 1998