In this unit students will acquire advanced theoretical knowledge, practical and critical analytical skills which can be applied to investigation and resolution of complex problem solving scenarios inherent in modern 21st century wireless communication systems. The unit material has been developed to enhance students' communication skills, individual and group project participation and other professional capabilities important to a practising Engineer. This unit provides students with a theoretical and practical understanding of general wireless communication systems and the subsystems involved in them. It provides an overview of existing wireless systems with special reference to hardware implementation. Unit material has been developed to include Noise and Distortion, Duplexing methods and Propagation modelling at UHF with emphasis on Path loss, free space and plane earth models. In particular, Okumura's model will be used in Radio link design. Students are expected to take into account Shadowing, Rayleigh multipath fading, fade duration and level crossing rate and Delay spread when developing a link budget. In addition, coherence bandwidth, Antenna parameters, Diversity systems, Multiple-Input-Multiple- Output (MIMO), Interference cancellation, Modulation and coding for the mobile channel are topics that will be taught.

Unit details

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Learning Outcomes

  1. Determine and critically evaluate appropriate radio hardware components to meet a specified dynamic range (noise and third order distortion) specification for wireless equipment;  
  2. Utilise and critique the difference between different duplexing methods and discriminate the relevant performance trade-offs;  
  3. Implement high level technical competence to perform basic path loss estimation and radio link design, using calculations or specialised prediction software;  
  4. Analyse the causes of radio frequency fading and identify the most appropriate diversity countermeasure to this fading; and  
  5. Utilise and critique different MIMO modes of operation.  


A pass must be achieved in each assessment item to complete the unit.
Assessment type Description Grade
Exercise Exercises x 2 20%
Assignment Practical Assignment 45%
Test Problem solving test 35%

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