MSc Courses

Semester Α'
Course Description ECTS
Wireless and Mobile Communication Systems Principles and architectures of cellular systems, telecommunication traffic, and computations. Cochannel interference, neighboring channel interference, and capacity of wireless multi-cellular systems using FDMA/TDMA. Spectrum scattering modulation, CDMA multiplexing, UMTS WCDMA system. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, and systems like WiFi, WiMAX, and LTE that use OFDMA. 5G-6G systems, UAVs/drones, and THz. Methodology and issues related to the design of mobile communication cellular systems (radio network planning) . 7.5
Communication Networks Theory: Computer Networks and the Internet. Application Layer. Transport Layer. Network Layer and Routing. Link Layer and Local Area Networks. Wireless Networks and Mobility.
Lab:
1. Implementation of a network application: The implementation of a simple application (e.g., instant messaging) will be requested based on the client-server model. The implementation will take place in a Unix environment using communication structures (sockets) and their handling functions provided by the operating system.
2. Network communication supervision with the Wireshark tool: The messages exchanged between two hosts for their communication will be studied, both at the application layer (HTTP, DNS) and at the transport layer (TCP/UDP).
3. Simulation of static routing: The Cisco Packet Tracer tool will be used to implement and configure a simple network topology with a limited number of hosts and routers. Connectivity will be verified through ping experiments.
4. Simulation of routing with OSPF: The previous network topology will be reused, but routers will be configured to support the OSPF routing protocol, demonstrating automatic rerouting of network traffic. 		7.5
Digital Communications and Sensor Networks Theory: Introduction to sensor networks and applications. Statistical signal estimation and detection theory. Optimal receiver design. Physical layer techniques, digital modulation techniques, adaptive filtering, error probability computation, information theory, source and channel coding techniques, channel capacity, Shannon/Hartley theorem. Digital data transmission under the influence of fading and noise, MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks, and distributed techniques for signal detection and estimation in sensor networks. Synchronization techniques and position estimation techniques for wireless sensor networks.
Lab:
1. Introduction and familiarization with the tinyOS operating system. Basic concepts: components, modules, configurations, and interfaces. Compilation and installation of a simple program on a wireless node.
2. The program execution model in the tinyOS operating system, events, commands, and their relationship with interfaces. Introduction to processes.
3. Wireless communication between nodes, transmission, and reception of messages.
4. Detection of data from the external environment and sampling in tinyOS. Visualization of received data on the LEDs of the node. 		7.5
Postgraduate Diploma Thesis The completion of the postgraduate thesis is expected to last two semesters (in total: 15 ECTS). The postgraduate student has the right to choose from the topics proposed by the instructors of the postgraduate program. 7.5
Semester Β'
Course Description ECTS
Wireless Communications Theory:
  • Antenna radiation pattern. Isotropic radiator.
  • Directivity and calculation methods. Gain and efficiency coefficient.
  • Antenna aperture. Short dipole and half-wave dipole.
  • Linear element antennas.
  • Propagation and wireless links in free space (Friis equation), propagation over non-uniform terrain (Huygens' principle, uniform diffraction theory, multiple peaks, Fresnel zones), path loss for optical and non-optical propagation, shadowing, fading models (Okumura-Hata, Walfisch-Bertoni, COST231, etc.), characterization of multipath phenomena (temporal-spatial characteristics, mechanisms, and models), Doppler shift.
  • Propagation characteristics per operational environment (indoor-outdoor, pico-micro-macro cells, statistical - empirical - deterministic models).
  • Calculation of radio coverage.
  • Measurement and simulation methods for wireless propagation and their characteristics. The radio channel and the antenna in 5th-generation systems in the millimeter wave band. International standards for human exposure limits to EM radiation and measurement methods.
Laboratory:
  1. Measurements of radio channel attenuation.
  2. Measurements of EM radiation and its effects on humans.
  3. Analysis of cellular network radio coverage.
 7.5
Mobile Application Development
  • Overview of Mobile Terminal Applications.
  • Categories of Mobile Applications (Web Applications, Native Applications, Hybrid Applications).
  • Development Methodologies for Mobile Web Applications (Dynamic Serving, Adaptive Web Design, Responsive Web Design).
  • Development Technologies for Mobile Web Applications (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, XML/JSON, Google Maps API, jQuery Mobile, Local Data Storage (SQLite), Remote Data Storage (PHP/MySQL), Node.js, GitHub).
  • Development of Mobile Web Application.
  • Independent Cross-Platform Hybrid Mobile Applications (PhoneGap, Apache Cordova, User Interface in Cordova using Bootstrap, Ionic).
  • Development of Hybrid Application (platform-independent).
  • Native Mobile Applications (Java, Android Studio).
  • Development of Native Application (Android native app).
 7.5
Wireless Communication Systems Technologies Theory:
  • Overview of propagation in wireless media, fading, shadowing, time and bandwidth coherence, flat fading, frequency-selective fading, statistical models for flat fading.
  • Digital communications over fading channels, diversity techniques (MRC, SC, EGC, GSC), performance evaluation.
  • Transmission techniques over frequency-selective channels, equalizer design, OFDM.
  • MIMO Systems: Spatial multiplexing, STBC techniques, beamforming, spatial modulation, massive MIMO systems.
  • Cooperative diversity, protocols, and transmission techniques (Amplify and Forward, Decode and Forward, Selective Relaying).
  • Introduction to simultaneous information and energy transfer techniques (Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer - SWIPT).
  • Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA).
  • Infrared communications: IrDA protocol stack with emphasis on the physical layer.
  • Visible light communications: IEEE 802.15.7 standard - physical layer and multiple access layer.
Laboratory: Introduction to the simulation of wireless telecommunication systems using the Monte Carlo technique. A series of problems will be solved using Matlab. 		7.5
Postgraduate Diploma Thesis The completion of the postgraduate thesis is expected to last two semesters (in total: 15 ECTS). The postgraduate student has the right to choose from the topics proposed by the instructors of the postgraduate program. 7.5