Courses

The following overview presents the content and ECTS credits of each course in the MSc in Modern Wireless Communications. Further information is available in the course outlines (GR) which specify the content, learning objectives, teaching methods and assessment methods for the programme's students.

Semester A
Course Content ECTS
Wireless and Mobile Communications Systems Principles and architectures of cellular systems. Telecommunications traffic and calculations. Co-channel interference, adjacent-channel interference and the capacity of an FDMA/TDMA wireless multi-cell system. Spread-spectrum modulation, CDMA multiplexing and the UMTS WCDMA system. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and OFDMA systems: WiFi-WiMAX and LTE. 5G-6G systems, UAVs/drones and THz communications. Methodology and design issues for cellular mobile communications systems (radio network planning). 7.5
Communications 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.
Laboratory:
1. Implementing a network application: Students will implement a simple application (e.g. instant messaging) based on the client-server model. Implementation will take place in a Unix environment using the communication structures (sockets) and associated functions provided by the operating system.
2. Monitoring network communication with Wireshark: Students will study the messages exchanged between two hosts at both the application layer (HTTP, DNS) and the transport layer (TCP/UDP).
3. Simulating static routing: Cisco Packet Tracer will be used to implement and configure a simple network topology with a limited number of hosts and routers. Connectivity will be tested using ping experiments.
4. Simulating OSPF routing: The previous network topology will be reused, with the routers configured to support OSPF. Automatic rerouting of network traffic will be demonstrated. 		7.5
Digital Communications and Sensor Networks Theory: Introduction to sensor networks and practical applications. Introduction to the statistical theory of signal estimation and detection, and techniques for optimal receiver design. Physical layer, digital modulation techniques, matched filtering and error probability calculations. Introduction to information theory, source and channel coding techniques, channel capacity and the Shannon-Hartley theorem. Introduction to digital data transmission in the presence of fading and noise. MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks and distributed techniques for signal detection and estimation. Synchronisation and localisation techniques for wireless sensor networks.
Laboratory:
1. Introduction to and familiarisation with the tinyOS operating system. Basic concepts: components, modules, configurations and interfaces. Compiling and installing a simple programme on a wireless node.
2. The programme execution model in tinyOS: events, commands and their relationship with interfaces. Introduction to tasks.
3. Wireless communication between nodes: sending and receiving messages.
4. Sensing environmental data and sampling in tinyOS. Displaying the received data using the node's LEDs. 		7.5
MSc Thesis The MSc thesis is expected to take two semesters (15 ECTS in total). Students may choose from the thesis topics proposed by the MSc instructors. 7.5
Semester B
Course Content ECTS
Wireless Communications Theory:
  • Antenna radiation patterns. Isotropic radiators.
  • Directivity and methods for calculating it. Gain and efficiency.
  • Antennas as apertures. Short dipoles and half-wave (λ/2) dipoles.
  • Linear antenna arrays.
  • Propagation and wireless links in free space (Friis equation); propagation over irregular terrain (Huygens' principle, uniform theory of diffraction, multiple terrain peaks and Fresnel zones); path loss for line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight propagation; shadowing; attenuation models (Okumura-Hata, Walfisch-Bertoni, COST231, etc.); characterisation of multipath phenomena (temporal and spatial characteristics, mechanisms and models); Doppler shift.
  • Propagation characteristics in different operating environments: indoor and outdoor environments; pico-, micro- and macrocells; statistical, empirical and deterministic models.
  • Radio coverage calculations.
  • Methods for measuring and simulating wireless propagation and its characteristics. The radio channel and antennas in fifth-generation systems operating in the millimetre-wave band. International standards for human exposure limits to electromagnetic radiation and measurement methods.
Laboratory:
  1. Radio channel attenuation measurements
  2. Electromagnetic radiation measurements and effects on humans
  3. Cellular network radio coverage analysis
 7.5
Mobile Application Development
  • Overview of applications for mobile devices.
  • Categories of mobile applications: web apps, native apps and hybrid apps.
  • Methodologies for mobile web application development: Dynamic Serving, Adaptive Web Design and Responsive Web Design.
  • Technologies for mobile web application development: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, XML/JSON, Google Maps API, jQuery Mobile, local data storage (SQLite), remote data storage (PHP/MySQL), Node.js and GitHub.
  • Developing a mobile web application
  • Cross-platform hybrid mobile applications: PhoneGap, Apache Cordova, user interfaces in Cordova using Bootstrap, and Ionic.
  • Developing a cross-platform hybrid application
  • Native mobile applications: Java and Android Studio.
  • Developing a native Android application
 7.5
Technologies for Wireless Communication Systems Theory:
  • Overview of propagation in the wireless medium: fading, shadowing, coherence time and bandwidth, flat fading, frequency-selective fading and statistical models for flat fading.
  • Digital communications over fading channels, diversity techniques (MRC, SC, EGC, GSC) and performance evaluation.
  • Transmission techniques for frequency-selective channels, equaliser design and OFDM.
  • MIMO systems: spatial multiplexing, STBC techniques, beamforming, spatial modulation and massive MIMO systems.
  • Cooperative diversity: protocols and transmission techniques (Amplify and Forward, Decode and Forward, Selective Relaying).
  • Introduction to Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (SWIPT).
  • Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA).
  • Infrared communications: the IrDA protocol stack, with emphasis on the physical layer.
  • Visible light communications: the IEEE 802.15.7 standard, including the physical and multiple-access layers.
Laboratory: Introduction to the simulation of wireless telecommunications systems using the Monte Carlo technique. A series of problems will be solved using MATLAB programmes. 		7.5
MSc Thesis The MSc thesis is expected to take two semesters (15 ECTS in total). Students may choose from the thesis topics proposed by the MSc instructors. 7.5

Last update: 06-08-2024