This is a senior elective/introductory graduate course on the fundamentals of communications. The objective of the course is to develop a fundamental understanding of the communication systems. Signal modulation techniques will be emphasized. Digital techniques (pulse code modulation, phase shift keying, frequency shift keying) will primarily be considered. Modulation techniques will be analyzed both on the basis of spectral characteristics and performance in random noise. Examples of practical communication systems will be presented.
Major Learning Objectives:
 | Design digital communication systems, given constraints on data rate, bandwidth, power, fidelity, and complexity; |
| Analyze the performance of a digital communication link when additive noise is present in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio and bit error rate; |
| Compute the power and bandwidth requirements of modern communication systems, including those employing ASK, PSK, FSK, and QAM modulation formats; |
| Design a scalar quantizer for a given source with a required fidelity and determine the resulting data rate; |
| Determine the auto-correlation function of a line code and determine its power spectral density; |
| Determine the power spectral density of bandpass digital modulation formats. |
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Comments to: buehrer@vt.edu
Last update: August 23, 2001
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