Radio Communications

In order to communicate everywhere and at all times, very flexible and cost-effective communication solutions are needed that can be offered by radio systems. In the course Radio Communication, students are given an overview of how radio communication systems are built, with detailed knowledge of essential system trade-offs and an in-depth understanding of radio propagation. The course describes which aspects of the radio channel are important for different types of radio systems, such as mobile radio and local area networks, and methods to improve communication quality. Most of the learning activities are part of the project.

In the project, you will design, implement, and test a radio communication system operating on ISM bands. The system is implemented on the ADLAM-PLUTO or NI USRP 2901 software-defined radio (SDR) platforms. The SDR is programmed with Matlab/Simulink/LabView/GNU radio or any other language you chose and can make work.

The course describes the construction of radio systems such as radio LAN, radio line, and mobile communication. The emphasis is on the lowest layers of digital radio communication, physical (PHY) and MAC layers, in the OSI model and how the radio channel affects design choices.

The course gives the candidates introduction to radio technical topics that are important for communication systems based on the use of radio waves.

Knowledge

The candidate has: - In-depth knowledge of radio propagation (small-scale fading, large-scale fading and propagation loss). - Knowledge of the structure of radio systems for mobile communication, radio LAN, and radio line. - Good knowledge of what aspects of the radio channel are important for different types of radio systems (channel correlation and system functions). - Good knowledge of how fading can be overcome, understanding the behavior and the limitations of methods such as frequency hopping, diversity, interleaving and coding. - Detailed knowledge of trade-offs in the design of digital radio communication systems. Use of bandwidth, broadcast power, bitrate and bit error probability, as well as complexity. - Good knowledge of link budget. - Good knowledge of multiple access like FDMA and TDMA

Skills

The candidate can: - Design, implement and test a radio communication system on a Software Defined Radio. - Make design trade-offs for radio systems. - Set up a link budget.

General competence. The candidate can write a project report.

The main emphasis in the course is on the project, where a radio system is implemented with SDR. The lectures provide information on the design of radio systems. Both ordinary lectures and video lectures are used. Exercises and labs provide the necessary skills for the project.

The course TTT4130 - Digital Communication, is an excellent companion to TTT4145 Radio Communications. The code developed in the exercises in TTT4130 can be used in the radio system developed for TTT4145.