ELEC 476 Homework and Project Assignments, Fall 2001

August 29: Please begin reading the Ziemer/Peterson textbook.

If you don't have a copy of the text yet, PDF files of the preface, table of contents, and chapter 1 are available on the web at
ftp://ftp.prenhall.com/pub/esm/sample_chapters/engineering_computer_science/ziemer/sample_chapters.html

Chapter 1 of text

Please browse chapter 1, paying particular attention to sections 1.1 and 1.2.
Also, browse the links to web sites related to communications on the course home page, and browse the materials about Claude Shannon under Class Notes on the course home page.

September 5: Please solve problems 1-2 and 1-4 in the Ziemer/Peterson text, and submit your solutions on Monday, September 10.

September 10: Please begin reading Chapter 6 as follows:

Section 6.1
Section 6.2.1, pp. 368-370 (We will not study source coding, which is also called compression, at this time. But source coding is a good topic for your project for this course.)
Section 6.3: We will work to understand the basic ideas of block coding, and we will simulate the Hamming codes in Matlab.

Please solve problem 6-1 (a, b, c only) for Friday, Sept. 12.

October 3: Please simulate the bit error rate (BER) performance of the Hamming(7,4) code over a binary symmetric channel (BSC). Produce a log-log plot of BER versus BSC error probability p for 0 < p < 0.5. You may want to refer to the Matlab program and plots for the 3-times repetition code that is posted under Class Notes (for September 26) on the course home page. Your plot should include the following:

• Your simulated BER values plotted as "points", where you note the points that are not accurate due to an insufficient number of runs. (The notes can be hand-written on the plot or drawn
• Tell how many runs were performed for each point on the plot. (Be sure to be clear whether you are stating the total number of blocks or the total number of bits that pass through the channel!)
• The analytical upper and lower bounds on BER that we discussed in class.
• A "legend" that defines the lines and points on your plot.

Please submit your results in class on Wednesday, October 10. I will be available to meet with you if you have questions.

Solution:

• Matlab program ham74koz.m (BER simulation)
• Plots comparing simulated and analytical BER
• BSC capacity plot produced with bsccap.m

October 31: For Friday, November 2, please produce a plot of BER versus Eb/N0 for BPSK in AWGN. You should be able to produce a plot that is very similar to the example below.

• Program for you to modify, BER_Eb_N0.m
• Marcum's Q function: Qf.m
• BER versus Eb/N0 should look like this plot
• Program with solution, BER_Eb_N0sol.m

November 7:

• Continue reading Chapter 7, sections 7.2 and 7.3.
• Solve the following problems at the end of Chapter 7, and submit your solutions on Monday, November 12:
  7-3 (Hint for part d: use the "D transform"), 7-4, and 7-5 (you may use the Viterbi algorithm for 7-4 and 7-5).

  Solution to problems 7-3, 7-4, and 7-5

November 12: We will have a short quiz on Wednesday, November 14, on convolutional coding and the Viterbi algorithm for hard-decision decoding.