ELEC 476 / 676
Topics in Digital and Wireless Communication

Bucknell University
Fall, 2001

Course Objectives:

Students finishing this course will understand in detail several advanced topics in digital and wireless communication systems, with particular focus on error control coding (block, convolutional, and turbo coding).


Instructor and Office Hours:

Richard J. Kozick
Office: Room 220 Dana
Phone: (570) 577-1129
FAX: (570) 577-1822
Email: kozick@bucknell.edu
Web: http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~kozick

Office hour schedule for Fall, 2001 is Monday 1-2 PM, Thursday 10-11 AM, Friday 1-2 PM.
Please contact me to arrange other times.
(Refer to the course home page for the most up-to-date office hours)


Prerequisite:

ELEC 320 or undergraduate course in signals and linear systems.


Required Textbook:

Introduction to Digital Communication (second edition), Rodger E. Ziemer and Roger W. Peterson, Prentice-Hall, 2001.

Drafts of the first few chapters of the text are available in PDF format at ftp://ftp.prenhall.com/pub/esm/sample_chapters/engineering_computer_science/ziemer/sample_chapters.html


Supplemental Books:

Iterative Detection: Adaptivity, Complexity Reduction, and Applications, by K.M. Chugg, A. Anastasopoulos, X. Chen, Kluwer Academic Press, 2001.

Turbo Coding, by Chris Heegard and Stephen B. Wicker, Kluwer Academic Press, 1998.

(Professor Kozick has a copy of these books.)


Course Home Page:

The home page for the ELEC 476 course is located at the URL
http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~kozick/elec47601
It can also be accessed by following the link from my home page at
http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~kozick

The course home page contains the homework assignments, syllabus, links to Web pages related to communications, and other course information.

Grading:

Grades for the course will be computed as follows. 

Computer projects                   25%
Special topic reports               20%
Student presentations               10%
Mid-term exam                       15%
Homework                            15%
Quizzes and class participation     15%

Graduate students will receive additional assignments that treat some topics in greater detail.


Computer Projects:

The main objective of this course is the development of a Matlab implementation of a turbo coder and decoder. We will work on most of these projects in groups of one or two.


Special Topic Reports:

Students will investigate a topic of interest in the area of wireless communications. The report will be done individually or in pairs, and you will deliver a presentation to the class. A sign-up sheet will be provided for you to choose a topic and a date for presentation.


Exams and Quizzes:

One mid-term exam will be given on the following date: Friday, October 26. We will not have a final exam.

Short quizzes (announced or unannounced) will also be given to check your understanding of the material as we proceed through the course. Missed quizzes cannot be made-up, but your lowest quiz grade will be dropped.


Homework:

Homework will be assigned occasionally to give you practice with the course material. It will be due at the beginning of class on the specified due date. Late assignments will not be accepted because solutions will be distributed and reviewed during class on the due date.

You are encouraged to work on the homework with groups of your classmates. The purpose of the homework is to practice with the material and to improve your understanding. I encourage you to learn from each other, and also to ask me when you have questions. However, the homework solutions that you submit for grading must be written individually. Be sure that you understand the reasoning for each problem, even if you initially solved the problem with help from your classmates.


Tentative Outline:

The following is a tentative list of topics for the course.


ABET Course Outcomes:

Please see the course home page. The ABET outcomes will be posted soon.