Page 18 - Fundamentals of Communications Systems

xvi Preface

■ Students engage in engineering design of communications system compo-
nents. (Criteria 3(c),(k))
■ Students learn to analyze the performance, spectral efficiency and complexity
of the various options for transmitting analog and digital message signals.
(Criteria 3(e),(k))
■ Students learn to characterize noise in communication systems. (Criterion
3(a))
Prerequisites to this course are probability and random variables and a signal
and systems course.
I have taught out of this book material in several ways. I have been lucky
to teach at three universities (Purdue University, the Ohio State University,
and the University of California Los Angeles) and each of these experiences
has profoundly impacted my writing of this book. The material in this book has
been used to teach three classes
■ Undergraduate analog communications and noise (30 lecture hours)
■ Undergraduate digital communications (30 lecture hours)
■ Undergradute communications (40–45 lecture hours)

The course outline for the 30 lecture hours of analog communication is

1. Chapters1&2—1 hour. This lecture was a review of a previous class.
2. Chapter 4 — 2 hours. These lectures build heavily on signal and system
theory and specifically the frequency translation theorem of the Fourier
transform.
3. Chapter5—1 hour. This lecture introduces the concept of analog modu-
lation and the performance metrics that engineers use in designing analog
communication systems.
4. Chapter6—5 hours. These lectures introduce amplitude modulation and
demodulation algorithms. Since this course was an analog only course, I
spend more time on the practical demodulation structures for DSB-AM
and VSB-AM.
5. Chapter 7 — 5 hours. These lectures introduce angle modulation and de-
modulation algorithms. I like to emphasize that the understanding of the
spectrum of angle modulations is best facilitated by the use of the Fourier
series.
6. Chapter8—2 hours. These lectures introduce multiplexing and the phase-
locked loop. Multiplexing is an easy concept and yet students enjoy it be-
cause of the practical examples that can be developed.
7. Chapters 3 & 9 — 6 hours. These lectures introduce random variables and
random processes. This, from the student’s perspective, is the most difficult