Page 21 - Fundamentals of Communications Systems

Preface xix

Style Issues
This book takes a stylistic approach that is different than the typical commu-
nication text. A few comments are worth making to motivate this style.

Property–Proof
One stylistic technique that I adopted in many of the sections, especially where
tools for communication theory are developed, was the use of a property state-
ment followed by a proof. There are two reasons why I choose this approach

1. The major result is highlighted clearly in the property statement. Students,
in a first pass, can understand the flow of the development without getting
bogged down in the details. I have found that this flow is consistent with
student (and my) learning patterns.
2. Undergraduate students are increasingly not well trained in logical thinking
in regard to engineering concepts. The proofs give them some flavor for the
process of logical thinking in engineering systems.

General Concepts Followed by Practical Examples
My approach is to teach general concepts and then follow up with specific ex-
amples. To me the most important result from a class taught from this book
is the learning of fundamental tools. I emphasize these tools by making them
the focus of the book. Students entering the later stages of their engineering
education want to see that the hard work they have put into an engineering
education has practical benefits. The course taught from this book is really fun
for the students as old tools (signals and systems and probability) and newly
developed tools are needed to understand electronic communication.

Two Types of Homework Problems
This book contains two types of homework problems: (1) direct application
problems and (2) extension problems. The application problems try to define
a problem that is a straightforward application of the material developed in
the text. The extension problem requires the student to think “outside the box”
and extend the theory learned in class to cover other important topics or cover
practical applications. As a warning to students and professors: Often times
the direct application problems will appear ridiculously simple if you carefully
read the text and the extension problems, as they are often realistic engineer-
ing problems, appear to be much too extensive for a homework problem. I have
found that both types of problems are important for undergraduate education.
Direct application problems allow you to practice the theory but are usually not
indicative of the types of problems an engineer sees in practice. Alternatively
students often desire realistic problems as they want a feel for “real” engineer-
ing but often get overwhelmed with the details needed in realistic problems. All
direct application leads to a boring sterile course and all extension problems
discourage all but the exceptionally smart and motivated. Having a book with