EE 179, Lecture 1, Handout #2
Course Introduction
EE 179, March 31, 2014
Lecture 1, Page 1
Course Information
Instructor: John Gill, gill@ee.stanford.edu
Packard 266, 650-723-4715
Office hours: TBA
Class homepage: http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee179.
Coursework for scores.
Prerequisites: EE 102A or equivalent
Textbook: Lathi & Ding, Modern Digital and Analog Communications
Systems, 4th ed.
Weekly homework assignments due on Fridays
Grading: HWs 20%, midterm 30%, final 50%
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Class Policies
Homework policy
Assigned on Wednesdays, due following Wednesday at 5pm.
Penalty 25% credit per day late.
Up to 3 students can collaborate on 1 writeup.
All collaborators must work out all problems.
Examination policy
Exams must be taken at their scheduled times. Exceptions only for good
reason.
Midterm: Friday, May 9, open book, open notes
Final: Friday, June 6, 12:153:15pm, open book, open notes
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Course Syllabus
Communication systems today
Key concepts in communications
Fourier transform review and examples
Energy/power spectral density; autocorrelation
Noise and signal-to-power ratio
Amplitude modulation
Frequency modulation
Digital modulation
Error detection and correction
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Early Communication Systems
Telegraph
1876, Alexander G. Bell (Watson come here; I need you.)
1888, Strowger stepper switch
1915, US transcontinental service (requires amplifiers)
Wireless telegraphy
Joseph Henry
Pavel Schilling
Samuel B. Morese, Morse code
What Hath God Wrought
Telephone
1830,
1832,
1837,
1844,
1895, Jagadish Chandra Bose builds radio transmitter
1896, Marconi patents radio telegraphy
1901, Marconi, first transatlantic transmission
Radio
1906, Reginald Fessendend, first broadcast
1920, first commercial AM radio station (Montreal XWA CINW)
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Communication Systems Today
Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for voice, fax, modem
Radio and TV broadcasting (covered later in the course)
Citizens band radio; ham short-wave radio
Computer networks (LANs, WANs, and the Internet)
Satellite systems (pagers, voice/data, movie broadcasts)
Cable television (CATV) for video and data
Cellular phones
Bluetooth
GPS
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Communication Systems Then
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Communication Systems Now
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PSTN Design
Local exchange
Handles local calls
Routes long distance calls over multiplexed high-speed connections
Circuit switched network tailored for voice
Faxes and modems modulate data for voice channel
DSL uses advanced modulation to get 1.5-6.0 Mbps
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Cellular System Basics
Geographic region divided into hexagonal cells1
Frequencies/timeslots/codes are reused at spatially-separated locations.
(Analog systems use FD, digital systems use TD or CD.)
Co-channel interference between same color cells
Handoff and control coordinated through cell basestations
1
proposed in 1947 by Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young, Bell Labs engineers
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Cellular Phone Backbone Network
Mobile telephones depend on the PSTN except for mobiles within the
same MTSO (mobile telephone switching office)
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Local Area Networks (LAN)
Local means every computer can hear every other computer
Packet switching instead of circuit switching (no dedicated channels)
Data is broken down into packets
Originally proprietary protocols; e.g., Ethernet was a collaboration
between Intel, DEC, and Xerox. (DEC?)
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Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN)
WLANs connect local computers (100m range) to an access point
As with LANs, data is broken down into packets
Channel access is shared (random access)
Access protocols for WLANs are much more complex than for LANs
Backbone Internet provides best-effort service (no QOS guarantee)
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Wide Area Networks; the Internet
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Satellite Systems
Satellites cover very large areas
Different orbit heights: GEOs (39000 Km) versus LEOs (2000 Km)
Optimized for one-way transmission, such as radio (XM, DAB) and
television (SatTV) broadcasting
Latency (round trip delay) can be a problem
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Bluetooth
Ericsson, 1994, named for King Harald Bl
atand Gormsen
Intended as replacement for cables, such as RS-232
Now used for input devices, cell phones, laptops, PDAs, etc.
Short range connection (10100 m)
Bluetooth 1.2 has 1 data (721 Kbps) and 3 voice (56 Kbps) channels,
and rudimentary networking capabilities
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