Communications Systems Design
Code: 42837 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 4313797 Telecommunication Engineering | OB | 1 |
Contact
- Name:
- Maria Angeles Vazquez Castro
- Email:
- angeles.vazquez@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
It is required background on Digital Communications and Communication Systems.
Objectives and Contextualisation
System design requirements and functionalities are oriented to customer requirements and can become highly interdisciplinary and complex.
Design alternatives and system validation are part of the design process, which requires interdisciplinary team efforts.
Unlike the usual teaching in an engineering course, the general objective of this subject is to learn how to think (per design), rather than learn what (design) to think.
Detailed objectives include familiarizing students with systems thinking through interdisciplinary teamwork for the design of a complex system.
The content provides work guidelines but never exact rules, which depend on the project and the team.
Examples of real systems will be described that will inspire students in their own designs to develop in practical work.
Competences
- Capacity for applying theory of information methods, adaptative modulation and channel coding as well as advanced techniques for digital signal processing in telecommunications and audiovisual systems.
- Capacity for designing and dimensioning transport, diffusion and distribution networks for multimedia signals.
- Capacity for implementing systems using cable, lines, satellite in fixed and mobile communications environments.
- Capacity for modelling, designing, introducing, managing, operating, administrating and maintaining networks, services and content.
- Capacity for planning, decision-making and packaging of networks, services and applications considering the quality of service, direct and operating costs, the implementation plan, supervision, security procedures, scaling and maintenance and for managing and ensuring quality in the development process.
- Demonstrate an entrepreneurial, creative and innovative spirit
- Student should possess the learning skills that enable them to continue studying in a way that is largely student led or independent
- Students should know how to apply the knowledge they have acquired and their capacity for problem solving in new or little known fields within wider (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the area of study
- Students should know how to communicate their conclusions, knowledge and final reasoning that they hold in front of specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously
Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate an entrepreneurial, creative and innovative spirit
- Design and obtain coding and modulation techniques in communications systems.
- Design communications systems considering quality requirements and the services offered.
- Design systems considering quality requirements and communications services.
- Identify and classify multimedia diffusion and distribution mechanisms in radio access networks.
- Recognise design strategies for mechanisms to assign resources in radio access networks.
- Student should possess the learning skills that enable them to continue studying in a way that is largely student led or independent
- Students should know how to apply the knowledge they have acquired and their capacity for problem solving in new or little known fields within wider (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the area of study
- Students should know how to communicate their conclusions, knowledge and final reasoning that they hold in front of specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously
Content
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Introduction: System Thinking.
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Engineering Systems Design.
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Elements of Communication Systems.
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Design Phases: Problem Statement and Requirements.
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Design Phases: Functional and Physical Architecture.
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Design Phases: System Verification and Validation (V&V).
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Life Cycle.
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Optimization.
Laboratory:
Session 0. System Ideation.
Session 1. Problem Statement and Requirements Gathering.
Session 2. System Design: Functional and Physical Architecture.
Session 3. System Verification and Validation (V&V).
Session 4. Student Project Presentations.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Supervised | 45 | 1.8 | 2, 4, 3, 5, 8, 7, 6 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Student's work | 15 | 0.6 | 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 6 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Lectures | 86 | 3.44 | 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 6 |
The methodology will consist of lectures and study cases.
The students will be given two examples of requirements-driven full design study cases after which, teams of students will work on their own (interdisciplinary) design cases.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | A | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 6 |
| B | 0.25 | 1 | 0.04 | 4, 3, 8 |
| C | 0.25 | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 6 |
| D | 0.25 | 1 | 0.04 | 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 6 |
Evaluation
Theory: 50% (individual evaluation)
50% concept questionnaire 50% system functional analysis
Laboratory: 50% (team evaluation)
50% laboratory session submissions 50% final report and presentation
The option to improve the obtained grades will be offered in case of error or low score (<7). This will be done by providing a set of specific potential improvements on the presented design, which will be submitted before deciding the final grade. The grade will be "NOT PRESENTED" as long as there are no evaluation records during the general evaluation period.
Note on copying, plagiarism, and other irregularities.
Without prejudice to other disciplinary measures that may be deemed appropriate, and in accordance with current academic regulations, irregularities committed by a student that may lead to a variation in the grade of an evaluable activity will be graded with a zero (0). Evaluation activities graded in this way and by this procedure will not be recoverable. If it is necessary to pass any of these evaluation activities to pass the course, this course will be directly failed, with no opportunity to recover it in the same term.
These irregularities include, among others:
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total or partial copying of a practice, report, or any other evaluable activity;
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letting others copy;
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presenting a group work not entirely done by the group members (applied to all members, not just those who did not work);
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presenting as own materials produced by a third party, even if they are translations or adaptations, and in general works with non-original and exclusive elements of the student;
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having communication devices (such as mobile phones, smartwatches, pens with cameras, etc.) accessible during individual theoretical-practical evaluation tests (exams);
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talking to classmates during individual theoretical-practical evaluation tests (exams);
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copying or attempting to copy from other students during theoretical-practical evaluation tests (exams);
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using or attempting to use writings related to the subject during theoretical-practical evaluation tests (exams), when these have not been explicitly permitted.
The numerical grade in the record will be the lower value between 3.0 and the weighted average of the grades in case the student has committed irregularities in an evaluation act (and therefore passing by compensation will not be possible). In future editions of this course, a student who has committed irregularities in an evaluation act will not be granted any of the evaluation activities completed.
In summary: copying, letting others copy, or plagiarizing (or attempting to) in any of the evaluation activities equals a FAIL, not compensable and without validations.
Bibliography
Software
Not required.
Language list
Information on the teaching languages can be checked on the CONTENTS section of the guide.