ELT-45106 RF Equipment for Wireless Networks, 3 cr
Additional information
Course www-page: https://www.cs.tut.fi/kurssit/TLT-6306
Person responsible
Ari Asp, Mikko Valkama
Lessons
| Implementation | Period | Person responsible | Requirements |
| ELT-45106 2016-01 | 2 |
Ari Asp Joonas Säe |
Exam and project work. |
Learning Outcomes
The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the most essential RF equipment and network configurations needed in wireless networks. In addition, attention is paid on advanced mobile communication systems and on their impact and dependence on the network hardware configurations. After the course, students understand the fundamentals of receivers, transmitters, antenna line elements, and antenna structures, and can perform calculations where all major noise and gain/attenuation related parameters of the elements are taken into account.
Content
| Content | Core content | Complementary knowledge | Specialist knowledge |
| 1. | NOISE AND POWER -Fundamentals -Signal-to-noise ratio -Sources of noise -Noise factor, noise figure -Noise in cascaded systems After the section, a student is able to fluently use units of power, voltage, and impendance, and do decibel calculations. She/he is able to explain different sources of noise, understand the nature of thermal noise, equivalent noise temperature, and noise figure, and do calculations on those. Further, he understands the impact of signal-to-noise ratio requirements on the radio system performance. The student is also able to understand how noise and noise figure builds up in a cascaded system, and do related calculations. | Understanding the Y-factor method and calculating noise figure based on measurements. Being able to explain the basic methods to measure RF power. | |
| 2. | ANTENNA LINE ELEMENTS -Feeders -Low noise amplifiers -Filters and combiners -Distributed antenna systems -Repeaters A student understands the definition and significance of antenna line to the system performance. She/he is able to list different antenna line elements in typical wireless networks. Student becomes familiar with product specifications of different antenna line equipment is able to retrieve relevant information from them. | Understanding the existence of additional RF-equipment that can be used in wireless systems to improve the network performance. Some examples of these for cellular networks are introduced in the lectures such as distributed antenna systems and RF-repeaters. | |
| 3. | RX/TX ARCHITECTURES -Main analog components -Receiver architectures -Non-idealities and performance measures of the analog front-end components A student can explain different receiver architectures and compare their advantages and disadvantages in practical implementations. She/he understands the main sources of analog RF imperfections, can explain their effects on the receiver performance, and can relate the imperfections to the practical radio system specifications. A student is also able to explain alternative transmitter structures and related RF imperfections, especially regarding the power amplifier characteristics. | ||
| 4. | ANTENNAS -Antenna fundamentals -Antenna characteristics -Basic antenna types -Antennas in cellular radio systems This part gives the students an overview of the antenna fundamentals and key properties of antennas used in wireless systems in general. The students understand the definition of an ideal dipole and its radiation properties. Students understand how different requirements set for a wireless base station antenna will affect the antenna performance. Students are able to assess the performance of an antenna based on its properties such as gain, efficiency, radiation pattern, impedance, beam width, band width, and polarization. | Students are able to discriminate antennas based on their type. Students are able to understand the different methods of antenna tilt and their impact on the network performance. | |
| 5. | DIVERSITY -Principles of fading channel -Diversity methods -Signal combining -Transmit diversity A student understands the idea of diversity transmission and reception. She/he knows and is able to analyze fundamentally different diversity techniques to achieve uncorrelated channels, and understand different diversity combining techniques and do related calculations. | Calculations on equal gain and maximal ratio combining. Undersintanding the performance of transmit diversity techniques. Understanding the drawbacks of correlation and power inbalance, as well as estimation error in channels. | Understanding the bit error rate performance improvement achieved by diversity combining. |
| 6. | ANTENNA ARRAYS ADVANCED ANTENNA TECHNIQUES -Principles of antenna arrays -Antenna array types -Array factor -Principle of beam steering -Philosophy of base station antennas -Introduction to adaptive antenna systems Students are able to mathematically express the response of general and ideal antenna array as a function of elevation angle of the arriving signal. Students can explain how the antenna beam can be formed and steered using an antenna array. Students realize how a cellular base station antenna can be formed starting from a set of ideal dipole elements placed in the form of an array. Students are able to explain how the amplitude and phase weights of different array elements affect the radiation properties of the antenna as a whole. | Understanding the concept of adaptive antennas. Learning to use a tool to draw radiation patterns of antenna arrays using pen and paper. Students are able to list some general window functions for amplitude weighting of antenna arrays. | |
| 7. | MULTI-ANTENNA SYSTEMS -Principle of MIMO -Space-time block coding principle -Multi-antenna transmission techniques A student can discriminate multi-element antennas and multi-antenna transmission systems. She/he understands the principle of parallel data transmission using multiple antennas and the difference between antenna diversity and true MIMO systems. | Student is able to list and shortly describe some advanced multi-antenna transmission systems such as space-time block coding, BLAST, and PARC. |
Instructions for students on how to achieve the learning outcomes
Approved examination and project work.
Assessment scale:
Numerical evaluation scale (0-5)
Partial passing:
Study material
| Type | Name | Author | ISBN | URL | Additional information | Examination material |
| Book | Antennas and Propagation for Wireless Communication Systems | Simon R. Saunders | 10: 0 471 98609 7 (H/B) | No | ||
| Lecture slides | RF Equipment for Wireless Networks | J. Niemelä, T. Isotalo, P. Lähdekorpi | Yes |
Prerequisites
| Course | Mandatory/Advisable | Description |
| ELT-41206 Basic Course on Wireless Communications | Mandatory |
Additional information about prerequisites
basics of wireless communication
Correspondence of content
| Course | Corresponds course | Description |
| ELT-45106 RF Equipment for Wireless Networks, 3 cr | TLT-6306 RF Equipment for Wireless Networks, 3 cr |