ECE 390 Introduction to Communication Systems -

Course Outline Winter 2005

Lecture Schedule
M W F 1100-1150, Section B2 in room: ETLE2-002. Section B3 in room ETLE2-013.

Labs will begin mid-January. Details to be announced in class and posted at course web site.
The Lab Instructor is Steve Drake <sdrake@ece.ualberta.ca>

Contact Information
Section B2 Wayne D. Grover, Professor, W2-115 ECERF 492-2532 (UofA) , 441-3815 (TRLabs) grover@ece.ualberta.ca
Section B3 Behrouz Nowrouzian, Professor, W2-084 ECERF 492-5148 (UofA) nowr@ece.ualberta.ca

Consult Hours
Tuesday and Thursday 1:00-2 PM in the ECE Consult Room (ETLE 2-040 E). TA’s will be on duty and if your question isn’t
adequately addressed a meeting with the instructor will be arranged.

Course Web Site(s):

(for Section B2) http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~grover/EE390/
(for Section B3) http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~nowr/menu_item_314.html

Course Objectives
1. An introduction to and overview of modern communications systems.
2. A review of linear systems and signal processing techniques.
3. An introduction to analog modulation techniques; amplitude modulation (AM) and “angle” modulation (FM and PM).
4. An introduction to digital communications; sampling, quantization, coding.

Required Text: Modern Digital and Analog Communication Systems, 3rd ed., B.P. Lathi, Oxford University Press, 1998.

Other course materials: Selected lecture-note materials will be available from each instructor for download from the course
web site(s).

Exam Details
Midterm: 50 minute exam, March 2, 2005 during scheduled lecture time, closed-book, approved calculators allowed. A formula-
sheet will be provided. No other notes sheets are allowed.
Final: Three hour final exam. Date/time as scheduled by the Registrar’s office. Closed-book. A two-sided formula-sheet will be
provided and calculator allowed. No other notes sheets are allowed.
Anti-cheating measures will be designed into both mid-term and final exams and suspected cases of cheating will be treated
seriously and passed on to the Dean’s Office.

Marks and Grading

Assignments (6 planned) 12%
Labs 15%
Midterm 25%
1 Final 48%
Total 100%

Marking Policy: Raw marks will be ranked and converted to grade assignments using the standard University of Alberta
historical grade distributions as a guideline.

Policy about course outlines can be found in Section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar.
Policies on Missed Examinations
Exemption will be granted only for students with acceptable cause (see Section 23.5 of the University of Alberta calendar). If
the mid-term exam is missed without acceptable medical documentation a course grade of zero will be assigned. If the mid-term
exam is missed with acceptable medical release documentation then the weight of the mid-term will be shifted to the final exam.
If a student misses the final exam with approved medical release, or, if a student qualifies for a deferred final exam, the deferred
final exam will be administered by the ECE department in June.

Code of Student Behavior

The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be
familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students
are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at
www.ualberta.ca/secretariat/appeals.htm) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating,
plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result
in suspension or expulsion from the University. Please refer to Section 26 of the University of Alberta Calendar for current
policies on student misconduct and disciplinary measures.

Email Communications
Students should send e-mail to instructors or TAs from their official U of A account. Mail from yahoo or hotmail, etc. may be
blocked by our anti-spam filters. In addition, in email correspondence please identify yourself by your plain name spelled out in
full. E-mail received with anonymous nickname identifiers only may not be responded to.

TAs and TA Support

Section B2 (Grover) of the course has one TA assigned: Brian Forst <bforst@ualberta.ca>
Brian Forst is a graduate student pursuing an M.Sc. degree and a past graduate of EE390 in top standing.
TA information for Section B3 (Nowrouzian) will follow.

Approximate Course Content and Timeline

Weeks Broad Topic Concepts

1-2 Introduction Overview of system types: point-point, point-multipoint, broadcast
systems; Simplex, half & full duplex, baseband & pass band; analog &
digital: transmission media. Analog and digital communications,
power-bandwidth tradeoffs, signal-to-noise ratio, channel capacity
concepts
2-3 Review of signals Classification and representation of signals, Fourier representation,
and systems energy and power spectral density, linearity, types of distortion
4-6 Amplitude Carriers and modulation, types of amplitude modulation, AM receivers,
modulation (AM) Generation and detection of DSB-LC and DSB-SC signals.
Transmission bandwidth. Power in carrier and signal
7-8 Angle modulation Instantaneous frequency, approximate analysis of angle modulation
(FM and PM) (bandwidth, spectral content), FM/PM receivers. Equations for FM and
PM. Single tone narrow band and wide band FM: Bessel functions.
Carson's rule. Power in carrier and signal. Modulators: direct and
indirect. Demodulators: discriminators, delay (phase shift or
Quadrature) detector. FM receiver. Threshold effect. Pre-emphasis/de-
emphasis
9-12 Pulse and Digital Sampling and pulse-code-modulation (PCM), line coding, pulse
communications shaping, error control, digital carrier systems and multiplexing.
(to the extent time Sampling theorem, Nyquist frequency. Spectral density of signals.
permits) PCM encoder, regenerator, decoder, ISI and Nyquist filters. TDM and
PCM frames. T1 system. Binary signal formats and spectral densities.
ASK, FSK, PSK: Modulators, Demodulators.

Policy about course outlines can be found in Section 23.4(2) of the University Calendar.