227-0439-00L  Wireless Access Systems

SemesterAutumn Semester 2020
LecturersA. Wittneben
Periodicityyearly recurring course
Language of instructionEnglish


AbstractThe lecture course covers current and upcoming wireless systems for data communication and localization in diverse applications. Important topics are broadband data networks, indoor localization, internet-of-things, biomedical sensor networks and smart grid communications. The course consists of two tracks, the lecture part “Technology & Systems” and the group exercise part “Simulate & Practice”.
ObjectiveGeneral learning goals of the course:
By the end of this course, students will be able to

- understand and illustrate the physical layer and MAC layer limits and challenges of wireless systems with emphasis on data communication and localization
- understand and explain the functioning of the most widely used wireless systems
- model and simulate the physical layer of state-of-the-art wireless systems
- explain challenges and solutions of indoor localization
- understand research challenges of future wireless networks

Specific learning goals include:
- Understanding the principles of OFDM and analyzing its performance on the physical layer
- Understanding and evaluating the challenges regarding current applications of wireless networks, e.g. for the internet-of-things, smart grid communication, biomedical sensor communication
- Illustrating the characteristics of the wireless channel
- Simulation of localization and user tracking based on wireless systems
- Explaining the basics of smart grid communications approaches (including narrowband PLC, G3-PLC)
Content- Introduction
- Wireless communication: fundamental Physical layer and MAC layer limits and challenges
- Basics of OFDM
- Wireless systems: WiFi / WLAN
- Wireless systems: Bluetooth, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication)
- Indoor localization based on wireless systems
- Internet-of-things: Challenges and solutions regarding wireless data communication and localization
- Smart grid communications
- Biomedical sensor communication
- Next generation designs (glimpse on current research topics)

The goal of the course is to explain and analyze modern and future wireless systems for data communication and localization. The course covers designs for generic applications (e.g. WiFi, Bluetooth) as well as systems optimized for specific applications (e.g. biomedical sensor networks, smart grid communications).

The course consists of two parallel tracks. The track "Technology&Systems" is structured as regular lecture. In the introduction, we discuss the challenges and potential of wireless access and study some fundamental limits of wireless communications and localization approaches.

The second part of this track is devoted to the most widely used wireless systems, WiFi/WLAN, Bluetooth, RFID, NFC. Furthermore, we study the potential of using existing wireless communication systems for indoor localization.

The third part follows with an introduction to the internet-of-things, where we focus on data communication and localization challenges and solutions in wireless networks with a massive number of nodes. Next, we study communication technologies for the smart grid, which combine wireless as well as power line communication approaches to optimize availability and efficiency.

The track is completed by a comprehensive survey of short-range magneto-inductive micro sensor networks for communication and localization - as a promising technology for biomedical sensor communication (in-body, out-of-body).

In the track "Simulate&Practice" we form student teams to simulate and analyze functional blocks of the physical layer of advanced wireless systems (based on MATLAB simulations). The track includes combination tasks in which different teams combine their functional blocks (e.g. transmitter, receiver) in order to simulate the complete physical layer of a wireless system. The focus is on data communication and localization. The tasks include modeling and simulating of single-carrier systems (as, e.g., used in Bluetooth), multi-carrier OFDM systems (e.g. used in WiFi or power line communication), and indoor localization approaches (e.g. relevant for IoT and sensor networks).
Lecture notesLecture slides are available.
LiteratureWill be announced in the lecture.
Prerequisites / NoticeEnglish