The course focuses on the introduction of the fundamental concepts for wireless communications and systems, with emphasis on equipping students with signal processing skills for designing modern physical-layer techniques.
In the first part of the course, the characteristics of wireless channels will be presented, explaining in detail the key features of signal propagation at various frequencies (eg, FR1, FR2, FR3, THz, and satellite links). In addition, the tool of link budget analysis will be introduced, as well as a detailed description of the most prominent fading channel models will be provided. The input/output mathematical model of the wireless channel (for both narrowband and wideband cases) will be described, together with the large variety of the available diversity techniques (in the time, space, and frequency dimensions). Furthermore, various diversity reception techniques will be analyzed, and the key aspects of MIMO systems will be introduced. This first part will be concluded with an extended introduction to cellular systems, including multiple access and interference management techniques as well as schemes based on CDMA and OFDM. The core components of 5G systems and trends for the upcoming 6G systems will be discussed.
The second part of the course is devoted to an extended mathematical description of the key principles of the groundbreaking MIMO technology, which was first introduced in Wi-Fi 4 (IEEE 802.11n), then in 4G LTE (3GPP Release 8), and since then it is being embedded in the vast majority of wireless standards (including 5G and the upcoming 6G). The modeling of deterministic and stochastic MIMO channels will be presented, including geometrical analyses and characterization of the degrees of freedom. In addition, spatial multiplexing in MIMO systems will be detailed and signal processing techniques for estimating MIMO channels will be presented (including state-of-the-art techniques based on machine learning tools). Moreover, the MIMO channel capacity formula will be proven, reception techniques in MIMO systems will be designed, and transceiver architectures for MIMO systems (including hybrid versions, extremely large antenna arrays, and implementations based on dynamic metasurfaces antennas) will be presented together with their mathematical modeling. Finally, the celebrated V-BLAST and D-BLAST architectures for MIMO systems will be presented in detail.
- «Fundamentals of Wireless Communication», D. Tse, P. Viswanath, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- «Wireless Communications», A. Goldsmith, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- « Wireless communications: Principles and Practice», T. S. Rappaport, Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2024.