MASINDE MULIRO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
ECE 321 - PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

COURSE SYLLABUS

Pre-requisites:

ECE 351 – Analogue Electronics I, MAT 103 – Pure Mathematics II, STA 102 –Probability and Statistics ECE 216 – Electric Circuit Theory and Analysis II


Course Purpose:

To introduce students to the analysis and design of analog communication systems

 


Expected Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this course, a student should be able to:

(i)  explain various analogue modulation and demodulation methods;

(ii) compare the performance of Amplitude , Frequency Modulation and Phase modulation;

(iii) analyze and design basic AM and FM transmitters and receivers;

(iv) formulate and interpret the presentation and processing of signals in communication systems;

(v) Evaluate the influence of noise on communications signals.

 
Course Content:

Introduction: definition and importance of communications, History of electronic communication; basic communication block diagram; Electromagnetic spectrum; bandwidth; frequency management.

 

Amplitude modulation: AM spectrum; Modulation Index; Power content; DSB-SC; Hilbert Transform; SSB-SC; Vestigial Sideband Transmission (VSB); Performance comparison of various AM systems.

 

Angle Modulation: Phase Modulation(PM); Frequency modulation (FM); Phasor representation; Wideband FM; FM bandwidth for arbitrary signal; FM generation (Direct method, reactance modulator, Varactor diode method, FET reactance modulator).

 

Demodulating FM waves: classification of FM demodulators; Frequency discriminator; slope detector; Phase discriminator; Performance comparison of FM demodulating methods.

 

AM and FM transmitters and receivers: AM transmitter; SSB transmitter; SSB receivers; FM transmitter; Tuned radio frequency and super heterodyne receivers; Diversity receivers; FM receivers.

 

Noise in communication systems: Noise performance in various modulation schemes, noise figures and signal-to-noise ratio.

 

Communication Signal Transmission: Review of the Fourier transform; signal transmission through a linear system; signal distortion over a communication channel; signal energy and energy spectral density; signal power and  power spectral density; numerical computation of the Fourier transform.

 

MODE OF DELIVERY

Lectures, Class discussions, e-learning and laboratory tests

INSTRUCTION MATERIALS

 

Handouts, textbooks, lecture notes, e-materials, Chalkboard, Whiteboard, LCD/Overhead Projector, Computer with simulation software.

COURSE Assessment

Continuous assessment:            40%

Written Examination:               60%

COURSE Assessment

(i)     John M. Wozencraft, Irwin Mark Jacobs, Principles of Communication Engineering, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN-10: 0881335541

(ii)   B.P. Lathi, Modern Analog and Digital Communications, Oxford Series in Electrical and Computer Engineering, ISBN-10: 0195331451

(iii) L. W. Couch, Digital and Analog Communication Systems, 6th Ed. 2003. ISBN: 0135990289.

(iv)  Sanjay Sharma, Communication Systems (Analog and Digital), S.K. Kataria and Sons