Syllabus

Fundamental Concepts: Terrestrial links, satellite links, macrocells, microcells, picocells, bodycentric systems, UWB systems; Cellular concept; Multiple-access schemes and duplexing; Review of antenna parameters; Friss transmission formula.

Propagation Mechanisms: Review of reflection, refraction, and transmission of electromagnetic waves on a plane boundary; Rough surface scattering; Computation of field strength using ray optics; Wedge diffraction theory; Ray-fixed coordinate system; Uniform theory of diffraction. Basic Propagation Models: Path loss, noise modeling, free space loss, plane earth loss, link budget.

Terrestrial Fixed Links: Path profiles, tropospheric refraction, obstruction loss, multiple knife- edge diffraction, multiple edge diffraction integral, diffraction over objects of finite size, influence of clutter.

Satellite Fixed Links: Effect of troposphere and ionosphere on path loss and noise.

Mobile Communication Links: Empirical and physical models for path loss; Statistical shadowing and its impact on coverage; Correlated shadowing; Narrowband fast fading: AWGN channel and narrowband fast fading channels, Rayleigh and Rician distributions, Doppler effect; Wideband fast fading: Cause and effect, wideband channel model and its parameters, frequency domain effects; Diversity techniques to overcome the effects of multipath channel. Ultra-wideband (UWB) Radio: Definition, benefits and applications of properties of UWB signals and systems; Waveform generation: Gaussian waveforms, waveform design for specific spectral masks, practical constraints; UWB channel models: Multipath channel model, path loss model, two-ray propagation model, measurement of channel characteristics; UWB antennas: Challenges in UWB antenna design, radiation of UWB signals, types of UWB antennas, beam forming for UWB signals.

Introduction to Body-Centric Wireless Systems.