MASINDE MULIRO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ECE 426 - DIGITAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS SENATE APPROVED SYLLABUS

Pre-requisites:

ECE 321 – Principles of Communication Systems  

Course Purpose:

To enable students understand the fundamental principles of digital transmission systems as used in fixed and mobile telephony, wired and wireless computer networks, data storage and digital broadcasting. 

Expected Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

(i)    describe binary and duo binary pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM);

(ii)   design digital  coding schemes;

(iii) derive error performance equations for digital modulation schemes(ASK,FSK,PSK,DPSK);

 (iv) state strengths and weaknesses of  M-ary PSK with QAM terilizat schemes;

(v)   Design a basic digital communication systems.  

Course Content:

 Signal digitization: Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM), sampling theorems and sampling circuits, Pulse code modulation (PCM). Quantization and signal conditioning: Uniform and non-uniform quantization; companding methods; vocoders; signal-to- quantization noise ratio.  Waveform coding: Pulse transmission, PCM, Pulse-shaping; Delta modulation; adaptive delta modulation; Differential Pulse Code Modulation (DPCM), M-ary encoding. Digital Modulation: Amplitude shift keying (ASK), Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK). Signal recovery in ASK, FSK and PSK; Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK); Performance comparison. Information theory: information sources, entropy, channel capacity; Source Coding; entropy coding. Error control: Error control coding techniques; Transmission errors; Error detection methods; intersymbol interference and the eye pattern; Linear block codes; Cyclic codes; convolution codes. Multiplexing: Frequency division multiplex (FDM), Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH). Spread spectrum communication: Direct sequence and frequency hopping methods; synchronization, spreading codes and their generation. Data transmission: Local data transmission protocals (Ethernet, token ring); Modems; high Asymmetric Digital subscriber line (ADSL); Very–high Speed Digital subscriber line (VDSL), integrated services digital network (ISDN).

Mode of Delivery

Lectures, Class discussions, e-learning and laboratory tests

Instructional Materials

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

Course Assessment

Continuous assessment:  40%

Written Examination: 60%

Recommended References

(i)    Sklar, Digital Communications, Prentice Hall, ISBN-10: 0130847887.

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

(iii) P. Lathi , Zhi Ding , Modern Digital and Analogue Communication Systems, 3rd Ed.OxfordUniversity Press, ISBN-10: 0195331451