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Remark:
Continuing the positive experience from the last semesters, we have decided to offer the course Audio/Visual Communications & Networks in a format that considers the possibility for as well students as lecturer and tutors to give and / or consume parts of the course online using webconference tools:
- One unit per week will be devoted to a pre-announced chapter of the underlying 5GNR eBook.
- The other units of the week based on a manuscript will be devoted to the mathematical background of the techniques introduced.
In case (parts of) the course will be offered online the used tool and dial-in information will be published on this course website.
Course Details
Introduction
The course will focus on 5G New Radio, which is the recently specified fifth generation cellular system.
All students have access to a recent 5GNR eBook (see Literature).
Audio/Visual Communications & Networks will focus on 5G since from a telecommunications perspective the combination of audio/visual data – meaning inherently high data rate and putting high requirements on the real-time capabilities of the underlying network – and wireless transmission – that is unreliable and highly dynamic with respect to the channel characteristics and its capacity – is the most demanding application domain.
The lecture will build on the foundation layed as well in „Signals and Systems / Signale und Systeme“ as in „Digital Transmission and Signal Processing“ and it will apply the building blocks introduced there. The course will aim at being self-contained, however, it will not be able to repeat basic mathematical concepts and tools introduced in „Digital Transmission and Signal Processing“.
The course will introduce the frequency bands available for 5G and their characteristics with respect to propagation, it will shed light on several multiple access (MA) schemes like TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA and SDMA and the corresponding duplex schemes TDD and FDD. A part of the course will be devoted to so called MIMO (multiple input multiple output systems), since the use of several phase- and amplitude-correlated antennas has boosted the data-rate of telecommunications systems.
Prerequisites
„Audio/Visual Communications & Networks“ is a course during the main study period and by such requires a solid foundation of mathematics (differential and integral calculus) and probability theory. The course will build on the mathematical concepts and tools taught in „Digital Transmission and Signal Processing“ while trying to enable everyone to follow and to fill gaps by an accelerated study of the accompanying literature. „Signals and Systems“ as well as „Digital Transmission and Signal Processing“ are strongly recommended but not required.
Course Structure
Basic Rules
- Please note that small changes and corrections will be applied to the lecture notes throughout the semester. If you find mistakes or have suggestions how to enhance the lecture notes we appreciate your input!
- Please don’t hesitate to tell us if you have any comments or suggestions related to lecture notes, task sheets, exercises or even organizational things. We will improve it soon so you can benefit from it, not only future students.
- There will be weekly quizzes with 5 questions for 15 minutes every week on Tuesday from 12:15 – 12:30. These quizzes are graded individually and the points will be published online.
Lectures
- Place: Campus C6. 3. Room: 9.05 (if possible; otherwise remotely via MS Teams)
- Time: Tuesday 12:15 - 13:45 and Wednesday 08:30 - 10:00 (start April 12th)
Tutorial
- Place: Campus C6. 3. Room: 9.05 (if possible; otherwise remotely via MS Teams)
- Time: Wednesday 12:15 - 13:45
Exam Dates
- The exams will be held as ORAL exams.
We will schedule all exam slots on the two dates as given below. The exact time of each slot and how you can choose a certain slot will be announced during the lecture. - Main Exam - 28th - 29th July 2022
- Re-Main Exam - 27th - 28th September 2022
Task Sheets
- Task sheets are issued on Tuesdays after the lecture and are available online.
- You do not have to submit the solutions, instead work on the tasks until the following tutorial.
- During the tutorial you can solve the task sheet questions and get 1 point on every task you have contributed individually.
Correction
- The quizzes and task sheets for this course will be divided into two parts (6 in each block respectively). It is necessary to pass both the blocks individually to be eligible for the exam.
- Weekly Quizzes and Task Sheets:
- Each weekly quiz is worth 5 points in total, which adds up to 30 points total for all quizzes in each block.
- Each task sheet contains minimum 3 tasks, which adds up to 18 points total for all tasks in each block.
- Final points are calculated by adding up over all quizzes and task sheets within a block.
- You need minimum 19.2 (40%) points in total to pass a block and must pass both block A and B to be eligible for the exam.
MATLAB
- Saarland University has a MATLAB campus license which can be used by all university students for non-commercial purposes.
- The CIP pool at Saarland University provides access.
- SSUM Signals and Systems Using Matlab package: a collection of demonstrations and exploratory applications for signal processing. It demonstrates extensively the concept of convolution, Fourier Analysis, FIR and IIR filters, modulation and much more. To use all examples the Matlab "Signal Processing Toolbox" is required (available in the CIP-room and included in Campus License).
Literature
Erik Dahlman, Stefan Parkvall, Johan Skold: "5G NR : The Next Generation Wireless Access Technology", Elsevier Science & Technology, 2018. This book is available on: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sulb/detail.action?docID=6353377. You need to create an account: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/auth/lib/sulb/login.action
Simon Haykin, Michael Moher: "Modern Wireless Communications", Prentice Hall, 2011
Additional Material
Aura Ganz, Zvi Ganz, Kitty Wongthavarawat: "Multimedia Wireless Networks - Technologies, Standards, and QoS", Prentice Hall, 2004
Matthew S. Gast: "802.11ac: A Survival Guide", O'Reilly, 2013
John G. Proakis, Masoud Salehi: "Communication Systems Engineering 2nd Edition", Prentice Hall, 2002
Ulrich Reimers: "Digital Video Broadcasting - The Family of International Standards for Digital Video Broadcasting", Springer, 2005
Claude E. Shannon, Warren Weaver: "The Mathematical Theory of Communication", University of Illinois Press, 1963
William Stallings: "Wireless Communications & Networks 2nd Edition", Prentice Hall, 2005