Basic Information

  • Course Code: EE340
  • Course Name: Communication System Lab
  • Course Offered In: 2023-2024
  • Semester Season: Autumn
  • Instructors: Jayakrishnan Nair
  • Prerequisites: EE229, EE302(lab10)
  • Difficulty (1 being easy and 5 being tough): 3

Course Content

Total of 10 Lab experiments were performed –

Lab1: GNU Radio Familiarization Lab2: Implementation of AM in GNU Radio Lab3: AM Modulator and AM Demodulator Lab4: FM Modulation and Demodulation Lab 5: Generation of modulated RF signals using the “IQ-Modulator Board“ Lab 6: Non-linearity and its effects in communication systems Lab 7: Pulse shaping and Implementation of Digital Modulation Schemes in GNU Radio Lab 8: Match filtering Lab 9: Multipath Propagation and Equalization Lab 10: Carrier Frequency and Phase Synchronisation in Communication Links + End to End Communication

Half of the labs were software based and other were Hardware based on the DVB– T (RTL– SDR) dongles

Feedback on Lectures

Compulsory attendance policy. Every lecture had pre-lab materials that students were expected to study beforehand, and RAs and JKN Sir covered them. You will be able to design SDRs (Software Designed Radios) by using the GNU Radio Software in this course. With an SDR, you can create an emulator of a real radio, but as the name implies, you’ll be utilizing software to accomplish this. Even though one had to prepare for the lab by reading the pre-lab material, the labs were rather laid back. Even though the labs were relaxed, finishing the experiment might occasionally be difficult since sometimes the implementations—even in the lab sheets—are not accurate, and one needs to ask the TA for assistance in debugging them.

Feedback on Evaluations

There will be a five-question pre-lab quiz at the start of each lab, and your task is to in fill the blanks using knowledge from the pre-lab. Make sure you pay close attention to the pre-lab material and make an effort to comprehend it. Concerning the Midsem and Endsem: Test Midterm: 20%; Test Final: 30%.If you have finished the lab completely and get all of your questions answered, exams should be quite simple. The end semester for the 2020–2021 batch was challenging since it required decoding a text file from an audio sample, but the midterm was enjoyable because it required us to separate a combination of two popular songs—in our instance, Paris and Blinding Nights—(JKN sir makes paper really entertaining to decode)

Study Material and Resources

GNU Tutorials and installation guide was provided with proper help from TAs

Follow-up Courses

EE352: Digital Signal Processing lab

Final Takeaway

One of the fun lab in UG curriculum where students learn to play with songs and music clips doing frequency analysis , and decoding from audio and txt file, playing the hardware. This lab expects a high learning value since it does not score you based on how well you do the lab; instead, it teaches you how to perform the experiment. The evaluation is limited to the prelab quiz and midsem/endsem.