EE 328 – DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
Course offered in:
Spring 2017
Instructors:
Prof. Abhay Karandikar
Course Content:
May vary a bit depending on the instructor but this is the general content:
Review of Random Processes and Spectral analysis. Elements of Detection Theory. Optimum detection of signals in noise. Coherent communication with waveforms- Probability of Error evaluations. Baseband Pulse Tranmission- Intersymbol Interference and Nyquist criterion. Passband Digital Modulation schemes- Phase Shift Keying, Frequency Shift Keying, Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, Continous Phase Modulation and Minimum Shift Keying. Digital Modulation tradeoffs.Optimum demodulation of digital signals over bandlimited channels- Maximum likelihood sequence detection (Viterbi receiver). Equalization Techniques. Synchronization and Carrier Recovery for Digital modulation.
Feedback on Lectures:
The lectures were very interesting. The instructor taught on the board and no notes/slides were uploaded except for the last part of the course explaining practical wireless communication systems. In terms of content, there was a lot of overlap with EE308, because for half of the batch some things weren’t covered. At some points, it was not very clear what different were we doing from the material done earlier, and to understand the difference reading of notes at home was needed.The instructor was very strict about punctuality and it’s best to never be late in his class. He did give us examples of real world communication systems. He was concerned about students understanding the subject and did answer all the doubts. There were also tutorials on some wednesdays at 8:30 am, wherein the TAs used to solve homework problems. The usefulness of the tutorial was subject to which TA was assigned to your tutorial.
The instructor follows an adaptive strategy in terms of exams. He will first give an easy exam and test how the class is doing. The first quiz and the midsems were pretty easy if you had solved the homework assignments. They were both closed-book as no lengthy formulae were required. Whatever was required for the midsem especially, was separately specified by the instructor in class. The second quiz was a bit difficult, and there was some issue while conducting the exam and its weightage was reduced. The third quiz was moderately difficult. Overall understanding of the nuances in the material was tested. The end semester exam was difficult as the class had performed well in the earlier exams. It was open notes. Handwritten notes in your own handwriting were allowed. Reading the reference books really helped in the endsem exam.
The instructor gave us 5 homeworks, the first two of which were on the easier side. After that, the difficulty of the homework matched the difficulty of the examinations. Although not graded, the homeworks were to be submitted. Solutions were also uploaded a few days after the homework submission.
Difficulty:
Overall the content is not very difficult, but does require frequent revisions to understand where we are going and how exactly the concept covered now is different from the one earlier.
Grading Statistics:
Moderate
Study Material and References:
- Digital Communications, S Haykin
- Communication Systems, S Haykin
Reviewed by – Karan Chadha (karanchadhaiitb@gmail.com)