This course offers a comprehensive overview and advanced insights into modern wireless communication systems. It equips students with in-depth knowledge and practical tools to address the challenges and harness the opportunities brought by the wireless medium in the design of communication systems. These knowledge and tools will support engineering applications in the information society by enabling fast, reliable, and efficient wireless connectivity between human-operated and machine-type devices. The understanding and skills developed in this course will benefit a wide range of vertical industries, including telecommunications, automation and control, computing, aerospace, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and defence.
The course starts by introducing the fundamental knowledge of wireless channel modelling and characterisation, and skills for evaluating modulation and detection performance over wireless channels. It then explores key techniques employed in current and emerging wireless communication systems, including equalisation, spread spectrum techniques (e.g. frequency hopping, code division, and chirp spread), multi-carrier systems (e.g. OFDM), multi-antenna communications (e.g. beamforming, multiplexing, and diversity), and medium access control protocols (e.g. TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, CDMA, ALOHA, and CSMA). Finally, it describes consumer and IoT networks (e.g. cellular, satellite, WiFi, NB-IoT, and LoRA), as well as major wireless standards (e.g. 4G and 5G cellular networks and WiFi systems).
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Apply appropriate fading models to characterise the properties of the wireless medium and evaluate signal reception performance in wireless communication systems.
- Understand the fundamental limits of wireless transmission and select suitable equalisation, multi-carrier, and spread spectrum techniques based on design criteria.
- Determine appropriate transceiver design of multi-antenna communication systems and evaluate the performance over wireless channels.
- Evaluate and compare medium access control protocols and develop appropriate designs based on wireless channel properties and performance requirements.
- Understand the principles and standards of emerging wireless networks.
- Design and critically evaluate wireless communication systems and intelligent signal processing algorithms through hands-on experience in hardware laboratories, projects, and computer simulations.
Indicative Assessment
- Assignments (18) [LO 1,2,3,4]
- Hardware Labs (6) [LO 6]
- Projects (36) [LO 2,4,5,6]
- Final Exam (40) [LO 1,2,3,4,5]
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Workload
Approximately 10 hours per week is expected with a total of 130 hours for the entire course. The workload covers the learning activities of lecture content, tutorials, hardware labs and projects, as well as adequate self-study and completion of assessments.
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Primary Textbook: A.J. Goldsmith, Wireless Communications, Cambridge University Press, First Edition, 2005.
Suggested Textbook: A. F. Molisch, Wireless Communications: From Fundamentals to Beyond 5G, John Wiley & Sons, Third Edition, 2022.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 2
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
Second Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8776 | 26 Jul 2027 | 02 Aug 2027 | 31 Aug 2027 | 29 Oct 2027 | In Person | N/A |