Course syllabus

Course-PM

MCC125 MCC125 Wireless link project lp2 HT22 (7.5 hp)

This course is offered by the department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience.

In the course you will  design, implement and demonstrate a simplex wireless data transmission link over a distance of roughly 100m. The data should be transmitted at radio frequency (RF) of 2.4 or 5.8 GHz. We do not require a specific data rate, but we require the link to operate at QPSK or higher digital modulation format. 

Students will be provided with programmable hardware (a software defined radio, also called USRP), which includes DA and AD convertors with a sampling rate of 400 and 100 MS/s. Matlab  will be used to set up and communicate with the USRPs and to implement the software (SW) part of the project.

In the transmitter part of the link frames should be formed where each frame consists of bits for frame synchronization and the message itself. The USRP is capable of performing an IQ modulation with a center frequency of up to 100 MHz, or output baseband I and Q channels. The baseband, or the modulated IQ intermediate frequency (IF) signal, will be up converted to the chosen RF frequency, amplified and transmitted through an antenna.

On the other end of the link, a receiver amplifies and down converts the RF frequency to a baseband or IF frequency. The down converted signal is fed to the receiving USRP. The receiving software should be able to detect the beginning of a frame, to perform the necessary frequency, phase and timing synchronization and to extract the message bits.

Each group will have to design the analog up/down conversion (the RF) part of the link using a selection of microwave components, such as mixers, amplifiers and other passive components. The structure the transmitter and receiver will be motivated through a link budget, which ensures the hardware is capable of performing transmission over a distance of 100m. Groups will design their own printed circuit boards (PCB), The PCBs will be processed at Eurocircuits (https://www.eurocircuits.com/Links to an external site.) using their STANDARD pool process on a 1mm thick FR4 dielectric.  Groups will register their own account at Eurocircuits and upload their designs for "design rule check" (DRC) using Eurocircuits online tool called "PCB Checker". DRC is necessary to make sure the layouts comply with the process, to correct layout errors and ensure the quality of the PCB. 

On the software part of the receiver you will implement your own impairment correction algorithm  for frequency, timing and phase correction. The receiver functionality will be examined at the end of the course during a demonstration of data transmission.

In this course we can accept up to 24 students. You will be divided in four groups with up to 6 students.  Within each group you are free to divide the work and choose either a hardware or a software development, or both.

Contact details

Teaching team:

• Vessen Vassilev <vessen.vassilev@chalmers.se> - examiner and course responsible
• Zonglong He <zonglong@chalmers.se> - TA software
• Rob Vissers <robvis@chalmers.se> - TA hardware

Course purpose

Students studying digital communications spend a lot of time learning how to construct a communication link, however when it comes to the implementation they face a whole new set of problems. Same applies for the hardware designs, effects such as non linearity, heat dissipation and oscillations are often ignored during the design stage, but manifest themselves after the designs are manufactured and tested. With the experience acquired within the course students will learn the building blocks of a digital communication system, how to implement modulation/demodulation algorithm, and how to design, analyze, assemble and evaluate a real hardware. This course will teach you how to solve the most typical problems that engineers face in "real-life" implementations of communication link. 

Schedule

The course starts with an introduction lecture on October 31th 2022 at 13:15 in A810/MC2. After 7 weeks, on December 15th, it ends with a final presentation given by the groups. Before that, on December 12th the functionality of the links will be verified through a transmission of a message between 2 points in the MC2 building. You will be working most of the time in the student Lab B518, where we have available all the resources that you need to accomplish the course.

TimeEdit

Course literature

This is a project course, we do not have particular book that follows the course. However, to refresh your knowledge in digital communications we can recommend:

[1] A Quadrature Signals Tutorial: Complex, But Not Complicated by Richard Lyons,
https://mriquestions.com/uploads/3/4/5/7/34572113/quad_signals_tutorial-lyons.pdf
[2] H. Meyr, M. Moeneclaey, and S. A. Fechtel, Digital Communication Receivers, Synchronization, Channel Estimation, and Signal Processing. Wiley, 1998.
[3] U. Mengali, and A. N. Andra, Synchronization Techniques for Digital Receivers. New York: Plenum Press, 1997. –This text is available online from the Chalmers library.

Course design

To complete the course you will need to demonstrate a simplex transmission of data (text, or picture or other file of your choice) over a distance of 100 m using your own designed and assembled hardware. You will construct and use your own software to modulate the carrier in the transmitter, to detect your message in the receiver and to correct the hardware impairments such as frequency offset, phase offset, timing synchronization, etc. To successfully complete the course on time, you will need to meet a certain deadlines, as for example submitting your PCB designs. The table bellow summarizes the milestones of the course.

Changes made since the last occasion

A summary of changes made since the last occasion.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

• design and evaluate a real wireless transmission link
• analyze and evaluate different technical solutions
• plan and with adequate methods realize qualified projects within given time frames
• show the ability of team work and collaboration in groups with different background
• discuss and present results in written and spoken English to different groups
• show the ability to identify the need of further knowledge and continuous knowledge development
• show the ability of critical and systematic knowledge integration even with limited information
• develop a product with regards to ecological sustainable development.

Examination form

Students are individually graded as "Fail", 3, 4 or 5. The individual grade is referenced to a group grade, which is based on the demonstrated link functionality and performance, such as data rate, distance and modulation format. Individual grades may be adjusted based on individual contributions and on individual level of reporting and presenting results.