EE3008Principles of Communications

What you will study

Course overview and aims

In this course, students will gain knowledge about the principles of point-to-point communication. Students will learn to understand various modulation schemes for both analog and digital signal transmission. Additionally, students will develop the skills to analyze the performance of these schemes in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, bandwidth requirements, and error performance.

Keyword syllabus

Spectrum Analysis Fourier transform; bandwidth requirement; basic frequency properties of digital signals. Digital Baseband Transmission for Analogue Signal Formatting analogue information : sampling process, aliasing; pulse amplitude modulation and time division multiplexing; waveform representation of binary digits; Amplitude quantization : quantization noise, uniform and non-uniform quantizing; pulse code modulation (PCM), µ-law companding; Differential PCM. Analog Modulation-AM Amplitude modulation (AM) : generation and detection, signal to noise ratio; modulation index; spectral analysis; system bandwidth requirement; single-sideband modulation. Analog Modulation-FM Frequency Modulation (FM) : narrowband and wideband FM, FM signal generation; spectral analysis of single-tone FM signals; average power and bandwidth; FM receivers. Digital Modulation/Demodulation Phase shift keying, frequency shift keying: generation, differential encoding, coherent & non-coherent detection, error performance in an additive Gaussian channel, bandwidth requirement. Transmission Media Metallic cable: data rate and bandwidth limitation; Optical fibre: light propagation, optical sources and detectors; Satellite: orbit & subsystems, multiple access techniques; Wireless Network: cellular phone, wireless LAN.

Official PDF, page 4 · Keyword Syllabus

Intended learning outcomes

View learning outcomes

CILO	Intended learning outcome	Weight	DEC
1	Evaluate analogue AM systems in both the time and frequency domains.	—	DEC-A1, DEC-A2
2	Describe the FM system in terms of its working principle and implementation. Evaluate a single-tone FM signal in terms of its spectrum lines, bandwidth, and modulation index.	—	DEC-A1, DEC-A2
3	Explain the working principle of PCM and PAM systems in analogue-to-digital signal conversion, and evaluate their performance in terms of quantization level to SQNR, signal bandwidth, and system data rate.	—	DEC-A1, DEC-A2
4	Evaluate coherent BPSK, BFSK and QPSK schemes in terms of signal constellation, system bandwidth, and bit error performance.	—	DEC-A1, DEC-A2
5	Identify different types of transmission media.	—	DEC-A1, DEC-A2

Official PDF, page 2 · Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs)

Before you take this course

Check prerequisites, precursors and corequisites separately, together with equivalence and exclusion conditions. “and” means conditions must be met together; “or” marks alternatives. Read combined conditions in the groupings shown in the original text below.

Prerequisites

MA2001 Multi-variable Calculus and Linear Algebra

Precursors

Nil

Corequisites

EE3210 Signals and Systems

Additional course requirements

Co-requisites: EE3210 Signals and Systems

Equivalent courses and conditions

EE4940

Exclusive courses and conditions

Nil

Assessment and passing the course

Assessment

Continuous assessment: 50%; Examination: 50%; Examination duration: 2 hours

Assessment breakdown

Assessment task	Weight	Generative AI	Remarks and restrictions
TestsCILO 1, 2, 3, 4, 5	40%	No	-
AssignmentsCILO 1, 2, 3, 4, 5	10%	Yes	GenAI tools can be utilized to support reflective writing assignments and to facilitate idea generation in group projects. Students are expected to appropriately acknowledge any use of GenAI tools in their assessment tasks.

Official PDF, pages 2–3 · Assessment Tasks / Activities (ATs)

View the original assessment table and instructions

Assessment Tasks / Activities (ATs)

3      EE3008: Principles of Communications




                        ATs                   CILO No.        Weighting (%)       Remarks ("-" for    Allow Use of
                                                                                  nil entry)          GenAI?
1                       Tests (min.: 2)       1, 2, 3, 4, 5   40                  -                   No
2                       #Assignments          1, 2, 3, 4, 5   10                  -                   Yes
                        (min.: 3)

Passing requirements

Remark: To pass the course, students are required to achieve at least 30% in course work and 30% in the examination. # may include homework, tutorial exercise, project/mini-project, presentation