Fundamentals in Communications Engineering

In this lecture, basic concepts and problem definitions of technical communication systems are treated. At the beginning, an introduction to basic signal description forms is given. Then, small- and large-signal amplifiers are analyzed on system and component level. In this context, special attention is put on the description and the influence of nonlinear effects.
The next big topics of this lecture are analog and digital modulation methods followed by an introduction to receiver design. Furthermore, the sources of noise and their influence on the design of communication systems are treated. In the second part of the lecture wave propagation on transmission lines is analyzed. Starting with the introduction to the equivalent circuit of a two-wire transmission line, the characteristic parameters of such transmission lines are presented. With this knowledge, the mathematical description of transmission lines as system component is given. Besides the mathematical analysis in the steady state condition, also transient events are analyzed.
Altogether, the students get a basic understanding of communication system design and are able to evaluate their performance.