Description

This three-day course is designed for wireless communication engineers involved with spread spectrum systems, and managers who wish to enhance their understanding of the wireless techniques that are being used in all types of communication systems and products. It provides an overall look at many types and advantages of spread spectrum systems that are designed in wireless systems today. This course covers an intuitive approach that provides a real feel for the technology, with applications that apply to both the government and commercial sectors.

What You Will Learn:

• How to perform link budgets for types of spread spectrum communications?
• How to evaluate different types of wireless communication transceivers?
• What methods are used for spread spectrum modems, multiple access, OFDM, error detection/correction for digital communication systems?
• What is multipath and how to reduce multipath and jammers?
• What is a Global Positioning System?
• How to use satellite communications for data communication links?
• What techniques are being used for Broadband Communications in both commercial and military radios including networking, JTRS, Link 16, clusters, and gateway?
• How to solve a 3 dimension Direction Finding system using interferometry?

From this course you will obtain the knowledge and ability to evaluate and develop the system design for wireless communication digital transceivers including spread spectrum systems

• Provides an understanding of concepts in wireless, data link, and digital communication techniques for both commercial and military sectors.
• Covers digital modulation, spread spectrum modulation and demodulation, link budgets, error detection and correction, probability applications, and a broad coverage of all the elements that make up a digital modulated data link.
• Includes extra topics such as: adaptive process to mitigate narrow band jammers in a broadband communications link, GPS, multipath, and satellite communications. Also includes Link 16, JTRS, military radios, networking link budgets, Eb/No, BER, Pe, direct sequence spread spectrum transmitters, PN code generators, DSPs, AGC, pulsed matched fi lters, PPM, CDMA, carrier recovery, matched fi lters & sliding correlators, eye pattern, phase detection, Gaussian processes, quantization error, antijam, adaptive fi lters, intercept receivers, GPS.

Course Outline:

1. Transceiver Design. dB power, link budgets, system design tradeoffs, gains/losses, Signal-to-Noise, Probability of Error, Bit Error Rate, Eb/No, link margin, tracking noise and signal level through a complete system, effects and advantages of using spread spectrum techniques. 

2. Transmitter Design. Various types and system designs of spread spectrum transmitters, PSK, MSK, QAM, OFDM, Other, Pseudo-Random code generator, multiple access TDMA/CDMA/FDMA, antenna sizing, transmit/receive, local oscillator, upconverters, sideband elimination, power amplifiers, standing wave ratios. 

3. Receiver Design. Dynamic range, image rejection, limiters, minimum discernable signal, superheterodyne receivers, importance of low noise amplifiers, 3rd order intercept point for intermodulation products, two tone dynamic range, tangential sensitivity, phase noise, mixers, spurious signals, filters, A/D converters, aliasing and anti-aliasing filters, digital signal processors DSPs. 

4. Automatic Gain Control Design & Phase Lock Loop Comparison. AGCs, linearizer, detector, loop filter, integrator, using control theory and feedback systems to analyze AGCs, PLL and AGC comparison. 

5. Demodulation. Demodulation and despreading techniques for spread spectrum systems, pulsed matched filters, sliding correlators, pulse position modulation, CDMA, coherent demod, despreading, carrier recovery, squaring loops, Costas and modified Costas loops, symbol synch, eye pattern, inter-symbol interference, phase detection, Shannon’ s limit. 

6. Basic Probability and Pulse Theory. Simple approach to understanding Probability, Gaussian process, quantization error, probability of error, bit error rate, probability of detection vs probability of false alarm, error detection and correction, interleaving, types of FECs, digital pulsed systems, pseudo-random codes for spread spectrum systems. 

7. Multipath. Specular and diffuse reflections, Rayleigh criteria, earth curvature, pulse systems, vector and power analysis. 

8. Improving the System Against Jammers. Burst jammers, digital filters, adaptive filters simulations and actual design results, quadrature method to eliminate unwanted sidebands, orthogonal methods to reduce jammers, types of intercept receivers. 

9. Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Basic understand of the Global Positioning System GPS and the spread spectrum BPSK modulated signal from space, Satellite transmission, signal structure, GPS receiver, errors, narrow correlator, selective availability SA, carrier smoothed code, Differential DGPS, Relative GPS, widelane/narrowlane, carrier phase tracking KCPT, double difference. 

10. Satellite Communications. Communication Satellites, General Satellite Operation, Fixed Satellite Service, Geosynchronous and Geostationary Orbits, Ground Station Antennas, Carrier power, Equivalent Temperature Analysis, Multiple Channels in the Same Frequency Band, Multiple Access Schemes, Propagation Delay, Cost for Use of the Satellites, Regulations, Types of Satellites Used for Communications.  

11. Broadband Communications and Networking. Mobile Users, Home networking, Power Line Communicatins PLC, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDM, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, Military Radios and Data Links, The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), Software Design Radios, The Software Communications Architecture, Clusters, JTRS Network Challenge, Gateway and Network Configurations, Link 16, TDMA, “Stacked” nets, Time Slot Re-allocation, Bit/Message Structure. 

12. DF & Interferometer Analysis. Positioning and direction finding using a simpified interferometer analysis, direction cosines, basic interferometer equation, three dimensional approach, antenna position matrix, coordinate conversion for moving baseline.

Instructor(s):

Scott R. Bullock, P.E., MSEE, specializes in Wireless Communications including Spread Spectrum Systems and Broadband Communication Systems, Networking, Software Defined Radios and Cognitive Radios and Systems for both government and commercial uses. He holds 18 patents and 22 trade secrets in communications and has published several articles in various trade magazines. He was active in establishing the data link standard for GPS SCAT-I landing systems, the first handheld spread spectrum PCS cell phone, and developed spread spectrum landing systems for the government. He is the author of two books, Transceiver and System Design for Digital Communications & Broadband Communications and Home Networking, Scitech Publishing. He has taught seminars for several years to all the major communication companies, an adjunct professor at two colleges, and was a guest lecturer for Polytechnic University on “Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum and Multiple Access Technologies.” He has held several high level engineering positions including VP, Senior Director, Director of R&D, Engineering Fellow, and Consulting Engineer.

BLOG

Tireless Wireless

Although the concept of Wireless Communications is pretty simple, the method by which it happens is anything but simple.   It’s like the old joke, we all love to eat sausage, but we really would rather not think about how it is made.  We all take wireless communications for granted when we use our cell phone, but there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes.

Wireless networks have a lot of advantages over wired networks.   To name a few, wireless networks are cheaper and easier to install and maintain.  They can be accessed at almost any time from almost any place.  And, wireless networks can transmit more data, and transmit it more quickly than a wired network.  The biggest disadvantage of a wireless network is that it can be more susceptible to security threats and data exploitation.

For years, wireless networks have been considered the norm in communication systems, but in the last two years, the importance of wireless networks has increased dramatically due to the pandemic.  As astutely observed by Ahmadi, Katzis, Shakir, Arvaneh, and Gatherer in their April 2020 paper titled  Wireless Communication and the Pandemic: The Story So Far ,  the role of telecommunications in keeping people connected and working has been phenomenal.

The authors point out that the three most significant contributions of wireless networks have been connectivity for healthcare, connectivity for education, and connectivity for retail and supply chain.  The ability to maintain healthcare, education, and retail has been critical to keeping the world up and running with some sense of normalcy during the pandemic.  

For healthcare, 5G mobile technology can reliably connect hospitals, ambulances, and homes to make healthcare service more efficient.  For education, wireless communications allow students of all ages to remain connected with their teachers, whether they are in the local school, or in a college or university half way around the globe.  For Retail, wireless communications allowed people to purchase necessities, and have them delivered to their homes, without undue exposure to the pathogens.  For companies, wireless communications allowed businesses to order and receive things that allowed them to stay open for business, and keep their workforce working.

There will always be a need for wireless communication networks, but that need will be particularly great during the remainder of this pandemic, and whenever the next pandemic comes about.  It is critical that our wireless communications infrastructure be in place now and in the future to meet the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth.

To learn more about wireless communications, consider taking the upcoming ATI Wireless Communications course.  You can read more about this course, and register for it here. 

And, as always, a complete list of the ATI courses which may interest you can be found here.