Advanced Topics in Communications

Name of Module:
"Advanced Topics in Communications"

Name of Course (starting Summer 2025):
"Advanced Topics in Wireless Communications"

Prerequisite: Basic Course on Wireless Communications of our Institute

Wireless communications is today's predominant network access technology, be it Bluetooth, WiFi, or Mobile Cellular Systems such as GSM, UMTS, LTE, 5G, or the 6G Systems to come.

This course discusses advanced topics on the physical layer of wireless systems, like transmit and receive algorithms in the context of multiple antenna channels, for communication as well as for sensing applications, bringing you close to the current state-of-the-art.

This course does have a significant theoretical component, but also discusses implementation aspects of the involved algorithms on software defined radio (SDR) hardware.

Students will become

• familiar with current research topics in wireless communications at the institute
• able to comprehend recently published papers in leading scientific journals such as IEEE Transaction on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
• ready to apply theoretical concepts and other acquired knowledge in designing and prototyping communication systems using software defined radio and Python.

Topic 1: Multi-antenna technology

• Closed loop point-to-point MIMO
• Waterfilling algorithm

Topic 2: Multi-User and massive MIMO

• TDD and FDD systems
• CSI feedback and beam codebooks
• Antenna arrays and beamforming: Phased arrays, hybrid and fully-digital arrays
• Massive MIMO and channel hardening

Topic 3: Channel modeling

• Recap: Multipath propagation and Doppler effect
• Timing and synchronization
• Channel measurements
• Stochastic geometry-based channel models (overview)
• Raytracing for channel modeling (overview)

Topic 4: Sensing aspects

• Radar systems
• Spectral estimation and super-resolution techniques
• Radio localization: Triangulation (AoA estimation), multilateration (ToA estimation), deep learning-based techniques (overview)
• Doppler-delay domain

Topic 5: Modern modulation formats

• Look at real wireless system implementations like 802.11 (Wi-Fi), 5G NR and their modulation formats (OFDM, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, ...)
• Link adaptation
• OTFS

Topic 6: Software Defined Radio, Working in the Lab, Prototyping

• TBD

Note: Course contents subject to change in order to keep up-to-date with latest research results and developments in the communications industry.