Mobile and Wireless Networks

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject provides the fundamentals of mobile and wireless network design. In particular it includes the following topics:

• Introduction to wireless communications.
• Frequency division, time division and code division multiple access. Frequency division duplexing and time division duplexing
• The cellular concept, frequency reuse, channel allocation schemes, handoff, call control, interference, C/I analysis, interference limited capacity, sectorisation, system capacity based on call blocking.
• Teletraffic models for cellular mobile networks, Erlang loss function (Erlang B), Erlang delay (Erlang C), M/M/m, M/M/m/n, M/G/1 Processor Sharing queue and their application to dimensioning cellular communications networks for voice and data, system capacity, demand modelling and performance, Grade of Service and Quality of Service
• Propagation, free space propagation, basic propagation mechanisms, two ray model, empirical path loss models (Hata, Cost231-Hata, Erceg), log-normal shadow fading, small-scale multipath propagation and Rayleigh fading:.
• SNR, sensitivity and link budget calculations, micro and macro diversity to combat fading, calculation of radio coverage for cellular networks: multiple access techniques for cellular communications.
• CDMA system principals & spread spectrum, CDMA capacity equations and application in network design (WCDMA & CDMA2000).
• Cellular broadband wireless systems.

On completion of this subject, students should have developed the skills and knowledge required to understand the fundamentals of the design and evaluation of mobile and wireless networks and to be able to solve technical problems in the following areas:

• Analysis and evaluation of re-use planning via the calculation of key performance indicator such as CIR
• Application and evaluation of propagation models to wireless networks.
• Teletraffic modelling and performance analysis for wireless networks
• Dimensioning of wireless networks
• Modelling and design of CDMA wireless systems
• Performance evaluation of wireless broadband networks
• Design and evaluation of coverage for wireless networks based on a link budget
• Large and small scale fading mitigation using space diversity techniques

The student should be able to perform a basic design of a wireless system for both coverage and capacity for given performance targets. They should also be able to evaluate the coverage, capacity and or performance of a wireless system.

Reading:

T.S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications: Principals and Practice, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2002
H. Holma and A. Toskala, WCDMA for UMTS, J. Wiley & Sons, New York, 3rd Ed., 2005
H.Holma and A. Toskala, HSDPA/HSUPA for UMTS, J. Wiley & Sons, New York, 2006
L. Kleinrock, Queuing Systems: Volume 1 - Theory, John Wiley & Sons New York, 1975
W.C. Jakes, Microwave Mobile Communications, Wiley-Interscience, 1974

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of this subject, the students should have developed:

• problem solving and analytical skills,
• critical and creative thinking, with an aptitude for continued self-directed learning;
• sense of intellectual curiosity;
• ability to interpret data and research results;
• ability to learn in a range of ways, including through information and communication technologies;
• capacity to confront unfamiliar problems;
• ability to evaluate and synthesise the research and professional literature;
• ability to develop models of practical applications and evaluate their performance by rigorous analytical means;