Teaching the Basic Concepts of Communications Systems Using Interactive Graphics and Calculations

Abstract

An open source, open content, and open access (free) electronic textbook, an ebook, introducing the concepts of communication systems is described. The ebook is written in the Wolfram language, Mathematica. The purpose of this interactive presentation of communication systems is to bring the material alive through the use of student driven interactive graphics and dynamic performance metric calculations. In-line interactive questions are included to provide the students with rapid feedback regarding their understanding of the material. The ebook was used as the required text in EECS 562 Introduction to Communication Systems at the University of Kansas in the Spring of 2021. M-ary Phase Shift Keying Time Division Multiple Access Frequency with from WiFi and OFDM as used in the the M-ary baseband symbols, pulse shaping, dynamic resource the of TDMA/OFDM, error rate vs signal-to-noise ratio (E b /N 0 ) different orders of M-QAM, receiver noise figure, path loss and antenna gain to current systems using adaptive modulation contains 16 error rate (BER) as a function of the E b /N 0 is presented next. For BPSK and MPSK the link budget concepts are applied to again highlight trade-offs among key system parameters. The students are now prepared to tie together all the concepts they have studied to develop an understanding of the implementation issues associated with WiFi, 4G and 5G cell systems. The ebook concludes with a chapter introducing error control coding, cumulating in defining the coding gain which again can then be factored into link budgets. Below is the table of contents.