Getting Started with Communications Engineering

For a while now, I've been wondering about turning some of my lecture notes into a book (rather a common idea in academic circles). However, there are many excellent textbooks on this subject already, there's no need for another one just like all the others. So, this one is going to be a bit different.

Amongst these differences, perhaps the most useful is that this book is free for personal, private use. Help yourself. The downside of this is that no-one's making any money out of the book, so I can't spend as much time on this project as I would like, and I have no resources to employ any good editors and proof-readers. So - that's where you come in. Comments welcome, especially if you spot an error / problem, or find that something isn't clear, please let me know. Dave Pearce

Approach Taken in this Book: Why is it Different?

Requests to write chapters earlier rather than later - please send to me. Otherwise I'll choose a random order based on whatever I happen to be teaching or preparing at the time, or what students ask me about in class. (Anything in Current Contents with a link is here, ready for comments. Anything in Current Contents without a link is currently being worked on. Everything else is being planned, but will have to wait.)

Current Contents:

Part One: Before We Start: What You Need To Know About Maths and Other Stuff
        ... Basic Maths (6 pages - but needs a bit about polynomials added in, and partial fractions)
        ... Trigonometry (8 pages)
        ... Complex Numbers (9 pages)
        ... Statistics (10 pages)
        ... Working With Random Variables (7 pages)
        ... Statistical Distributions (14 pages)
        ... Calculus
        ... Series and Sequences (9 pages)
        ... Decibels (6 pages - needs re-formating, a comment about the dB/Hz, dBc/Hz and dBHz, and a graph of linear vs log added in)

Part Two: Vectors, Matrices and Linear Algebra
        ... Vectors (15 pages.)
        ... Matrices (12 pages. Perhaps a bit rushed, and could do with a few more examples.)
        ... Linear Algebra (15 pages.)
        ... Gaussian Elimination (16 pages, but with a lot of examples.)
        ... Counting The Costs (12 pages. First half of matrix decomposition.)
        ... Sets of Systems (13 pages. Second half of matrix decomposition.)
        ... Matrix Calculus (14 pages. I'm not very happy with this one, I might have simplified too far, and ended up with something more complex.)
        ... Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors (17 pages. Too long, and too hurried. Another one I might split off into two, with some more examples, and some more stuff about the QR algorithm, perhaps?)
        ... Iterative Techniques (10 pages. A lot more could go in here, but I think I'll leave these for the problems: the proof that GS converges for positive definite and the derivation of optimum over-relaxation factors for a start.)
        ... Steepest Descent Algorithms
        ... The Conjugate Gradient Algorithm
        ... Matrices and their Properties
        ... Matrix Decompositions

Part Three: Signals and Systems
        ... Signal Transforms (12 pages, and could do with some more problems)

Part Four: Signal Processing Algorithms
        ... The Wiener Filter (15 pages)
        ... The LMS and RLS Algorithms
        ... Using the Wiener Filter
        ... The Kalman Filter

Part Five: Signalling in Communications
        ... The Equivalent Baseband Representation (16 pages)
        ... Frequency Division Multiplexing

Part Six: Wireless Modem Design
        ... Non-Linear Effects (15 pages.)
        ... Noise and IP3 in Receivers (18 pages.)

Part Seven: Protocols and the Internet
        ... Flow Control (7 pages)
        ... Error Detection (14 pages)
        ... Error Control (14 pages)
       ... Multiple Access Protocols (10 pages)
        ... Contention-Based Multiple Access
        ... Contention-Free Multiple Access
        ... Ethernet (13 pages. Doesn't cover the physical layers, I'll need to do that later.)
        ... Project 802 and the LLC (12 pages, needs a bit of polishing up, and a diagram of VLANs)
        ... Bridging and Switching (12 pages, could do with more details of RSTP, and an example?)
        ... IPv4 Addressing (14 pages)
        ... Routeing Algorithms (14 pages)
        ... Routeing Protocols (6 pages - not very good yet, this one needs a lot more details about OSPF and BGP, and I could introduce the idea of dynamic route costs and thrashing in here as well, to make it a bit less dry.)
        ... IP, TCP and UDP
        ... TCP Congestion Control
        ... The Domain Name Service
        ... Filling in the Gaps: DHCP, ARP and NAT
        ... IPv6 and the v6 Protocols
        ... Socket Programming

Part Eight: Wireless Communication Technologies
        ... Introduction to Mobile Communications
        ... Requirements and Quality of Service
        ... Propagation for Mobile Communications (12 pages)
        ... Large-Scale Channel Models
        ... Fading Distributions (13 pages, perhaps needs a bit more on Nakagami? And maybe a better title...)
        ... Multipath Channel Models (18 pages! - how did it get that long? All I did was the delay spread and coherence bandwidth...)
        ... Time-Variant Multipath Channels (Another 18 pages! It's important though, and I did want to do the derivations.)
        ... Code Division Multiple Access
        ... Diversity
        ... Space-Time Coding
        ... Forward Error Control Coding

Other Planned Contents:

Part Three: Signals and Systems
        ... Signals (continuous, discrete and quantised)
        ... Orthogonal Signal Sets
        ... The Fourier Series (trigonometric and exponential)
        ... The Fourier Transform
        ... Systems (including non-linear systems, and LTIs)
        ... Impulse Responses and Frequency Responses
        ... Convolutions and Correlations
        ... The Discrete-Time Fourier Transform and Fast Fourier Transform
        ... Sampling and Quantisation
        ... Random Signals and Noise
        ... Estimation Theory (least-squares and maximum likelihood)

Part Four: Signal Processing in Communications
        ... Optimum Receivers in White Noise
        ... Nyquist Filters and Intersymbol Interference
        ... Synchronisation Techniques
        ... Equalisers and the RAKE Receiver
        ... Adaptive Filters, LMS and RLS
        ... Channel Estimation
        ... The Least-Square Problem and its Solutions
        ... The Hilbert Transform and its Uses
        ... The Kalman Filter

Part Five: Signalling in Communications
        ... Baseband Modulation Schemes
        ... Common Baseband Modulation Schemes
        ... Analogue Passband Modulation Schemes
        ... Linear Passband Modulation Schemes
        ... Exponential Passband Modulation Schemes
        ... Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

Part Six: Wireless Communication Technologies
        ... Introduction to Mobile Communications
        ... Requirements and Quality of Service
        ... Propagation for Mobile Communications
        ... Large-Scale Channel Models
        ... Multiple Access Schemes and Multiplexing
        ... Code Division Multiple Access
        ... Interference and Frequency Re-Use
        ... Cellular Planning
        ... Power Budgets and Network Capacities
        ... Multipath Channels and Fading
        ... Channels in the Time and Frequency Domains
        ... Power Control
        ... Improving Orthogonal Systems
        ... GSM
        ... WCDMA
        ... WiMAX
        ... Wi-Fi
        ... Bluetooth
        ... Other Systems
       ... Diversity
        ... Multiuser Detection
        ... Water-Pouring
        ... Space-Time Coding
        ... Smart Antennas
        ... Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Systems
        (... TDMA, FDMA and CDMA
        ... Binary Sequences for CDMA Systems)

Part Seven: The Internet
        ... Protocols and the ISO OSI Model
        ... The TCP/IP Protocol Stack

Part Eight: Traffic Modelling and Queueing Theory
        ... Modelling Traffic and Self-Similarity
        ... Markov Chains and Queueing Theory
        ... The Erlang and Engset Distributions

Part Nine: Radio Propagation, Radio Channels and Antennas
        ... Fields and Vector Calculus
        ... Electric and Magnetic Fields
        ... Electromagnetic Waves
        ... Radio Propagation
        ... Sky Waves
        ... Ground Waves and Guided Waves
        ... Refraction and Reflection in Radio Propagation
        ... Diffraction
        ... Channel Models for Mobile Communications
        ... Fading

I'll try and get one page done per day on average. Started 1st of January 2007. As of the last count (December 2nd 2007) that makes: 393 pages in 336 days. Still ahead of schedule, but then I'm doing some of the easy stuff first, using the notes I've already got. It'll get slower later...

Note: most of 2008 I didn't do anything on the book. I was offered some paid work for OFCOM, and that took up all my spare time - in the current economic climate I'd be a fool not to take whatever paid work I can get. That's just about over now, and should be completely finished by the end of this year, so come next January I'll set off again. I wonder if I'll ever catch up with my original target...