School of Engineering and Built Environment Trimester 1 2011/2012

MMH606581 Digital Communications

Laboratory Assignment

Assignment
HIPERLAN/2 (high performance radio local area network) is the European (ETSI) Standard for highrate wireless LANs. It employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) that operates in the 5 GHz band and offers raw data rates up to 54 Mbps.

Aims
The main aims of this assessment are to allow students to demonstrate: an understanding of the principles of wireless digital communications covered in class a critical evaluation of the performance of appropriate digital communication system components within wireless communications an ability to design and investigate alternative system component implementations and investigate their performance within a communication system high level written communication skills

Assignment
(a) Open the model hiperlan2_basic.mdl. This is a primitive form of OFDM with no convolution encoding, no puncturing and no interleaving. Evaluate the bit error rates (BER) of this hyperlan2_basic model as a function of AWGN noise. Open the model hiperlan2_convolution.mdl. This OFDM model now includes convolution encoding and puncturing. Evaluate the BER of this model as a function of AWGN. Open the model hiperlan2_complete.mdl. This is the standard hiperlan model which includes convolution encoding, puncturing and the addition of bit and block interleaving. Evaluate the BER of this model as a function of AWGN and compare with (a) and (b) above. Discuss. Change the puncturing pattern keeping the same puncturing data rate. Evaluate the error rate and compare the BER with (c) above. Discuss. Change the bit interleaving pattern for the system. Evaluate the BER and compare the BER with (c) above. Discuss. Open the model hiperlan2_newconvolution.mdl. This is identical to the model in (c) above. Undertake the following tasks: (i) Design 3 different convolution encoders (poly2trellis) for Hiperlan2 which maintain the 1:2 code rate output prior to puncturing. (ii) Implement these different convolution encoding schemes and their associated trellis decoding into the model. (iii) Evaluate the BER performance of these encoding schemes as a function of AWGN.

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

Submission: Paper Copy and Electronic Copy

Produce a 3,000-4,000 words report on the background of OFDM and the above investigations, which critically assesses, discusses and compares results and observations from (a) to (f) above. An overall conclusion section should also be included. Submission Date for both paper and electronic copy: Friday 9th December 2011 The paper copy should be submitted and date stamped through the Schools Programme Office M209. Electronic copies should be submitted through the MMH606581 Digital Communications GCULearn Assignments folder.

Plagiarism
Please note the following School statement on Plagiarism: The deliberate and substantial unacknowledged incorporation in your submission of material derived from work (published or unpublished) of another is prohibited. In such cases the work submitted is classified as illegal and will result in further action being taken by the University which may include recording a failure.

Marking Criteria
All assessed work shall be marked according to the following performance criteria.

Description
Excellent Above Average Average Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

%Mark
70+ 60-69 50-59 40-49 0-39

The definitions of the criteria named are: Excellent Performance: Most of the relevant information/skills accurately deployed. Outstanding grasp of theoretical/conceptual/practical elements. Good integration of theory/practice/information and/or exceptional level of personal creative development demonstrated in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives.

Above average performance: Most of the relevant information/skills accurately deployed. Good grasp of theoretical, conceptual and practical elements. Good integration of theory, practice and information and/or a high level of personal creative development demonstrated in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives.

Average performance: Much of the relevant information/skills mostly accurately deployed. Adequate grasp of theoretical, conceptual and practical elements. Fair integration of theory, practice and information and/or a good level of personal creative development demonstrated in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives.

Satisfactory performance: No major omissions or inaccuracies in the development of information/skills. Some grasp of theoretical, conceptual and practical elements. Integration of theory, practice and information and/or a satisfactory level of personal creative development demonstrated intermittently in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives.

Unsatisfactory performance: Major deficiencies or omissions in the information, skills, theoretical, conceptual and practical elements. Little integration or creative ability demonstrated in pursuit of the assessed work's objectives.