ASSIGNMENT 1

Purpose of the Assignment

This assignment is intended to assess the candidates on the following learning outcomes:

1. Apply concepts of satellite communication systems associated with the operation of satellite communications networks, (A, B).

2. Demonstrate the use of advanced knowledge to solve basic and advance radio link design problems associated with satellite communication systems, (B).

3. Apply skills required to design an end-to-end satellite communications link budget, based on standard engineering practices, (A, B).

4. Identify the commercial, economic and social context of communication engineering applications that are affected by satellite communication systems, (B).

5. Demonstrate the independent learning ability required for continuing professional development, (B).

The task: Designing and Simulating a Geo-Stationery orbit Satellite Communications Link for a Lossy Communication Channel

Task Description

This assignment requires the candidates to design and simulate an end-to-end Geo-Stationery orbit satellite communications link over a lossy satellite communication channel using MATLAB simulation software. The primary function of the satellite link is for data communications in Oman. The assignment will involve significant research on the part of the candidates and the design process should be contextualized for use in the Sultanate of Oman.

The primary losses involved in the channel will be:

i) Free space loss
j) Atmospheric attenuation (Sandstroms and rain)
k) Depointing losses
l) Polarization mismatch losses

In addition to these, there will be Radio Frequency Interference and Uplink/ Downlink Thermal Noise.

You can ignore Doppler shift, Faraday's rotation, attenuation due to atmospheric gases (for frequencies less than 10GHz), attenuation due to fog and ice clouds, Scintillation and multipath contributions. You are required to take Round-Trip Time Delay into account as the design is for a Geo-Stationery orbit satellite communications link.

You must select uplink and downlink frequencies in the S Band (3 GHz to 4 GHz) and required to study the constellations, satellite orbital design, angle from satellite to earth station, radio interface among other design criteria with reference to a receiver location in Muscat.

Carry out a link budget design that includes advanced link budget calculations and stipulate antenna parameters, error coding you are using and the multi-access technique you deploy (either code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA) but not space division multiple access (SDMA)). Outline the variations in system design with their respective performances.

The performance metrics that needs to be utilized include outage probability, throughput, bit-error rate, and capacity. The end goal is to design and implement a satellite communications system that achieves high performance and reliable transmission in a lossy medium.

Except for the stipulated conditions above, any other needed criteria can be set by you, but they must be clearly stated.

You are required to submit a report of up to 4000-words for this Task.

The report should include:

1. Your final overall designs demonstrating MATLAB component blocks and connections between them, and application to satellite communications systems.

2. A description of the overall purpose of each component in the design and why is it required. The expected criteria is only the necessity of having such design component in relation to the prescribed task, contextualized with the location of the receiver (Muscat, Oman) and the orbital and frequency stipulations.

3. A detailed description of the design choices and calculations for each component and for the system as a whole. This section should also include results (e.g. graphical or numerical results of simulations) obtained while investigating and refining your design. This might, for example, include a discussion of trade-offs in your design, based on measured performance etc.

4. Demonstration of a final working satellite communications system.

ASSIGNMENT 2

Radio Frequency and Microwave Circuit Design

Purpose of the Assignment

This is a semester coursework assignment in which you are required to propose, design and simulate the RF subsystem. You are required to compare the results. Thus this assignment is engineered to provide a mix trend of research and industry. This assignment aims to cover the following learning outcomes:

1. Apply concepts underlying the design of RF and microwave circuits.

2. Apply engineering and scientific principles of other disciplines to support real-world implementation of RF circuits design.

3. Identify, compare and describe the performance of microwave systems.

4. Evaluate performance of transmission lines using simulation software

5. Investigate constraints including ethical, health, safety, security and risk issues and code of practice and standards

6. Accurately present and interpret data.Designing of a Radio Frequency (RF) Subsystem for Telecommunication

1. Task Description

This assignment on RF communication subsystem design is a semester project and its objective is to encourage students to study the current scenarios in the modern telecommunication systems. They are required to design and simulate a radio frequency subsystem that can be applied to the communication system.

Theoretically wireless transceivers can be divided into baseband and RF sections. As baseband is the range of frequencies at which transmitters process the input and receivers generate the output. There are number of signal processing techniques used to improve the quality of the data and capacity of the transmission line for a specific data rate. However, the RF circuit in the transmitter is used for converting the processed signal up to the allocated channel and inserting it into the transmission medium. Similarly, the RF circuit in the receiver is utilized for receiving the signal from the transmission medium and converting it down back to baseband signal.

This coursework Assessment is a small research-type workout in which you will select a project from a given list of topics. The projects include:

i. A literature survey on a selected topic. Try to include the most recent literature references. A critical review of the latest literature. It should Investigate constraints including ethical, health, safety, security and risk issues and code of practice and standards.

ii. Designing a model solution of chosen problem in the selected project. Validating the solution with the help of a software simulation study. The simulation tools and platform is your choice.

iii. Project oral presentation.

The projects will be carried out individually. Below is a list of topics, you may choose one and discuss with the lecturer as early as possible

2. Suggested Topics for the Coursework

I. Low noise RF amplifiers
II. Microwave ultra wideband (UWB) Antennas
III. Microwave narrow band-pass filters
IV. Micro-strip-lines
V. RF circulators and isolators

Attachment:- Radio Frequency and Microwave Circuit Design.rar