Practical Digital Wireless Signals
Course 232

This three day course is designed to provide all participants with a physically intuitive understanding of wireless communication signals and why they work the way they do. With the growing impact of wireless communications on the basic operation of society, the need for a more general understanding of the basis for this technology is more important than ever.

This course approaches wireless communications signals through the window of physics and physical principles. While a solid understanding of the mathematical theory of wireless communications signals is essential for detailed system design and analysis, the fundamental choices in system application and approach are often best approached physically. We do not shun math in this presentation, but instead of using math as the presentation base we instead use it as a follow up illustrator of the principles discussed.

The sessions cover all of the major modulations used in digital wireless communication, including ASK, FSK, PSK, QAM, and OFDM. Spread spectrum operation is included, comparing the relative performances of Direct Sequence (DS) and Frequency Hopping (FH) techniques. System principles are also presented such as an extensive discussion of the Shannon Capacity Limit, the physical basis of Nyquist filtering, plus an introduction to antennas and wireless signal propagation. Important system parameters and analysis tools which are common to any modulation type are presented and demonstrated. Public course attendees will receive a copy of the book – Practical Digital Wireless Signals by Dr. Earl McCune.

Physically intuitive understanding is the purpose for this course on Wireless signal and system fundamentals. Understanding why these signals and techniques work, not just how, is the key objective of this course.