Transceiver and Systems Design for Digital Communications, Radar, and Cognitive Processes
Course 260
Summary
This course provides a system design approach for wireless digital transceivers, radar, and cognitive and adaptive processes to enhance the designs for both commercial and military sectors, allowing a broad spectrum of readers to understand the topics clearly. It covers a wide range of data link communication design techniques, including link budgets, dynamic range and system analysis of receivers and transmitters used in data link communications, digital modulation and demodulation techniques of phase-shift keyed and frequency hopped spread spectrum systems using phase diagrams, multipath, gain control, an intuitive approach to probability, jamming reduction method using various adaptive processes, error detection and correction, global positioning systems (GPS) data link, satellite communications, direction-finding and interferometers, plus a section on broadband communications and home networking including Link 16, JTRS, military radios, and networking.
Included in this course are several techniques to improve the performance and adapt to the changing environment of interference, jamming, noise and other system changes. These adaptive and cognitive techniques use various processes to improve the designs by adapting, predicting and making modifications of the capabilities of the wireless system. This seminar addresses multiple cognitive functions and capabilities at multiple levels including an overall cognitive system approach to reduce the effects of the environment. It covers a wide range of cognitive techniques, including cognitive radios, dynamic spectrum access DSA, adaptive power control, adaptive modulation, dynamic antenna techniques using AESAs, cognitive antennas and MIMO, adaptive filters, adaptive networks, learning and reasoning, and total cognitive systems.
This course also covers basic radar designs, radar and radar range equations, modulation, range ambiguity and pulse compression, types of radar, pulse shaping, clutter, two-way power link budget, range resolution, threshold for Probability of Detect and Probability of False Alarms, MTI, blind speeds, Monopulse, SAR and weather radar. Also learn how to use radar for communications, applications, best type of modulation and demodulation techniques.
Learning objectives
Upon completing the course you will be able to:
- Perform link budgets for communication links including spread spectrum, system design tradeoffs, BER, Eb/No, EIRP, free-space loss, process gain, coding gain and link margin.
- Evaluate the performance of different types of wireless communication transceivers including PSK, FSK, MSK, QAM, CP-PSK, PRS code generator, multiple access techniques, TDMA, CDMA, FDMA, PAs, VSWR, LOs, and sideband elimination
- Analyze and understand different communication methods including spread spectrum modems using maximum power transfer principle, digital versus analog, SDRs and cognitive radios, multiple access systems, OFDM, and error detection/correction, Gold codes, maximal length sequence codes, code taps, jamming margin, power control, time hopping, chirped-FM, spectral regrowth, and shaping filters
- Understand superheterodyne receivers, dynamic range, 2-tone DR, SFDR, IMDs, phase noise, group delay and compensation, sampling theorem and aliasing, and DSPs
- Analyze and model AGC systems using control theory, loop filters, integrator for zero steady state error, and PLL/AGC commonalities
- Understand demodulation techniques, matched filter, correlators, PPM, coherent vs differential, carrier recovery loops, Costas and squaring loops. symbol synchronizer, eye pattern, ISI, scrambler/descrambler, and Shannon’s limit
- Understand basic probability and pulse theory, Gaussian process, quantization and sampling errors, probability of error, probability of detection and false alarms, error detection and correction, CRCs, FECs, interleaving, linear block codes, hamming, convolutional, turbo, and other codes, Viterbi decoder, and Multi-h
- Understand multipath and techniques on how to reduce multipath and jammers, specular and diffuse, mitigation techniques, and antenna diversity
- Analyze techniques to reduce jammers using burst clamps, adaptive filters, GSOs, and evaluate intercept receivers
- Understand GPS and the data link used for sending information, how to mitigate errors using different techniques, narrow correlator, SA, differential, relative, KCPT, and other satellite positioning systems
- Understand satellite communications and the uses, and evaluate data links for G/T, ADPCM, geosynchronous, geostationary, antennas, FSS, propagation delays, cost and regulations, and types of satellites
- Understand the techniques used for broadband communications in both commercial and military radios including mobile users, IEEE 802.xx, Bluetooth, WiMAX, networking, SDRs, JTRS, Link 16, clusters, gateways, stacked nets, and time slot reallocation
- Understand the concepts and definition of cognitive and adaptive processes.
- Realize cognitive process for the future digital communication links and networks
- Evaluate the reasons for poor QoS for a digital communication system and learn of the many different cognitive techniques to mitigate their effects.
- Learn how to use Dynamic Spectrum Access DSA in a cognitive system and the process and flow of each of the nodes in a network.
- Understand adaptive power control in a cognitive system and learn what is needed for an open loop solution and a stable closed loop power control system between two users
- Analyze the methods to incorporate cognitive modulations and the advantages and disadvantages of higher order modulation techniques..
- Evaluate the techniques used to incorporate cognitive processes including software defined radios, software defined networks, and low-cost available system for use in test and evaluation of the cognitive processes.
- Perform trade-offs between multiple capabilities to provide the optimal cognitive solution for the minimal cost of effect on the system.
- Understand controllable AESA antennas for null-steering, beam forming, directivity, multipath communications, and MIMO systems.
- Evaluate cognitive techniques using learning, reasoning, monitor and control, and goals for the cognitive system.
- Understand how Mobile Adhoc NETworks MANET can use cognitive processes to improve their performance.
- Realize the need for a complete cognitive solution using all available capabilities over single cognitive components.
- Understand the concepts and definition of basic radar design.
- Become familiar with techniques to improve radar performance in the presence of clutter
- Learn how to develop the radar equation, and all of its derivatives.
- Evaluate the Probability of Detect compared to the Probability of False Alarm and how to determine the threshold level including tradeoffs.
- Learn how to use radar for long distance communications for broadcasting messages.
- Discover how combined multiple radars to mitigate blind speeds and other anomalies.
- Learn how Moving Target Indicator MTI radar eliminates large stationary targets and detect small moving targets. Also learn what the inherent system problems in radar are and learn how to mitigate or reduce the problems.
- Understand the radar hardware and determine the optimal solutions.
- Learn how radar can be used for a 3-dimensional direction finding system with two separate radar receive antennas.
Target Audience
This course will be of interest to RF, analog, digital, systems and software engineers and managers who are interested in the field of communications of all types of wireless systems, radar, and adaptive and cognitive techniques for both commercial and military use. This applies to both those that want to gain an understanding of wireless digital communications, radar, and cognitive techniques and those that are experienced engineers that want to capture an intuitive approach and solidify their understanding of these basic principles. An electrical engineering background (BSEE or equivalent practical experience) is recommended but not required. From this course you will learn how to evaluate and develop the system design for digital communication transceivers including spread spectrum systems, radar systems and basic principles, and learn to incorporate adaptive and cognitive techniques that enhance the connections through changing interference, jamming and noise.
This seminar provides the student with a firm foundation and understanding of digital communications, radar and adaptive and cognitive processes that will be invaluable for system design, analysis and tradeoffs of these systems. Several examples and step processes are discussed to determine the optimal solutions and tradeoffs between the many cognitive capabilities. Many of these design techniques can be applied for both communication and radar links including link budgets, modulation, detection, pulse shaping, interference mitigation, antennas, search and tracking algorithms, multi-use and band sharing, directional search, acquisition and closed-loop tracking, and many more. Also included are techniques to use radar systems for communications using PCM/PPM. In addition, direction finding DF using radar is discussed along with SATCOM radar and frequencies.