Simulation of Wireless Communication Systems using MATLAB (Dr Shehata) Training Course

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing this module, students should be well-equipped to tackle current open research problems in communications engineering. Specifically, they should have acquired the following capabilities:

• Map and manipulate complex mathematical expressions frequently encountered in communications engineering literature.
• Utilise MATLAB's programming features to reproduce or closely approximate simulation results from published papers.
• Develop simulation models for original ideas and proposals.
• Efficiently apply simulation skills alongside MATLAB's powerful capabilities to design optimised code, balancing run time and memory usage.
• Identify key simulation parameters within a communication system, extract them from the system model, and analyse their impact on overall system performance.

Course Structure

The material in this course is highly interconnected. To ensure a continuous progression of knowledge, it is strongly advised that students engage with each level sequentially, ensuring a deep understanding of prior concepts before advancing. The course is structured into three levels, progressing from MATLAB programming fundamentals to complete system simulation.

Communications Mathematics with MATLAB
Sessions 01-06

By the end of this section, students will be able to evaluate complex mathematical expressions and generate appropriate visualisations for various data representations, such as time and frequency domain plots, BER plots, and antenna radiation patterns.

Fundamental Concepts

• The concept of simulation
• The role of simulation in communications engineering
• MATLAB as a simulation environment
• Matrix and vector representation of scalar signals in communications mathematics
• Matrix and vector representations of complex baseband signals in MATLAB

MATLAB Desktop

• Tool bar
• Command window
• Work space
• Command history

Variable, Vector, and Matrix Declaration

• MATLAB pre-defined constants
• User-defined variables
• Arrays, vectors, and matrices
• Manual matrix entry
• Interval definition
• Linear space
• Logarithmic space
• Variable naming conventions

Special Matrices

• The ones matrix
• The zeros matrix
• The identity matrix

Element-wise and Matrix-wise Manipulation

• Accessing specific elements
• Modifying elements
• Selective elimination of elements (Matrix truncation)
• Adding elements, vectors, or matrices (Matrix concatenation)
• Locating the index of an element within a vector or matrix
• Matrix reshaping
• Matrix truncation
• Matrix concatenation
• Left-to-right and right-to-left flipping

Unary Matrix Operators

• The Sum operator
• The expectation operator
• Min operator
• Max operator
• The trace operator
• Matrix determinant |.|
• Matrix inverse
• Matrix transpose
• Matrix Hermitian

Binary Matrix Operations

• Arithmetic operations
• Relational operations
• Logical operations

Complex Numbers in MATLAB

• Complex baseband representation of passband signals and RF up-conversion: a mathematical review
• Forming complex variables, vectors, and matrices
• Complex exponentials
• The real part operator
• The imaginary part operator
• The conjugate operator (.)*
• The absolute operator |.|
• The argument or phase operator

MATLAB Built-in Functions

• Vectors of vectors and matrices of matrices
• The square root function
• The sign function
• The "round to integer" function
• The "nearest lower integer function"
• The "nearest upper integer function"
• The factorial function
• Logarithmic functions (exp, ln, log10, log2)
• Trigonometric functions
• Hyperbolic functions
• The Q(.) function
• The erfc(.) function
• Bessel functions Jo (.)
• The Gamma function
• Diff and mod commands

Polynomials in MATLAB

• Polynomials in MATLAB
• Rational functions
• Polynomial derivatives
• Polynomial integration
• Polynomial multiplication

Linear Scale Plots

• Visualising continuous time-continuous amplitude signals
• Visualising stair case approximated signals
• Visualising discrete time – discrete amplitude signals

Logarithmic Scale Plots

• dB-decade plots (BER)
• Decade-dB plots (Bode plots, frequency response, signal spectrum)
• Decade-decade plots
• dB-linear plots

2D Polar Plots

• (Planar antenna radiation patterns)

3D Plots

• 3D radiation patterns
• Cartesian parametric plots

Optional Section (Provided based on learner demand)

• Symbolic differentiation and numerical differencing in MATLAB
• Symbolic and numerical integration in MATLAB
• MATLAB help and documentation

MATLAB Files

• MATLAB script files
• MATLAB function files
• MATLAB data files
• Local and global variables

Loops, Flow Control, and Decision Making in MATLAB

• The for-end loop
• The while-end loop
• The if-end condition
• The if-else-end conditions
• The switch-case-end statement
• Iterations, converging errors, and multi-dimensional sum operators

Input and Output Display Commands

• The input(' ') command
• disp command
• fprintf command
• Message box (msgbox)

Signals and Systems Operations
Sessions 07-14

The primary objectives of this section are as follows:

• Generate random test signals necessary for evaluating the performance of various communication systems.
• Integrate elementary signal operations to implement single communication processing functions, such as encoders, randomizers, interleavers, and spreading code generators, at both the transmitter and receiver ends.
• Properly interconnect these functional blocks to achieve a complete communications function.
• Simulate deterministic, statistical, and semi-random indoor and outdoor narrowband channel models.

Generation of Communications Test Signals

• Generating a random binary sequence
• Generating random integer sequences
• Importing and reading text files
• Reading and playback of audio files
• Importing and exporting images
• Images as 3D matrices
• RGB to grayscale transformation
• Serial bit stream of a 2D grayscale image
• Sub-framing of image signals and reconstruction

Signal Conditioning and Manipulation

• Amplitude scaling (gain, attenuation, amplitude normalization, etc.)
• DC level shifting
• Time scaling (time compression, rarefaction)
• Time shift (delay, advance, left and right circular shift)
• Measuring signal energy
• Energy and power normalization
• Energy and power scaling
• Serial-to-parallel and parallel-to-serial conversion
• Multiplexing and demultiplexing

Digitization of Analog Signals

• Time domain sampling of continuous time baseband signals in MATLAB
• Amplitude quantization of analog signals
• PCM encoding of quantized analog signals
• Decimal-to-binary and binary-to-decimal conversion
• Pulse shaping
• Calculating adequate pulse width
• Selecting the number of samples per pulse
• Convolution using the conv and filter commands
• Autocorrelation and cross-correlation of time-limited signals
• Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and IFFT operations
• Viewing a baseband signal spectrum
• Effects of sampling rate and proper frequency window selection
• Relationships between convolution, correlation, and FFT operations
• Frequency domain filtering (low-pass filtering only)

Auxiliary Communications Functions

• Randomizers and de-randomizers
• Puncturers and de-puncturers
• Encoders and decoders
• Interleavers and de-interleavers

Modulators and Demodulators

• Digital baseband modulation schemes in MATLAB
• Visual representation of digitally modulated signals

Channel Modelling and Simulation

• Mathematical modelling of channel effects on transmitted signals
  • Addition – additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels
  • Time domain multiplication – slow fading channels, Doppler shift in vehicular channels
  • Frequency domain multiplication – frequency selective fading channels
  • Time domain convolution – channel impulse response

Examples of Deterministic Channel Models

• Free space path loss and environment-dependent path loss
• Periodic Blockage Channels

Statistical Characterization of Common Stationary and Quasi-Stationary Multipath Fading Channels

• Generating a uniformly distributed random variable (RV)
• Generating a real-valued Gaussian distributed RV
• Generating a complex Gaussian distributed RV
• Generating a Rayleigh distributed RV
• Generating a Ricean distributed RV
• Generating a Lognormally distributed RV
• Generating an arbitrarily distributed RV
• Approximating an unknown probability density function (PDF) of an RV using a histogram
• Numerical calculation of the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of an RV
• Real and complex additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels

Channel Characterization by its Power Delay Profile

• Characterizing channels via their power delay profile
• Power normalization of the PDP
• Extracting the channel impulse response from the PDP
• Sampling the channel impulse response at arbitrary rates, including mismatched sampling and delay
• Quantization
• Addressing mismatched sampling issues for narrowband channel impulse responses
• Sampling a PDP at arbitrary rates with fractional delay compensation
• Implementing IEEE-standardized indoor and outdoor channel models
• (COST, SUI, Ultra-Wideband Channel Models, etc.)

Link Level Simulation of Practical Communication Systems
Sessions 15-24

This section addresses a critical concern for research students: how to reproduce the simulation results of published papers. It focuses on validating theoretical expressions through practical simulation.

Bit Error Rate Performance of Baseband Digital Modulation Schemes

• Performance comparison of different baseband digital modulation schemes in AWGN channels (comprehensive comparative study via simulation to verify theoretical expressions); scatter plots, bit error rate
• Performance comparison of different baseband digital modulation schemes in stationary and quasi-stationary fading channels; scatter plots, bit error rate (comprehensive comparative study via simulation to verify theoretical expressions)
• Impact of Doppler shift channels on the performance of baseband digital modulation schemes; scatter plots, bit error rate
• Helicopter-to-Satellite Communications
  • Paper (1): Low-Cost Real-Time Voice and Data System for Aeronautical Mobile Satellite Service (AMSS) – Problem statement and analysis
  • Paper (2): Pre-Detection Time Diversity Combining with Accurate AFC for Helicopter Satellite Communications – The first proposed solution
  • Paper (3): An Adaptive Modulation Scheme for Helicopter-Satellite Communications – A performance improvement approach

Simulation of Spread Spectrum Systems

• Typical architecture of spread spectrum-based systems
• Direct sequence spread spectrum-based systems
• Pseudo random binary sequence (PBRS) generators
  
  • Generation of maximal length sequences
  • Generation of gold codes
  • Generation of Walsh codes
• Time hopping spread spectrum-based systems
• Bit Error Rate Performance of spread spectrum-based systems in AWGN channels
  
  • Impact of coding rate r on BER performance
  • Impact of code length on BER performance
• Bit Error Rate Performance of spread spectrum-based systems in multipath Slow Rayleigh Fading Channels with Zero Doppler Shift
• Bit error rate performance analysis of spread spectrum-based systems in high-mobility fading environments
• Bit error rate performance analysis of spread spectrum-based systems in the presence of multi-user interference
• RGB image transmission over spread spectrum systems
• Optical CDMA (OCDMA) systems
  
  • Optical orthogonal codes (OOC)
  • Performance limits of OCDMA systems; bit error rate performance of synchronous and asynchronous OCDMA systems

Ultra-wideband SS Systems

OFDM-Based Systems

• Implementation of OFDM systems using the Fast Fourier Transform
• Typical architecture of OFDM-based systems
• Bit Error Rate Performance of OFDM Systems in AWGN channels
  
  • Impact of coding rate r on BER performance
  • Impact of the cyclic prefix on BER performance
  • Impact of FFT size and subcarrier spacing on BER performance
• Bit Error Rate Performance of OFDM Systems in multipath Slow Rayleigh Fading Channels with Zero Doppler Shift
• Bit Error Rate Performance of OFDM Systems in multipath Slow Rayleigh Fading Channels with CFO
• Channel Estimation in OFDM Systems
• Frequency Domain Equalization in OFDM Systems
  
  • Zero Forcing Equalizer
  • MMSE Equalizers
• Other common performance metrics in OFDM-based systems (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio, Carrier-to-Interference Ratio, etc.)
• Performance analysis of OFDM-based systems in high-mobility fading environments (simulation project consisting of three papers)
  
  • Paper (1): Inter-carrier interference mitigation
  • Paper (2): MIMO-OFDM Systems

Optimization of a MATLAB Simulation Project

The goal of this section is to teach how to build and optimize a MATLAB simulation project to streamline and organize the overall simulation process. It also addresses memory space and processing speed to prevent memory overflow in limited storage systems or excessive run times due to slow processing.

• Typical structure of small-scale simulation projects
• Extraction of simulation parameters and mapping from theoretical to simulation models
• Building a Simulation Project
• Monte Carlo Simulation Technique
• A typical procedure for testing a simulation project
• Memory Space Management and Simulation Time Reduction Techniques
  
  • Baseband vs. Passband Simulation
  • Calculating adequate pulse width for truncated arbitrary pulse shapes
  • Calculating the adequate number of samples per symbol
  • Calculating the necessary and sufficient number of bits to test a system

GUI Programming

Developing a MATLAB code that is free from bugs and produces correct results is a significant achievement. However, managing key parameters in a simulation project is crucial. For this reason, an additional lecture on "Graphical User Interface (GUI) Programming" is included. This allows for hands-on control over various parts of the simulation project, eliminating the need to navigate through lengthy source code. Furthermore, masking the MATLAB code with a GUI facilitates presenting work by combining multiple results in a single master window, making data comparison easier.

• What is a MATLAB GUI
• Structure of MATLAB GUI function files
• Main GUI components (important properties and values)
• Local and global variables

Note: The topics covered in each level of this course include, but are not limited to, those stated herein. Additionally, the specific items in each lecture may vary depending on the needs of the learners and their research interests.