Unit WIRELESS NETWORKS
- Course
- Electronic engineering for the internet-of-things
- Study-unit Code
- 70A00047
- Curriculum
- Consumer and aerospace iot
- Teacher
- Mauro Femminella
- Teachers
-
- Mauro Femminella
- Hours
- 72 ore - Mauro Femminella
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2022
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Affine/integrativa
- Area
- Attività formative affini o integrative
- Academic discipline
- ING-INF/03
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- Teaching Unit: Cellular Networks (6 hours)
Teaching Unit: LTE (21 hours)
Teaching Unit: 5G (9 hours)
Teaching Unit: Wireless LAN (21 hours)
Teaching Unit: IoT protocols (15 hours) - Reference texts
- Reference readings:
C. Smith, D. Collins, Wireless Networks, McGraw-Hill, 2014.
A. Pattavina, Reti di Telecomunicazione, 2a ed., McGraw-Hill, 2003.
J. Kurose, K. Ross, Reti di Calcolatori e Internet, 6a ed., Pearson, 2013.
M. Gast, 802.11® Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, O'Reilly, 2005.
Additional readings:
B.G. Lee, S. Choi, Broadband Wireless Access and Local Networks: Mobile Wimax and Wifi, Artech House, Norwood (MA), US, 2008.
V. Garg, Wireless Communications and Networking, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (CA), US, 2007.
C. Kappler, Umts Networks and Beyond, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 2009.
Additional material prepared by the teacher or scientific tutorial papers on specific topics will be provided through the Unistudium platform. - Educational objectives
- This course is the first teaching of telecommunications networks in the course of study, and analyses the elements of wireless networks in terms of used protocols and from the point of view of the overall system, with particular attention to network performance figures.
The main goal of this teaching is to provide students with the foundations to address the study of wireless networks, their interconnection with wired systems, with particular attention to the Internet, the cloud and big data platform, and their design and/or configuration and deployment. The main constraints of the project that the student will be required to consider will be the offered network functions and the system capacity.
The main knowledge acquired at the end of the course will be:
- Basic elements of the access protocols used on the radio link, with a focus on the most common technological solutions (LTE, WiFi);
- Knowledge of network architecture of the most popular wireless systems (LTE, WiFi), with particular attention to the offered services (e.g. quality of service levels and security), the mechanisms of interconnection to the Internet;
- Knowledge of the principles of dimensioning of a wireless network that makes use or not of the concept of frequency reuse, on the basis of a minimum level of communication quality;
- Knowledge of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, and of the main protocol and architectural solutions used (MQTT, HTTP).
The main skills, or the ability to apply the knowledge acquired during the course, will be:
- Evaluation of the technology solution most suitable for the considered service scenario (wireless local area network, wireless network in metropolitan area, cellular network);
- Performance analysis of a wireless network from the point of view of service capacity;
- Identification of design constraints that determine the size of the wireless network and master the mathematical and numerical tools used to size the network;
- Capability to implement, through open-source software, even in virtualized environments, wireless networks in different configurations, with a special focus on WiFi networks and IoT systems, offering real access services such as mobile devices, tablets, or computers;
- Master the tools for measuring the quality of a wireless network, with a special focus on the measurement of the network capacity and network coverage. - Prerequisites
- In order to be able to understand and apply most of techniques and concepts described in the Course, you must have successfully passed the Fundamentals of Telecommunications exam. In addition, the Course requires the knowledge of basic security in networking and computer science. These topics are a mandatory prerequisite for students to follow this course with profit, and you acquire them in the Telecommunications Basics course.
- Teaching methods
- The course is organized as follows:
- Classroom lectures on all topics of the course. Students will be provided in advance with a copy of the slides used by the teacher through the University web portal (UNISTUDIUM);
- Classroom exercises on the blackboard with solution of design problems similar to those proposed at the exams. Students will be provided in advance with copies of the problems texts through the University web portal;
- Laboratory exercises at the Software Engineering Laboratory (Biennium building, ground floor). The laboratory consists of 16 workstations, to which students can access in groups of 2 or 3 elements. The maximum number of students who can access a lesson is 48. If the number of students exceeds this value or the lesson is complex, the lesson will be repeated. Each tutorial lasts for 3 hours, for a total estimated number of 6 tutorials. Each tutorial consists of the construction of a WiFi network with specific service characteristics, of the analysis and measurement of pre-existing WiFi networks, and/or realization of an IoT system. During the tutorials, students use open-source software tools in virtualized form (Linux virtual machine). Students will have free access to the lab at the end of the lesson for further individual exercises. - Other information
- The lessons can be integrated with seminars. Lab experiences will be carried out at the Software Engineering Laboratory.
- Learning verification modality
- The exam consists of a written exam written at the end of the course, followed by an oral test.
The final written examination has a duration ranging between 2 and 3 hours and consists of three questions. The three questions are short written exercises aimed at ascertaining the level of
analysis and systhesis capabilities reached by the students on the concepts of the course (architecture, operation, and models for performance evaluation of wireless networks).
The oral test will complement the written part, and will be aimed at ascertain the knowledge and the understanding reached by the student on the theoretical and methodological concepts of the course.
The final written exam will be followed by an interview, lasting about 30 minutes. This final interview can also be substituted by the discussion of a project work assigned by the professor.
These modes of assessment allow ensuring the knowledge and the capacity of understanding course concepts, the ability to apply the acquired skills, the ability to display, the ability to learn and process solutions in independent judgment.
For the support of student with disabilities or handicaps, please visit the web page http://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa. - Extended program
- Teaching Unit: Cellular Networks (6 hours):
Basic concepts on cellular coverage and cellular reuse, models for handover e paging, basic concepts on the cellular network evolution
Teaching Unit: LTE (21 hours):
LTE system (architecture, protocols, security), preliminary notions about 5G systems.
Teaching unit: 5G (9 hours): basi concepts on 5G networks, with particular emphasis on network architecture.
Teaching Unit: Wireless LAN (21 hours):
Evolution of the standard IEEE 802.11 (a,b,g,n), operation modes (ad hoc, infrastructure, wireless distribution system), physical and medium access (MAC) protocols mobility, performance and quality of service, security, lab experiments with open source software.
Teaching Unit: Protocols for IoT (15 hours):
General concepts and network architectures for IoT, MQTT protocol and comparison with HTTP (type and structure of messages, communication modes), lab experiments with open source software (Node-RED).