Overview of Digital Communications

Assessment - Digital Modulation Schemes used in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Systems

Assignment Description:

The purpose of this assignment is to motivate students to understand the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system especially on digital modulation schemes used with multi-carrier modulation employed in the downlink of LTE cellular networks.

The LTE-Advanced standard has been adoptedworldwide as the fourth generation mobile communication technology. LTE systems use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) as the downlink radio access interface to support multiple users providing higher data rates comporedto 2G and 3G networks. OFDM provides better equalization capability to the LTE network to overcome channel fading effects which would be a major issue in previous single carrier systems when operated at high symbols rates. The use of multi carrier system also supports well the scalable bandwidths from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz in LTE networks.

This project requires students to study the several types of modulation schemes used with OFDM technology in the downlink of LTE systems. Students are expected to discuss how various modulation schemes are chosen according to the required user data rate and channel conditions.

This assignment exposes the student to real-world applications of digital communication in mobile wireless communication. In doing so the student shall acquire skills to understand the real-world requirements, critically review the existing techniques and write a technical report based on his or her investigation.

Requirements

The student needs to write a report addressing the following areas:

Analyze how digital modulation is adapted in OFDM technology according to the different channel conditions and user data rates?