Modulets indhold, forløb og pædagogik
Besides the traditional human-to-human communication (e. g.
phone) or human-to-machine communication (e. g. web browsing),
communication is also an indispensable subsystem of systems
consisting of multiple distributed components. An example is a home
automation system in which various sensors and actuators
communicate through wireless links. Such a communication should
satisfy multiple requirements. The data should arrive
timely in order to be relevant for the control
actions in the home automation system. Also, the data should be
sent reliably, despite the possible transmission
errors on the links. Finally, the communication should be
energy efficient, in order not to drain quickly
the batteries of the devices. The purpose of the project module is
that the students consider a system or scenario in which
communication among distributed components is required. The
students need first to identify the requirements and the
desired behavior of the communication (sub-)system that
will be applied in that scenario. Next, the students need to
consider one or more variants of the communication subsystems by
analyzing the tradeoffs between different designs and
parameters. Finally, the students need to evaluate
the performance of the obtained communication subsystem,
or, depending on the scenario, also the performance of the whole
system that uses that subsystem. The previous steps may be repeated
in several iterations.
Læringsmål
Viden
- Must understand how to analyze the requirements posed to the
communication system in a given scenario and propose a
topology/network that can serve as a basis to carry out the
communication in the given scenario
- The student must be able to understand whether and how a
certain communication technology can be applied in a given system.
For example, whether the system setup allows mains-powered devices
or some of the devices must be battery-powered, whether for a given
subsystem a wired, wireless or combined solution is required,
etc.
- Must have knowledge about the building blocks in a generic
communication system and the way they interact together in
fulfilling the communication tasks. This consists of two steps: (1)
identification of a technology that can serve as a starting basis
to be evolved towards a communication solution that satisfies
certain requirements; (2) identification of the key parts of the
system/protocol stack that needs to be modified in order to meet
the requirements.
- Must have knowledge of the methodology to evaluate the
performance of a certain communication system in terms of rate,
throughput, good put, delay, packet dropping probability, etc.
- Must be able to understand the fundamental tradeoffs that are
faced when designing/implementing a communication system: achieving
reliability at an expense of an increased delay; reliability of
packet transmission vs. the packet size and the associated
overhead, etc.
Færdigheder
- Must be able to analyze the communication scenario and specify
the target requirements in terms of data rate, delay, error
performance, etc.
- Must be able to analyze which communication topology is
suitable to be applied in a given scenario, and identify the key
parts of the protocol stack that need to be synthesized in order to
meet the target requirements.
- Must be able to synthesize a communication system (or parts
thereof) by applying some or all of the following techniques:
- Segmenting the data into packets at the sender side and
reassembling the data at the receiver side;
- Apply techniques for flow control and management of data
buffers
- Apply techniques for error control through coding and ARQ
protocols
- Map the data to the physical transmission medium by using
appropriate physical layer techniques (modulation, equalization,
etc.) at the transmitter/receiver side
- Propose and analyze protocols for accessing a shared
communication medium and divide the communication resources among
multiple users and connections.
- Must be able to analyze the tradeoffs that arise from choosing
different solutions and/or parameters
- Must be able to evaluate a communication system (or parts
thereof) in terms of the target performance measures (delay, rate,
error performance, etc.) and validate that the
design/implementation is operational according to the
requirements
- Must be able to communicate the above knowledge and skills
(using terminology of the field), both orally and in a written
report
Kompetencer
- Must be able to identify, design, implement, and evaluate a
viable solution for a communication system in a new context
- Must be able to plan, structure and execute a project, within
the subject-field of this project module
Undervisningsform
Academically supervised student-governed problem oriented
project work.
Lectures together with teacher/supervisor guided self-studies
and/or mini projects.
Eksamen
Prøver