Course Catalog, Academic Year 2015-2016

Master of Science in Telecommunications Engineering

Department of Electrical and Information Engineering
University of Cassino and Southern Lazio

Year I Semester I
Digital Signal Processing

9 ECTS credits

Electromagnetic Field Theory

6 ECTS credits

Information Theory

9 ECTS credits

Methods of Applied Mathematics

6 ECTS credits

Year I Semester II
Advanced Communication Networks

9 ECTS credits

Antennas and Radiowave Propagation

9 ECTS credits

Instrumentation and Measurements for Communication Systems

6 ECTS credits

Operating Systems

6 ECTS credits

Year II Semester I
Digital Communications

6 ECTS credits

Electronics for Communication Systems

9 ECTS credits

Microwave Theory and Devices

9 ECTS credits

Telecommunications Systems

6 ECTS credits

Year II Semester II
Elective Courses

18 ECTS credits

Thesis

12 ECTS credits

Elective Courses
Adaptive Systems

6 ECTS credits

Antenna Array Design

6 ECTS credits

Cryptography and Network Security

6 ECTS credits

Detection and Estimation with Radar Applications

6 ECTS credits

Distributed Programming and Networking

6 ECTS credits

Electromagnetic Compatibility: Modeling and Measurements

6 ECTS credits

FPGA-Based Digital System Design

6 ECTS credits

Parallel Processing Systems

6 ECTS credits

Radiowave Propagation in Urban Environments

6 ECTS credits

March 26, 2015

Year I Semester I
Digital Signal Processing
Course code: 30502
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 9 ECTS (72 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Notions of calculus.
Aims: To provide students with knowledge and understanding of digital filter design
procedures and analysis methods.
Contents: Analog-to-digital conversion: sampling of signals and signal reconstruction,
sampling rate conversion, quantization. The Z- and Fourier transforms: definition and
properties. Discrete-time systems: difference equations and Auto-Regressive Moving Average
(ARMA) systems. Discrete-time filter design: direct forms, cascade forms, parallel form,
linear phase forms; Finite Impulse Response (FIR) and Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter
approximations. Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT): definition and properties, Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT), filtering using the DFT, spectral analysis using the DFT. Least Mean
Square (LMS) and Recursive Least Square (RLS) adaptive filtering.

Electromagnetic Field Theory

Course code: 31441
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Undergraduate level knowledge of Electromagnetic Field Theory and
Propagation.
Aims: The course provides an in depth treatment of electromagnetic theory and lays down the
foundation for a thorough understanding of optical and microwave systems.
Contents: Maxwell's equations and constitutive relations. Poynting, uniqueness, reciprocity,
equivalence, and energy theorems. Field representation in free space. Greens tensors. Field
representation in waveguides. Modal expansions: rectangular and circular perfectly
conducting waveguides; dielectric waveguides. Excitation in waveguide. Dispersion and
group velocity. Field expansion in a cavity. Optical fibers. Propagation in optical fibers.
Dispersion in single-mode and multi-mode fibers. Intermodal and intramodal dispersion.
Limitations on the bit-rate. Fiber Bandwidth. Fiber with losses.

Information Theory
Course code: 30213
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 9 ECTS (72 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Notions of calculus and probability theory.
Aims: This course aims at presenting the fundamental limits of communication systems in
terms of data compression and reliable data transmission.
Contents: The concept of information and its measure: Entropy, divergence, and mutual
information. Asymptotic equipartition property. Entropy rate of a stochastic process. Data
compression: instantaneous and uniquely decodable codes, Kraft's inequality, optimal codes.
Channel capacity: code rate, jointly typical sequences, channel coding theorem, joint sourcechannel coding theorem. Method of types and universal coding; Lempel-Ziv algorithm.
Differential entropy. The Gaussian channel: coding theorem, bandlimited channels, parallel
channels. Rate distortion theory.

March 26, 2015

Methods of Applied Mathematics

Course code: 30065
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: An undergraduate course in calculus and linear algebra
Aims: The aim of these module is to present some mathematical methods used in engineering
applications.
Contents: Banach and Hilbert spaces. Lebesgue measure. Lp Spaces. Complex variables: the
complex plane, holomorphic functions, real and complex line integrals, the Cauchy integral
formula and its applications, expansion of a holomorphic function, zeros of a holomorphic
function, elementary holomorphic functions, isolated singularities and Laurent expansions,
calculus of residues and its application to evaluation of integrals. Singularities at infinity.
Conformal mappings. Harmonic functions.

Year I Semester II
Advanced Communication Networks
Course code: 30516
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 9 ECTS (72 contact hours)
Prerequisites: An undergraduate course in Communication Networks.
Aims: This module aims at providing a broad coverage of advanced topics in the field of
communication networks (such as intranet, internet, and IP Multimedia subsystems).
Contents: Review of ISO/OSI and TCP/IP protocol architectures. Local Area Networks
(LAN): Layer-2 network design, virtual LAN, trunking, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
Design of a TCP/IP network: Network Address Translation (NAT), traffic engineering e
Quality of Service (QoS), iptables, tunneling and Virtual Private Network (VPN), PPTP
protocol, intranet and High Availability (HA) services. Applications: http protocol and web
applications, databases and MySql, Domain Name System (DNS), VOIP network and internet
security.

Antennas and Radiowave Propagation

Course code: 31465
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 9 ECTS (72 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Electromagnetic Field Theory (course code: 31441).
Aims: The course focuses on the analysis and the characterization of the most common
antennas and of wireless links. Lab hours will be devoted to the simulation of antenna
patterns and/or wireless channels, as well as to the experimental validation of the theoretical
results.
Contents: Overview of Maxwell equations and electromagnetic waves. Green function.
Electrodynamical potentials. Wire antennas: infinitesimal, small, and half wavelength dipoles.
Ground effects. Small loop antenna. Antenna coupling. Antenna parameters. Linear and
planar arrays. Overview of phased arrays. Superdirectivity. Wideband antennas. Plane-wave
expansion. Aperture antennas. Horn antennas. Microstrip antennas. Reflector antennas.
Overview of antennas for cellular systems. Overview of antenna measurements. Antenna
located on a flat and a spherical earth. Coverage diagrams. Magnetized plasma. Ionospheric
and tropospheric propagation. Rain scattering. Ground propagation. Diffraction. Fresnel
zones.

March 26, 2015

Instrumentation and Measurements for Communication Systems

Course code: 31481
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: an undergraduate course in instrumentation and measurements
Aims: the aim of this module is to present and analyze the measurement instruments and
methodologies used to test and certify transmitters and receivers for communication systems.
Contents: Fundamentals of spectrum analysis. Swept-tuned spectrum analyzer.
Fundamentals of real-time spectrum analysis. Testing and troubleshooting digital RF
communications transmitter designs. Laboratory activities: Measurement instrument remote
control via IEEE-488, design and implementation of an automated measurement system for
characterizing and testing transmitters and receivers for communication systems.

Operating Systems
Course code: 90255
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: An undergraduate course in computer programming.
Aims: This module aims at introducing the basic concepts of modern operating systems,
including process management, memory management, file system organization, and I/O
devices.
Contents: Operating system organization: Monolithic kernel and microkernel. Processes and
threads. Process and thread synchronization. CPU management and scheduling algorithms.
Deadlocks. Primary memory management and virtual memory. Secondary memory
management. File systems: FAT32, NTFS, ext3. UNIX systems programming and system
calls. Concurrent programming: critical sections, mutual exclusion, and semaphores.

Year II Semester I
Digital Communications
Course code: 31438
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 9 ECTS (72 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Undergraduate level knowledge of Signal Processing and Communications
Systems.
Aims: The course introduces the modern techniques of digital transmission and coding used
in telecommunication systems.
Contents: Review of digital modulation methods in additive white Gaussian noise channels.
Coding for reliable communications: linear block codes, convolutional codes, Turbo codes
and iterative decoding, Low Density Parity Check (LPDC) codes, and Network coding.
Multicarrier modulation and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Digital
transmission in fading multipath channels: channel models, performance of digital
modulations, diversity techniques. Spread-spectrum signals: properties and applications.
Multiple access systems: FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA techniques.

Electronics for Communication Systems

Course code: 30205
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 9 ECTS (72 contact hours)
March 26, 2015

Prerequisites: An undergraduate course in analog and digital electronic devices.

Aims: To provide the students with the ability to analyze, design, prototype, and test the
electronic devices commonly used in an electric communication system.
Contents: Transistors amplifiers for telecommunications. Transistor amplifiers in non-linear
regime. Tuned amplifiers. Introduction to oscillators. Sinusoidal oscillators. Radio frequency
amplifiers: General definitions, noise related problems. Non-linearity in RF amplifiers: Crossmodulation and intermodulation. Low-noise amplifiers. RF power amplifiers: class A, B, AB,
C, E and F amplifiers. Coupled resonant circuits. Translators of frequency and Mixers.
Mixers based on BJT, MOSFET, and diodes. Phase locked loops (PLLs): Linear analysis and
butterfly characteristics. Main components of a PLL: Phase detectors and voltage-controlled
oscillators.

Microwave Theory and Devices

Course code: 30490
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 9 ECTS (72 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Electromagnetic Field Theory (course code: 31441)
Aims: to provide the students with the basic concepts of microwave measurements.
Laboratory activities will be devoted to theoretical description and characterization of
microwave devices.
Contents: Introduction to the Vector Network Analyzer (VNA), microwave measurements,
measurement errors, calibration of VNA; impedance of a one-port device; impedance and
scattering matrices of a N-port junction; variable attenuators and shifters, rotary phase shifters
and isolators; properties of a three-port junction, lossy and lossless T-junctions, Wilkinson
power divider; properties of the directional coupler, branch-line, directional couplers with
coupled strip-lines and microstrip lines; one- and two-holes directional couplers;
electromagnetic resonators: microstrip resonators; microwave filter design: insertion-loss
method, frequency transformations, impedance and admittance inverters, microstrip halfwave filters. Optical fibers. Propagation in optical fibers. Dispersion in single-mode and
multi-mode fibers. Intermodal and intramodal dispersion. Limitations on the bit-rate. Fiber
Bandwidth. Fiber with losses.

Telecommunications Systems
Course code: 31438
Type: Mandatory
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: An undergraduate course in Analog and Digital Communication Systems.
Aims: The course aims at providing system-level knowledge about telecommunications
systems and networks, both wired and wireless.
Contents: The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Noise figure, transmission
losses, non-regenerative repeaters. PCM systems and TDM/PCM multiplexing. Digital
subscriber lines. Line-of-sight radio links: link budget analysis, fading and diversity, adaptive
modulation formats. Satellite communication systems. Cellular telephone system: 1G to 3.5G,
4G LTE. Channel models for LTE. Multicarrier modulation, OFDMA and Sc-FDMA for LTE.
Opportunistic scheduling in OFDMA systems. Multiantenna systems and space-time coding.
Spatial multiplexing in MIMO systems.

March 26, 2015

Year II Semester II
Adaptive Systems
Course code: 32379
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Elements of dynamic systems (both input-output and input-state-output) and
automatic control theory (continuous and discrete time).
Aims: The course gives the methodological tools to solve problems of identification and
presents the main techniques to design adaptive control systems. Batch and recursive, as well
as parametric and non-parametric techniques are investigated.
Contents: Introduction to the identification problem. Mathematical models. Parametric
identification. Batch and recursive techniques. Non-parametric identification. Case studies of
practical identification. Introduction to adaptive control theory. Model-reference Adaptive
Systems: The model following problem; poles-zero placement design; the gradient approach;
the Lyapunov approach. Selftunig regulators: direct and indirect schemes; poles placement
design.

Antenna Array Design

Course code: 30319
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Antennas and Radiowave Propagation (course code: 31465).
Aims: The aim of this module is to introduce the main methods for the analysis and synthesis
of linear and planar antenna arrays. Lab hours will be devoted to the computer
implementation of the major techniques.
Contents: Antenna characteristic parameters. Antenna arrays: uniformly spaced linear arrays
with uniform and tapered current distribution, omnidirectional and directive circular array,
array of arrays. Designing of antenna arrays: field synthesis, sampling and oversampling
methods, Fourier series method, optimization of the array pattern (Dolph-Chebyshev and
Riblet arrays), super-gain arrays and directivity optimization. Power synthesis: projections
method; overview of the excitation of an array.

Cryptography and Network Security

Course code: 30524
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Notions of calculus.
Aims: The course aims at providing an in-depth study of cryptographic techniques currently
employed in communications and data storage, and a solid understanding of the main issues
related to security in modern networked computer systems.
Contents: The OSI security architecture, attacks, security mechanisms and services. Classical
encryption techniques. Block ciphers and the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Basic
concepts in number theory and finite fields. Public-key cryptography: primality, the discrete
logarithm, principles of public-key cryptosystems. RSA algorithm. Other public-key
cryptosystems: El Gamal, Elliptic curves cryptography, Diffie-Hellman key-exchange.
Cryptographic hash functions, message authentication codes, digital signatures, user
authentication. Network and Internet security: user authentication, electronic mail security, IP
Security, web security, firewalls.

March 26, 2015

Detection and Estimation with Radar Applications

Course code: currently not available
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Notions of probability theory, signal processing, and statistical signal
processing.
Aims: The aim of this course is to introduce the main concepts of signal detection and
estimation with applications to radar systems.
Contents: The radar problem. Principles of radar detection: Neyman-Pearson test,
Generalized likelihood test (GLRT). Swerling models. The radar equation. Clutter and its
characterization. Moving Target Indicator (MTI) and Moving Target Detector (MTD) radars.
Ambiguity function and its relationship to Cramer-Rao bounds. Tracking radars. Track-whilescan. Track-Before-Detect.

Distributed Programming and Networking

Course code: 32378
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Undergraduate level knowledge of Object-Oriented Programming and of
Data-Bases
Aims: The aim of this course is to provide a basic study on distributed software systems. The
learner will be conducted through the entire development cycle: analysis, design,
implementation, and testing.
Contents: Basic principles of software engineering. Languages for the analysis and
specification: Unified Modeling Language (UML). Methodologies for software development:
Unified Process (UP). Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. Java
programming language. Integrated development environments for Java and related
technologies (Eclipse, Netbeans). Client/server paradigm. Concurrent servers: multi-process,
multi-thread. Multi-tier architectures and concepts of middleware. Java technologies: Java
Standard Edition (JSE) for stand-alone applications, Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) for
enterprise level application. Development of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs): Google Web
Toolkit, Struts 2, JQuery, etc.

Electromagnetic Compatibility: Modeling and Measurements

Course code: 31479
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites:
Aims: Successful students will be acquainted with the meaning and the relevance of ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC), as well as with such concepts as modeling for disturbance
level evaluation, certifications, and compliance with existing normative.
Contents: EMC definitions. Models and mitigation techniques for: conducted emission and
immunity, signal integrity, crosstalk, and radiated emission and immunity. Shielding. EMCaware design of electronic systems. Numerical simulations of EMC problems.
Instrumentation and methods: Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) receivers, antennas,
coupling/decoupling networks, disturbance generators, measurement setups, and procedures.
Laboratory: Measurements of conducted and radiated emissions and immunity for
compliance with the European Directive on Electromagnetic compatibility.

March 26, 2015

FPGA-Based Digital System Design

Course code: 32377
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: An undergraduate course in analog and digital electronic devices and in digital
communication systems.
Aims: This course is aimed at introducing students to the basics of Field Programmable Gate
Array (FPGA) design and programming, including an introduction to the System-On
Programmable Chip paradigm.
Contents: Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLD) and FPGAs. FPGA design flow:
Altera Quartus II, Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL), simulation, in
assignments, and programming. Digital signals. Digital modulation and demodulation.
Digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters. System on programmable chip. Intellectual
properties. NIOS software build tool for Eclipse. Fundamentals of Printed Circuit Board
(PCB) design. Lab exercises: hardware for digital modulations (FSK, PSK, QAM, PCB
design).

Parallel Processing Systems

Course code: 32380
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of Computer Architectures, Object Oriented Programming,
C and C++ Languages.
Aims: The aim of this course is to provide a solid background on parallel processing
architectures and parallel software design with focus on common GPGPU architectures.
Contents: Overview of multicore evolution. Parallel Systems Taxonomy (Applicative and
Architectural). Multicores, Multiprocessors, Clusters, GRID HPC: Parallel Architectural
patterns, interconnection and Memory Hierarchies. Performance Evaluation, the Amdhal Law,
Benchmarking and the Roof model. Parallel Software Design: Message passing and shared
memory paradigms. The CUDA Architecture and its parallel computation model. Parallel
Patterns with focus on SIMD (Map, Reduce, Scan, Sort, etc.). CUDA Thrust Library.
Performance Tuning.

Radiowave Propagation in Urban Environments

Course code: 31525
Type: Optional
Credits: 6 ECTS (48 contact hours)
Prerequisites: Antennas and Radiowave Propagation (course code: 31465).
Aims: The course provides the abilities and skills needed to study and dimensioning urban
and sub-urban links. Both theoretical and practical aspects (about half of the course is
devoted to a project development) are analyzed.
Contents: Propagation in a urban environment: fast fading, slow fading, path loss, fading
statistics. Materials permittivity. Coherence time, bandwidth and distance. Hata-Hokumura
model. Fresnel zones. Diffraction by a circular aperture. Diffractiong by a wedge.
Geometrical Theory of Diffraction (GTD) and Uniform Theory of Diffraction (UTD). Ray
tracing algorithms. Coverage computation in wide regions. Introduction to the antennas for
radio communication in a complex environment: adaptive antennas, smart antennas, Multiple
Input Multiple Output (MIMO) communication systems. Characterization of a MIMO
channel. Evaluation of the capacity of a MIMO system. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR):
definition, modeling, primary and secondary limits, European and Italian legislation.
Exposure limits.
March 26, 2015