Mobile and Satellite Communications

Name (Acronym)

Mobile and Satellite Communications (MSC)
ECTS

6
Contact E-mail

giacomo.oliveri@unitn.it
Teacher

OLIVERI Giacomo
Syllabus

ESSE3 Page
Institution

DISI, University of Trento
Study Program

M.S. Information and Communications Engineering [LM INFOCOM]
Degree

Master
Language

English
Tracks

Fields and Waves ("Advanced EM Technologies"), Wave Manipulations and Artificial/Smart Materials, Wireless Technology and Network Planning

Master and apply the core methodologies for the design of mobile and satellite antenna systems

The course presents the fundamental principles of antennas and phased arrays in electromagnetic engineering, introduces the main figures of merit for characterizing complex radiating devices, and illustrates basic and advanced antenna analysis and synthesis methods for mobile and satellite applications, with main emphasis to communication scenarios. To this end, the course features theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects, and it introduces the most challenging applicative problems in these frameworks. The course consists in lectures and software/hardware emulator exercitations. Additional seminars given by relevant experts from other Universities, Agencies, and Companies will be advertised during the course

Course Content

Part 1. Introduction and Fundamentals of Antennas for Mobile and Satellite Communications

Antenna Recap: Antenna definition and characterization. Types of radiating systems. Fundamental Parameters of antennas: Directivity, Antenna efficiency, Gain, Input impedance, Polarization and polarization loss, Radiation pattern, beam width angle, Effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP). Far-field and near-field regions. Characterization of applicative scenarios for mobile and satellite communications. Received signal strength (Generalized Friis Equation). Characteristics and definitions of noise and antenna noise temperature. Effects of the propagation medium and environment. Examples of uplink and downlink antenna requirements in mobile and satellite scenarios.

Part 2. Microstrip Antennas: Analysis and Design

Introduction to microstrip antennas for mobile communications. Antenna configurations (patches, microstrip dipoles, printed slot antennas, microstrip traveling wave antennas). Feeding techniques. Analytical models for analysis and design of mobile communications antennas. Design of rectangular patch antennas. Printed slot antennas. Techniques for bandwidth enhancement.

Part 3. Antenna Elements for Satellite Communications

Analysis of antennas for satellite communications. Aperture antennas, horn antennas, reflector antennas. Advanced antenna systems for satellite communications: reflectarrays. Applicative examples.

Part 4. Antenna Arrays for Mobile and Satellite Communications

Analysis of Antenna Arrays. Receiving array in the time domain. Array reception in the frequency domain and Array factor (AF). AF features: nulls, maxima, and grating lobes. Visible and invisible range. AF of uniformly and non-uniformly weighted linear array. Planar and Circular arrays.  Synthesis of Antenna Arrays. Formulation of pattern synthesis problems: field synthesis; power synthesis; mask-constrained power synthesis; external and internal array synthesis. Synthesis approaches: Test and trial approaches: amplitude tapering; z-transform. Amplitude and phase taper: Fourier synthesis; Schelkunoff’s method; Woodward-Lawson synthesis; least-square method. Analytical solutions: binomial taper; Dolph-Chebyshev taper; Taylor taper; Bayliss taper. Iterative procedure: iterative projection method. Introduction to advanced synthesis methods for sparse, clustered, and thinned arrays.