Overview
Radio Frequency engineering is an important yet often overlooked area in today's wireless world. This course provides a grounding in RF theory and practice for wireless, cellular and microwave systems.
Prerequisites
None.
Delegates will learn how to
By the end of the course delegates will be able to:
- Explain the basics of RF.
- Describe RF propagation and antenna principles.
- Calculate propagation losses and link budgets.
- Test RF systems.
Outline
What is RF?
Definition of RF, RF wave characteristics: Frequency, wavelength, power, phase, impedance, RF history, radio signals, frequency bands, safety issues, legal issues.
RF systems
Microwaves, cellular/mobile RF, WLANs, other fixed wireless networks, basic RF components.
Building a basic WLAN network.
RF system components
Transmitters: Antennas: Isotropic, Dipole, how antennas achieve gain.
Modulation
Schemes, bandwidth, AM, FM, FSK, PSK, QAM, QPSK, interference, performance.
Interference and performance.
Multiple access schemes
FDMA, CDMA, TDMA, CSMA/CA.
Wireless systems
Cellular (GSM, UMTS), Wifi, WiMax, others: GPS, DBS, RFID, radar, Bluetooth.
cellular.
Spread Spectrum technologies
Spread spectrum benefits and disadvantages, how it works, Direct Sequence, Frequency Hopping, hybrids.
RF propagation
Models, link budget, Smith chart, RF matching with the Smith chart. cell capacity, tradeoffs: power vs. bandwidth, free space, reflection, diffraction, multipath cancellation, propagation prediction and measurement tools.
Smith charts.
RF testing
Why power rather than voltage/current, units of power, dB and dBm power conversions. Test equipment: signal generators, power meters, network analysers, spectrum analysers. RF test setups: return loss, insertion loss.
RF testing.
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