SDRs Used as Motivational Tool for Communications and DSP

A new wireless communications course is presented that uses SDRs to apply the theory learned in communications and DSP courses, even prior to ECE students taking these upper-level courses. Previously, this wireless-communications course required these two senior-level prerequisites, thus relegating this technical elective to the final semester of the undergraduate program. This scheduling constraint severely restricted students’ ability to take this course. The new version of this course implements modulation, demodulation, and a variety of signalprocessing techniques, by programming inexpensive SDRs that do not require an advanced mathematical and theoretical background prior to use. Class exercises start as student-generated MATLAB code that simulates the various functions of a “real” radio. Then the students’ simulations actually become the programs that control the SDR hardware in real time, as students transmit and receive real-time signals. In the process, they gain very practical knowledge about communications and DSP. Students can take this course either their junior year, prior to their required communications theory and DSP courses, or they can take it their senior year after those courses. This flexibility allows the application of theory either as motivation before these theoretical courses, or as application of the theory that the student has already learned in these courses. Additionally, this dual path adds flexibility to the student’s schedule as well as to the department’s teaching schedule.