General description
This course’s objective is to introduce the student to antennas, covering their principles of radiation, their basic parameters, (radiation resistance, radiation pattern, polarization, reciprocity, effective radiated power),their general types, and those commonly used in wireless systems. The student learns how to quickly analyse a communication link that uses standard antennas and suffers from the various effects of propagation. The course reviews Electromagnetic Theory and electromagnetic wave properties. The student also learns the various propagation mechanisms/impairments and the basic models of propagation. Atmospheric and weather effects are also reviewed. The student would be able to grasp the idea of link budget analysis and propagation calculations, including: antenna gain, efficiency and directivity calculations; free-space loss; diffraction and obstruction loss; rain loss; depolarisation loss; impedance mismatch loss; etc.The student would be able to apply this to determine the range of a wireless RF/microwave system, using what the student know about propagation mechanisms/impairments and the basic models of propagation to determine approximately the range of point-to-point system.The student also learns the various techniques of diversity and combining methods to improve the system performance.