This laboratory course provides hands-on exploration of physical layer communication. Through a sequence of guided explorations, students design and implement a digital communication system with modulation to an acoustic carrier frequency. The acoustic operation allows students to hear, see, and wirelessly transmit signals using readily available, low-cost hardware, such as a PC with sound card or a smartphone. Acoustic wireless transmission, while readily accessible, nonetheless presents a student with the channel impairments and synchronization issues encountered in radio frequency systems. An accompanying smartphone app provides an acoustic transmitter for receiver testing and is available for free download. Matlab files provide code for creating examples and figures found in the text.
The explorations in Chapters 1 through 7 culminate in students implementing a half-duplex modem operating at an acoustic carrier frequency.
