Pre-study on Wireless Communication lab: medium access control

Abstract

This thesis aims to create a series of exercises to help students understand wireless communication MAC schemes better. We did this by finding the right tool to help us create good exercises. The right tools for the exercises were found by reading through survey papers and documentation of various tools and comparing them to each other through what we found from the survey papers. In addition, we created exercises to showcase different MAC schemes, each constructed differently to provide a unique learning experience. The exercises are about CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA, CDMA/FHSS, CDMA/DSSS, and OFDM. The CSMA/CD and CDMA/CA exercises with the tool NS-3 are great exercises to see the two MAC schemes through a simulation and how they work. CDMA/FHSS and CDMA/DSSS were two different exercises designed to be practical, that the student needed to solve the exercises by coding in MATLAB. A more practical exercise that gives the student a deeper understanding of the core functionalities of the MAC schemes. The last exercise we designed was a walk-through about the different phases of OFDM. The main goal was to give the student an understanding of how the OFDM MAC scheme works by giving them a visual representation with plots of each phase during data transmission.

This thesis aims to create a series of exercises to help students understand wireless communication MAC schemes better. We did this by finding the right tool to help us create good exercises. The right tools for the exercises were found by reading through survey papers and documentation of various tools and comparing them to each other through what we found from the survey papers. In addition, we created exercises to showcase different MAC schemes, each constructed differently to provide a unique learning experience. The exercises are about CSMA/CD, CSMA/CA, CDMA/FHSS, CDMA/DSSS, and OFDM. The CSMA/CD and CDMA/CA exercises with the tool NS-3 are great exercises to see the two MAC schemes through a simulation and how they work. CDMA/FHSS and CDMA/DSSS were two different exercises designed to be practical, that the student needed to solve the exercises by coding in MATLAB. A more practical exercise that gives the student a deeper understanding of the core functionalities of the MAC schemes. The last exercise we designed was a walk-through about the different phases of OFDM. The main goal was to give the student an understanding of how the OFDM MAC scheme works by giving them a visual representation with plots of each phase during data transmission.