Fundamentals of Wireless Communication
The past decade has seen many advances in physical layer wireless communication theory and their implementation in wireless systems. This textbook takes a unified view of the fundamentals of wireless communication and explains the web of concepts underpinning these advances at a level accessible to an audience with a basic background in probability and digital communication. Topics covered include MIMO (multi-input, multi-output) communication, space-time coding, opportunistic communication, OFDM and CDMA. The concepts are illustrated using many examples from real wireless systems such as GSM, IS-95 (CDMA), IS-856 (1 x EV-DO), Flash OFDM and UWB (ultra-wideband). Particular emphasis is placed on the interplay between concepts and their implementation in real systems. An abundant supply of exercises and figures reinforce the material in the text. This book is intended for use on graduate courses in electrical and computer engineering and will also be of great interest to practising engineers.
Why Read This Book
You should read Fundamentals of Wireless Communication if you want a rigorous, concept-driven foundation in modern wireless physical-layer design that connects information theory to practical system techniques. You will learn how capacity, fading, diversity, and multi-antenna techniques shape real systems (OFDM, CDMA, cellular standards) and how to apply those principles to design and analyze wireless links.
Who Will Benefit
Graduate students, engineers, and researchers with some probability and digital-communications background who need a unifying, theory-informed understanding of MIMO, OFDM, fading channels, and modern PHY techniques for wireless systems.
Level: Advanced — Prerequisites: Intermediate probability and stochastic processes, linear algebra, basic digital communications (modulation, AWGN channel, bit error rate), and familiarity with signals and systems; experience with MATLAB or numerical simulation is helpful.
Key Takeaways
- Evaluate wireless-channel models and quantify their impact on link performance using capacity and outage metrics
- Analyze and compute the capacity gains and trade-offs of multi-antenna (MIMO) systems and design basic space–time coding strategies
- Explain the principles and implementation trade-offs of OFDM, wideband fading channels, and CDMA-based multiple access
- Apply opportunistic communication and multiuser scheduling concepts to improve spectral efficiency in fading systems
- Relate information-theoretic limits to practical system features (channel estimation, feedback, diversity, coding) and assess performance gaps
- Model and analyze multiuser interference, capacity regions, and basic resource-allocation strategies for cellular and ad-hoc networks
Topics Covered
- Introduction and overview of wireless systems
- Mathematical preliminaries: probability, random processes, and basics of information theory
- Point-to-point fading channels: models, capacity, and outage
- Diversity techniques and diversity–multiplexing tradeoff
- Multiple-antenna systems (MIMO): capacity, eigenmodes, and Spatial Multiplexing
- Space–time coding and practical MIMO signaling
- Multiuser information theory for wireless: MAC, BC, and interference
- Opportunistic scheduling and multiuser diversity
- Wideband signaling: OFDM, frequency-selective fading, and equalization
- Code-division multiple access (CDMA) and spread-spectrum techniques
- Channel estimation, feedback, and limited-rate feedback strategies
- Practical system examples and case studies (GSM, CDMA, OFDM systems, UWB)
- Concluding topics: network implications and open research directions
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
Compared with Andrea Goldsmith's Wireless Communications (more engineering- and systems-oriented), Tse emphasizes information-theoretic principles and rigorous performance limits while still connecting to practical system examples; for deeper information-theory foundations, pair it with Cover & Thomas's Elements of Information Theory.
