This assignment may be done in teams of up to three people.
Team members will receive the same grade.
There are thousands, if not millions, of real-life applications that require electronic communication. These applications vary vastly in their communications requirements and therefore, require vastly different communications solutions. In this project, you will investigate the communications need for several different applications and propose individual solutions for each application.
You are to evaluate and design these systems "from the ground up" - that is, assume that there are no existing communications systems or standards out there. For example, you cannot use a telephone modem because you must assume that there is no telephone system. Likewise, you may not use 100Base-T Ethernet in your application because you cannot use an existing standard.
Your audience for each application is an engineering design group. You are performing an initial analysis of the problem and deciding the direction to take. The design group will then implement a system based on your specifications.
(Remember, you may not use existing systems or standards in your design - you must design from scratch.)
Remote camera security system. A building will be outfitted with 10 security cameras located in various places. The cameras will output a black-and-white NTSC signal. Each camera will be hooked to a monitor in a central location. The maximum distance from the monitor station to the camera is 100m. Your customer is more concerned with cost than with quality of the picture.
Home wireless network. Connect up to 50 devices in a home (maximum distance 50 m) together to share digital data at a rate of at least 10 Mb/sec. Assume that existing standards (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.) don't exist.
Oceanic seismic sensors. A network of 20 seismic sensors is deployed along a fault line on the ocean floor. Each sensor takes 1000 analog samples/s with a SNR of 25dB. This data must be sent to a central processing site located on an offshore oil rig. The sensors may be at a maximum depth of 5000m and located up to 10km away from the oil rig. Note: Before you use an RF solution for this, think about RF in water.
Home entertainment network. Up to 10 home entertainment devices (monitors, amplifiers, media players, tuners, etc.) need to be able to share data with each other. The network must support at least four simultaneous raw 1080p HD streams (that is, the network could be used to hook four HD players with four HD monitors anywhere in the house, all playing at the same time). Raw 1080p streams require 2.5Gbps.
For each application, first give an introduction that describes your approach to developing a solution. Then include at least the following information. Your report should include 600-1200 words for each application.
The basic data type and its characteristics. Some details are provided in the assignment, others you can determine by analysis, and still others you will need to make educated guesses on.
The media type you will use. Explain why you chose a particular medium. If several could work equally well, explain why you chose one over the others.
The type of signal you choose. Specify analog/digital, ASK, FM, QAM, Manchester, etc. Be specific. Explain why you chose this signal type. You may convert analog to digital or vise versa if that makes sense.
Bandwidth and capacity requirements. For all signals, you will need to list the minimum bandwidth allowable for the application. For any systems that use digital or digital-on-analog, give the minimum capacity requirements as well.
In all cases, it is more important to describe why you chose a particular aspect of your design than to get the "right" answer.
Kevin Bolding October 28, 2011