List of questions in preparation of the exam “Measurements in Communications”

The following is a list of topics and exemplary questions, which should guide you in studying for the
exam. In general, avoid memorizing anything which can be easily googled, as I will not ask you that.
Instead, make sure you understand the concepts behind it. Example: No need to memorize the
formulas for the different stochastic Bello functions – it is a better idea to understand the concepts
so that you can always derive them starting e.g. starting from the correlation functions, which are
trivial to remember.

V1.0 26.01.22 Hello World

V1.1 08.02.22 Cover all lectures
V2.0 25.01.23 Update for the Winter Semester of 2022/2023
V2.1 26.01.23 Add questions with respect to lectures from Grundhöfer
V2.2 30.01.23 Add questions from Rüppel

Notes for the winter semester 2022/2023:

- Lecture 9 and 22 have not taken place.

- Please also refer to the table in Moodle for the full list of lectures and topics.

Lecture 1+2+3+5+7+(11): Review Fourier Analysis (FT, DFT, DTFT, STFT)

(unfortunately, there is no recording of lecture 1)
• What is the relationship between FT, DFT and DTFT?
• In any Fourier transform, what happens in the second domain when in the first we
sample?
• How shall we interpret the samples coming out of an fft in frequency [Hz] assuming they
originate from a sampled and periodified analog signal? Assume the fft returns values
from k=0 to N-1.
• How does the STFT work? Why is there a tradeoff between temporal resolution
(blocks/second) and frequency resolution (number of samples in the observed bandwidth)
• I want a larger observed bandwidth. Which parameters do I need to change in time
domain?
• I want to "zoom in" into a smaller bandwidth while keeping the same frequency
resolution. How to I change the parameters in time domain?
• Why do typically choose N = 2^b (b is integer) for the DFT size (i.e., the period)?
• How does the tradeoff between temporal and spectral resolutions work in an STFT?
• When we study a simple sinusoid by windowing with a rectangle, sampling and
transforming with a DFT, what do we expect to see? In special cases, we do not see any
spectral leakage. Why not?
• Which aspects should we consider when choosing the shape of the window function when
transforming with a DFT?
• What is dynamic range? Why does the shape of the window affect it?

Lecture 4,10,12,21,(23): SDR application and design

 • What is an SDR? What are the advantages over conventional radios?
• Where is SDR typical used?
• What are the typical chipsets in an SDR?
• Below you can see the architecture of an Ettus n210, as an example. How does it work?

• What is GNUradio?
• When we need the Throttel Block in GNUradio?
• What are Figures of Merits for a receiver?
• Can you draw the block diagram for a Superhetrodyne, ZeroIF, Direct Sampling receiver?
• Can you name advantages and disadvantages of different receiver designs?

Lecture 6: System Identification – Introduction, parametric vs non-parametric estimation

• Typically we can spot a non linear system by looking at the input and output spectra. Why
and how?
• When can I write Y(f) = H(f) X(f), where X and Y are input and output, respectively?
• Which properties does a system have, when linear?
• Make examples of applications in which we know Y and H, but don’t know X.
• Make examples of applications in which we know X and Y, but don’t know H.
• Make examples of applications in which we know X and H, but don’t know Y.
• What is parametric estimation?
• What are advantages and disadvantages of parametric estimation compared to non-
parametric?
• What is the trade-off between “precision” and “resolution” in the context of system
identification?
• In system identification we have X and Y and are looking for H. Depending on the
application, X can be measured, is known a priori, or is generated in situ. Explain.

Lecture 6+8+11+13: System Identification – Excitation Signals

Stepped sinusoids
• How does the system identification work in this case (i.e. the estimation of the impulse
response or transfer function of a system)?
• How do I decide which frequencies to sample (where and how many)?
 • Which artefacts result in the impulse response in time domain?
• How do we avoid aliasing in the time domain?
• What are the disadvantages of this approach in terms of measurement time?
• What determines the measuring time? Why do we need a narrow denoising filter
Compact pulse
• How does the system identification work (i.e. the estimation of the impulse response or
transfer function of a system) using compact pulses?
• How do we define the Time Bandwidth Product (TBP)? What is it useful for?
• What are the disadvantages of this approach?
• When can I save myself a deconvolution? What are possible disadvantages a
deconvolution?
• Why is it important for the transfer function of the excitation signal to be as flat as
possible in the band of interest? How do we achieve this?
• What do we mean with “noise boosting” in this context?
Periodic compact pulses
• How does the system identification work here?
• Advantages/disadvantages compared to a single pulse?
• How much better does our SNR get when averaging?
• What are the assumptions that must hold, in order to gain something out of averaging?
Gated processing
• Which excitation signal do we choose for gated processing?
• How does it work? When does it make sense to use it?
• Can you give some examples?
Spread spectrum / coded pulses
• How does the system identification work here?
• Why is it important that the signal is random and long?
• Why are such signals often binary?
• What is the “correlation gain”? How large is it?
• With which architecture can we efficiently generate such sequences?
• What is an MLBS? How long is the period given that the order is M?
• How does the ACF of these signals look like?
• What are the cross power spectral density and the auto PSD? Why do I want to estimate
them in the context of system identification?
Spread spectrum / Chirp (special case: FMCW Radar)
• How does the system identification work in this case?
• Which property must the ACF of a chirp have?
• How does FMCW work? What is the “trick” used, to make it easier to measure very short
delays in FMCW radar?
Noise
• How does the system identification work in this case (Wiener-Hopf equation)?
• Why can't we calculate H(f) from X(f) and Y(f) in the case of noise signals?
• Noise may be the ideal excitation signal for system identification. Where do we see this?
• In which case can we ignore the ACF (or PSD) of the excitation signal in the context of
system identification?
PAPR
• What is the PAPR? Why do we care about it in the context of system identification?
• Make examples for signals with low and high PAPR.
• How small can the PAPR be?
• How does a typical input/output curve of a power amplifier look like?
Review Match Filter vs Correlation processing
 • Using a matched filter is identical to using a correlator. Explain why.
• Which optimization problem do we solve with the matched filter?

Lecture 15+16+(18 at the beginning): OFDM

• What does “orthogonal” mean in OFDM?
• How is the OFDM symbol built?
• What is the advantage of OFDM compared to a single carrier (SC) system in the context of
ISI?
• How can we model the transmit chain of OFDM?
• Why are the pulse-shapers rectangles? How do we choose the carriers’ center
frequencies?
• For people not familiar with OFDM, choosing a rectangle might sound surprising. Why is
that?
• Given the Tx architecture of OFDM, how does the signal look like in time and frequency at
any stage of the scheme?
• How does the complete OFDM spectrum look like?
• The TX architecture is implemented in a very efficient way, how?
• Which temporal sampling is necessary in order to employ the FFT? Which other system
choices are necessary?
• The time sampling chosen gives aliasing. Explain why. How do we solve this problem?
Why don’t we simply choose a higher sampling frequency?
• The number of OFDM carriers is always a power of 2. Why?
• OFDM applied in a straight-forward way reduces ISI but does not completely remove it.
Why not?
• How do we solve this problem?
• Why is a simple guard interval not enough?
• Why do we want a short guard interval?
• How does the cyclic prefix (CP) work? Explain how it solves the problem of ICI.
• How do choose the CP length given a certain channel?
• What are the drawback of OFDM?
• Why is a high PAPR the biggest problem of OFDM, especially when used for system
identification?
• How does OFDM differ from the stepped sinusoids method we discussed in previous
lectures?

Lecture 18+20: Description of LTV systems: deterministic and stochastic Bello functions
• How do we describe Linear Time Variant (LTV) systems?
• What do is meant by “slow time” and “fast time”?
• How do we obtain the 4 Bello functions? Which physical interpretation can we employ to
understand the plots below?
• Assume an impulse response made up of only one propagation path. How would the four
Bello functions look like?
• Assume the impulse response below. Why is the function rising at the end of the
observation window?

• What determines the observation window (i.e., length in seconds and number of
samples)?
• Assuming I’m measuring the channel in frequency/time domain: What shall I change if I’d
like to have a longer observation window in delay time? What shall I change to have the
same length in seconds but a higher sampling rate?
• Why do we need a stochastic representation of the Bello functions?
• How do the Bello functions simplify when we can assume stationarity?
• What is stationarity?
• Does it make sense to assume stationarity in all domains (time, delay time, frequency,
Doppler)?
• What happens in the corresponding Fourier domains when we can assume stationarity?
• How do the four-dimensional correlation functions look like when we can assume
WSS/OSM?
• How do we compute the marginal distributions?
• How do we “navigate” through this scheme?

• What are RMS spreads and coherence intervals? Why are they useful in communications?
• How do we interpret the scattering function in delay/Doppler?
 • What is a Jakes’ spectrum? In which specific propagation scenario do we encounter it?

Lecture 23,25,27,29: Applied measurements

• In which domain we measure with an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, VNA?

• What are S-Parameters, when we use it?
• Can you explain the block diagram of the Spectrum analyzer below?

• What is a trigger?
• Can you explain the block diagram of the VNA below?

• When we remotely control devices, what is the difference between SCPI, VISA and LXI?
• Why is calibration necessary for a VNA? How does it work?

Lecture 24: Propagation, radiation pattern (Plane waves)

• How does a plane wave look like? Why do we say that EM waves are transversal?
• What is polarization? How do we describe it?
 • Why do we need TWO linearly independent polarization states to describe a general plane
wave?
• May I use a linearly polarized wave + a LHCP wave to describe an arbitrary plane wave?
Why?
• How do we use complex exponentials to describe plane waves?
• What are phase constant, wave number, wave vector?
• How are period in time and period in space bound to each other?
• How do we compute the electric field in an arbitrary point in space and time?

Lecture 24+26: EADF, Spherical Harmonics

• What is a radiation pattern? Why do we need two functions to describe it?
• What problems arise when we describe a function on the sphere using a 2D coordinate
system (e.g. using azimuth and elevation)?
• How does the description in azimuth and elevation change if we rotate the function on
the sphere?
• What are the advantages of the DFT if we periodify the 2D function in azimuth and
elevation? How many copies of the radiation pattern are visible in the periodified 2D
function?
• Why and how can we do denoising in the frequency domain?
• What are spherical harmonics? How can we use them to describe a function on the
sphere?
• How are levels and modes defined? Why are there more modes at higher levels?
• What is the connection between the Fourier series and SH?
• Can you explain the formulas of the synthesis and analysis for the SH transformation?
• What are helicity vectors? Why are they better than vertical and horizontal polarization?
• What happens to the SH coefficients when the function is rotated on the sphere?
• What happens if we transform AWGN with the SH?
• How do we discretize the analysis integral? Why should we use special arrangements of
samples (e.g. Lebedev)?
• What are platonic solids? Why is it bad that we can place a maximum of 20 samples
equidistantly on the sphere?
• How can aliasing arise if we don't sample enough points on the sphere?
• How can I check that my discretized kernel functions are orthonormal?

Lecture 28+30: OTA Testing

• Why is testing necessary? What kind of tests are possible? Tradeoff realism vs cost/effort
• What is the difference between emulation and simulation and when will these procedures
be applied regarding testing?
• What is a conducted test? What are its limitations? Why is it not always possible?
• Why are rooms used (for tests) that have either none or very many reflections?
• What are advantages and disadvantages of field tests?
• What are the features of MIMO systems and why do we need multipath radio channels to
evaluate them?
• What kind of channel data can be used to evaluate MIMO Systems? How do the data
differ from each other?
• What is wave field synthesis (WFS)? What are the challenges? How does it compare to
other approaches of testing?
• What are the physical principles behind WFS?
• Why is the spacing between emulating antennas important? What is the sweet spot?
• Why is it typically necessary to compute the WFS signals numerically instead of using
analytical expressions?