CS 6966-001 Fall 2025 Wireless Networking Systems - public
Class time/location: Mondays and Wednesdays, 03:00-04:20 PM MT in WEB L114.
Detailed syllabus: WNS_2025_syllabus.pdf
Teaching staff:
Instructors: Prof. Neal Patwari (NP) and Prof. Kobus Van der Merwe (KV)
POWDER technical staff - Hands-on support and specialized topics:
- Kirk Webb (KW)
- Dustin Maas (DM)
- Robert Ricci (RR)
- David Johnson (DJ)
Reading resources:
- The POWDER Manual (TPM)
- Private 5G: A Systems Approach - Larry Peterson, Oguz Sunay and Bruce Davie (P5G-SA)
Other useful resources:
- The Missing Semester of Your CS Education
- The Mistaken Axioms of Wireless Network Research
- Neal Patwari's Digital Communications course (videos, lecture notes)
Class schedule:
| # | Date | Topic | Preparation | Activity |
| 1 | 8/18 | Course Overview; POWDER Overview | Read POWDER_cn.pdf (to the end of Section 4) Slides: |
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| 2 | 8/20 | POWDER basic workflow and spectrum monitoring lab |
Read TPM: |
Lab 1 (Spectrum monitoring) - Part 1 (due before class), Lab 1 (Spectrum monitoring) - Part 2, Lab 1 (Spectrum monitoring) - Part 3 |
| 3 | 8/25 | 5G Intro and architecture |
Read P5G-SA: |
Lab 1 (Spectrum monitoring) - Part 4 (due on Sunday) |
| 4 | 8/27 | Antennas, channel loss. Voltage, power, and energy of waveforms and signals. | Read P5G-SA Chapter 3 Intro and 3.1. Watch 3 of Neal's digital communications videos: Signals, Power, and Energy, I'm Adding dB to this Course, Received Power Models |
Lecture: Antennas; signals, noise; power, SNR; energy, energy per bit. Relationship between EbN0 and SNR. Example problems worked in class |
| 9/1 | LABOR DAY (no class) | |||
| 5 | 9/3 | Link loss, SNR measurements | Read WiMatch paper Section 3B and Section 5 (Intro paragraph) and 5A. |
Lab 2: Path Loss Tutorial, due Fri 5pm. Also: Homework assigned, due Wed, Sept 10 at midnight. |
| 6 | 9/8 | Modulation and coding, PHY, probability of bit error vs. Eb/N0, synchronization |
Watch 3-7 videos (optional can be skipped depending on your familiarity with digital communications):
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Lecture: QAM Modulation, Probability of bit error vs. Eb/N0, Preview of QPSK transmitter and receiver lab |
| 7 | 9/10 | QPSK Transmission and Reception |
no before class assignment THIS CLASS SESSION IS ON ZOOM https://utah.zoom.us/j/82244428608 Meeting ID: 822 4442 8608 |
Hands-on lab: QPSK modulation and demodulation. We will introduce the assignment. Homework assigned: Receiver for 16-QAM |
| 8 | 9/15 | Multipath fading, mitigation methods: OFDM, SS, channel measurement |
Watch one video: Why do Bad Fades Happen to Good Channels? (6:43) |
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| 9 | 9/17 | Channel impulse response measurement |
no before class assignment |
Hands-on Lab: CIR measurement |
| 10 | 9/22 | OFDM |
Watch two videos: |
OFDM section of lecture notes from Session 8 Hands-on Lab: OFDM Reception |
| 11 | 9/24 | Radio Transmission |
Read P5G-SA Chapter 3. (Plan for the day, Chapter 3 slides) Related to Course Project: |
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| 12 | 9/29 | Q&A and review for Midterm | Study for midterm, come to class with questions. Study notes for Sessions 2-4. Zoom recording of the class session. |
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| 13 | 10/1 | Midterm |
Midterm covers Class Sessions 1-11. Solutions for Q6 to Q13. |
Midterm 1 Note: Team formation + idea space selected is due on Friday. |
| 14 | 10/13 | Mobile Radio Access Network |
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| 15 | 10/15 |
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Hands-on at-home: Familiarize yourself with basic Docker functionality using: Lab 6 (E2E 5G) - Part 1 (before class) Hands-on at-home/in-class lab: Lab 6 (E2E 5G) - Part 2 (before calls & in class), Lab 6 (E2E 5G) - Part 3 (in-class & at-home) |
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| 16 | 10/20 | Spectrum Management |
Read: POWDER_RDZ_journal.pdf |
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| 17 | 10/22 |
Do the reading and other prep work described in Lab 7 - Part 1 (before class) |
Lab 7 (Spectrum Management) - Part 1 (before class), Lab 7 (Spectrum Management) - Part 2 (in class/at home) |
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| 18 | 10/27 | 5G Core and Managed Cloud Services (slides) |
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| 19 | 10/29 |
Prepare presentation for "Updated Lab Extension Idea + Plan" assignment |
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| 20 | 11/3 | O-RAN |
Read O-RAN.pdf through Section VI A (17 pages... start early) |
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| 21 | 11/5 | Lab extension - work session |
Project teams meet with teaching staff |
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| 22 | 11/10 | O-RAN Lab |
Read nexran.pdf |
Lab 8 (O-RAN) - Part 1 (before class), Lab 8 (O-RAN) - Part 2 (in class), Lab 8 (O-RAN) - Part 3 (in class/at home) |
| 23 | 11/12 | Lab extension - work session |
Project teams meet with teaching staff |
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| 24 | 11/17 | Lab extension - work session |
Project teams meet with teaching staff |
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| 25 | 11/19 | Course review |
Passcode: Zw3CcV.I |
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| 26 | 11/24 | Midterm |
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Midterm 2 |
| 27 | 12/1 | Course Project |
Course Project presentations |
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| 28 | 12/3 | Course Project |
Course Project presentations |
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| 12/5 |
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