Abstract
In this paper, we present an introductory course design for fresh research-based graduate students in wireless communications, which is planned to be delivered immediately after enrollment. The course aims at covering necessary research methodologies and the rudiments of wireless communications. Different from most graduate study curricula based on experiments, we design the course structure in an introductory manner by tailoring the course contents to a simplistic form and involving only simulations. We start by introducing the pedagogical background and our motivations for designing this course. Then, we present the fundamentals and the technological contents, followed by detailing the basic research methodology, strategies, and skills for deriving insightful analytical expressions and carrying out numerical simulations. We also verify the effectiveness of the course structure design by carrying out a teaching experiment and analyzing objective and subjective data collected from the experiment. By participating in this course, research-based graduate students are expected to gain a preliminary knowledge of the research methodology and strategies in the field of wireless communications as well as a research roadmap.
Highlights
Telecommunications stems from the electric telegraph invented by Morse in 1837
From the explanation of the research progress above, we summarize that the basic research methodology in wireless communications should consist of three key components: 1) justification; 2) analysis; 3) verification
For works belonging to the second category dedicated to performance optimization, formulation of optimization problems is relatively easy, as long as a proper objective function can be defined and constraints are fully taken into consideration
Summary
Telecommunications stems from the electric telegraph invented by Morse in 1837. In 1897, Marconi’s successful demonstration of wireless telegraphy made wireless communications come to public attention. Our experience shows that it is helpful and even indispensable to deliver an introductory course for fresh research-based graduate students immediately after enrollment. In this way, students are able to grasp some fundamentals of research methodology and apply them to their research activities. Some contents presented in these published papers a decade ago are outdated and do not match the fast-changing research activities today This motivates us to propose our own course design aiming at delivering necessary research methodologies and the rudiments of wireless communications to fresh research-based graduate students who do not possess a solid knowledge basis. We provide a plenty of milestone papers beside the relevant contents in this paper, which can be viewed as guidelines for further study and research for students
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