Wireless Communications¶

Course Overview¶

• Institution: Stanford University
• Course code: EE 359
• Track: Communication Systems
• Tier: A
• Role: Alternative
• Level: Not standardized by provider (use prerequisites)
• Last reviewed: 2026-07-28

Stanford University's Wireless Communications offers an alternative wireless path through a reader, homework, project, practice exam, and code, while video access is restricted and some protocol context dates to 2020.

Why choose this course

Alternative course. A reliable option that can serve as a main course or strong alternative.

Before you start

• Recommended foundation: Signals and Systems
• Recommended foundation: Probability, Statistics, and Random Processes

Verifiable learning outcomes

• Explain the core models in Communication Systems, including their assumptions and limits
• Solve representative derivations and problems, checking units, limiting cases, or numerical results
• Complete a reproducible experiment or implementation with raw data, parameters, versions, and verification

Workload and pacing

11 weeks at 7 hours/week. This maintainer planning estimate is derived from course role and the density of public practice and labs; it is not a provider workload promise. Pilot two weeks while logging instruction, practice, lab, and review time, then adjust the remaining plan when actual effort differs by more than 25%.

Safety level

Simulation only. The default practice scope is software, computation, or simulation only; a lab label in the resource inventory does not authorize connecting physical equipment, and any hardware extension requires provider-scope verification and a new risk assessment.

Course Resources¶

Software, hardware, and cost

Software

• Maintainer-suggested open-source/free verification path: GNU Radio, Python 3, Jupyter, NumPy, SciPy, and GNU Octave
• The resource inventory lists public code coverage; pin interpreter, dependencies, toolchain, datasets, and PDK versions where applicable

Hardware

• The resource inventory lists lab coverage, but this course's maintainer path explicitly limits it to computational or simulation work. It assumes only a general-purpose computer able to run the software above and retain results; do not purchase or connect a course-supported software-defined radio, attenuators, shielded connections, and compliant antenna/load

Cost note

The current maintainer path uses computation and simulation only, with no dedicated hardware purchase, and prefers open-source/free tools. This is not a provider requirement; platform, commercial-software, or cloud-compute costs still vary by provider, region, and plan.

Public resource coverage

Resources and access

“Listed by official page” means the link was discovered on a successfully fetched official source on the verification date; it does not guarantee that every region or account can open the target directly. Access does not grant redistribution rights. Re-check the provider page, target link, and third-party notices before downloading, adapting, or publishing material.

Practice and Verification¶

Practice loop

Wireless Communications · Stanford University EE 359: End-to-End Digital Link and Synchronization Stress Test

This is a maintainer-suggested self-study project for Wireless Communications · Stanford University EE 359, not an official course assignment. Simulate a complete baseband chain for Communication Systems, including transmit, channel, synchronization, detection, and error statistics, and quantify SNR, carrier offset, timing offset, and multipath effects.

Origin: Maintainer-suggested project

Deliverables

• A system specification and link budget for modulation, framing, channel, synchronizer, and detector
• Transmitter, channel, receiver, baseline detector, and test sources
• Raw counts, synchronization traces, and constellations with at least 100 errors or 1e6 bits per SNR
• A report comparing theoretical and simulated BER and explaining synchronization thresholds and error floors

Verification

• For the nominal AWGN link, make BER confidence intervals cover the theoretical curve or explain finite-sample bias
• Cover zero signal, low and high SNR, half-symbol timing offset, and a declared carrier-offset boundary
• Cross-check at least 1,000 noiseless symbols with an independent modem implementation
• Increase carrier offset or multipath gradually and report the first synchronization-loss point and BER degradation

Reproducibility

• Commit link modules, configurations, tests, theory calculations, and plotting sources
• Pin sample rate, frame length, seeds, channel parameters, and dependency versions
• Preserve per-frame raw counts and traces and generate the report automatically from configuration

Safety boundary: Simulation only — Use baseband software simulation only; do not transmit RF, bypass spectrum rules, or connect power amplifiers or unknown antennas.

Risks, gaps, and boundaries

The reader, homework, project, and practice exam are public, but video is in Canvas and some protocol context dates to 2020.

Completion evidence

• Weekly learning log with time, questions, corrected errors, decisions, next steps, and links to that week's reproducible artifacts
• Theory dossier with explicit assumptions, notation, derivation, units, and boundary conditions, checked by at least one independent method
• Simulation package with model or netlist, inputs, solver and version, parameter-sweep script, benchmark comparison, expected results, and one rerun command
• Code repository with pinned dependencies and toolchain, a minimal run command, tests or waveform/benchmark checks, expected output, and license notes