Overview
In this unit, you will strengthen your understanding of wireless and optical communication systems. You will gain advanced knowledge of communication devices and systems, and learn to analyse key parameters such as loss, bandwidth, and signal quality. You will also use advanced simulation tools to verify theoretical concepts and explore current communication technologies. The unit further develops your professional communication skills through teamwork and class discussion, and highlights the importance of UN Sustainable Development Goal 9 in engineering practice through building resilient infrastructure and fostering sustainable innovation. Your learning will conclude with a design assignment, including written and viva components, allowing you to demonstrate your understanding and application of the unit’s learning outcomes.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from UC's observation
Limited licenses of the VPI Photonics Design Suite created challenges for completing the design assessment.
Students should be advised to begin the design assignment early and use the booking form efficiently to ensure fair and effective access to the software.
Feedback from UC's observation
The range of topics covered may have been too extensive for a one-term unit.
The unit content should be revised to focus on key topics and streamline secondary material.
- Analyse communication systems by evaluating their requirements, design, operation, and performance
- Determine the power, bandwidth, and performance of communication systems
- Investigate the characteristics of common communication components and systems
- Verify the proposed design and performance of advanced communication systems through simulation
- Produce professional engineering reports adhering to electrical engineering standards using appropriate terminologies and symbols
- Successfully complete engineering projects autonomously and in a team with a responsible, ethical, and professional attitude.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 25% | ||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 35% | ||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 40% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||||
| 4 - Research | ||||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||||
| 8 - First Nations Knowledges | ||||||
| 9 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||||