Abstract:

The authors of the article share their experience of the application of MATLAB / OCTAVE in teaching MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS disciplines, during the pandemic COVID-19 at the University of Plovdiv "Paisii Hilendarski".

One year after COVID-19 began, many activities in the education system continue to take place online. Teachers face the challenge of developing continuously adequate analogues to the traditional teaching methods.

In recent years, computer modelling of difficult-to-reproduce processes and phenomena has become increasingly important in the teaching of engineering disciplines in university education.

In this context, we chose the MATLAB/OCTAVE platform because students have the knowledge to work in the Matlab environment, and Octave is cost-free, freely distributable software licensed by the General Public License (GNU). The language is almost identical to the main Matlab and is suitable for modelling processes in Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.

The learning strategy, based on the interactive use of MATLAB/OCTAVE for teaching LTE communication systems, aims at acquiring lasting knowledge in this field (flexibility of the radio frequency spectrum, data transmission with multiple antennas). LTE systems contain most of the features that were originally designed for 4G systems. On the other hand, the continuous improvement of LTE communication systems is at the heart of building 5G, which accelerates the expansion of mobile devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) and much more.

The article presents the simulated block diagrams which reflect the stages of:
- Creating a Random Bit Stream;
- Converting a sequence of bits into a sequence of symbols;
- Generating symbols for constellation modulation;
- Adding noise;
- Converting a symbol into bits;
- Calculating Bit Error Rate / Ratio (BER).

For each of the stages demonstrating the operability of the LTE system, in addition to the presented computer model, there is a source code written in MATLAB, which is used for the graphical visualization of the step-by-step conversion of bit and symbol streams, the addition of noise and BER calculation.
Computer-assisted teaching and learning, along with the use of the electronic learning platform DIPSEIL of the Faculty of Physics and Technology of Plovdiv University proved to be motivating and appealing to the students doing the "Mobile Communication Systems" course.

The authors of the article continue to develop computer models for interactive learning in other engineering disciplines, which will offer students active participation in conducting classes in both the online environment and the traditional way of learning.

Keywords:

Computer models, interactive learning, engineering disciplines, teaching, students, modelling processes.