SpectrumX, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Spectrum Innovation Center, has launched its newest educational course titled Point-to-Point Wireless Telecommunication Links on Coursera.
This self-paced course, designed and taught by NSF SpectrumX Center Director J. Nicholas Laneman, focuses on exploring how links between transmitters and receivers, the fundamental building blocks of wireless communications, function and the importance of understanding these connections in today’s wireless and digital world.
This course is designed as an on-ramp for those interested in learning more about the radio frequency spectrum. Learners enrolling in this course are not expected to have any existing subject matter knowledge. The course can be enrolled in at any time, and it will take learners an estimated ten hours to complete the course’s five modules and ten assignments.
Hosting this course material on Coursera further enables its accessibility to members of the public, as Coursera is an educational and professional development tool used by over 150 million learners worldwide. Enrollment in the course is free for users with a Coursera Plus subscription.
This Coursera Course is the first deliverable of the Center’s Radio Systems and Applications course content. The full content will be deployed as a Coursera Course Series, and will also be released for use in for-credit courses at Center member institutions. The Center also plans to make this educational content available as an open-source resource for non-commercial uses. All Radio Systems and Applications course content will be posted on this page as it is published on Coursera.
Additionally, separate courseware on spectrum economics and policy as well as spectrum management and policy are in the preliminary stages of development. This forthcoming educational material will be hosted on Coursera and linked on the SpectrumX website upon its publication.
Point-to-Point Wireless Telecommunication Links
Starting with the simplest one-way wireless system, course participants will learn how information is encoded, modulated, transmitted, and recovered over radio waves. Along the way, learners will uncover the core techniques—analog and digital modulation, filtering, error control, and frequency-division strategies—that underpin modern technologies such as satellite communications, 5G infrastructure, scientific telemetry, and emerging wireless broadband solutions.