Editing Optical communications assignment

==Introduction==
There is one major homework assignment for this course and it counts as 30% towards the final mark. The exam counts as the other 70%. 

==Deadlines==

'''Start date:'''  You will be ready to start this major homework assignment during the mid-term break of Semester 2.

'''Hand in date:''' Hand into the Departmental office assignment box by '''2pm''' on Friday, '''29th October, 2010'''.

==The assignment exercise==

* Design a fibre system to transmit 2 Gbits/sec (RZ) over a 5000-km path. The error rate must be <math>10^{-9}</math> or better.

* There is no unique solution. Design the system in your own way.

* Show power and bandwidth budget calculations that include the source, fibre and detector of your choice.

* You may chose any component that you like.  However, the parameter values for those components should be actual values sourced from any text book or online data sheet that you find. You must include these as references to your report.

* Remember to imagine you are working for a company and that you are trying to please your boss. Therefore, whilst you must provide some reasonable bandwidth and power budget margin you should not overdesign the system. This will make your boss angry as he will find it too expensive.

==Questions==
If you are having any difficulty, post any questions you have about the homework assignment here:

* [[Optical communications homework assignment questions]]

==The Rules==

* '''Rule 1:''' The top caption of every Matlab graph must contain your Student ID and name  (generated within Matlab, not handwritten)

* '''Rule 2:''' You must submit fully commented Matlab code with your assignment. The header for each code module should contain a comment with your name, date, and student ID.

* '''Rule 3:''' As well as a hard copy, you must attach a CD pouch to your report and insert a CD of your whole project directory containing all the Matlab files, log files, Word files, pdf files, pdf file of data sheets and references, and any files relating to this assignment.

* '''Rule 4:''' Submit the assignment in the assignment box. Do '''not''' submit to me or anyone else. If you submit late, you must hand it into the Departmental office and ask for it to be date & time stamped.  Late submissions without a stamp will receive zero marks.

* '''Rule 5:''' The assignment must be handed up together with a signed [http://www1.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/students/undergraduate/documents/assessment-cover-sheet.pdf cover sheet].

* '''Rule 6:''' Any slightest violation of Rules 1-5 will receive zero marks.

==Plagiarism==

Your submission should contain a detailed description of your procedures, any theoretical analysis necessary, the graphical plots specified, and your MATLAB code with plenty of comments.  The assignment is expected to be your own work, copying of another person's work will attract zero marks and you should carefully note the [http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/?230 policy on plagiarism].

==Expectations==

* The emphasis in this assignment is to attempt a system design and only requires simple use of Matlab for plotting graphs to explore trade-offs.  

* Obviously a system design with a clear power and bandwidth budget, with power and bandwidth margin, will attract marks. But at the end of the day, I’m looking for a well structured methodology and evidence that you had an exploratory attitude to the problem. I don’t want to just see a neat solution; I want to see you take “ownership” of the assignment by describing your exploratory steps to arriving at your final design. For example, you may want make various Matlab plots to illustrate trade-offs and you may want to plot relevant formulas and functions to test how they behave. You are encouraged to put your investigations and “sanity check” plots into your report to show you really owned this assignment.

* It is expected the methodology is structured so that you don't end up with an overdesigned system. It is possible to meet the specifications by using the most expensive components. But a boss in a company would not like that.  Start with low specified components and work your way up in a structured way to meet the specifications.

* Meeting the specification by using component values that are so good that they don't even exist is cheating! Remember to find actual values.

* You may use component specifications from online data sheets, the course text book, or an other text book in the library. You are expected to state the source of the parameters you use.

* If you mess up the assignment it is still possible to get reasonable marks, if you diligently show the steps you took to gain ownership and the steps you took to explore the problem space.

==Marking==
* Extra bonus marks will be given for exploratory discussion and exploratory graphs that showed you owned the homework assignment. 

* If you receive 100%, it does not necessarily mean your final degign was correct. It may mean the bonuses you accumulated outweighed the marks you lost.  Marks over 100% will be truncated at 100%.

* Zero will be given if there are any signs of copying or if any of Rules 1-5 are broken.

* Late submissions will lose 20% per day late. The only concession is a medical certificate. Please carefully read the departmental [https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/students/undergrad/policies/homework_policy.htm policy] on lateness.

* '''A correct design that does not contain discussion of your results and does not show the exploratory steps of how you got there will get much lower marks, than a submission with a flaky maths that contains good discussion and shows ownership and an exploratory attitude.'''

==See Also==
* [[Optical communication engineering]]

==Back==
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