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Engineering Faculty: David Dodds
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David Dodds

Biography

David Dodds is Professor and Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada and, until recently, he worked half-time as Research Scientist at Telecommunications Research Laboratories (TRLabs). In the past, he has worked with Nortel Networks on PBX design, digital transmission and fiber optic transmission standards and since then with other industries on a consulting basis where he has given a variety of short courses on telecommunication systems. David is author of 13 US patents with 3 of those covering commercial products. He has been a Registered Professional Engineer for over 25 years and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Prior to joining industry, he received B. Eng. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Saskatchewan in 1966 and 1968. Current research interests are in communication electronics for synchronization of time multiplexed and spread spectrum systems, fault detection in DSL transmission lines, and modulation circuits for SSB optical transmission. These activities have enjoyed more than 30 years of continuous NSERC support. Teaching duties include introductory communications, telecommunications, digital systems, and several laboratory courses which have been recently recognized with a Wighton Fellowship.

For more information on TRLabs, you can visit its official homepage:
http://www.trlabs.ca/

Contact

E-mail:

Personal Website:

Phone:
306-966-5397

Location:
Room 3B31

Department of Electrical Engineering
57 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
S7N 5A9, Canada

Research Projects

Spread Spectrum Synchronization and Pilot Symbol Synchronization
Internet Access and Data Transmission on Telephone Lines
Fiber Optic Transmission Systems
Home Networking on Power Conductors

More info here:
http://dragon.usask.ca

Teaching

EE 232

Digital Electronics

An introduction to digital logic including combinational and sequential logic devices and circuits. Covers the range from the fundamentals of Boolean algebra and the binary number systems to combinational and sequential circuit functional blocks such as adders, multiplexers, counters and state machines. Some coverage is also given to electronic characteristics of real logic devices and field programmable gate arrays (FPGA).

http://www.engr.usask.ca/classes/EE/232/

EE 311

Electronics

An introductory service course in electronics. Topics include Thevenin's theorem, Norton's theorem, operational amplifiers, filters, an introduction to diodes, BJT, FET, diode circuits, and electronic amplifiers. Digital electronics, Boolean algebra, shift registers, and memory devices. Note: Electrical Engineering students may not take this course for credit.

EE 352

Communication Systems

The course provides an introduction to communication systems beginning with digital signal representation and digital transmission. Frequency translation and amplitude modulation are discussed including the variants of DSB, SSB, VSB and QAM.

http://www.engr.usask.ca/classes/EE/352/

EE 701

Introductory Circuits and Electronics

A lecture/laboratory course designed for students who have little or no background experience in electronics but who wish to obtain a working knowledge of electronic devices and techniques. Fundamentals of electricity and basic laws governing voltage and current in circuit elements with direct and alternating current excitation; charge carriers in vacuum and semiconductor materials; the diode and diode circuits; the junction transistor, equivalent circuit at low frequency, the basic amplifier circuit, biasing, and digital electronics. It is expected that students will follow up with E E 702 to achieve a useful level of experience in the application of electronic devices.

http://sdf

EE 816

Telephony

Topics will be chosen from the following: transmission of analog and digital signals on copper telephone lines, processing and coding of analog signals for digital transmission and switching. Synchronous optical network (SONET) and transport in the global telecommunication network and physical layer transport of Internet signals.

http://dragon.usask.ca/Web-EE816/HomePage816.html

Graduate Students

David G Scharbach

This M.Sc. project will attempt to extend the use of stepped frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) into seismic applications. Present vibration based seismic studies use a linearly increasing frequency or "chirp" that ranges from 10 Hz to 120 Hz. The new method can compensate for signal dispersion and coherent detection can eliminate harmonic components that originate from the vibrator. The new method is expected to provide longer range, improved resolution and better immunity to noise. In addition to reflection magnitude which is available from the present swept frequency method, the new technique is able to measure reflection angle which may assist in determining the type of subsurface discontinuity. Acquisition of data using the proposed stepped frequency method takes much longer than the swept frequency methods currently used and the project will investigate methods to minimize acquisition time.

Personal Webpage http://homepage.usask.ca/~dgs714/

Sajjad Rahaman

Code division multiple access (CDMA) has been widely used for cellular telephony and now there is focus on packet transmission to offer a variety of new services. This project aims to combine the efficiency of packet transmission with the efficiency of CDMA. The attraction for high data rate packet based CDMA is evident for personal communication systems (PCN) and, for military purposes, the spreading code or the code phase could be changed with each new packet to offer very secure communication. A packet CDMA system should be very efficient, however, substantial overhead is added when a lengthy preamble is provided for code acquisition. In any CDMA system, code synchronization (acquisition) is a critical operation that must be performed before any communication is possible. This project aims at eliminating the packet preamble by using Persson's very fast Segmented Matched Filter (SMF) synchronizer since it can operate in the presence of both carrier offset and data modulation.(see conference paper by B. Persson, D.E. Dodds, J.E. Salt, R.J. Bolton)

Personal Webpage http://homepage.usask.ca/~mdr211/

Bruce Tang

This project addresses the problem of cellular telephone locating in emergency 911 situations. Recent US FCC regulations [1] have triggered a considerable amount of research in location identification using either triangulation technology or GPS technology. The ultimate solution must work within buildings. The proposed research will focus on GPS technology and will use the highly parallel, VLSI non-coherent CDMA synchronizer recently developed at the University of Saskatchewan [2]. The advantage of this synchronizer is its capability to rapidly synchronize with low amplitude GPS signals in the presence of noise and frequency offsets. Current GPS receivers require somewhat direct line-of-site to at least 4 satellites so the high attenuation and high thermal noise found in buildings makes position identification a challanging problem.

[1] Federal Communications Commision, "Enhanced 911 - Wireless Services," http://www.fcc.gov/911/enhanced/ , June 17 2005.
[2] B. Persson, D.E. Dodds, and R.J. Bolton, "A Segmented Matched Filter for CDMA Code Synchronization in Systems with Doppler Frequency Offset," Globecom 2001

Personal Webpage http://homepage.usask.ca/~brt805/

Kelsey L Muma

Daron Chabot

Angelika Ortlepp

Muhammad Shafique

Former Graduate Students

Haozhang Jia - M.Sc. 2005

This M.Sc. project investigates synchronization for pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM). In this scheme, known pilot symbols are periodically inserted into the transmitted data symbol stream and then used by the receiver to reduce the effects of channel fading in a mobile communication channel. It is proposed to use a non-coherent synchronizer that uses only the received signal magnitude to form an estimate of the pilot symbol timing. Decision metrics are based on high SNR approximation of maximum likelihood ratio and on Euclidean distance from the pilot sequence. The proposed system is being evaluated using Simulink software.
http://library2.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-09082005-135315/
Personal Webpage http://homepage.usask.ca/~haj532/

Kevin W Ackerman - M.Sc. 2005

This project reviews established methods of communication using in-building power conductors with particular attention to the 100 kHz to 450 kHz frequency range. Power-line communication has one major advantage in that almost every room in every home has at least one power outlet and therefore a connection to the data network. Recent research has shown that noise on the power line occurs at regular intervals fixed in position with respect to zero crossings of the 60 Hz mains signal and at these times there is higher probability of data errors. It has been proposed to use an interference avoidance scheme where transmission is suspended during periods of high interference and then continues during quiet intervals. The objective in this new work is to develop a medium access control (MAC) protocol that can adaptively utilize quiet timeslots and co-ordinate transmissions in a multi-access power-line network.
http://library2.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-02162005-150411/

Conference Publications: [PDF] [PDF]

Bernardo Celaya - M.Sc. 2004

This thesis proposes a novel technique called Wideband frequency domain reflectometry (W-FDR) to accurately locate impairments in telephone lines and estimate the reflection magnitude caused by faults. The measurement produces a result similar to the well-known time domain reflectometer (TDR), however, digital signal processing techniques are now applied to provide substantially enhanced resolution and range. In addition to magnitude, the new technique is able to measure reflection angle which can help to determine the nature of the fault (wire in the cable, broken wires, etc). Telephone companies can thus analyze and/or remove impairments such as open circuits, short circuits, bridge taps and coils that interfere with digital subscriber line (DSL) transmission.
http://library2.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-07052006-094509/

Conference Publications:[PDF] [PDF]

Bernard E Boos - M.Sc. 2004

Inter-chip communication rates on printed circuit boards now exceed 3 Gb/s but several problems need to be addressed to significantly increase data rates. This thesis addresses problems associated with dc wander and crosstalk by employing digital components to provide compensation. The thesis gives a detailed account of the design of two compensation circuits and reports the results of simulations. The crosstalk cancellation circuit has been shown to provide as much as 10 dB improvement.
http://library2.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-02062004-170915/

Conference Publication:[PDF]

Personal Webpage http://homepage.usask.ca/~beb415/

Durga P Padarthivenkata - M.Eng. 2004

Denard Lynch - M.Sc. 1997

Thesis [PDF]

Selected Journal Papers Copyright Infomation

[11] B. Abolhassani, J.E. Salt, and D.E. Dodds, 2002. "Two Algorithms for Placement of Radioports in Cellular Networks", Canadian Journal of Electrical Computer Engineering, Vol. 27, No. 2, April, pp. 51-54. [PDF]
[10] D.H.Y. Teng, R. Bolton and D.E. Dodds, 2001, "A VHDL Library for Current-Mode CMOS Multiple-Valued Logic", Multiple Valued Logic - an International Journal, Vol. 7, pp. 49-73. [PDF]
[9] M. Sieben, J. Conradi and David E. Dodds, 1999. "Optical Single Sideband Transmission at 10 Gb/s Using Only Electrical Dispersion Compensation", IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, October, Vol. 17, pp. 1742-1749. [PDF]
[8] N. Takaya, D.E. Dodds and C.D. McCrosky, 1997. "Adaptive Rate Subscriber Loop Data Transmission with Ethernet Interfaces", Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 273-281.
[7] M. Seiben, J. Conradi, D. Dodds, B. Davies and S. Walklin, 1997. "10 Gb/s Optical Single Sideband System", Electronics Letters, May 22, Vol. 33, No. 11, pp. 971-973.
[6] M. Ghaderi, S. Kumar and D.E. Dodds, 1996. "A Fast Adaptive Polynomial I and Q Predistorter with Global Optimisation", IEE Proceedings Communications, Vol. 143, No. 2, April, pp. 78-86.
[5] S.M. Pan, H. Grant, D.E. Dodds and S. Kumar, 1995. "An Offset Z Search Strategy for Spread Spectrum Systems", IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 43, No. 12, December, pp. 3046-3054.
[4] S.M. Pan, D.H. Madill and D.E. Dodds, 1995. "A Unified Time-Domain Analysis of Serial Search with Application to Spread Spectrum Receivers", IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 43, No. 12, December, pp. 2900-2902.
[3] D.E. Dodds and M. Sieben, 1995. "Fabry-Perot Laser Diode Modeling", IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, March, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 254-256.
[2] G.J. Erker, D.E. Dodds and W. Krzymien, 1995. "ISDN Loop Extension using a Mid-Span Amplifier", International Journal of Communication Systems, May-June, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 219-224. [PDF]
[1] M.A. Bree, D.E. Dodds, R.J. Bolton, S. Kumar and B.L.F. Daku, 1992. A Modular Bit-Serial Architecture for Large Constraint Length Viterbi Decoding. IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Feb., Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 184-190. [PDF]

Conference Publications Copyright Infomation

[24] Dodds, D.E. (2007). Single-ended FDR to Locate and Specifically Identify DSL loop Impairments, IEEE International Conference on Communications, Glasgow, Scotland, June 24-28, Paper No. GS08-6, (6 pages) (CD Rom). [PDF]
[23] Dodds, D.E. and Fretz, T. (2007). Parametric Analysis of Frequency Domain Refelctometry Measurements, IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 7-10, Paper No. 58-3 ISBN 1-4244-1021-5, 1034-1037 (CD Rom).
[22] Tang, B. and Dodds, D.E. (2007). Synchronization of Weak Indoor GPS Signals with Doppler using Segmented Matched Filter and Accumulation, IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 7-10, Paper No. Paper No. 86-1 ISBN 1-4244-1021-5, 1531-1534 (CD Rom).
[21] Vu, H., Nguyen, H. and Dodds, D.E. (2007). Performance Bound for LDPC Coded Unitary Space-Time Modulation, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), Hong Kong, China, March, 558-563 (CD Rom).
[20] Vu, H., Nguyen, H. and Dodds, D. (2006). Performance Bounds for Multilevel LDPC Coded Modulation, Queens Biennial Symposium on Communications (QBSC), Kingston, Canada, May 29-June 1, 5-9 (CD Rom).
[19] Dodds, D. and Jia, H. (2006). MAP Frame Synchronization for PSAM Systems, IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ottawa, ON, Canada, May 7-10, 0386-0390.
[18] Dodds, D. and Rahaman, M.S. (2006). Packet CDMA Communications without Preambles, IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ottawa, ON, Canada, May 7-10, 0222-0225. [PDF], [PowerPoint]
[17] Dodds, D. and Tang, B. (2006). Weak Signal GPS Synchronization for Locating Inbuilding Cellular Telephones, IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ottawa, ON, Canada, May 7-10, 0298-0301.
[16] Dodds, D., Shafique, M. and Celaya, B. (2006). TDR and FDR Identification of Bad Splices in Telephone Cables, IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ottawa, ON, Canada, May 7-10, 1031-1034.
[15] Dodds, D. and McCrosky, C. (2006). Method to Avoid Star Point Data Reflections, Proceedings of International Symposium on Power Line Communications (ISPLC), Orlando, USA, March 26-29, Paper No. A2.2, 76-79 (CD Rom). Available online at: http://www.ieee-isplc.org/2006/
[14] Vu, H., Nguyen, H. and Dodds, D. (2006). Performance Bounds for Multilevel LDPC Coded Modulation, Queens Biennial Symposium on Communications (QBSC), Kingston, Canada, May 29-June 1, 5-9 (CD ROM).
[13] Kevin Ackerman, David E. Dodds and Carl McCrosky, 2005, "Protocol to Avoid Noise in Power Line Networks", Proceedings of International Symposium on Power Line Communications and its Applications, April 6-8, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 181-185. [PDF]
[12] Haozhang Jia and David E. Dodds, 2005, "FRAME SYNCHRONIZATION FOR PSAM IN AWGN AND RAYLEIGH FADING CHANNELS", Proceedings of IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 1-4, Saskatoon, Canada, pp. 2290-2296. [PDF]
[11] David G. Scharbach and David E. Dodds, 2005 "STEPPED FREQUENCY SEISMIC METHOD WITH ACQUISITION TIME OPTIMIZATION", Proceedings of IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 1-4, Saskatoon, Canada, pp. 0242-0246. [PDF]
[10] David E. Dodds and Bernardo Celaya, 2005 "LOCATING WATER INGRESS IN TELEPHONE CABLES USING FREQUENCY DOMAIN REFLECTOMETRY", Proceedings of IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 1-4, Saskatoon, Canada, pp. 0098-0101. [PDF]
[9] Bernardo Celaya and David E. Dodds, 2004 "SINGLE-ENDED DSL LINE TESTER", Proceedings of IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 2-5, Niagara Falls, Canada, Vol. 4, pp. 2155-2158. [PDF]
[8] Bernard E. Boos, David E. Dodds and Ron J. Bolton, 2004, "HIGH-SPEED SIGNAL COMPENSATION ON PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS", Proceedings of IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 2-5, Niagara Falls, Canada, Vol. 4, pp. 2185-2188. [PDF]
[7] David E. Dodds, Oliver Cruder and Mark Labbe, 2004, "TRANSPARENT FIBER-OPTIC SYSTEM TO EXTEND DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER LINES", Proceedings of IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, May 2-5, Niagara Falls, Canada, Vol. 4, pp. 2189-2192. [PDF] [PowerPoint]
[6] David E. Dodds, Kevin W. Ackerman and Jack S. Hanson, 2004, "Power Line Communication Using Timed Transmission", IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference-CCNC 2004, Jan 5-8 Las Vegas, USA., Poster #9. [PDF]
[5] Huy G. Vu, Ha H. Nguyen, D.E. Dodds, 2003. "Multiple Access Systems with Quarternary Modulation", Proceedings of Canadian Workshop on Information Theory, (CWIT), May 18-23, Waterloo, Canada, pp. 109-112.
[4] B. Persson, D.E. Dodds, J.E. Salt, R.J. Bolton, 2002. "CDMA Code Synchronization Using Segmented Matched Filter with Accumulation and Best Match Selection", Proceedings of IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), Oct. 7-10, Anaheim, Calif., Session U505, Vol. 2, pp. 976-981. [PDF]
[3] B. Persson, D.E. Dodds, and R.J. Bolton, 2001. "A Segmented Matched Filter for CDMA Code Synchronization in Systems with Doppler Frequency Offset", Global Telecommunications Conference, 2001. Proceedings of IEEE Globecom"01, Vol. 1, pp. 648-653. [PDF] [PowerPoint]
[2] D.E. Dodds, G. Erker, J. Hanson and G. Bradley, 1999. "Splitterless DSL at 230 kb/s for Internet Access"; Proceedings of IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on Communications, Computers and Signal Processing (PACRIM), pp. 22-25, August 22-24, Victoria, Canada. [PDF]
[1] D.E. Dodds, K. Takaya and Q. Zhang, 1999. "Frame Synchronization for Pilot Symbol Assisted Modulation; Proceedings of IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, pp. 52-58, May 9-12, Edmonton, Canada. [PDF]

Books / Chapters in Books

[1] J.E. Salt, S. Kumar and D.E. Dodds, 1993. "Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum for Indoor Wireless Communications". Book of lecture notes (245 pages) and videotape presentation (4 1/2 hours) published for TRLabs.

Patents

[14] USA Patent Application "Wideband Frequency Domain Reflectometry to determine the Nature and Location of Subscriber Line Faults" Dodds, David E, Celaya, Bernardo and Monteith, Terence, filed April 2004 (Assigned to TRLabs)
[13] USA Appl. 20020031113 "Extended distribution of ADSL signals," Dodds, David E., Cruder, Oliver, Labbe, S. Mark, Meier, Ian Robert, Lockerbie, Michael David, filed July 11,2001 (Assigned to Critical Telecom)
[12] USA 6,886,181 "Extended distribution of ADSL signals," Dodds, David E., Cruder, Oliver, Labbe, S. Mark, filed July 7,2000 and issued April 26, 2005 (Assigned to Critical Telecom) [PDF]
[11] USA 5,259,836, "Optical frequency shifter and transmission system," Dodds, David E., filed May 14,1998 and issued July 10, 2001 (assigned to TRLabs) [PDF]
[10] USA 5,999,300, "Hybrid single sideband optical modulator" Davies, Robert J., Conradi, Jan; Dodds, David E., filed June 12,1997 and issued December 7, 1999 (assigned to TRLabs) [PDF]
[9] USA 5,880,870, "Optical modulation system," Sieben, Michael J., Conradi, Jan; Dodds, David E., filed October 28,1996 and issued March 9, 1999 (assigned to TRLabs) [PDF]
[8] USA 5,841,841, "Networking computers via shared use of voice telephone lines," Dodds, David E.and Erker, Gregory J., filed April 26,1996 and issued November 28, 1998 (assigned to TRLabs) [PDF]
[7] USA 5,612,653, "LAN star connection using negative impedance for matching," Dodds, David E.and Erker, Gregory J., filed June 7,1995 and issued March 18, 1997 (assigned to TRLabs) [PDF]
[6] USA 4,677,646 Dataset powered by control and data signals from data terminal
[5] USA 4,578,541 Telephone line interface circuit
[4] 4,534,039 Dataset powered by control and data signals from data terminal
[3] USA 4,534,038 Coupling an electrical signal to transmission lines
[2] USA 4,525,845 Balanced circuit for connecting receiver and transmitter to transmission line
[1] USA 4,123,709 Adaptive digital delta modulation for voice transmission
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