Hamdard-HIIT Communication System Introduction

Basic Definitions
System: An integrated structure of hardware devices (e.g., electronic circuits, antennas, fiber optics, computer processors) and software algorithms (e.g., digital signal processing algorithms, network protocols) designed to achieve a specified function. Communication: The transfer of information from one point to another. This process involves electronic transmitting / receiving / processing of information. Analog communication: Information is processed as an analog signal (i.e., a continuous-amplitude continuous-time waveform). Digital communication: Information is processed as a digital signal (i.e., a discrete-time sequence of finite-alphabet symbols).

Block Diagram of a Generic Communication System

Information Source Transmitter Channel Receiver Information Destination

Information source: To-be-transmitted information may be an acoustic voice waveform, an analog photograph, a digital video stream, a data file, etc. A transducer converts an information-sources output into an electronic signal, e.g. microphone for an acoustic speech signal, a video camera for an analog image. Transmitter: Converts the above electronic signal into a form suitable for analog transmission through the propagation channel. Receiver: Performs the inverse of the transmitter operations in order to recover the original message signal.
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Types of Communication Channels

Channel: The propagation medium (always analog in nature) linking the transmitter and the receiver. Channel types: Wire-line channels --- ECE 318, 411 Copper wire telephone line Fiber-optics cable Wireless channels --- ECE 414 Cellular wireless radiowave communication (landmobile or satellite) Indoor infrared optical communication Underwater acoustical communication Channel impairments: As the transmitted signal travels through this analog medium, the signal degrades in various ways: Additive (thermal) noise --- ECE 318, 411, 414 Time-delayed multipaths (interference) --- ECE 411, 414 Multiplicative noise (Rayleigh fading) --- ECE 414

Thermal noise is produced at the receiver front end (as a result of the thermally excited random motion of free electrons in a conducting medium, such as a resistor.) 4

Classification for Communication Systems

Analog communication: Information is processed as an analog signal (i.e., a continuous-amplitude continuous-time waveform). ECE318 Digital communication: Information is processed as a digital signal (i.e., a discrete-time sequence of finite-alphabet symbols). ECE411, 412, 414

Digital Communication System

An analog (i.e., continuous-amplitude continuous-time) information-signal may be converted into a discrete-time discrete-amplitude digital signals by timesampling and amplitude-quantization. The resulting digitized information signal is modulated back into an analog waveform for propagation through the channel.
Original information signal (analog) Source Encoder ECE 412 ECE 604 ECE 611 ECE 612 Source Decoder Channel Decoder Channel Encoder

A/D

Modulator ECE 411 ECE 413 ECE 414 ECE 603 ECE 604 ECE 614

ECE 413

Channel

Recovered information signal (analog)

D/A

Demodulator

In an ideal system, the recovered signal will be exactly the same as the original one.
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Digital Communication System (contd)

Time-sample analog (continuous-time continuous-amplitude) signal to produce a discrete-time continuous-amplitude signal. (ECE 318 & ECE 411) Amplitude-quantize discrete-time continuous-amplitude signal to produce a discrete-time discrete-amplitude signal. (ECE 318 & ECE 411) Encode the discrete-time discrete-amplitude signals quantized amplitude into binary codewords. (i.e. mapping levels to codewords ) (ECE 318 & ECE 411)

111 110 101 100 011 010 001 000

Digital Communication System (contd)

Source encoding (Optional): Represent the message with as few binary digits as possible (i.e. data compression) Channel encoding (Optional): Introduce in a controlled manner some redundancy in the binary information sequence which can be used at the receiver to detect and correct errors. Helps reduce the effects of channel noise and interference. For source/channel encoding (ECE 412, 611, 612) Modulation: Convert (map) codeword in an analog waveform, i.e. amplitude shift keying (ASK), phase shift keying (PSK), frequency shift keying (FSK) (ECE 411)
Analog information signal Analog mod. signal A/D

0110..

Source 1110.. Channel 0111.. Encoder Encoder

Modulator

Analog Communication System

Information Source Signal Modulator Propagation Channel Signal Demodulator Information Destination

To be covered in ECE 318 Analog signals may be transmitted directly via carrier modulation over the propagation channel and to be carrier-demodulated at the receiver. Despite a general trend towards digital communications, analog communication systems remain widely used, especially in audio and video broadcasting, e.g. FM radio, TV broadcasting etc. (See next page for some latest information on this issue)
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Analog vs. Digital Broadcasting (Latest Info as of 2006)

Analog broadcasting will decline in importance and eventually disappear.
Extracted from June 2003 Canadian Parliament Report on Canadian broadcasting http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/37/2/HERI/Studies/Reports/herirp02/01a-cov2-e.htm

Keep an eye on Digital Radio (http://www.drm.org/), Satellite Radio and HDTV Will all televisions be HD soon? Canada has not made a formal decision on this topic. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has set a transition period for all television broadcasts to be switched from analog to digital. The US Senate has voted to set April 7, 2009, as the deadline for US television stations to switch to digital broadcasts and free up analog radio spectrum. When broadcasters start transmitting HDTV signals, what will happen to current analog television? Its unlikely that Canadian broadcasters will remove their analog broadcasting streams anytime soon. Multicasting is what broadcasters are doing now, which means they are offering the same program in various formats (analog, digital, HDTV). 10

Another Classification for Communication Systems

Simplex (SX) transmission: One way communication from one point to another, e.g. radio/TV broadcasting stations. Full-duplex (FDX) transmission: Simultaneous communication in both directions, e.g. phone. Half-duplex (HDX) transmission: Information can flow in both directions, but the flow is only one-way at any given time, e.g. dispatch radio systems (push-to-talk), walkie-talkie.

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Fundamental Communication System Design Problems

The channel characteristics need to be mathematically/statistically modeled with sufficient details in realistic manner but with minimum complexity. Given a model of the channel, how to design the transmitted signal for maximum robustness against channel effects? Given the received signal already corrupted by the channel, how best to retrieve the transmitted information? Design the transmitter/receiver under some certain practical criteria/constraints: The optimal solution? Sub-optimal solutions? Best trade-off?
Simplicity in Hardware and Software Accuracy and Reliability in Transmission

Bandwidth Efficiency Power Efficiency

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ECE 318s Topics

Underlying concepts in signal processing and noise statistics: Ch. 3 & 4 Principles of AM / FM / PM analog communication: Ch. 5 & 6 Basic digital coding & modulation: Ch.7

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