COSC3213W04

Exercise Set 1 - Solutions

1. For each of the following sources of information, identify whether they are analog or
digital and explain why:
a) Human voice
b) Light switch
c) Computer keyboard
d) Steering wheel

Answer:
a) The human voice produces a sound without discrete frequencies it can produce
just about any frequency in a given range and at a continuous range of amplitudes
so it must be an analog signal.
b) A light switch typically operates in either an on or off position which means
it has discrete values (theres no in-between). Thus a light switch is digital.
However, if we are discussing a light dimmer, that allows a continuous variation
of the lights intensity, then that light dimmer would be analog.
c) Each key on a keyboard is distinct (separate) and has a finite set of values each
key may either up or down. Thus a computer keyboard is digital.
d) A steering wheel may steer to the left or right but to varying degrees. Since there
is a continuous set values between left, right and forward a steering wheel
is analog.

2.

Given the frequency-domain graph above, answer the following:

a) What is the frequency spectrum?
b) What is the bandwidth?
c) Is this an analog or digital signal? Why?

Answer:
a) The frequency spectrum is the set of frequencies that comprises the signal. In this
case: [3, 6, 12, 14, 16].

b) The bandwidth of the signal is the range of frequencies, that is, the difference
between the highest and lowest frequency. The highest frequency is 16, the
lowest is 3, so the answer is: 16 3 = 13 Hz.
c) As discussed in class, a digital signal is represented as a square wave which
requires an infinite number of frequencies to represent. Since there are a finite
number of frequencies in this signal, is must be analog.

3. CAT-5 twisted-pair cable has a bandwidth of roughly 100MHz. We would like to

transmit information at a bit rate of 500Mbps. Is a signal-to-noise ratio of 30dB enough
to reliably transmit this much information? Why or why not?

Answer: This question requires a simple application of the Shannon Theorem:

C = B log 2 (1 + SNR)
In this case we are given C = 500Mbps, B = 100MHz, and SNR = 30dB. In order to
answer the question of whether or not the SNR is sufficient, we need to see if the capacity
provided by the bandwidth and SNR is >= 500Mbps. As a first step, we need to convert
the SNR from decibels to the unitless form:
SNRdB = 10 log10 SNR
so
SNR = 10 SNRdB / 10
= 10 30 / 10
= 1000
We can now apply the Shannon Theorem:
C = B log 2 (1 + SNR )
= 100 MHz log 2 (1 + 1000)
100 MHz * 9.967 * (1Mbps / MHz )
= 996.7 Mbps
Note the use of Mbps/MHz to underscore the fact that we are explicitly converting
from Hz to bps.
Thus the Shannon Theorem tells us that the theoretical limit for transferring data over this
medium at this SNR is approximately 1000Mbps (or 1Gbps). Thus we can reliably
transmit 500Mbps over this connection.
4. What is the maximum capacity of a medium with a bandwidth of 750KHz and a
signal-to-noise ratio of 30dB?

Answer: This is a straight-forward application of the Shannon Theorem, except that we

must first convert the SNR from decibels to its unitless form:

SNRdB = 10 log10 SNR

so
SNR = 10 SNRdB / 10
= 10 30 / 10
= 1000
So, applying the Shannon Theorem:
C = B log 2 (1 + SNR )
= 750 KHz log 2 (1 + 1000) * (1Kbps / KHz )
= 750 Kbps * 9.967
7475.25 Kbps
7.475Mbps
So the maximum capacity of a medium with a bandwidth of 750KHz and a signal-tonoise ratio of 30dB is 7.475Mbps.

5. What is the minimum signal-to-noise ratio, in decibels, that must be maintained in

order to transmit a 600Kbps signal over a medium with a bandwidth of 20,000Hz?

Answer: Lets work around the Shannon Theorem to solve for the SNR:
C = B log 2 (1 + SNR )
C
= log 2 (1 + SNR )
B
2 C / B = 1 + SNR
SNR = 2 C / B 1
We can now solve this for the given capacity and bandwidth. Note that our capacity is in
Kbps, but our bandwidth is in Hz. Since 20,000Hz = 20Khz, well do the calculations in
Kbps/Khz:
SNR = 2 ( 600 / 20 ) 1

SNR = 2 30 1
SNR = 1073741823
The question however, asks for the SNR in decibels, so we need to convert:
SNRdB = 10 log10 SNR
SNRdB = 10 log10 1073741823
SNRdB 90.31
So we would need at least 90.31dB as a signal-to-noise ratio in order to transmit the
desire capacity.

6. We are given a medium that will reliably transmit frequencies between 0 and
25,000Hz. Is it possible to transmit 200Kbps of information along this line? If so, then
describe a method and any conditions that must be satisfied. If not, explain why.

Answer:
We could apply the Shannon Theorem here but that would just give us a limit on the
capacity that could be transmitted by the medium. It would not describe how to do so. If
we apply the Nyquist Theorem for two-level signals:
C = 2B

C = 2 * (25000 0)
C = 50 Kbps
we see that with a two-level digital signal, we can only transmit at most 50Kbps. We can
apply the reformulated Nyquist Theorem to examine a possible multi-level signal:
C = 2 B log 2 M
200 Kbps = 2(25 KHz ) log 2 M
log 2 M = 200 / 50
log 2 M = 4
M = 2 4 = 16
So we can transmit 200Kbps of information along this medium provided we use use a
digital signal with at least 16 levels.
However this does place some restrictions the Nyquist Theorem assumes that there is
no noise and that transmission is error-free.

7. A triangle wave has the following shape:

This wave can be generally represented by the Fourier series

(2k + 1)
k =0

sin( 2 (2k + 1) f1t +

where f1 is the base frequency of the wave.

a) What is the bandwidth of this signal?

b) If the signal can be closely approximated with the first 3 terms of the series, what
is the effective bandwidth of this signal?
c) Sketch the frequency-domain graph of the approximated signal.

Answer:
a) The bandwidth of the signal is the range of frequencies, that is, the difference
between the highest and lowest frequency. The lowest frequency is the first term
of the series where k = 0:

1
sin( 2 (2(0) + 1) f 1t+ )
2
2
(2(0) + 1)
which reduces to:

sin( 2f1t + )
2
The frequency of this term (based upon our standard form of A sin( 2ft + ) ) is
clearly f1. The highest frequency occurs with the highest possible term which is
when k = :

1
sin( 2 (2() + 1) f1t+ )
2
2
(2() + 1)
Note that although the amplitude of this component is infinitesimally small, it is
still a component of the signal. The frequency is infinity ( ).
The bandwidth is thus the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies:
f1 = , which is to say, the bandwidth is infinite.
b) The first three terms would look like:
1

sin(2 (2(0) + 1) f1t+ ) +

2
2
(2(0) + 1)

sin(2 (2(1) + 1) f 1t+ ) +

2
2
(2(1) + 1)
1

sin(2 (2(2) + 1) f1t+ )

2
2
(2(2) + 1)
which simplifies to:
1
1

sin( 2f1t+ ) + sin( 6f1t+ ) + sin(10f1t+ )

2
9
2
25
2
The highest frequency in this approximated signal is the 3rd term, which has a
frequency of 5f1. The lowest frequency is in the 1st term which as a frequency of
f1. Thus the bandwidth is 5f1 f1 = 4f1 Hz.

c) The frequency-domain graph would consist of the following amplitude/frequency

combinations: (1,1), (1/9,3), (1/25,5)
1

1/9

1/25
1

8. The Fourier series for a particular signal is represented by the following summation:

k sin(2
k =1

k 1
f0 t)
k

where f0 is a fixed frequency.

a) What is the bandwidth of this signal?
b) Assume that we approximate this signal with the first three terms of this series.
What is the bandwidth of this approximation?
c) Sketch the frequency-domain graph of the approximated signal.

Answer:
a) The frequency for the kth term is
the first few terms:
11
k =1
f0 = 0
1
2 1
1
k =2
f0 = f0
2
2
3 1
2
k =3
f0 = f0
3
3
4 1
3
k =4
f0 = f0
4
4

k 1
f 0 . Look at the values for this frequency for
k

Note that although the frequency does increase as k increases, it does not increase
k 1
without bound. In fact: lim
= 1 . So the lowest frequency component is the first
k k
term (0) and the highest frequency is the last term ( f 0 ). So the bandwidth of this
signal is just f 0 .
b) We laid out the first three terms in the answer to part (a). The highest frequency
2
among the first 3 terms is f 0 and the lowest frequency is 0. So the bandwidth of
3
2
the approximation is f 0 .
3
c) The amplitude/frequency pairs will be: (1,0), (1/2,1/2*f0), (1/3,2/3*f0)

1/2
1/3

1/2f0 2/3*f0 f0

9. For each of the following sine waves identify the amplitude, frequency and phaseshift:

a) 3 sin( 2 5t +
b) sin(4t + )
c) sin(t )

Answer:
For all of these answers, we need to consider our standard formula for a sine wave:
A sin( 2ft + )
a) This is the same format as our standard formula, so A = 3, f = 5 and = / 2 .
b) There is no value in front of sin so the amplitude must be 1. Remember that the
frequency component in front of t must be 2f so the frequency is 4 / 2 = 2 / .
The phase shift in this case is .
c) The amplitude is 1. The frequency is 1 / 2 and the phase shift is 0.