COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES

ELECTRONIC, ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING

EE1F1
Introduction to Information Engineering

2010/11 Summer Examination Paper,

Specimen Solutions and Feedback
A21088 Calculators may be used in this
examination but must not be used to store
text. Calculators with the ability to store
text should have their memories deleted
prior to the start of the examination.

Single Honours Degrees of BEng & MEng

Electronic & Electrical Engineering
Electronic & Computer Engineering
Electronic & Communication Engineering
Computer Systems Engineering
Communication Systems Engineering
Electronic Engineering
Computer Interactive Systems

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

(School of Electronic, Electrical & Computer Engineering)

First Examination

0411186 EE1F1

INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION ENGINEERING

SUMMER EXAMINATION 2011

Time Allowed: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Answer ANY TWO questions

The marks allocated to each part of each question are shown in square brackets
in the right-hand margin.

1 TURN OVER
A21088 Any Calculator

1. (a) Assume a source X has three elements a, c, z whose frequencies

are 3, 10 and 18, respectively.

(i) Provide the formula for the information content using the natural
logarithm expression. [2]

(ii) Determine the information content of each symbol of the source

X. [4]

(iii) Determine the entropy of the source X. [2]

(iv) Work out the Huffman code and determine the codewords for
each element of the source X. Calculate the average number of
bits used per symbol. [6]

(b) Consider a digital signal whose range of frequencies varies from

100 kHz to 500 kHz. The amplitude of the signal is represented using
1024 different levels.

(i) Determine the minimum sampling frequency required to

reconstruct the above signal. [2]

(ii) Determine the bit rate in kiloBytes per second. [2]

(iii) Indicate two main factors that influence the quality of the above
signal when transmitted using a coaxial cable. [2]

2. (a) Explain the main common features and differences between

Manchester, Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI) and High Density Bipolar
of order 3 (HDB3) line encoding techniques. Compare the bandwidth
requirement, management of DC component and complexity of these
three techniques. [6]

(b) Briefly explain the origin of the inter-symbol interference in a

communication system. Provide an example of a digital signal
waveform that overcomes the effect of inter-symbol interference. [4]

(c) Consider a radio communication link that covers the frequency range
from 40 MHz to 41.35 MHz.

(i) Determine the signal-to-noise ratio in decibels that yields a

theoretical maximum channel capacity of 7.7 Mbytes per second. [4]

(ii) Determine the symbol rate required to obtain a transfer rate

equalling the above theoretical maximum channel capacity when
a quadrature phase modulation is employed. [4]

(iii) Explain the difference between the Quadrature Phase

modulation and Quadrature Amplitude modulation. [2]

2 TURN OVER
A21088 Any Calculator

3 (a) Consider the structure of data constituted of 4 data bits and one parity
bit. Let A be the codeword 10110.

(i) Explain the main limitations of such a format in terms of error

correction. [2]

(ii) Suggest a check matrix H such that H. cT = 0 for a correct

codeword c, and 1 otherwise. Use the suggested H to check the
validity of codeword A. [4]

(iii) Identify two valid codewords situated at a distance 1 from A. [2]

(iv) Identify an error vector e containing only one single 1 and all
other components are zero-valued such that AT =cTv +eT
( c Tv stands for a valid codeword of A). [2]

(v) Explain why Hamming (7,4) error correction cannot be employed

for the above codewords. [2]

(b) Consider a 2 kHz channel capacity with a 6-level signalling.

(i) Compare bit rate to channel capacity when the signal to noise
ratio is 30 dB. [4]

(ii) Explain the purpose of the Nyquist pulse and give an example. [2]

(iii) Rank the following in order of increasing theoretical data rate:

wire lines; optical fibre; coaxial lines. [2]

3 END OF PAPER
 Module: EE1F1 Year: 2010-11 Question: 1
Type: Sessional Level: UG Examiner: MO
ELECTRONIC, ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING Marks allocated: 20/20 Page 1 / 2

SOLUTION TO EXAMINATION QUESTION

Module Code: Ac. Year: Type: Level: Examiner: Question No:
EE1F1 2010-11 Sessional UG MO 1
(e.g. 2009-10) (Sessional/Resit/Special) (e.g. LC)

Marks
Part Solution
allocated
a i) I(xi) = -log2(P(xi)) 2

= -log10(P(xi)) / log10(2)

ii) First one determines the probability of each symbol, then one determines the:
P(a) = 3/(3+10+18) = 3/31, So, I(a) = -log2(3/31) = 3.37 bits

P(b)=10/(3+10+18) = 10/31, So, I(b) = -log2(10/31) = 1.64 bits 4

P(c)=18/(3+10+18) = 18/31, So, I(c) = -log2(18/31) = 0.78 bits

iii) Entropy of source X = P(x1).I(x1) + P(x2).I(x2) + P(x3).I(x3)

= (3/31)*(3.37) + (10/31)*(1.64) + (18/31)*(0.78) =1.3 bits 2

iv)

Symbols Prob Code

Step1 Step2
c 18/31 0
b 10/31 0 10 4
a 3/31 1 11

a 11, b10, c0.

Average number of bits per symbol = 1(18/31) +2(10/31) + 2(3/31) = 1.42bits

2
b i) The minimum sampling rate = 2 x bandwidth
=2 x (500-100) = 800KHz 2

ii) Bit rate = sampling rate x number of bits per sample

= 800 x log2(1024) = 800x 10 = 8000KHz per second 2

iii) The factors that influence the signal quality include the signal-to-noise ratio,
occurrence of interferences, mechanical/software faults, presence of
exchangers in case of cable transmission medium, external 2
environmental effects, etc.
 Module: EE1F1 Year: 2010-11 Question: 1
Type: Sessional Level: UG Examiner: MO
ELECTRONIC, ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING Marks allocated: 20/20 Page 2 / 2

SOLUTION TO EXAMINATION QUESTION Continuation Sheet

Marks
Part Solution
allocated
 Module: EE1F1 Year: 2010-11 Question: 2
Type: Sessional Level: UG Examiner: MO
ELECTRONIC, ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING Marks allocated: 20/20 Page 1 / 2

SOLUTION TO EXAMINATION QUESTION

Module Code: Ac. Year: Type: Level: Examiner: Question No:
EE1F1 2010-11 Sessional UG MO 2
(e.g. 2009-10) (Sessional/Resit/Special) (e.g. LC)

Marks
Part Solution
allocated
a Manchester, AMI and HDB3 are line encoding techniques which encode a
sequence of binary digits into appropriate voltage such that some objectives are
met. So, they all represent the digital signal by an amplitude and time-discrete
signal. The above objectives include self synchronization, spectrum restriction,
handling DC component, and possibly low probability of error bit. They differ in a
way in which the binary sequences are mapped into appropriate voltage. 4
Manchester coding has a transition in the middle of each bit period where the
direction of the transition indicates whether it is 1 or 0 data. In AMI encoding, a
binary 0 is encoded as zero volts as in unipolar encoding. A binary 1 is encoded
alternately as a positive voltage and a negative voltage. This prevents a significant
build-up of DC component as the positive and negative pulses average to zero
volts. HDB3 is one of refinement of AMI coding with the difference that whenever
there are four consecutive 0, the fourth 0 is represented by the same voltage as the
last 1 bit.
Manchester coding uses twice the bandwidth requirements of AMI and HDB3 line
encoding because of the transitions made at the middle of bit period. All the three 2
codes handle efficiently the DC component. The HDB3 is computationally more
demanding as it requires past memory of all zeros.

The inter-symbol interference occurs because of the shape of the input pulse, e.g., 4
the use of square pulse is very demanding in terms of bandwidth requirement, also,
b at the reception stage, when sampled, the pulses overlap to each other, which may
lead to errors at reception. One way to get ride of this phenomenon is to create
relatively long delay between two consecutive bits but given the high frequency in
today broadband applications for instance, this is not a fair solution. Another
solution is to use the sinc function as input pulse and sample at period T (duration
of bit), this has proven theoretically to provide zero interference.

c i ) C = B*log2(1+S/N)
So, S/N = 2C/B -1 3
S/N = 27.7/(41.35-10)-1 = 3

In dB, S/N = log10(3) = 0.47dB 1

 Module: EE1F1 Year: 2010-11 Question: 2
Type: Sessional Level: UG Examiner: MO
ELECTRONIC, ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING Marks allocated: 20/20 Page 2 / 2

SOLUTION TO EXAMINATION QUESTION Continuation Sheet

Marks
Part Solution
allocated

ii) The quadrature phase modulation uses 2 bits per pulse (4=22), so the symbol rate 4
= bit rate /2 = 7.7/2 = 3.85MB/s

iii) In QPSK, the phase of the carrier is shifted by pi/2 at each change of a symbol
(2 digit format) following some encoding technique whereas the amplitude and 2
frequency of the carrier remain unchanged. The distribution of the corresponding in
the associated constellation diagram forms a circle. In QASK, both the amplitude
and the phase does change when one moves from one symbol to another one.
 Module: EE1F1 Year: 2009-10 Question: 3
Type: Sessional Level: UG Examiner: MO
ELECTRONIC, ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING Marks allocated: 20/20 Page 1 / 2

SOLUTION TO EXAMINATION QUESTION

Module Code: Ac. Year: Type: Level: Examiner: Question No:
EE1F1 2009-10 Sessional UG MO 3
(e.g. 2009-10) (Sessional/Resit/Special) (e.g. LC)

Marks
Part Solution
allocated
a i) This representation only allows us to check the validity of the input in overall 2
but cannot identify which bit is faulty. For instance, several representations of
data yields the same parity bit, i.e., 10010, 10100, 11000, 00110, 01010 are all
validcodewords.

ii)

H= [1 1 1 1 1]
1
0
4
For codeword A. H. AT = [1 1 1 1 1]. 1 = 1

1
0
This shows that A is not a valid codeword

iii) The codewords 10111 and 11110 are situated at distance 1 from A 2
iv) [1 0 1 1 0] T = [1 1 1 1 0] T + [0 1 0 0 0]T. So, e =[0 1 0 0 0]. 2
v) In the Hamming code, there is a need to have a codeword of length 7 while it is 2
only 5 in the previous case, so Hamming (7,4) cannot be used.

b i)
First 6-level signalling requires 3 bits representation (23=8, while 2 bits yields only 4
22=4 level signalling) 2000Hz channel capacity with 6 level-signalling yields
Bite rate = 2 * bandwidth *number of bits = 2 *2000*3 = 12000 bits /s.
The Channel capacity is given by C =W log2(1+SNR)
30dB SNR is equivalent to 10 log10(S/N) = 30, so S/N = 103 = 1000
So, C = 2000 log2(1+1000) = 19934 bits/s = 19.93 Kb/s

ii) The Nyquist pulse is the one that meets the Nyquist IST criterion describing the
conditions which, when satisfied by the communication system, results in no 2
intersymbol interference. Examples of functions that meet this requirements are the
sinc function, i.e., sinc(x) = sin(x) / x.
 Module: EE1F1 Year: 2009-10 Question: 3
Type: Sessional Level: UG Examiner: MO
ELECTRONIC, ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING Marks allocated: 20/20 Page 2 / 2

SOLUTION TO EXAMINATION QUESTION Continuation Sheet

Marks
Part Solution
allocated

iii)
data rate of wire lines < data rate of coaxial lines < data rate of optical fibre 2