Digital Communications Fundamentals nas chap we wll provide an overview uf several hey Sundumennal cnn ‘employed in the ransmission of digital daa Starcng with an understanding of how binary data can be sed to manipulate dhe pial characteristics of electromagnetic ‘waveforms, we wil then look atte baie anatomy of a digital communication system sefoce concentrating our atten on several diferent approaches for ‘modlaing electromagnetic waveforms ving binary data, Once wehaveesablshed Ihow a dal data tansmission proces operates, we wil then explore one ofthe ‘ey anal tools for assessing the qatitative pecformance of such systems the bit exorrate. Finally, this chapter wllcoslude with an inroduction to he design of cgtal receivers via a signal vector space perspective 4.1 What Is Digital Transmission? Adige eansceiveris a system composedof a collection ofboth digital and analog processes that workin concet with ean other in order to handle the eatment and ‘man polation of binary informacion The purpose ofthese processes isto achieve ata eansmision and ecepcion across some srt of medium, whether itis twisted pir of copper wies,a fiber opie cabs, ora wireless environment, At the ore of ‘ny ligalteansciver stem the binary digit ot bt, which forthe purposes of this book is considered tobe the fundemanal unit of information used by digital "Therefore, # digital transceiver is essendally responsible fr the ranlaion berween steam of digital data represented by bits and clectomagnesc waveforms possessing physical chareenstics that uniquely represent those bit Since electromagnetic waveforms are ustally described by sine waves and cosine ‘waves, several physical characterises of electromagnetic waveforms commonly ‘sed 0 represent digital data pr tmeimertal T include the ampliude, phase, and are feguency of the waveform, a shown in Figure 4.1, Notice how diferent Combinstons obits represen diferent amplitadelevls or different phase vals oF diferent care frequency values, were ach aloe uniquely epresents parcuat hina>y parern. Noe tat in some acvaeed mapping regimes, binary patterns can potentially be represented by two or more physical quantities. Hlowever, there is much moce going on in a digital wansceiver than just 2 mapping berween bits and waveforms, a show in Figure 42. In this illustration ofthe hase anatomy for a digital rensever, we observe that there ae several foncsional blocks that constitte + conmuniation system. For instance, the ‘map ing berween bits and eectromagaer: wa¥elorm characteris is represcoted by the nodulation and demodulator blocks. Additionally, there are the source Ww18 fl Communes Fuente iawat | 1 rove OT FATOT mance aee PAD AN Ann AUBIERASD " Bt ToT Figure <1 Possle mappings fra ifamaion to Mwave prope gt A encoding and source decoding blocs that handle the removal of redundant informatica from she binary data, chanal encoding and channel decoding blocks ‘that introloce a controled amount of rundant information to prosct the ‘ansminion for potential eos, and the radio frequen font end (RFFE) Becks that hand the conversation of baseband waveforms to higher carier frequencies ‘One may ask the question, Why d= ve ned al these blocks in cur digtal ‘commaniation system? Notice in Figur 4.2 the presence ofa channel between the ‘ransmiter andthe receive ofthe dgtaltransmision system. The mai son why the design ofa digital communication sytem tends toe challenging and that x0 many blocks are involved ts implemeoeation, isdve to thischannel. ee channel "was an ideal medium where the electromagnetic waveforms fom the transmitter are clearly ent othe reciver without an sort of distortion or disturbances, then ‘the desgnof digital communication systems would be trivial. However, neaiy channel introduces avant of random impairments oa dgtal transmission thattigi! ranumison? can porn affect he corzect reception of waveforms intercepted atthe reeve. For isance, a channel may introduce sone form of nose that can obfuscate some ofthe waveform characteristics. Furthermore, in many real-world seenanos many of these nvidealefets introduced by she channel are time-varying and tus Beal to deal vith especially if they vay sapidy in time ‘Thus, under real-world conditions, the primary goal of any digital communication system is 0 tranimt a binary message M(t) and have the ‘commited version ofthis inary meaage i) atthe ouput of the recive tobe {qual toeach othe. In her words, or goa sto have Pn) # mi) as small 3s ‘needa fra parila application, The metic for quantitatively astessing the ear performance of a digital communicatian system is refered 10 asthe probably of {ror of BER, which we deine as Pe = Putt) # mit). Note that several data ‘tansmison applications possess diferent , requirements due in part the data transmission rate. For insane, for éiga voie transmission, a BER of Pe~ 10-* ‘sconsiered acceptable, while foam aveage data transmission application 2 BER (of Pe~10- ~ 10-* is deemed suficient On the other hand for avery high dara "ate aplication sich as those that enpoy fiber-optic cables, 2 BER of Pe ~ 10°? fnnetdel since any more errors woak! Hon receiver given tha he dat ates can bbeextenely high, “To help mitigate eros that may ocir duc tothe impairment inkoduced by the chantl we willbe sty how soars encoding and channel encoding works before proceeding with an introduction to modulation. Hands-On MATLAB Example: Communication systems convey information ‘by manipulating che physical propetes ofan electromagnetic signal before ie ‘roadcated across medium. Sigral properties such ay the amplitae, phase, andl tequency ase manipulated over nein auch a manner thatthe eecier ‘an interpre the mesage being conveyed by the tansiter, These elctomagnetc broadcasts ofen use sinewave signals, which makes them relatively sragheorward to maninulate for th purposes of cor veri information. In the MATLAB sre below, we generate thre sine wave-baed transmissions, where information's cmbedied in them via ther ampltade levels (amplitude shite keying, phase Chacicteritis (phase she keying), or fnquency values (equency fe king). In this sip, we generate random binary data using the rand function and then ound ito the nearest integer (one or zo} and then map those binary vas to | corresponding amplitude, phase, or quency value 10 be used by a sine wave ‘gna, Note tht since sine wave signals are continuous waveforms, we have (0 approxinat this situation by using a-arge number of discrete poins 19 mode the ‘sine wave signal a cotinoows. “The mapping of thew random b mary values to the physical atibues of 2 signal nave signal ace shown in Figuae 4.3, where we can really observe how the amplitude (Figure 4.3), phase (igre 4.) and frequency (Figure 43d) values change overtime in order to represent the binary values being eransmited to the reiver [see Figure 4.3] In al eee case, we wse the exact same sine ‘wave signal as the basis for commuricaing this information, but the sine wave charac are changing as a func on of ime