30820-Communication Systems

Week 1 – Lecture 1-3

(Ref: Chapter 1 of text book)

INTRODUCTION
 Course Information

• Instructor: Dr. Adnan Zafar (Assistant Professor)

– Office: Room 15, EE Department, Block VI
– Email: adnan.zafar@ist.edu.pk
• Text Book: “Modern Digital and Analog Communication Systems”, 4th Edition,
By B. P. Lathi, Zhi Ding
• Program Learning Outcome: The course is designed so that students will
achieve
– Problem Analysis: PLO-02
– Design/Development of Solution: PLO-03
• Course Learning Outcome: Upon successful completion of the course, the
students will be able to
– Apply the concepts of signals and systems to different communication systems
– Analyze different analog and digital transmission schemes
– Design amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) transmitter

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 Assessment

Quizzes (surprise, announced) 20%

Assignments (week 5-7 & week 8-10) 10%
OHT Exams (7 week & 13 Week)
th th 25%
Final Exam (Scheduled Week) 45%

Total 100%

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 Contents

• Communication Systems

• Analog and Digital Messages

• Channel Effect, Signal to Noise Ratio and Capacity

• Modulation and Detection

• Digital Source Coding and Error Correction Coding

• A Brief Historical Review of Modern Telecommunication

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 What’s Communication?

• Communication involves the transfer of information from one point to

another.
• Three basic elements
– Transmitter: converts message into a form suitable for transmission
– Channel: the physical medium, introduces distortion, noise, interference
– Receiver: reconstruct a recognizable form of the message

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 Analog Messages

• Early analog communication

– telephone (1876)
– phonograph (1877)
– film soundtrack (1923, Lee De Forest, Joseph Tykocinski-Tykociner)

• Key to analog communication is the amplifier (1908, Lee De Forest, triode

vacuum tube)

• Broadcast radio (AM, FM) is still analog

• Broadcast television was analog until 2009

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 Digital Messages

• Early long-distance communication was digital

– semaphores, signal flags, smoke signals, bugle calls, telegraph

• Teletypewriters
– Baudot (1874) created 5-unit code for alphabet
– Today baud is a unit meaning one symbol per second
– Working teleprinters were in service by 1924 at 65 words per minute

• Fax machines: Group 3 (voice lines) and Group 4 (ISDN)

– First fax machine was invented by Alexander Bains in 1843
– Pantelegraph (Caselli, 1865) set up telefax between Paris and Lyon

• Ethernet, Internet

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 Communication System Block Diagram
(Basic)

• Source encoder converts message into message signal (bits)

• Transmitter converts message signal into format appropriate for channel
transmission (analog/digital signal)
• Channel conveys signal but may introduce attenuation, distortion, noise,
interference
• Receiver decodes received signal back to message signal
• Source decoder decodes message signal back into original message

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 Communication System Block Diagram
(Advanced)

• Source encoder compresses message to remove redundancy

• Encryption protects against eavesdroppers and false messages
• Channel encoder adds redundancy for error protection
• Modulator converts digital inputs to signals suitable for physical channel

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 Communication Channels

• Communication systems convert information into a format appropriate for

the transmission medium
• The channel is central to operation of a communication system
– Linear (e.g., mobile radio) or nonlinear (e.g., satellite)
– Time invariant (e.g., fiber) or time varying (e.g., mobile radio)
• The information-carrying capacity of a communication system is
proportional to the channel bandwidth
• Pursuit for wider bandwidth
– Copper wire: 1 MHz
– Coaxial cable: 100 MHz
– Microwave: GHz
– Optical fiber: THz
• The process of creating a signal suitable for transmission is called
‘modulation’
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AM and FM Modulation

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 Multiplexing

• To combine multiple signals (analog or digital) for transmission over a

single line or media.
• A common type of multiplexing combines several low-speed signals for
transmission over a single high-speed connection.
• The following are several examples of different multiplexing methods:

– Space Division Multiplexing (SDM): each signal is assigned a different physical link
– Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) : each signal is assigned a different frequency
– Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) : each signal is assigned a fixed time slot in a fixed
rotation . A variant of it is the Statistical Time Division Multiplexing (STDM) where time
slots are assigned to signals dynamically to make better use of bandwidth
– Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) : each signal is assigned a particular
wavelength; used on optical fiber.
– Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) :The signals can be transmitted at the same time and
frequency band , but they can be made orthogonal by using special coding.

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 Noise in Communications

• Unavoidable presence of noise in the channel

– Noise refers to unwanted waves that disturb communications
– Signal is contaminated by noise along the path

• External noise: interference from nearby channels, human-made noise,

natural noise

• Internal noise: thermal noise, random emission in electronic devices

• Noise is one of the basic factors that set limits on communications

• A widely used metric is the signal-to-noise (power) ratio (SNR)

𝑆𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 (𝑃𝑠 )

𝑆𝑁𝑅 =
𝑁𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 (𝑃𝑛 )

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 Signal to Noise Ratio

• Signal-to-noise ratio is an engineering term for the power ratio between a

signal (meaningful information) and the background noise
𝑃𝑠
𝑆𝑁𝑅 =
𝑃𝑛
• Because many signals have a very wide dynamic range, SNRs are usually
expressed in terms of the logarithmic decibel scale.

• In decibels, the SNR is 20 times the base-10 logarithm of the amplitude

ratio, or 10 times the logarithm of the power ratio
𝑃𝑠 𝐴𝑠
𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑑𝐵 = 10 log10 = 20 log10
𝑃𝑛 𝐴𝑛
• where 𝑃 is average power and 𝐴 is RMS amplitude.

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 Analog vs. Digital Signals

• Analog signal value varies

continuously

• Digital signals value limited to a finite

set
– Digital systems are more robust

• Binary signals
– Have 2 possible values
– Used to represent bit values
– Bit time 𝑇 needed to send 1 bit
1
– Data rate 𝑅 = bits per second
𝑇

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 Sampling and Quantization, I

• To transmit analog signals over a digital communication link, we must

discretize both time and values.

2𝑚𝑝
• Quantization spacing is ; sampling interval is 𝑇, not shown in figure.
𝐿

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 Sampling and Quantization, I

• The information in an analog waveform, with maximum frequency

𝑓𝑚 = 3𝐾𝐻𝑧 and peak voltage 𝑉𝑝 = 2𝑉 , is to be sample and
quantized with 𝐿 = 16 quantization levels.
– What is the quantization spacing?
2𝑚𝑝 4 1
= = = 0.25
𝐿 16 4
– What is the sampling interval?
1 1 1
𝑇𝑠 = = = = 166.67𝜇𝑠
𝑓𝑠 2𝑓𝑚 6000
– What is the bit transmission rate?
𝑅 = 𝑙𝑓𝑠 = log 2 𝐿 × 2 × 𝑓𝑚 = log 2 16 × 2 × 3000 = 24𝑘𝑏𝑝𝑠
– What is the bandwidth efficiency if transmission bandwidth is 12KHz?
(Hint: BW efficiency unit is bits/sec/Hz)
𝑅 24000
η𝐵𝑊 = 𝑊 = 12000 = 2 bits/sec/Hz

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 Sampling and Quantization, II

• Usually sample times are uniformly spaced (although, this is not always
true). Higher frequency content requires faster sampling. (Soprano must
be sampled twice as fast as a tenor.)

• Quantization levels can be uniformly spaced, but non-uniform

(logarithmic) spacing is often used for voice.

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 Digital Transmission and Regeneration

• Simplest digital communication is binary amplitude-shift keying (ASK)

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 Channel Errors

• If there is too much channel distortion or noise, receiver may make a

mistake, and the regenerated signal will be incorrect.

• Channel coding is needed to detect and correct the message.

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

• To communicate sampled values,

we send a sequence of bits that
represent the quantized value.

• For 16 quantization levels, 4 bits

suffice.

• PCM can use binary representation

of value.

• The PSTN uses companded PCM

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 Performance Metrics

• Analog communication systems

– Metric is fidelity, closeness to original signal
– We want 𝑚(𝑡) ≈ 𝑚(𝑡)
– A common measure of infidelity is energy of difference signal:
𝑇
𝑚 𝑡 − 𝑚(𝑡) 2 𝑑𝑡
0

• Digital communication systems

– Metrics are data rate 𝑅 in bits/sec and probability of bit error
𝑃𝑒 = 𝑃 𝑏 ≠ 𝑏
– Without noise, never make bit errors
– With noise, 𝑃𝑒 depends on signal and noise power, data rate, and channel
characteristics.

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 Channel Capacity and Data Rate

• Channel bandwidth limits the signal bandwidth.

– Higher BW → More pulses over the channel
• Signal SNR at the receiver determines the recoverability of the transmitted
signal.
– High SNR → Signal pulse can use more signal levels → More bits with each pulse
transmission
• Both Bandwidth and SNR can affect the channel throughput.
• The Shannon capacity is the maximum possible data rate for a system with
noise and distortion
– This maximum rate can be approached with bit error probability close to 0
– For additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels,

𝐶 = 𝐵 log 2 (1 + 𝑆𝑁𝑅)

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 Example

A communication system has an available bandwidth of 4KHz. If

the noise power is 100 times less than signal power.

• What is the capacity in bits/s if signal power is 1W?

C = 4000 log2(1 + 100) = 26.63 kbit/s
• How can the capacity in bits/s be equal to the bandwidth in
hertz?
Signal power = Noise power
or
At a SNR of 0 dB

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 Milestones in Communications
• 1837, Morse code used in telegraph
• 1864, Maxwell formulated the electromagnetic (EM) theory
• 1887, Hertz demonstrated physical evidence of EM waves
• 1890’s-1900’s, Marconi & Popov, long-distance radio telegraph
– Across Atlantic Ocean
– From Cornwall to Canada
• 1875, Bell invented the telephone
• 1906, radio broadcast
• 1918, Armstrong invented super heterodyne radio receiver (and FM in
1933)
• 1921, land-mobile communication
• 1928, Nyquist proposed the sampling theorem

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 Milestones in Communications

• 1947, microwave relay system

• 1948, information theory
• 1957, era of satellite communication began
• 1966, Kuen Kao pioneered fiber-optical communications (Nobel Prize
Winner)
• 1970’s, era of computer networks began
• 1981, analog cellular system
• 1988, digital cellular system debuted in Europe
• 2000, 3G network
• 2010, 4G LTE
• 2020, 5G (expected)

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