ECE 457

Communication Systems

Selin Aviyente
Assistant Professor
ECE

ECE 457 Spring 2005 Page 1

 Announcements
• Class Web Page:
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~aviyente/ECE
457-05.htm
• Lectures: M, W, F 10:20-11:10 a.m. 221
Natural Resources Building
• Office Hours: W 11:30- 1:00 pm, Th 9:30-
11:00 am or by e-mail appointment (2210
EB)
• Textbook: Principles of Communications,
Rodger E. Zimmer and William H. Tranter,
John Wiley, 5th Edition, 2002.
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 ECE 457 and ECE 458
• ECE 458 is designed to complement this
course.
• ECE 458 focuses on providing practical
experience.
• You will learn material in ECE 457 that is
not covered in ECE 458 and vice versa.
• No labs this week.
• There is no lab manual this year,
everything will be online.

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 Course Requirements
• 2 Midterm Exams (50%)
– February 25, April 8 in class
• Final Exam, May 3 (30%)
• Weekly HW assignments (10%)
– Will include MATLAB assignments
– HWs should be your own work (no copying!)
– Assigned on Fridays due next Friday (except during
exam weeks)
– No late HWs will be accepted.
• Quizzes (10%)
– They will be unannounced.
– Based on HW questions (10-15 minutes long)

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 Policies
• Cheating in any form will not be tolerated.
This includes copying HWs, cheating on
exams and quizzes.
• You are allowed to discuss the HW
questions with your friends, and me.
• However, you have to write up the
homework on your own.
• There is no make-up for missed quizzes.
• If you have an excuse for not being in
class, please e-mail me before class.
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 Honors Option
• Honor credit option is available
• Typical projects have either a
software/hardware implementation
component and an oral presentation.
• Past projects include:
– Building a FM transmitter
– MATLAB simulation of digital modulation
systems.
• Please feel free to come and talk to me
about your ideas for a possible project.
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 Tentative Syllabus
• Overview of Communication Systems
• Review of Signal Analysis (ECE 366)
• Deterministic Modulation
– Linear (DSB,AM,SSB,VSB)
– Angle Modulation (FM, PM)
• Review of Probability and Random
Processes
• Noise in Modulation Systems
• Digital Modulation (as time permits)

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 Communication Systems
• A communication system conveys
information from its source to a
destination.
• Examples:
– Telephone
– TV
– Radio
– Cell phone
– PDA
– Satellite

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 Communication Systems
• A communication system is composed of
the following:

Source
Input Output
Transducer Transmitter Channel Receiver
Transducer

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 Input Transducer
• Source: Analog or digital
• Example: Speech, music, written text
• Input Transducer: Converts the message
produced by a source to a form suitable
for the communication system.
• Example:
Speech wavesMicrophoneVoltage

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 Transmitter
• Couple the message to the channel
• Operations: Amplification, Modulation
• Modulation encodes message into
amplitude, phase or frequency of carrier
signal (AM, PM, FM)
• Advantages:
– Reduce noise and interference
– Multiplexing
– Channel Assignment
• Examples: TV station, radio station, web
server
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 Channel
• Physical medium that does the
transmission
• Examples: Air, wires, coaxial cable, radio
wave, laser beam, fiber optic cable
• Every channel introduces some amount of
distortion, noise and interference

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 Receiver
• Extracts message from the received
signal
• Operations: Amplification, Demodulation,
Filtering
• Goal: The receiver output is a scaled,
possibly delayed version of the message
signal (ideal transmission)
• Examples: TV set, radio, web client

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 Output Transducer
• Converts electrical signal into the form
desired by the system
• Examples: Loudspeakers, PC

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 Capacity of a Channel
• The most important question for a
communication channel is the maximum
rate at which it can transfer information.
• There is a theoretical maximum rate at
which information passes error free over
the channel, called the channel capacity C.
• The famous Hartley-Shannon Law states
that the channel capacity C is given by:
C=B*log(1+(S/N)) b/s
where B is the bandwidth, S/N is the
signal-to-noise ratio.
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 Fundamental Limitations
• Therefore, there are two factors that
determine the capacity of a channel:
– Bandwidth
– Noise

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 Frequency Spectrum
• Most precious resource in communications
is “frequency spectrum”
• The “frequency spectrum” has to be
shared by a large number of users and
applications:
• AM Radio, FM Radio, TV, cellular
telephony, wireless local-area-networks,
satellite, air traffic control

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 Frequency Spectrum
• The frequency spectrum has to be
managed for a particular physical medium
• The spectrum for “over-the-air”
communications is allocated by
international communications organization
• International Telecommunications Union
(ITU)
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
designates and licenses frequency bands
in the US.
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Frequency Spectrum Example
Application Frequency Band
AM Radio 0.54-1.6 MHz
TV (Channels 2- 54-88 MHz
6)
FM Radio 88-108 MHz
TV (Channels 7- 174-216 MHz
13)
Cellular mobile 806-901 MHz
radio

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 Noise
• Internal and External Noise
• Internal Noise: Generated by components
within a communication system (thermal
noise)
• External Noise:
– Atmospheric noise (electrical discharges)
– Man-made noise (ignition noise)
– Interference (multiple transmission paths)

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History of Communications
Year Event
1838 Telegraphy
(Morse)
1876 Telephone (Bell)
1902 Radio
transmission
(Marconi)
1933 FM radio
1936 TV broadcasting
1953 Color TV
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History of Communications

Year Event
1962 Satellite
communication
1972 Cellular phone
1985 Fax machines
1990s GPS, HDTV,
handheld
computers

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