Signals

Signals are electric or

electromagnetic encoding of data

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Information, Data and Signals
❚ Data - A representation of facts,
concepts, or instructions in a
formalized manner suitable for
communication, interpretation, or
processing by human beings or by
automatic means
❚ Information - The meaning that is
currently assigned to data by means
of the conventions applied to those
data
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Information, Data and Signals

Information Data Signal

001011101

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Computers Use Signals for
Communcation
❚ Computers transmit data using digital
signals, sequences of specified
voltage levels. Graphically they are
often represented as a square wave.
❚ Computers sometimes communicate
over telephone line using analog
signals, which are formed by
continuously varying voltage levels.

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Signal = Function of Time
❚ The signal is a function of time.
Horizontal axis represents time and
the vertical axis represents the
voltage level.
❚ Signal represents data OR Data is
encoded by means of a signal
❚ Signal is what travels on a
communication medium
❚ An understanding of signals is
required so that suitable signal may 5
 Continuous and Discrete
Signal
❚ Continuous
or Analog
signals take
on all
possible
values of
amplitude
❚ Digital or
Discrete
Signals take
on finite set
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Analog and Digital Signal

❚ Continuous/Ana
log signals take
on all possible
values of
amplitude
❚ Digital or
Discrete Signals
take on finite
set of voltage
levels
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Analog and Digital Data
❚ Analog data take on all possible
values. Voice and video are
continuously varying patterns of
intensity
❚ Digital data take on finite (countable)
number of values. Example, ASCII
characters, integers

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Periodic Signals
❚ Some signals repeat themselves over
fixed intervals of time. Such signals
are said to be periodic
❚ A signal s(t) is periodic if and only if:
❚ s(t+T) = s(t) -∞ < t < +∞
❚ where the constant T is the periodic
of the signal, otherwise a signal is
aperiodic (or non- periodic).

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Periodic Signal Properties
❚ Three important characteristics of a
periodic signal are :
❙ Amplitude (A): the instantaneous value of a
signal at any time measured in volts.
❙ Frequency (f): the number of repetitions of
the period per second or the inverse of the
period; it is expressed in cycles per second or
Hertz (Hz). T=1/f
❙ Phase (φ): a measure of the relative position
in time within a single period of a signal,
measured in degrees
❙ Wavelength (λ): distance occupied by a
signal in one period
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11
Spectrum and Bandwidth
❚ Spectrum of a signal - the range of
frequencies it contains
❚ Absolute bandwidth - the width of the
spectrum
❚ Effective bandwidth or just bandwidth
- the band of frequencies which
contains most of the energy of the
signal - half-power bandwidth

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Bandwidth and Data Rate
❚ Width of the spectrum of frequencies
that can be transmitted
❚ if spectrum=300 to 3400Hz,
bandwidth=3100Hz
❚ Greater bandwidth leads to greater
costs
❚ Limited bandwidth leads to distortion
❚ Analog measured in Hertz, digital
measured in baud
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General Observations about
Signals
❚ For a signal with multiple frequencies,
energy is in the first few frequency
components
❚ Increasing the bandwidth increases data
rate
❚ The transmission medium limits the
bandwidth
❚ Greater the bandwidth, the greater the
cost
❚ For a given data rate, limiting the 15
Transmission Impairments
❚ Attenuation
❚ Delay
❚ Noise

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Attenuation
❚ Loss of signal strength over distance
❚ Use of amplifiers to boost analog
signals; entire signal (including noise
or distortion) is amplified
❚ Use of repeaters for digital data; data
recovered and then transmitted

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Attenuation Distortion
❚ Analog signal is made up of several
frequencies
❚ Attenuation is different for different
frequencies; Different losses at
different frequencies
❚ More of a problem for analog signals
than digital

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Attenuation
❚ Attenuation
❚ – the strength of a signal falls off with
distance
❚ Attenuation Distortion
❚ – attenuation varies as a function of
frequency

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Attenuation is measured in
deciBels - dB

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dB Calculation
❚ Example
❙ Input power is 1 Watt
❙ Output power is 1 mW
❙ dB Attenuation is
❙ 10 * log (1 W/1 mW) = 10 * (3)
❙ = 30 dB

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Use of Repeaters

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Delay Distortion
❚ The velocity of propagation of a signal
through a guided medium varies with
frequency.
❚ Different frequency components
travel at different speeds therefore
arrive at a destination at different
times.
❚ Particularly critical for digital data
because bits may spill over causing
Inter-Symbol Interference.
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Transmission Impairments
Visually

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Noise
❚ What is Noise?
❙ Any unwanted signal
❚ Types of Noise
❙ Thermal
❙ Intermodulation
❙ Impulse
❙ Crosstalk

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Thermal Noise
❚ Thermal noise, white noise
❙ Due to random motion of atoms
❙ N = kTW
❙ k = Boltzman Constant (1.381 X 10-23 J/K)
❙ T = Absolute Temperature (Kelvin)
❙ W = Bandwidth (Hz)
❙ Why is it called White Noise?

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Inter-modulation Noise
❚ Inter-modulation noise
❙ when two signals at different frequencies
are mixed in the same medium, sum or
difference of original frequencies or
multiples of those frequencies can be
produced, which can interfere with the
intended signal - occurs when there is
some non-linearity in the system

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Noise
❚ Crosstalk
❙ when there is an unwanted coupling
between signal paths. For example some
times talking on the telephone you can
hear another conversation.
❚ Impulse noise
❙ Due to lightning or some other random
transient phenomenon

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Effect of Noise

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Transmission Impairments in
Un-Guided Media
❚ Free-Space loss
❙ Signal disperses with distance
❚ Atmospheric Absorption
❙ Attenuation caused by water vapor and
oxygen
❙ Water vapor: High around 22 GHz, less
around 15 GHz
❙ Oxygen: High around 60 GHz, less below
30 GHz

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Transmission Impairments in
Un-Guided Media
❚ Multipath
❙ Receive multiple signals reflected by
many obstacles
❚ Refraction
❙ Radio waves get bent by change in speed
with altitude
❚ Thermal Noise
❙ White noise. Important factor for satellite
communications

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Channel Capacity
❚ The rate at which digital data can be
transmitted over a given
communication channel
❚ Two formulations
❙ Shannon’s Formulation
❙ Nyquist Formulation

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Shannon’s Law
❚ Considers the noise (only white noise)
❚ Key parameter is signal-to-noise ratio
(S/N, or SNR), which is the ratio of the
power in a signal to the power
contained in the noise, typically
measured at the receiver - often
expressed in decibels
❚ Maximum theoretical error-free
capacity in bits per second
C = W log2 (1+S/N) 33
Signal to Noise Ratio - S/N
❚ Signal to Noise ratio: power in signal to
power contained in noise
❚ Doubling the bandwidth doubles the data
rate
❚ At a given noise level, higher the data rate,
the higher the error rate
❚ Increasing signal strength increases
intermodulation noise
❚ Wider the bandwidth, the more noise is
admitted.
❚ As W increases, S/N decreases
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Example with S/N of 1000 for
Telephone LIne
❚ Example for voice-grade telephone
line:
❚ Using Shannon's formulation for
channel capacity:
❙ C = W * log2(1 + S/N)
❙ Where log2 represent logarithm base 2
❙ 30 dB S/N = 1000 S/N
❙ C = 3100 * log2(1 + 1000)
❙ C = 30,894 bps
❚ Hence the channel capacity is 30,894
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Nyquist Limit
❚ Nyquist limit (in a noise-free
environment)
❚ C = 2 W log2M
❚ Given a bandwidth of W, highest
signal rate that can be carried is 2W
with binary signaling (M=2)
❚ For multilevel signaling
C = 2W log2M
❚ where M is the number of discrete
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Example with M-ary Signaling with
3100 Hz Bandwidth C = 2 W log2M

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BPS vs. Baud
❚ BPS=bits per second
❚ Baud= Number of signal changes per
second
❚ Each signal change can represent
more than one bit, through variations
on amplitude, frequency, and/or
phase

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Why Study Analog?
❚ Telephone system is primarily analog
rather than digital (designed to carry
voice signals)
❚ Low-cost, ubiquitous transmission
medium
❚ If we can convert digital information
(1s and 0s) to analog form (audible
tone), it can be transmitted
inexpensively
❚ Media are inherently analog too, real 40
Analog Transmission
❚ Analog signal transmitted without
regard to content
❚ May be analog or digital data
❚ Attenuated over distance
❚ Use amplifiers to boost signal
❚ Also amplifies noise

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Digital Transmission
❚ Concerned with content
❚ Integrity endangered by noise,
attenuation etc.
❚ Repeaters are used
❚ Repeater receives signal
❚ Extracts bit pattern
❚ Retransmits
❚ Attenuation is overcome
❚ Noise is not amplified
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Use of Repeaters

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Which Signal/Data is Better
Analog or Digital?
❚ Digital is better
❚ Even Analog data can be converted
into digital data and transmitted as
digital data
❚ Digital data provide the following
advantages:
❙ Digital technology
❙ Data integrity through EDC and ECC
❙ Capacity utilization through TDM
❙ Security and privacy through encryption 44