Enel571 Overview of Digital Communications

Read Background and Preview section in Haykin PP 1-29

What is digital communications?

Short History of Digital Communications
Why digital vs analog
Impact of DSP technology trend
Components of a communication system
Common channel types
General theme of digital communication engineering

Digital comm overview.ppt

What is Communications?
Physical separation

Source of
information

Intended
receiver

Voice, text, numerical data

Pictures, video Etc.

Analog sources of information

Voice, video, are analog continuous time signals
No mapping of analog signal into a discrete alphabet of symbols
Eg. AM, FM etc.

Digital sources of information

Text, data files etc.
Source data consists of symbols which are members of a finite discrete set. eg text
Digital source may have originated as an analog signal that was mapped into a discrete set
of symbols. eg DVD

Digital comm overview.ppt

Communications channel
Physical separation

Source

Noise
distortion

Intended
Receiver

Channel is always analog continuous time in nature

Regardless of whether source is analog or digital
Challenge for communications engineer is:

that channel resources are limited, power, bandwidth etc.

Interference noise in channel
Distortion effects

Digital comm overview.ppt

What is Analog Communications then?

Analog source

Analog modulator
FM, AM etc

Communication link
Receiver
Analog signal
demodulator
Analog communications analog mapping of analog source directly into analog transmit signal
No intermediate mapping into a discrete finite set of symbols

Digital comm overview.ppt

What is Digital Communications?

Analog source
Sampling,
- discrete time samples
- quantized amplitude

Digital source

Mapping to discrete symbol set (encoding)

Modulator mapping
From discrete symbol
Set to analog signal

Communication link

Receiver
Data
demodulator

Error control feedback link

Digital communications involves:
mapping into a discrete finite set of modulated symbols
Modulated symbols are analog in nature and sent over noisy communication channel
Demodulation of analog symbols back into discrete finite set
Providing error correction to decoded symbols

Digital comm overview.ppt

Digital came first

In antiquity, capacity of communication channels were very small
(capacity = how much information the channel can propagate per unit time)

Not sufficient for analog signals ie voice

Used a simple discrete alphabet to encode signals
Hence digital communications preceded analog communications
Various forms, drum beats, smoke signals, Marconis spark generator, etc.

Digital comm overview.ppt

Brief history of digital communications

Ancient tribes used drums and smoke signals to communicate. Date of invention is
unknown. Modulation method and encoding scheme is .

1794 semaphore digital communication

Telegraph along railway lines about 1837 (Wheatstone in Britain)

Commercial telegraph 1851 in Europe

1858 first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable

1876 Alexander Bell and the voice telephone

The first radio frequency wireless digital communication system was by Guglielmo
Marconi:

1898 English Channel

1901 Cornwall to Newfoundland
Spark transmission system - ~0.5 bit per second
Digital comm overview.ppt

1900 first voice wireless system (Fessenden in US)

1920s radio stations

1926 first practical TV

1956 first voice quality transatlantic cable

1962 satellites for TV broadcast

1971 ARPANET forerunner for internet

1977 first fiber optic cable in California

Wireless revolution 1990s

2000 unprecedented telecom technology bubble, 2001 bubble burst, 2004 modest
recovery beginning
Digital comm overview.ppt

Why digital vs Analog

Presently moving away from analog towards all digital end to end networks
and links

Reasons
More digital sources of information than analog. Computer networking, internet,
voice communication at saturated level
Potentially less bandwidth per unit of information (example voice encoding)
Effective error correction coding, message control etc.
Regenerate signal along path between tx and rx
Analog circuitry is finicky and therefore expensive
Advancement in DSP-cheaper to integrate, sophisticated algorithms

Digital comm overview.ppt

Impact of DSP on receiver architectures

Moores Law continued advancement of DSP hardware, another quantum

leap in performance in the near future
Slowly moving towards a complete SW radio or modem with negligible
analog component count.

antenna

Simple analog front end

Low pass
filter

Generic
analog to
digital
convertor

Digital
signal
processor
and CPU

Fixed local
oscillator

Digital comm overview.ppt

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Components of a digital communication link

Signal
source

Signal
output

Source
encoder

Source
decoder

Channel
encoder

Channel
decoder

Digital
modulator

Digital
demodulator

Digital or analog

digital

analog

Physical
propagation
channel

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Components of a digital communication link

Signal source source of the signal to be communicated. It may be a data file, voice video picture etc. If the source is analog then it is converted to digital by
direct sampling of the signal. Hence the output is a stream of digital bytes.
Source encoder converts the raw digital bytes into something more palatable for transmission. Usually involves compression and encryption.
Channel encoder adds coding for error detection/correction and translates the coded signal into the specific format required for the modulator. Also adds any
framing and sychronization bits and associated physical layer messages at this stage
Digital Modulator Takes the completed encoded signal and modulates the signal appropriate for transmission. This may involve analog upconversion to an
RF carrier etc.
Channel The channel is the physical link between the transmitter and the receiver. It is typically non-ideal in that the signal becomes distorted and noisy
before it appears at the receiver end.
Digital Demodulator this block undoes the processing applied to the signal in the digital modulator. It may for example include an analog downconvertor
from an RF carrier to baseband.
Channel decoder this block unpacks the received frames and extracts the coded payload content. It checks/corrects any errors that may have occurred in the
digital demodulator due to the signal noise and distortion
Source decoder - converts the stream of received and corrected bytes and generates the appropriate output. This could be an analog voice or video signal or a
data file.
In this course we will deal primarily with the digital modulation and demodulator blocks as well as how the channel affects the signal.

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Noise and interference

Wide bandwidth independent additive noise (eg thermal)

Lower frequency interference from lightning, electrical machines etc
Other user interference from adjacent bands
Hostile jamming
Controlled interference from multiple users on the same channel eg CDMA
Receiver self jamming malfunction, out of tune, not properly synchronizing etc.
Variable channel conditions, fading shadowing etc. (mobile radio communications)
Ionosphere interference, time variable plasma effects (eg Northern lights)

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Types of communication channels

Guided

Radiated

Twisted pair telephone cable, PC cables

Coaxial cable, optical fiber, waveguide
Acoustic
Point to point wireless
Mobile wireless
Satellite wireless
Wireless modem eg 802.11

Somewhere in between

free space optical

house electrical wiring
leaky coax etc)

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General Theme of Digital Communications

Engineering
Communicate information from a transmitter to a receiver at a rate which is
commensurate with the information type and user requirements.

Minimize channel resources required to do this (eg bandwidth)

Minimize interference to other users (eg tx power, filtering)
Maximize robustness to sources of interference
Robustness also wrt varied operating conditions (eg fading mobile wireless)
Minimize cost/complexity of components (eg maximize $ for manufacture)
Comply with standards for universal adaptation of communications equipment

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