HY448 Sample Problems

10 November 2014
These sample problems include the material in the lectures and the
guided lab exercises.

1 Part 1

1.1 Combining logarithmic quantities

A carrier signal with power 7 dBm is added to a noise signal with
power 5 dBm. What is the total signal power
in mW?

in dBm?

Solution: Never add logarithmic units of power directly.

To find the sum of two logarithmic units of power (such as dBm or
dBw), first convert them to linear quantities:
7 dBm
7 dBm = 10 10 dBm W 5.012 mW

and
5 dBm
5 dBm = 10 10 dBm W 0.316 mW
The sum is then

0.316 mW + 5.012 mW = 5.328 mW

and the equivalent in dBm is

10 log10 (5.328) 7.266 dBm

1.2 Applying gain in dB

An amplifier has a gain of 3 dB. What is the power level at the output
of the amplifier is the power of the signal at its input is
6 dBm?

0.25 mW?

Solution: If power is given in logarithmic units (e.g., dBm), we can

apply gain in dB by adding:

6 dBm + 3 dB = 3 dBm

If power is given in linear units (e.g., mW), we can apply gain in dB

by converting and multiplying:
3 dB
0.25 mW 10 10 = 0.25 mW 2 = 0.50 mW
 hy448 sample problems 2

1.3 Signal to noise ratio

A signal with power 3 mW is distorted by noise with power 0.001 mW.
What is the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in dB?

Solution:  
3
10 log10 = 34.77 dB
0.001

1.4 Receiver diversity

A wireless receiver has a pair of receive antennas A1 and A2 . They
are separated by some physical distance and have different orienta-
tions, so that they sense the ambient RF environment differently.
A transmitter is sending a signal while moving about the room
in a deterministic pattern. The SNR (in dB) of the signal received SNRdB (t)
at each antenna is function of time (t), with SNR1 = 30 cos t and SNR1
SNR2 = 20 cos t. The plot in Figure 1 shows the received SNR at each
SNR2
antenna for the time interval 0 t 2:
The receiver in this scenario needs at least 0 dB SNR to process the
transmitted message. We will calculate the outage probability as the Figure 1: Receive SNR at two antenna
ratio of a time interval in which the the received signal is less than elements.

0 dB.

Suppose we receive exclusively on A1 . What will be the outage

probability for the time interval 0 t 2?

Suppose we receive exclusively on A2 . What will be the outage

probability for the time interval 0 t 2?

We will consider different ways of processing the signals received

on the two antennas, so as to benefit from their diversity.
One post-processing technique is called switching. With this tech-
nique, we begin using the signal from the antenna with the highest
SNR. We use this antenna as long as its SNR remains above some
threshold value; if it falls below this threshold, we switch to the other
antenna.

Using switching with a threshold of 0 dB, what will be the outage

probability for the time interval 0 t 2?

Another post-processing technique is selecting. With this technique,

we always use the antenna with the highest SNR.

Using selecting as a post-processing technique, what will be the

outage probability for the time interval 0 t 2?

In this scenario, which post-processing technique would be pre-

ferred?
 hy448 sample problems 3

Which technique (A1 exclusively, A2 exclusively, switching, select-

ing) has the lowest outage probability?

Which technique (A1 exclusively, A2 exclusively, switching, select-

ing) has a highest average SNR?

Solution:

Using A1 alone, we have an SNR below 0 dB 50% of the time. We

therefore have an outage probability of 0.5.

Using A2 alone, we have an SNR below 0 dB 50% of the time. We

therefore have an outage probability of 0.5.

Using switching, we will have an outage probability of 0.25.

Using selecting, we will have an outage probability of 0.25.

Both switching and selecting have the lowest outage probability, of

0.25.

Selecting has the highest average SNR of the post-processing tech-

niques under consideration.

1.5 Noise figure with cascaded components

Consider the receiver shown in Figure 2. The antenna is connected Figure 2: A multi-stage RF processing
chain.
to the signal processing chain with a long cable that attenuates the
signal by 1.5 dB, but adds only thermal noise (no additional noise).
The first stage of the DSP chain, an RF amplifier, has a noise figure of
7 dB and a gain of 20 dB. The second stage, a mixer, has a noise figure
and conversion gain (ratio of output power to input power) of 8 dB.
The third stage is an IF amplifier with a gain of 60 dB and a noise
figure of 6 dB.

Find the noise figure of the entire system shown in Figure 2.

Find the noise figure of the entire system if the RF amplifier is

placed before the cable with 1.5 dB loss.

Which system is preferable? Why?

Solution: Find the noise factor F and gain G at each stage. Then
apply Friis formula.
For the cable,
1.5
G1 = 10 10 = 0.7080
1
F1 = = 1.4125
G1
 hy448 sample problems 4

For the RF amplifier,

20
G2 = 10 10 = 100
7
F2 = 10 10 = 5.0119
For the frequency mixer,
8
G3 = 10 10 = 6.3096
8
F3 = 10 10 = 6.3096
For the IF amplifier,
60
G4 = 10 10 = 106
6
F4 = 10 10 = 3.9811

Then, use Friis formula to find the combined noise factor for the
original system:

F2 1 F 1 F 1
F = F1 + + 3 + 4
G1 G1 G2 G1 G2 G3
or
5.0119 1 6.3096 1 3.9811 1
F = 1.4125 + + + = 7.1607
0.7080 0.7080 100 0.7080 100 6.3096
then
NF = 10 log10 (7.1607) = 8.5495 dB
For the system with the RF amplifier as the first stage, we have

1.4125 1 6.3096 1 3.9811 1

F = 5.0119 + + + = 5.0977
100 0.7080 100 0.7080 100 6.3096
then
NF = 10 log10 (5.0977) = 7.0737 dB
The second system is preferred because it has a lower noise figure.

1.6 Forward error correction with XOR

The logical XOR operation, denoted , works as follows:

00 = 0
01 = 1

10 = 1
11 = 0
Using XOR, we can create a forward error correction code that
will allow us to potentially recover from some bit errors. We will
 hy448 sample problems 5

divide our message into packets of length l; for each two consecutive
packets, we will transmit the packets, followed by their XOR.
For example, if l = 4, and we have the message {10001010}, we
can send the packets p1 = {1000}, p2 = {1010}, and p3 = {0010}.
At the receiver, if any two packets are received correctly, we can XOR
them to recover the third, enabling us to reconstruct the message.

With this FEC scheme, what is the ratio of message bits to total
bits sent over the link?

Suppose we receive the following three-packet FEC group using

the scheme described above: 1101, 1010, and 0011. Furthermore,
suppose we know that there will be at most one bit error per FEC
group.

Can we identify whether an error has occurred in transmission? If

so, how?

Can we recover the correct 8-bit message?

Suppose the transmitter adds a parity check bit at the end of each
packet, set to 0 if there are an even number of 1s in the packet and
1 if there are an odd number of 1s in the packet (making the total
count of 1s in the packet, including the parity bit, even).
As before, suppose we know that there will be at most one bit error
per FEC group. Using the combined FEC and parity check scheme,
we receive the following packets: 11011, 10101, and 00110.

With this combined parity check and FEC scheme, what is the
ratio of message bits to total bits sent over the link?

Can we recover the correct 8-bit message?

Solution:

With the FEC scheme described in this problem, we must send one
extra bit for every two bits of message data. The ratio of message
bits to total bits is 23 .

We know that an error has occurred because

1101 1010 6= 0011

We cannot recover the correct 8-bit message. Its impossible to

distinguish between these three cases valid of FEC packet groups
with one bit different from the received packets:
 hy448 sample problems 6

Message Packets sent Error

10011010 1001, 1010, 0011 Second bit of first packet
11011110 1101, 1110, 0011 Second bit of second packet
11011010 1101, 1010, 0111 Second bit of third packet

With the parity bit and FEC, the ratio of message bits to total bits
8
is 15 .

From the parity bit, we can see that the second packet (10101) has
an odd number of ones, and therefore has a bit error. Furthermore,
we know that the second bit of this packet is in error (from the
XOR). Therefore, we can recover the correct message: 11011110.

2 Part 2
fRF fIF
2.1 Frequency mixers
A transmitter is operating with an intermediate frequency f IF =
39 MHz. It is mixed with a local oscillator at f LO = 400 MHz, before fLO
transmitting (as in Figure 3).
We are interested in measuring the output of the transmitter, sep- Figure 3: Frequency mixer.
arately from any issues that may be introduced by an imperfect re-
ceiver. To do this, we use a spectrum analyzer tuned to the range
from 300 500 MHz. Spectrum analyzers are special-purpose devices
designed to show the true RF spectrum as accurately as possible.
The display of the spectrum analyzer is shown in Figure 4. In
particular, we measure power levels above the ambient noise power
at the following frequencies:

Frequency (MHz) Amplitude (dBm)

322 -72.62
Figure 4: Display of spectrum analyzer
361 -17.54 with f IF = 39 MHz.
400 -32.59
439 -17.80
478 -68.61

Categorize each of the signals in the table above as one of the

following:

Desired mixer product

LO-to-RF leakage
IF-to-RF leakage
Harmonic of LO (specify which harmonic)
Harmonic of IF (specify which harmonic)
 hy448 sample problems 7

Harmonic of IF mixed with LO (specify which harmonic)

Harmonic of LO mixed with IF (specify which harmonic)
Mixture of harmonic of LO and harmonic of IF (specify which)

If we repeat this with an IF frequency of 34 MHz, which of these

signals will still appear at the same frequency? Which will appear,
but at a different frequency (specify the new frequency)? Which
will no longer appear at all? Why?

Solution: For upconversion from IF to RF, the output at the RF port

of the mixer is f RF = f LO f IF . The desired mixer products are at
361 MHz and 439 MHz.
The power observed at 400 MHz is LO-to-RF leakage.
The peaks observed at 322 MHz and at 478 MHz are the prod-
ucts of the 2nd harmonic of the IF frequency, mixed with the LO
frequency (400 2 39 = 322 and 400 + 2 39 = 478).
Figure 5 shows the display of the spectrum analyzer when the IF
frequency is changed to 34 MHz.
When we change the IF frequency to 34 MHz, the peak at 400 MHz
Figure 5: Display of spectrum analyzer
will remain at the same frequency, since it is not a product of the IF with f IF = 34 MHz.
frequency or any of its harmonics.
The peaks at 361 MHz and 439 MHz will move; the new mixer
products will appear at f RF = f LO f IF , now 366 MHz and 434 MHz.
The products of the second IF harmonic and the LO frequency
will also move as a result of the change in f IF . These products will
now appear at 332 MHz and 468 MHz (400 2 34 = 332 and
400 + 2 34 = 468).

2.2 Bandwidth requirements for digital signals

An analog speech signal is sampled at a rate of 8 kHz and digitized
using 8 bits per sample.

What is the bitrate of the digital signal?

In a software radio competition, all teams are required to use no

more than 20 kHz of bandwidth in their design. Suppose a team was
to transmit the digital signal described above using M-PSK digital
modulation.
Given the bandwidth constraint, can the full data rate be sup-
ported

Using M = 4? M = 16?

Using M = 16 with a code that adds redundancy to protect against

error? What is the highest code rate that can be used?
 hy448 sample problems 8

Solution: The bitrate is

samples bits bits

Rb = 8 103 8 = 64 103
second sample second
The (modulation) spectral efficiency for 4-PSK is

log2 4 = 2

and the required transmission bandwidth is

64 103
= 32 kHz
2
This is more than the maximum allowed bandwidth, so the data rate
of the signal cannot be supported.
The (modulation) spectral efficiency for 16-PSK is

log2 16 = 4

and the required transmission bandwidth is

64 103
= 16 kHz
4
This is less than the maximum allowed bandwidth, so the data rate of
the signal can be supported.
With 16-PSK and coding, the required bandwidth will be

1 64 103
R 4
where R is the code rate. For a maximum of 20 kHz of bandwidth,
the highest code rate possible is 45 , which means we can send only
one bit of redundant information for four message bits.

2.3 ARQ
In an ARQ system, data is divided into blocks of size SB bytes. The
receiver and transmitter each keep a buffer that can store up to W
blocks (W is called the window size).
When a block is sent, the transmitter keeps it in its buffer until
it receives an acknowledgment from the receiver. If no acknowl-
edgment is received within a specified timeout period, the block is
re-transmitted. If the buffer becomes full, the transmitter must wait
for acknowledgment from the receiver, at which point it can remove
the acknowledged block(s) from the buffer.
Consider a wireless system, where ARQ acknowledgments for
blocks transmitted in frame i are received at the beginning of frame
i + 1. The frame length L F is the length of the frame, and its inverse
is the frame rate (number of frames per second).
 hy448 sample problems 9

Suppose we have continuous, errorless data transmission in an

ARQ system with block size SB , window size W, and frame length
LF ,

What is the maximum throughput (in terms of SB , W, and L F ) that

the connection can achieve?

For SB = 32 B, W = 512, and L F = 5 msec, what is the maximum

throughput in B/s that the connection can achieve?

For SB = 16 B, W = 128, and L F = 5 msec, what is the maximum

throughput in B/s that the connection can achieve?

In the previous example, the acknowledgments for blocks in frame

i arrive at the beginning of frame i + 1. What if there is some delay,
so that acknowledgments for frame i arrive at the beginning of
frame i + D? What is the maximum throughput (in terms of SB ,
W, L F , and D), that the connection can achieve?

Solution: The maximum throughput a connection can achieve is

limited by the expression:

SB W
LF
For SB = 32 B, W = 512, and L F = 5 msec, the maximum through-
put is 3.277 MB/s.
For SB = 16 B, W = 128, and L F = 5 msec, the maximum through-
put is 409.6 kB/s.
With delayed acknowledgments, the maximum throughput the
connection can achieve is limited by the expression:

SB W
LF D