Intersymbol interference (ISI)

(ISI)
– it is a signal-dependent form of interference that arises
because of deviations in the frequency response of a
channel from the ideal channel.
– Example: Bandlimited channel

Time
Domain Bandlimited
channel

Frequency domain

BT.33

Intersymbol interference (ISI)

– This non-ideal communication channel is also called
dispersive channel

– The result of these deviation is that the received pulse

corresponding to a particular data symbol is affected by
the previous symbols and subsequent symbols.

BT.34

1
 Example

1 0 1
Waveform of ‘101’

BT.35

Intersymbol interference (ISI)

Two scenarios
I. The effect of ISI is negligible in comparison to that of
channel noise.
• use a matched filter, which is the optimum linear time-
invariant filter for maximizing the peak pulse signal-
to-noise ratio.

II. The received S/N ratio is high enough to ignore the effect of
channel noise (For example, a telephone system)
• control the shape of the received pulse.

BT.36

2
 ISI
Consider a binary system, the incoming binary sequence
{bk } consists of symbols 1 and 0, each of duration Tb . The
pulse amplitude modulator modifies this binary sequence
into a new sequence of short pulses (approximating a unit
impulse), whose amplitude a k is represented in the polar
form
+ 1 if bk = 1
ak = 
− 1 if bk = 0

{bk } Pulse- {ak } s (t ) xo (t ) x(t )

Transmit
amplitude Channel
filter g (t ) h (t )
modulator
w(t ) White noise
BT.37

ISI

Example: {bk } = 1101

∑ a δ (t − kT )
k
k b

{ak } :

Tb t

BT.38

3
 ISI
The short pulses are applied to a transmit filter of impulse
response g(t), producing the transmitted signal
s (t ) = ∑ a k g (t − kTb )
k

The signal s (t ) is modified as a result of transmission through

the channel of impulse response h(t ). In addition, the channel
adds random noise to the signal.
x(t ) = ∑ a k g (t − kTb ) ⊗h(t ) + n(t )
k

{bk } Pulse- {ak } s (t ) xo (t ) x(t )

Transmit
amplitude Channel
filter g (t ) h(t )
modulator
w(t ) White noise
BT.39

ISI
The noisy signal x(t ) is then passed through a receive filter
of impulse response c(t ).The resulting output y (t ) is sampled
and reconstruced by means of a decision device.
x(t ) y(t) 1 if y > λ
Receive Decision
filter c(t ) device 0 if y < λ
Sample at ti = iTb
λ
The receiver output is y (t ) = µ ∑ a k p (t − kTb ) + n(t )
k

where µp (t ) = g (t ) ⊗ h(t ) ⊗ c(t ) and µ is a constant.

BT.40

4
 ISI
Example: {bk } = 1101

{ak } : a1δ (t )
a2δ (t − Tb )

Tb t
y (t ) assume n(t ) = 0

t
µa1 p(t ) µa2 p (t − Tb ) y (t ) = µ ∑
k
a k p (t − kTb ) + n(t )

BT.41

ISI
The sampled output is
y (t i ) = µ ∑ a k p[(i − k )Tb ] + n(t i )
k

= µai + µ ∑ a k p[(i − k )Tb ] + n(t i )

k
k ≠i

µai : contribution of the ith transmitted bit.

µ ∑ a k p[(i − k )Tb ] :
k
k ≠i

The residual effect of all other transmitted bits.

(This effect is called intersymbol interference)
BT.42

5
 ISI
Example:{bk } = 1101 y (t i ) = µ a i + µ ∑a k p[(i − k )Tb ] + n(t i )
Tb k
k ≠i

y (t ) assume n(t ) = 0

t
µa2
y (t ) = µ ∑
k
a k p (t − kTb ) + n(t )

µa1 p (Tb ) (i = 2, k = 1)

µa3 p (−Tb ) = 0 (i = 2, k = 3)

t = t2 (i.e. i = 2) BT.43

Distortionless Transmission
In a digital transmission system, the frequency response of
the channel h(t ) is specified.
We need to determine the frequency responses of the
transmit g (t ) and receive filter c(t ) so as to reconstruct the
original binary data sequence {bk } .
{bk } Pulse- {ak } s (t ) xo (t ) x(t )
Transmit
amplitude Channel
filter g (t ) h(t )
modulator
w(t ) White noise

x(t ) y(t) 1 if y > λ

Receive Decision
filter c(t ) device 0 if y < λ
Sample at ti = iTb
λ BT.44

6
 Distortionless Transmission
The decoding requires that
y (t i ) = µ ∑ a k p[(i − k )Tb ] + n(t i )
k Ignore the noise
0
= µai + µ ∑ a k p[(i − k )Tb ] + n(t i )
k
k ≠i

1 i = k
⇒ p (iTb − kTb ) = 
0 i ≠ k
y (t ) y(ti) = µai
assume n(t ) = 0

t
BT.45

Distortionless Transmission
It can be shown that the condition
1 i = k
p (iTb − kTb ) = 
0 i ≠ k
is equivalent to
∞

∑ P( f − n / T ) = T
n = −∞
b b

BT.46

7
 Example

1 0 1

p (t )

p ( 0) p (Tb )
Sample points BT.47

Example

p( f ) 2
p (t )
sinc
Tb
1 / Tb
f
Tb 2Tb
∞
p( f ) p ( f − 1 / Tb ) p ( f − 2 / Tb ) ∑ p( f − n / T ) = T
b b
n = −∞

f
BT.48

8
 Ideal Nyquist Channel
The simplest way of satisfying
∞

∑ P( f − n / T ) = T
n = −∞
b b

is a rectangular function:
 1
 −W < f < W
p ( f ) =  2W
 0 | f |> W
1 / 2W

W = 1 / 2Tb
W = 1 / 2Tb

BT.49

Ideal Nyquist Channel

sin( 2πWt )
p (t ) =
2πWt

The special value of the bit rate

Rb = 1 / Tb = 2W
is called the Nyquist rate, and
W is called the Nyquist
bandwidth.

This ideal baseband pulse

system is called the ideal
Nyquist channel BT.50

9
 Example

Sampling
instants

BT.51

Ideal Nyquist Channel

In practical situation, it is not easy to achieve it due to

The system characteristics of P(f) be flat from -1/2T up to

1/2T and zero elsewhere. This is physically unrealizable
because of the transitions at the edges.

The function decreases as 1/|t| for large t, resulting in a slow

rate of decay. Therefore, there is practically no margin of
error in sampling times in the receiver.

BT.52

10
 Raised Cosine Spectrum
We may overcome the practical difficulties encountered by
increasing the bandwidth of the filter.
 1
 −W < f < W W = 1 / 2Tb
Instead of using p ( f ) =  2W
 0 | f |> W

we use
 1
 −W < f < W
p ( f ) + p ( f − 2W ) + P( f + 2W ) =  2W
 0 | f |> W

BT.53

Raised Cosine Spectrum

A particular form is a raised cosine filter

BT.54

11
 Raised Cosine Spectrum
The frequency characteristic consists of a flat amplitude
portion and a roll-off portion that has a sinusoidal form. The
pulse spectrum p(f) is specified in terms of a roll off factor α
as follows:
 1
 0 ≤ f < f1
2W

 1  π ( f − W  
p( f ) =  1 − sin    f1 ≤ f < 2W − f1
 4W 
  2W − 2 f 1  
 0 f > 2W − f 1


The frequency parameter f1 and bandwidth W are related by
α = 1 − f1 / W
BT.55

Raised Cosine Spectrum

where α is the rolloff factor. It indicates the excess
bandwidth over the ideal solution (Nyquist channel) where
W=1/2Tb.

– The transmission bandwidth is (1 + α )W

BT.56

12
 Raised Cosine Spectrum
The frequency response of α at 0, 0.5 and 1 are shown in
graph below. We observed that α at 1 and 0.5, the function
P(f) cutoff gradually as compared with the ideal Nyquist
channel and is therefore easier to implement in practice.

BT.57

Raised Cosine Spectrum

The time response p(t) is obtained as
cos(2παWt )
p (t ) = (sin c(2Wt ))( )
1 − 16α 2W 2 t 2

The function p(t) consists of two parts. The first part is a

sinc function that is exactly as Nyquist condition but the
second part is depended on α. The tails is reduced if α is
approaching 1. Thus, it is insensitive to sampling time
errors.

BT.58

13
 BT.59

Example
For α = 1, (f1 = 0) the system is known as the full-cosine
rolloff characteristic.
 1   πf  
 1 + cos    0 < f < 2W
p ( f ) =  4W   2W 
 0 f > 2W


BT.60

14
 Example

sinc( 2Wt )
p (t ) =
1 − 16W 2 t 2

BT.61

Example
This time response exhibits two interesting properties:
At t = ± Tb/2 = ± 1/4W we have p(t) = 0.5; that is, the
pulse width measured at half amplitude is exactly equal to
the bit duration Tb.

t = Tb/2

BT.62

15
 Example
There are zero crossings at t = ± 3Tb/2, ± 5Tb/2, ... in
addition to the usual crossings at the sampling times t= ±
Tb/2, ± 2Tb/2,...

t = 3Tb/2
t = 5Tb/2

BT.63

Example
These two properties are extremely useful in extracting a
timing signal from the received signal for the purpose of
synchronization.

However, the price paid for this desirable property is the

use of a channel bandwidth double that required for the
ideal Nyquist channel corresponding to α = 0.

BT.64

16