EEE 107

Lecture 1
Introduction to Communication
Systems

2s1415 Revision January 2015

 Definition of Terms
• Communication
– Basic process of exchanging/transferring information
• Information
– Not easily defined
• Message
– Physical manifestation of information
– Voltage, current, electromagnetic fields, etc.
– Easier to deal with as engineers
• Communication System
– For information transfer
– From a source to a destination some distance away

2
 Types of Message
• Analog
– Time varying in a smooth and continuous fashion
– Requires fidelity in transmission of waveforms
– E.g. AM/FM radio, analog TV
• Digital
– Ordered sequence of symbols selected from a finite set of
discrete elements
– Requires accuracy in transmission of symbols in a specified
amount of time
– E.g. GSM, DSL, WiFi

3
 Message Sources
• Some are NOT inherently electrical
– But some are, like what?
• Use transducers
– Input transducers: Message to electrical signals
– Output transducer: Output signal to desired message form

Source Input Communication Output Destination

Transducer System Transducer

4
Carlson. Introduction to Communication Systems. 4th ed. p. 3.
 Elements of a Communication System

Source Destination
Transmitter Channel Receiver

Noise, interference, and distortion

• Transmitter
• Channel
• Receiver

• Note: Figure above is simplex

5
Carlson. Introduction to Communication Systems. 4th ed. p. 4.
 Types of Communication Systems
• Simplex (SX)
– One-way communication only
• Duplex
– Two-way communication
– Half-duplex (HDX)  One-way transmissions only at a time
– Full-duplex (FDX)  Two-way transmission simultaneously

6
 Channel Effects
• Attenuation
– Reduction in signal strength as it propagates through the
channel
• Noise
– Random and unpredictable electrical signals due to
natural processes
– Random motion of electrons (thermal noise)
• Distortion
– Alteration in the shape of waveforms
– Due to imperfect response of the system
• Interference
– Contamination by signals from other transmitters

7
Introduction to Communication
Systems
System Design Limitations

8
 System Design Limitations
• Technological problems
– Hardware ability, economic factors, national regulations
• Physical limitations
– Bandwidth  Determines amount of information the
system can transmit
– Noise  Natural, unavoidable

9
 Bandwidth
• Bandwidth
– Frequency range that a signal occupies
– Time domain (signal)  Frequency domain (spectrum)
– Slowly changing signal  Low bandwidth
– Rapidly changing signal  Large bandwidth

10
 Bandwdith
• Fourier series  Periodic signals

• Fourier transform  Aperiodic signals

 Bandwidth
• The bandwidth of a signal is the width of the
frequency spectrum
 Physical Limitations
• Transmission system bandwidth
– System can only accommodate a finite bandwidth
– Excess bandwidth  Distortion  Errors
 Noise
• Noise
– Natural, unavoidable
– Caused by random motion of electrons above 0 K
– Random voltages and currents
• Signal-to-Noise Power Ratio (SNR or S/N)
𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 =
𝑃𝑃𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛
– Measure of signal power relative to noise power
– High SNR  Noise effect not significant
– Low SNR  Degrades fidelity and introduces errors

14
 Noise
• Signal-to-Noise Power Ratio (SNR or S/N)
𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 =
𝑃𝑃𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛
– 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 = 1, good or bad?
– 𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 10 W, 𝑃𝑃𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 = 0.1 W, solve for 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆

15
 Noise
• Signal-to-Noise Power Ratio (SNR or S/N)
𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 =
𝑃𝑃𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛
– 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 = 1, good or bad?
– 𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 10 W, 𝑃𝑃𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 = 0.1 W, solve for 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆

10
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 = = 100
0.1

16
 Channel Capacity
• Shannon-Hartley Law (1948)
– Specifies the maximum rate at which information can be
transferred in a communications system
– Considering bandwidth and noise
– Upper limit in the performance

𝐶𝐶 = 𝐵𝐵 log 2 1 + 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 bps

– 𝐶𝐶  Channel capacity (bits/second)

– 𝐵𝐵  Bandwidth (Hertz)
– 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆  Signal-to-noise ratio

17
 Channel Capacity: Example
• If the signal and noise power in a certain
communications link are equal, what bandwidth
would allow a maximum channel capacity of 56
kbps?
𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 = =1
𝑃𝑃𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛

𝐶𝐶 = 𝐵𝐵 log 2 1 + 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆
56 kbps = 56 × 103 = 𝐵𝐵 log 2 1 + 1
𝐵𝐵 = 56 × 103 = 56 kHz

18
 Channel Capacity: Example
• If we only had a quarter of the bandwidth in (1),
what SNR is required to double the capacity of our
channel?
56 kHz
𝐵𝐵 = = 14 kHz
4
𝐶𝐶 = 56 kbps 2 = 112 kbps
𝐶𝐶 = 𝐵𝐵 log 2 1 + 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆
112 × 103 = 14 × 103 log 2 1 + 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 = 255

19
Introduction to Communication
Systems
Modulation and Coding

20
 Modulation and Demodulation
• Modulation
– Process of placing a message onto a carrier for
transmission
– Message varies some property of the carrier
– Modulating Signal  Message
– Carrier  High-frequency sinusoid
• Demodulation
– Complementary process of modulation

21
 Continuous-Wave Modulation
• Message

• Carrier Signal

• Linear Modulation
– Amplitude modulation

• Angle Modulation
– Frequency modulation
– Phase modulation

22
 Electromagnetic Wave
• Transverse Wave
– Electric Field ⊥ Magnetic Field
– Direction of Propagation ⊥ Both

𝑣𝑣𝑝𝑝 = 𝜆𝜆𝜆𝜆
1 wavelength
𝑣𝑣𝑝𝑝  Velocity
𝜆𝜆  Wavelength
time
𝑓𝑓  Frequency
1 cycle
23
 Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Electromagnetic spectrum
– The total span of frequencies used in communications
systems
– Limited natural resource
– Signals must be transmitted within specific frequency
bands

24
Electromagnetic Spectrum

25
 Pulse Modulation
• Pulse Modulation
– Carrier wave is a periodic train of short pulses
– Does not produce frequency translation
– E.g. pulse amplitude modulation
• Sampling
– Important signal-processing technique
– Nyquist Sampling Theorem

26
 Modulation Benefits
• Efficient Transmission
– Practical Antenna sizes
• Overcomes Hardware Limitations
– Hardware performance depends on frequency
– Fractional Bandwidth
• Reduce Noise and Interference
– Wideband Noise Reduction
• Frequency Assignment
– Selection of TV or Radio stations
• Multiplexing For Efficiency
– FDM and TDM

27
 Coding
• Coding
– Symbol processing operation to improve communication
– For digital information
– Most coding methods involve digital logic circuits and
binary symbols (0 and 1)
• Decoding
– Converts the encoded sequence back to original

28
 Coding Benefits
• Increased Bandwidth Trade-off
– i.e. M >> 2 different waveforms;
– Use binary codeword with K binary digits
– Simplified hardware and robustness to noise
• Error Detection and Correction
– By appending extra digits to a binary codeword, we can
detect or even correct most of the errors
– Increased Bandwidth and Hardware Complexity
• Bandwidth vs. SNR (Shannon-Hartley Law)

29
 Coding Benefits
• Benefits of Digital techniques applied to Analog
signals
– A-D and D-A Conversion
– Pulse Code Modulation
– Digital Signal Processing to substitute for analog processing

30