Faculty of Engineering

Department Of Communications & Computer

Communications for 2nd Year
Lecture #1

Introduction of communication
1

Index
Communication Systems
History of telecommunications
Block diagram of communication system
Basic Terminology
Simplex vs. Duplex
Analog and Digital Communication Systems
Analog and Digital Signals
Advantages of Digital over Analog Communication System
Why Analog Design Remains Important?
Background in math needed!

Communication Systems
Communication System: is any system in which information is
transmitted from one physical location to a another physical
location, as shown in Figure 1.
Telecommunication: is a form of communication over a long
distance. The information is to be sent beyond the range of usual
vocal or visual communications.

Figure 1

History of telecommunications

Smoke and Fire

Wild Horses

Until the 1850s in the U.S., the fastest way to send a message from ones home to
someone elses home was by Pony Express.

Telegraph

In the B.C.s, smoke and fire signals were sent out using fire and a blanket. This
smoke or fire was seen by people not too far, who interpreted it to have some
meaning.

In 1844, Samuel Morse built a device he called the telegraph. This key had three
states: Off which meant the key was not pressed; Dot which meant the key was
pressed for a short time and then released; and Dash which meant the key was
pressed for a longer time and then released. The overall system could send about
two letters a second, or 120 letters a minute.

The Telephone

It was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. A telephone converts sound,

typically the human voice, into electronic signals suitable for transmission via cables
or other transmission media over long distances, and replays such signals
simultaneously in audible form to its user.

Block diagram of communication

system
Any communication system is
made up of three main
parts, highlight by red box in
Figure 2.
1. The Transmitter: It includes
the technology that sends the
information out over the
channel.

B
Figure
2

2. The Channel: is the medium

(the
guide)
that
the
information travels through in
going from point A to point B.
3. The Receiver: recover all the
information
that
the
transmitter sends over the
channel.

Basic Terminology

Signal: It is represented by a function that specifies how a specific variable

changes versus an independent variable such as time.
Distortion: On propagating through a channel, signals are shaped and
distorted by the frequency response and the attenuating characteristics of
the channel.
Noise: It is any unwanted signals that is added to the transmitted signal. The
source of noise may be external or internal to the communication system.
External: It is noise resulting from electric machines, other communication
systems, noise from outer space, lightning, automobile ignition. It can be reduced
or eliminated.
Internal: it is caused by thermal motion of electrons in the conductors. The power
spectral density of thermal noise is proportional to (kT), k is Blotzmanns
constant and T is the temperature in Kelvin. Therefore, environment with no
thermal noise is in 0 degrees Kelvin. It can be reduced but not eliminated.
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): is the ratio of the power of the desired signal to
the power of the noise signal.

Basic Terminology

Modulator: is the process of changing one or more of the characteristics of a

high frequency signal (known as the carrier signal) based on the value of a low
frequency signal (known as the baseband or information signal) to produce a
modulated signal.
Demodulator: is the process of separating or recovering the baseband
(information) signal from the modulated signal.
Bandwidth: it is a term that indicates over which frequency range, the
baseband (information) signal exist. For example the bandwidth of a radio
channel in the AM is around 10 kHz and the bandwidth of a radio channel in the
FM band is 150 kHz.
Fourier Analysis: it is mathematical tool that describe the frequency
components of the signal. It also allows to determine the effects of the channel
on the signal.
Convolution: it is mathematical tool that describe the channel effects on the
signal, assuming the channel of an Linear Time-Invariant system.

Basic Terminology
8

Figure
3

Filtering: it is used by the receiver to demodulate

the modulated signal or to reduce noise and
distortion. The effect of the channel on the signal
is sometime described as the filtering of the signal
by the channel.

Random signals: noise is type of random

signals, which cannot be described as a function of
time.
Instead, Power Spectral Density and
Autocorrelation concepts are used to describe it.

Frequency Spectrum: figure 3 is frequency

allocation chart which, give an idea of how the
frequency spectrum is used in the U.S.A

To convert from frequency (f) to wavelength ()

and vice versa, recall that f = c/ or = c/f; where
c is the speed of light (3108 m/s).

Simplex vs. Duplex

Simplex Systems
Communication systems which provide only one-way communication.
Such as, radio and TV.

Half Duplex Systems

Communication Systems which allow two-way communication by using
the same radio channel for both transmission and reception. At any given
time, the user can either transmit or receive information. Such as, walkietalkie (two-way radio).

Full Duplex Systems

Communication
systems
which
allow
simultaneous
two-way
communication. Transmission and reception is typically on two different
channels. Such as, telephone.

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Analog and Digital Communication Systems

Analog Communication System: is a communication
system where the information signal sent from point A to
point B can only be described as an analog signal. An
example of this system is shown in figure 4.
Digital Communication System: is a communication
system where the information signal sent from A to B can
be fully described as a digital signal. For example, consider
Figure 5. Here, data is sent from one computer to another
over a wire. The computer at point A is sending 0s or 1s to
the computer at point B; a 0 is being represented by 5 V
for a duration of time T and a 1 is being represented by a +5
V for the same duration T.

Figure 4

Figure 5

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Analog and Digital Signals

Analog Signal: is a signal that can

take on any amplitude and is welldefined at every time. Figure 6(a)
Discrete Signal: A discrete-time signal
is a signal that can take on any
amplitude but is defined only at a set of
discrete times. Figure 6(b)
Digital Signal: is a signal whose
amplitude can take on only a finite set
of values, normally two, and is defined
only at a discrete set of times. Figure
6(c)

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Advantages of Digital over Analog Communication System

1. Immunity to Noise (possibility of regenerating the original digital signal if

signal power to noise power ratio (SNR) is relatively high by using of devices
called repeaters along the path of transmission).
2. Efficient use of communication bandwidth (through use of techniques like
compression).
3. Digital communication provides higher security (data encryption).
4. The ability to detect errors and correct them if necessary.
5. Designing and manufacturing of electronics for digital communication
systems is much easier and cheaper than the design and manufacturing of
electronics for analog communication systems.

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Why Analog Design Remains Important?

1. While the transporting bits in digital communication, the physical link (the
channel) over which these bits are sent is analog.
2. At the transmitter side, the analog design of digital-to-analog converters,
mixers, amplifiers and antennas is required to translate bits to physical
waveforms to be emitted by the transmitter.
3. At the receiver, analog design of antennas, amplifiers, mixers and analogto-digital converters is required to translate the physical received
waveforms to digital (discrete valued, discrete time) signals that are
compatible to the digital signal processing that is at the core of modern
transceivers.

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Background in math needed!

Calculus of one variable.
Integration and differentiation.
Differential equations.
Complex numbers.
Pythagorean theorem.