Communication Systems 143

Chapter 5 Communication Systems

Course outline:
5.1 Introduction
5.2Wired and wireless communication system
5.3 EMV and propagation ,antenna ,broadcasting and communication
5.4 Internet, Intranet
5.5 Optical fiber
Introduction:
Communication is one of the most widely used word and carries the meaning of exchange of
information. In order to take an exchange of information there must be two sites, one is where
generation of information (collection of news) occurs while in other generated information is absorbed.
It means like in simple conversation there must be speaker and listener .In broad sense they are called
source and receiver.Thus, communication is mutual relationship between source and receiver where
exchange of information (news) takes place.
It must be clear that audio signal(i.e. sound) exchange is not only the information communicated. It
may also be video signal, some physical expression,coded symbols and activities. Only the desired thing
is that receiver must understand what the source want to transmit. Effectiveness of communication
depends upon ways and systems used in communication.
Communication System:
During communication, there is not only the presence of source and receiver but their presence is
utmost. There are many other factors and components contributing their rolein communication .And
systems comprising these all components along with source and receiver is known as communication
system. Suppose a Radio Jockey is conducting a program in a FM radio station then of course without
doing anything we can listen it in our radio set. And note that we are listener (Destination) not the
radio. Hence RJ takes the help from FM radio-transmitter while we take the help of radio receiver for
the exchange of information though in this case it is unidirectional .Thus, radio transmitter and radio
receiver also become important part of the communication.Simple block diagram of communication
system is as following:

Source Transmitter Channe Receive Destination

Noise

Fig: Block diagram of communication system

All most all communications taking place in this world are not perfect .It is in between source and
destination extra unwanted information gets added and a part of desired information get lost Such
unwanted information reducing the efficiency(accuracy) of communication system are known as noise.

1.Source:
It is the generation site of information i.e. generation of information (news/data) occurs here. As already
discussed information might be audio, video or text. Basically data can be categorized as
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a.Analog data: These are continuous and linear type of information. Examples of such data are
speech(audio) and video etc. Communication system comprising analog signal is called “analog
communication system’’.
b. Digital data: These information are binary. These are discrete and non linear type of information.
Examples of such data are texts(SMS),multimedia(MMS) etc. Communication system comprising digital
signal only is called “Digital Communication System”.
2.Transmitter:It is because of low strength of signal with unmatched frequency and amplitude the crude
signal generated from source is not suitable to transmit and hence it is to be modified.The equipment
used to modify signals into transmittable form is called as transmitter .In this process data are
superimposed with carrier wave of suitable frequency and amplitude for transmission. This process is
known as modulation.
3.Channel:
In a communication system transmitter and receiver are remote to each other and need to be
connected by certain external means known as channel.Actually it provides physical contact between
transmitter output and receiver input.
Simply channel is a path through which data is transmitted. During the transmission of data, addition of
noise may occurs in channel .Noise reduces the quality of information to be transmitted. Although in
other components also noise may get added,channel is a common site of infection. Channel may be
wires ,air,gas,space etc.
Receiver:
It is to be noted that prior to the transmission, signals are modified for easy transmission. But before to
reach destination by them, are to be reflected into original signal and this process is done by receiver.
Hence receiver is a device to extract the transmitted information by transmitter. It works just opposite
to that of transmitter.
Destination:
This is the site where information is received. Purpose of communication system is to transmit the data
up to here.
Wired and Wireless Communication system:
a)Wired Communication system:
It is such communication system where data are transmitted over a wire.Wire are means of connection
between transmitter and receiver.In simple word communication system consisting wire as a channel is
known as wired communication system.According to the system established wire may be of different
construction and quality.Examples of such communication system are optical fibre communication,
telephone networks( landline), television cable etc.
The advantages of wired communication system are as following:
● Easy to establish and operate.
● Transmission speed is high.
● Chances of noise addition and signal loss is low.
● If problem encountered easy to trobleshoot.
● Many information can be transmitted within a single wire.
The disadvantages of wired communication system are as following:
● For large and huge distance, establishment cost is high eg. Sea and ocean
● No or li le flexibility in movement.
● Small problem may also cause large change in founda on.

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b)Wireless communication system:

It is such communication system where channel is air or space and connection between source and
receiver is without the use of wire.
Eg. Broadcasting services like FM, AM,TV etc
Mobile communication.
Satellite communication( microwave communication)
Infra-ray, Bluetooth.
Wireless LAN( WLAN) etc.
The advantages of wireless communication system are as following:
● Means of communication system for remote located receiver e.g. in high altitude mountains and
where wire connection is not possible like across ocean and sea etc.
● It provides more flexibility in movement.
● In broadcasting , satellite communication where wired communication is impossible and this system is
utmost.
The disadvantages of wireless system are as following:
● Transmission rate is slow.
● Difficult to set up and troubleshoot.
●It is more unsecure i.e. more vulnerable to get addition of noise.
●Packet data can be accessed from anywhere.
Electromagnetic wave(EMW) and Propagation:
It is a transverse wave having electric and magnetic field vectors.These two vectors are perpendicular to
themselves as well as perpendicular to the direction of propagation.It has no need of medium for
propagation and has speed of light in free space.
This wave is major means of communication. The diagram of electromagnetic wave is as following:

E( electric field)

y Direction of propagation

H( magnetic field)
The wave equation of electric field is given by:
= cos − μ ℰ
Where
=

μ ℰ =2 . =2 . = = ( ℎ )
i.e.
= cos( − )

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Similarly wave equation for magnetic field is given by:

ℰ
= cos( − )
μ
The velocity can be found as following:
− μ ℰ ( )
=

,1 − μ ℰ =0
, =
ℰ

Here, is the rate of change of distance with respect to time i.e. velocity.
And we know:
1
( )= = ( ℎ )
μ ℰ
Hence, the velocity of electromagnetic wave in free space is equal to the velocity of light.For medium
other than free space
= ∠
ℰ
Antenna:
Antenna is a physical means which converts electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal and vice-
versa.It means antenna can be used for both transmitting as well as receiving purpose.By construction it
is made up of metal elements, often wire or collection of wires.Thus antenna can be defined as:
The region of transition between a guided wave and a free space wave may be defined as an antenna.

Fig: use of an antenna

The properties of transmitting and receiving antenna are almost same.The difference between them is
that one generates while another receive i.e they operate on same function but from opposite direction.
Types of antenna:
Antenna can be classified according to the waveguide they produce or receive.Following are the some
types of antenna:
●Dipole antenna
i)Half Dipole antenna
ii) Folded dipole antenna.
●Loop
●Helix( Helical beam antenna)
●Reflector antenna.
●Horn antenna.
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● Slot and complementary antenna,etc

Parameters of antenna:
Following are the parameters of antenna:
a)Radiation pattern:
The response of an antenna as a function of direction is given by antenna pattern. Pattern consists of
number of lobes and the largest maximum lobe is called main lobe.
Some radiation patterns are of following types.

a) An isotropic b)Bidirectional c)Unidirectional

b)Antenna gain( or Directivity):

It is a ratio and is defined as:

=
ℎ
c)Antenna efficiency:
Antenna efficiency shows how much of the power delivered to the antenna by the transmitter get lost
with in antenna and hence it is defined as:
ℎ
( )=
ℎ ℎ .
d)Bandwidth:

It is defined as the angular separation

between two half power points of
radiation pattern.It is also called half
power beam width(HPBW).

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e)Terminal impedence(Radiation resistance):

It is defined as,

( )=
( )
f)Antenna temperature:
The temperature of the antenna also affect its capacity to transmit or receive the signals.
Modulation:
In order to make the better transmission some carrier waves are to be added to the intelligence (
information carrying) wave and the process is called modulation.Actually in modulation some
parameters/ characteristics of the carrier wave are changed eg. Amplitude, frequency, phase etc in
order to make same intensity to that of intelligence wave.Wave synthesized after adding carrier wave is
termed as modulated wave.Because of following reasons modulation is needed.
i)Practical antenna length:
It is the fact that in order to transmit a wave effectively , the length of transmitting antenna should be
approximately equal to the wavelength of the wave.
ii)Operating range:
As the frequency of transmitting wave decreases the field of transmission of it as well as transmission
efficiency also decreases. Thus, it is custom to modulate frequency and make better transmission.

iii)Wireless communication:
In order to make better communication specially in wireless communication frequency modulation is
done. Radiation of electrical energy is possible only at high frequencies( <20KHz )
iv)Reduce noise addition
Proper modulated wave is more secure to the addition of noise from external means.
Following are the types of modulations
a)Amplitude modulation:
The process of changing amplitude of high frequency carrier wave in accordance with intensity of the
intelligence wave is called amplitude modulation.During amplitude modulation there is no any change in
frequency.Amplitude modulation is done by an electronic circuit, called modulator.
( )= ( )

Limitations of amplitude modulation:

i)Noisy reception:
Many natural and man made electronic shock change the amplitude and hence most often received
signal is noisy.
ii)Low efficiency:
In amplitude modulation intelligence band are in sideways. On the other hand sidebands has low power
hence low efficiency.
iii)Small operating range:
Transmitter emitting amplitude modulated wave have small operating range.It is due to low efficiency of
amplitude modulation.
iv)Poor audio quality:
For the good audio quality audio waves of frequency at least 15KHz are to be produced.On the other
hand to reduce interference from other broadcasting stations,assigned highest frequency is 5KHz.Hence
in amplitude modulation there is poor audio quality.
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b)Frequency Modulation(FM):
The process of changing frequency of carrier wave in accordance with the intensity of the intelligence
wave is called frequency modulation(FM).During frequency modulation, amplitude of the modulated(i.e
carrier)wave is not changed.

= =

Unlike amplitude modulation , the modulation index( ) for frequency modulation can be greater than
‘1’.

Advantages of FM over AM:

i)Noiseless reception:
Noise is from amplitude variation and FM receiver always reject such signals/waves.

ii)Operating range:
The operating range of transmitter employing frequency modulation is large.

iii) High efficiency:

The efficiency of transmission is high for FM.

iv)High audio quality:

Because of high efficiency, high quality audio reception occurs.

Difference between FM and AM:

S.N Amplitude modulation(AM) S.N Frequency Modulation(FM)
1. The amplitude of carrier changes with 1. The amplitude of carrier remains constant
modulation. with modulation.
2. The carrier frequency remains constant with 2. The carrier frequency changes with
modulation. modulation.
3. The value of modulation factor(m)can not be 3. The value of modulation index(mf) can be
more than ‘1’ for distortion less AM-signal. more than ‘1’.

4. More vulnerable to noise, lightening and 4. No such noise and distortion occurs.
thundering.

Demodulation:
The process of recovering the audio(intelligence) signal from the modulated wave is known as
demodulation or detection.
Broadcasting and Communication:
Broadcasting:
It is a distribution of audio/video signal over a large number of receiver at a time.It is one way
communication.Information is transmitted from Broadcasting House and audience listen/watch it but
they do not transmit information to Broadcasting House.There is no restriction, wheather who can
receive it and who can not.It is open communication system.Thus, it is also called “One to many
communication system”.

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The simple block diagram of Broadcasting is as following.

Receiver
Receiver Receiver

Receiver Source Receiver

Receiver Receiver
Receiver

Fig:Block diagram of Broadcasting

Millions of Broadcasting House and Corporations are transmitting information into the air.The area
covered by them depends upon the system and equipment they employ. Some examples of
broadcasting houses are:
i)FM-stations.
ii)AM-stations.
iii)TV-stations.
BBC(British Broadcasting Corporation) is the largest broadcasting Media of the world.
Communication:
Communication is the exchange of information between two parties.It means both the parties can acts
as source or receiver according to the condition. Receiver can send it’s reactive information back to the
source.In communication usually only restricted people(parties) acts as source and receiver. It is
therefore bidirectional flow of information. Although parallel communication mode may or may not be
possible and hence, communication is categorized as simplex ( one way transmission)
,half-duplex ( two way but one at a time) and duplex( two way simultaneously) in mode.The block
diagram of communication can be constructed as following:

Source Receiver
Fig:Block diagram of communication
Internet:
Internet is world wide interconnection of computers such that they can share and collect information
from eachother.Or it can be defined as WAN(Wide Area Network) where all computers of the world are
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interconnected for sharing information and resources.It was established by connecting only 4-
computers in USA in 1969. Latter on, huge number of computers get interconnected and now
interconnection is of global type.Small networks such as academic network,Business
network,government network etc are also connected to internet.That is why some people also describe
it as networking between organizations.Internet is public global network.There is no central authority or
governing body running the internet.
Intranet:
An intranet is a company –wide network run along the lines of the World Wide Web making possible to
share documents, databases and applications.Simply it can be defined as networking with in an
organization which uses internet protocol to securitly share any part of organization’s
information.LAN(Local Area Network) connected to WWW(World Wide Web) is called intranet.Many
colleges and institutions have intranet and selected information is downloaded from the internet for
student to acess.
Optical fiber:
Optical fiber is a cable specially designed to transmit information from here and there in the principle of
reflection and refraction of light.It is cylindrical system and consists of core as center part while cladding
as a covering part.Both of these part are insulated inside a third layer called as Buffer coating or Jacket.
The diameter of the core ranges from 5 to 600 µm and that of cladding varies from 125 to 750 µm.The
length of optical fiber may be several meter long and can be joined one after another with the help of
connectors.It can be shown in the figure as following.

Buffer coat Cladding core

Fig: Optical fiber

Construction and working:

The fiber is so designed that refractive index of core is always greater than cladding. In the optical fiber
information are transmitted all in the form of light signal.The transmission of the light signals occurs
entirely through core. There is continuous reflection of signal from core cladding interface. Basically
optical fiber are of following types:
a)Step index optical fiber:
In this optical fiber refractive index of both core and cladding is fixed. Hence, there is noticeable
boundary between core and cladding. In this type of optical cable transmission is done by reflection and
hence, there is chance of losing signals due to splitting.
b)Graded index optical fiber:

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In this optical fiber , refractive index of core gradually decreases in radial fashion. Because of this , there
is no clear boundary between core and cladding.In graded index optical fiber transmission loss is low,
because of self focusing.
Advantages of optical fiber communication:
● Greater bandwidth or capacity.
● No or very little signal loss over long transmission.
● Noise and interference is very little.
● Resistant to external environment.
● Optical fibers are light and flexible.
● No or negligible cross talk.
● Transmission occurs in terms of light waves not by electrical waves thus, it is safer.
● Life span of op cal fiber is large( i.e 20 to 30 yrs).
● Adjustable in high temperature also.
● Easy to maintain and replace.
● System establishment economy is relatively low.

µ1 µ2

125 to 5 to
750µm 600µm
cladding core

Fig: Light propagation in optical fiber

The general block diagram of optical fiber communication is as following.

Source Electrical Optical Optical fiber

transmitter Source

Destination Electrical Optical

Receiver Detector

Fig:Block diagram of optical fiber communication

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