ECET412a

Principles of Communications Course

Course information

 Scope of the course

 Principles of Communications /
 (Communications Engg 1)

 Resources
 Lectures and Announcements posted in Yahoo Group
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ecet412a_dlsud_2014_1
 Course Syllabus
 Reading Materials

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE 2

 Resources
 Course material
 Course text book:
 Carlson, B., Crilly P. (2010). Communications Systems: An
Introduction to Signals and Noise in Electrical
Communication. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

 Additional recommended books

 Electronic Communications Systems W. Tomasi. Prentice Hall, 4th ed
2001 (or 5th edition, 2004)

 Material accessible from course yahoo group:

 Message Posts
 Lecture slides (.ppt, pdf)
 Assignments

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 3

Scope of the course …

 Course Outline (May change depending on period

time constraints)

 Introduction - (Prelims)
 Fourier Series, Fourier Transforms and Continuous
Spectra – (Prelims)
 Signal Transmission and Filtering - (Midterms)
 Linear CW Modulation - (Midterms )
 Exponential CW Modulation (Finals)

4
Lecturer
 Course responsible and lecturer and giving
tutorials:
 Joel C. Delos Angeles
 Office: CEAT – CTH 214
 Consultation Hours:
 Tuesday/Thursday (please advise beforehand)
(2 to 4 PM)
 Email: joeldelosangeles@yahoo.com;
jcdelosangeles@dlsud.edu.ph

5
Lecture 1

ECET412a
Principles of Communications Course
Lecture 1
Introduction

Primary Reference Book: Carlson Chapter 1

Tomasi Chapter 1
 In Lec 1, we are going to talk about:

 Introduction

 Elements of Communications Systems

 Modulation and Coding

 Historical Perspective and Societal Impact

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 7

 Background and Objectives
 Since information transfer is the same basic
function of all communication systems, we will:

 Seek out and isolate the principles and problems of

conveying information in electrical form
 Examine these principles in sufficient depth to develop
analysis and design methods suited to a wide range of
applications

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 8

 Communication Link as Systems

 What are transducers?

 For our purposes, we will use the terms message and
signal interchangeably

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 9

 Information, Messages and Signals
 Message – the physical manifestation of
information as produced by the source
 Analog message - a physical quantity that varies in a
smooth and continuous fashion.
 Examples: acoustic pressure, angular position of a gyro, or the
light intensity at some point in a TV.
 Requires a specified degree of fidelity
 Digital message - an ordered sequence of symbols
selected from a finite set of discrete elements.
 Examples of digital messages are the printed letters, a listing of
hourly temperature readings, or the keys you press on a
computer keyboard.
 Requires a degree of accuracy in a specified amount of time.
 Message type determines criterion for successful
communication
Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 10
 Elements of a Communication System

 Transmitter signal processing involves modulation and

may also include coding.
 Channel - Transmission loss or attenuation of signal
power
 Receiver – operations include amplification,
demodulation, decoding, filtering
Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 11
 Elements of a Communication System

 Distortion - waveform perturbation caused by imperfect

response of the system to the desired signal itself.
 If the channel has a linear but distorting response, then distortion
may be corrected, or at least reduced, with the help of special
filters called equalizers.

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 12

 Elements of a Communication System

 Interference - is contamination by extraneous signals

from human sources, other transmitters, power lines and
machinery, switching circuits, and so on.
 Addressed by filtering techniques

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 13

 Elements of a Communication System

 Transmission Types
 Simplex
 Full-duplex
 Half-duplex

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 14

 Fundamental Limitations
 Technological Problems- can be solved in theory
even though perfect solutions may be impractical
 Hardware availability
 Economic Factors
 Governmental Regulations
 Physical Limitations
 Subject to laws of nature – what can and cannot be
achieved
 Bandwidth (C or I is the information capacity in bps)
 Noise

Hartley-Shannon Law

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 15

 Fundamental Limits
 When a signal changes rapidly with time, its
frequency content, or spectrum, extends over a
wide range, and we say that the signal has a large
bandwidth.
 Similarly, the ability of a system to follow signal
variations is reflected in its usable frequency
response, or transmission bandwidth. Now all
electrical systems contain energy-storage
elements, and stored energy cannot be changed
instantaneously. Consequently, every
communication system has a finite bandwidth B
that limits the rate of signal variations.

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 16

 Modulation
 Modulating Signal + Carrier Wave

 Continuous-wave modulation – methods for

sinusoidal carrier modulation (e.g. speech)
 Modulation Benefits and Applications
1) For Efficient Transmission – antennas for line-of-
sight requires at least 1/10 of signal wavelength
2) To overcome hardware limitations – minimize cost
if fractional bandwidth (absolute bandwidth /
center frequency) is kept within 1 to 10%
3) To reduce noise and interference (wideband noise
reduction – using much greater transmission
bandwidth than the bandwidth of modulating
signal)
4) For frequency assignment
5) For multiplexing / multiple access

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 18

 Coding Methods and Benefits
• Coding is a symbol-processing operation for
improved communication when the information is
digital or can be approximated in the form of
discrete symbols (e.g. binary codeword)

• Channel Coding – involves error detection or

correction

• Source Coding – involves encoding fewer bits

than the original message or its representation
(eg. Compression)

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 19

 Electromagnetic Spectrum

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 20

 Electromagnetic Wave Propagation

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 21

 Electromagnetic Wave Propagation

Skywave propagation uses the ionosphere (reflection)

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 22

 Electromagnetic Wave Propagation

Multipath interference can be an advantage or

disadvantage for signal propagation

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 23

 Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
• Refraction – wave velocity changes when passing
from one medium to another

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 24

 Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
• Refraction – wave velocity changes when passing
from one medium to another

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction 25

 “Engineers are the agents of social change”
 Quote from : Daitch - “Introduction to College
Engineering”

 Reading assignment : Societal Impact and

Historical perspective

Joel C. Delos Angeles B.S. ECE Lecture 1: Introduction

Lecture 2

ECET412a
Principles of Communications Course
Lecture 2
Signals and Continuous Spectra Fourier Analysis

Primary Reference Book: Carlson Chapter 2

Tomasi Chapter 1
Signal Analysis – Time and Freq Domain
 Amplitude versus time
 Amplitude versus frequency
A
Vpeak ?

1/f
time
? freq

Time domain Freq domain

Signal Analysis – Phase spectrum
 Phase versus frequency

A ?

? freq
Φ
?

Time domain ? freq

Exercise: Signal Analysis
 Get one-sided/positive-frequency line spectra of:
Signal Analysis - Two-sided Spectrum
 More valuable: From Euler’s Theorem
Signal Analysis - Exercise:
1) Get two-sided frequency line spectra of:

2) ) Get two-sided frequency line spectra of:

Signal Analysis – Phase spectrum
 Phase versus frequency

A ?

? freq
Φ
?

Time domain ? freq

Signal Analysis – Fourier Series Concept
 Decompose periodic signals into sum of sinusoids.
Let v(t) be a power signal (i.e. power is non-zero)
with period T0 = 1/f0

Where:
Signal Analysis – Alternative Fourier Expression

a0  
f (t )    an cos(n0t )   bn sin( n0t )
2 n1 n 1

NOTE: Read on Fourier Series Discussion in

Tomasi (Signal Analysis Section) especially
Fourier Series Summary table
Application: ECET412La
Signal Analysis – The Sinc Function

Incidentally, τ/T0 equals the

duty cycle
 Over one period
Signal Analysis – The Sinc Function
 Incidentally, τ/T0 is the duty cycle

 Exercise: Sketch the amplitude spectrum of a rectangular pulse train for

each of the following cases: τ =T0/5, τ =T0/2, τ = T0. In the last case the
pulse train degenerates into a constant for all time; how does this show
up in the spectrum? To what value does the period approach?
Signal Analysis – Parseval’s Power Theorem

 The average power can be found by squaring and

adding the heights c(nf0) of the amplitude lines
(superposition of average power)

 Compute for signal power of the following (R=1Ω)

– check using RMS computation:
Fourier Transforms and CONTINUOUS Spectra

 Emphasized here is continuous in contrast to

discrete (in Signals and Spectra subject)
 Difference between Fourier Transforms vs Fourier
Series? Or when to use one or the other?
 What are non-periodic energy signals? What value
does the period approach?

Fourier Transform

Inverse Fourier Transform

Fourier Transforms and CONTINUOUS Spectra

 Rectangular Pulse (function defined below – also

known as rect() function

 If

then
Fourier Transforms: Reciprocal Spreading

 Short pulses have broad spectra, and long pulses have

narrow spectra

 This phenomenon, called reciprocal spreading, is a

general property of all signals, pulses or not, because
high-frequency components are demanded by rapid time
variations while smoother and slower time variations
require relatively little high-frequency content
Fourier Transforms – Rayleigh’s Energy Theorem
 Integrating the square of the amplitude spectrum
over all frequency yields the total energy

 So |V(f)|2 is the energy spectral density. You may

choose between time and frequency domain when
solving for power (Parseval’s) or energy (Rayleigh’s)
Fourier Transforms – Rayleigh’s Energy Theorem

 While total pulse energy is

E = A2τ
 We can band-limit the spectrum to
Fourier Transforms – Theorems
 Theorems are useful in order to generate transform
pairs without going through the difficulty of
evaluating the Fourier integral
 Duality Theorem, if

 Then

 PROVE below: (Note difficulty of perfect bandwidth limit

in the frequency domain)
Fourier Transforms – Theorems
 Superposition theorem simply states that linear
combinations in the time domain become linear
combinations in the frequency domain.
Fourier Transforms
 Common Signal Fourier Transforms
Fourier Transforms – Theorems
 Frequency Translation and Modulation - multiplying a
signal by a sinusoid translates its spectrum up and down in
frequency by fc.

• Problem: Sketch the spectra of z(t)

Differentiation and Integration Theorems
 Differentiation Theorem

 Integration Theorem

IF

 NOTE: Differentiation enhances the high-frequency

components of a signal. Integration suppresses
them.
Impulses and Transforms in the Limit
 The unit impulse of Dirac delta function has unit
area (area = 1) concentrated at the discrete point
t=0

• Problem: What is the graphical representation of

Aδ(t - td)?
Impulses and Transforms in the Limit

• What are the implications in the frequency domain?

• IMAGINE: A unit impulse to have an area of 1 must
have “infinite” amplitude
Impulses in Frequency Domain
Impulses in Frequency Domain
 A constant (DC) signal has no time variation and its
spectral content ought to be confined to f = 0

• How about application of duality theorem? What does it

imply?
Impulses in Time
 An impulsive signal with “zero” duration has infinite
spectral width, whereas a constant signal with
infinite duration has “zero” spectral width.
(extremes of reciprocal spreading). Using duality or
let τ 0 in

then
Symmetric and Causal Signals
 Time-Symmetry Properties

thus,

where
even part of v(t)

odd part of v(t)

Symmetric and Causal Signals
 Note that if v(t) is real,

so,

 When v(t) has time symmetry

either even where v(-t) = v(t)

or odd where v(-t) = -v(t)

Symmetric and Causal Signals
 Causal Signals – defined by the property that

and precludes any time symmetry. Its

spectrum contains both real and imaginary
parts (unlike time-symmetric signals).

resembles

where

 Thus, if v(t) is a causal energy signal, you can get

the Fourier transform V(f) from the Laplace
transform by letting s = j2πf
Problems:
 Plot the phase spectrum of rect (t/Ʈ)

 Find V(f) and plot the amplitude and phase

spectrum for

Hint:

 Exercise 2.2-2:
Problems:
 Plot the phase spectrum of rect (t/Ʈ)

 Find V(f) and plot the amplitude and phase

spectrum for

Hint:

 Exercise 2.2-2:
Problems:
 Find the Fourier Transform of a triangular pulse

given that

using the integration theorem

Problems:
 Prove that the Fourier Series coefficients cn for the
periodic signal below is as follows. One period is
drawn here.

 Prob 2.2-1

 Compare “decay” of the spectrum of a cosine pulse

versus a rectangular pulse.
Problems:
 Show that V(f) for v(t) is as follows (note Π() is
same as rect()

 Prob 2.2-5

 Apply time-delay theorem to

Problems:
 Prob 2.3-10. Plot z(t) and

given

 Preview of Digital Signal Processing: