Communication System Engineering

Chapter 1:
Introduction to Analog and Digital
Communications

Lectured by Prof. Dr. Thuong Le-Tien

Cell: 0903 787 989
Email: thuongle@hcmut.edu.vn

Slides with references from HUT Finland, La Hore uni.,

Mc. Graw Hill Co., and A.B. Carlson’s Communication Systems,

September 2024
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Communications
◼ Communications = Information Conveying

◼ Telecommunications = Communications in
most current aspects
◼ The course is about communications based
on signal concepts in electrical engineering
◼ Limited to information in electrical forms
◼ Primarily cover information transfer at signals and
systems levels
◼ little deal with circuits, chips, signal processing,
microprocessors, protocols, and networks

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 What exactly is information.
◼ Information is a word that is too
generic for different purposes
◼ One of them uses the word “message”
◼ A physical manifestation of information
◼ What do communication systems have
to do with messages or informations
◼ Communication systems are responsible for
producing an “acceptable replica” of
message/information at the destination

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 Classify signals
◼ Messages or in term of signals can be classified in various ways:
Periodic/Non-periodic; Deterministic/Random; Energy/Power;
Even/Odd signals. The most common one in Communication
Systems can deal with analog/digital groups
◼ Analog
◼ A physical quantity that varies with “time”, usually in a
smooth or continuous fashion
◼ Fidelity describes how close is the received signal to the
original signal. Fidelity defines acceptability
◼ Digital
◼ An ordered sequence of symbols selected from a finite set
of discrete elements
◼ When digital signals are sent through a communication
system, degree of accuracy within a given time defines the
acceptability

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Examples for basic definitions
◼ Analog Signals
◼ Values are taken from an
infinite set
t

◼ Digital Signals
◼ Values are taken from a
discrete set
t
◼ Binary Signals 1 1 1
◼ Digital signals with just
two discrete values 0 0 0 0

t
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Elements of Communication Systems
n( t ) 
m( t ) (Modulator)
s( t )
m(t )
Analog h( t ) Demodulator
or Digital

Transmitter Channel Receiver

*Modulati *Attenuation *Detection (Demod+Decod)
on *Noise *Filtering (Equalization)
*Coding *Distortion
*Interference
*Fading
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 Transmitter
◼ What does modulation do:
◼ Modulate messages (analog) or Encode bits
(digital) into amplitude, frequency, or phase
of a carrier signal.
◼ Also makes transmitted signal robust against
channel impairments (Noise, Interferences,
Fading, Distortions, etc.)
◼ Coding in digital communication systems
◼ Source coding – remove redundancy
◼ Channel coding – add redundancy, lower BER
◼ Encryption Coding – hide information
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 MODULATIONS

Analog Digital
Modulation Modulation

AM PM Analog Carrier- Analog Signal-

FM
Digital Signal Digital Carrier

P
AS FS PS QA PC D PP
AM-C DSB SSB VSB W
K K K M M M M
M

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Example about Modulations

(c)
(a) Modulating Signal; (b) Sinusoidal carrier with amplitude modulation
(c) Pulse-train carrier with amplitude modulation
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 Channels
◼ Channel introduces impairments
◼ Noise

◼ Thermal noise is the most significant

◼ Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN)

◼ Distortion

◼ Inter-symbol interference (ISI)

◼ Attenuation and fading

◼ Constant attenuation

◼ Variable attenuation

◼ Interference

◼ Crosstalk
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 Receiver
◼ What does Demodulation/Detection do:
◼ Extracts messages (analog systems) or bits (digital

systems) from the received signal

◼ Mitigates channel impairments by making use of

equalizers for both Analog and Digital Communications

◼ Decodes the signal, especially if channel coding was

performed at the transmitter

(a) Transmitted signal

(b) Effects of distortion
(c) Effects of interference
(d) Effects of noise

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Fundamental Limitations
◼ If practical implementation is not a concern and we
don’t worry about feasibility, is there something else
that limits acceptable communications?
◼ Bandwidth
◼ Channel must be able to allow signals to pass
through
◼ Channels usually have limited bandwidths

◼ Can we reduce signal bandwidths: By pre-processing

at source (reduce redundancy, compression, etc.)
◼ Noise
◼ Can be reduce it by - Filters

◼ Can be reduce its effects? - Equalizers

◼ Signal processing at the transmitter and receiver

◼ Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): Match Filters

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Performance Criterion
◼ How a “good” communication system can be
differentiated from a “sloppy” one?
◼ For analog communications

◼ How close is m(t ) to m( t ): Fidelity!

◼ SNR is typically used as a performance metric

◼ For digital communications

◼ Data rate and probability of error (BER)

◼ SNR as well

◼ No channel impairments → no errors

◼ With noise, error probability/SNR depend upon

data rate, signal and noise powers, modulation
scheme, etc.
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Limits on data rates
◼ Shannon obtained formulas that provide
fundamental limits on data rates (1948)
◼ Without channel impairments, an infinite data
rate is achievable with probability of error
approaching zero
◼ For bandlimited AWGN channels, the
“capacity” of a channel is:

C = B log2(1+SNR) = 3.32B log10(1+SNR) Bits/second

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 MODULATION FOR MULTIPLEXING
Multiplexing is the process of combining several
signals for simultaneous transmission on a channel.
Three major groups of Multiplexing techniques.
•Frequency–Division Multiplexing, FDM, uses CW
modulation to put each signal on a different carrier
frequency.
•Time-Division Multiplexing, TDM, uses pulse
modulation to put Samples of different signals in
nonoverlapping time slots
•Code-Division Multiple Access, CDMA, assigns a
unique code to each Digital (cellular) user

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Electromagnetic wave propagation over
wireless channels
Line of Sight and Sky
wave propagations

E and F layers of Ionosphere

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Multipath interference caused by a signal being reflected
off the terrain and a building

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Example: PSTN, ADSL
◼ Public Switched Telephone Network, (PSTN)
◼ Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
◼ Components
◼ Phone set (analog signal is generated), MODEM
◼ Local exchange (A/D conversion)
◼ Long-haul exchange
◼ Characteristics
◼ Circuit-switched network
◼ Designed for voice communications and Internet
◼ Faxes and modems use PSTN for transmission of
digital data in analog form
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Example: PSTN
Long distance line International
Local exchange International line
exchange

Long distance
Local line exchange
Long distance
Long distance line users

Local
exchange

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ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

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Example: Cellular phones

PSTN
MTSO

MTSO

MTSO: Mobile Telephone

Switching Office

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Example: Cellular
◼ Cellular Communication System
◼ A cell is assigned some number of channels
◼ Typically one channel is allocated to a user
◼ Users communicate with a base station
◼ Base station is connected to MTSO/PSTN
◼ AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System, 1st
generation) is an analog system, uses FM and
frequency-division multiple access
◼ Digital systems use digital modulations, D-AMPS
(2nd generation); GSM (2nd genration up); CDMA
(3rd generation up)

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 Standard phones: using Circuit Switching

Internet phones: Voice over IP using packet switching

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Example: Radio broadcasts
◼ Two popular modes are used in analog
broadcasting communication systems
◼ AM
◼ Amplitude modulation
◼ 600-1600kHz (MW), 1600kHz-22MHz (SW)
◼ 10kHz channels
◼ FM
◼ Frequency modulation
◼ 88-108MHz (FCC)
◼ Channels centered at 200kHz intervals starting at
88.1MHz

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 Software radio receiver

Software radio receiver implemented FPGA

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Example: Wireless LANs
◼ Various standards
◼ IEEE 802.11a/b/g popular
◼ IEEE 802.11b
◼ 11Mb/s data rate
◼ 2.4-2.4835GHz band
◼ Modulation: Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS),
Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS)
◼ IEEE 802.11a
◼ 55Mb/s data rate
◼ 5.725-5.825GHz band (in U.S.)
◼ Uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)

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Example: LANs and WANs
◼ Local Area Networks (LANs)
◼ Connect “closely” located computers
◼ Data bits are transmitted in chunks (packets) for
efficiency/feasibility reasons
◼ Various LAN protocols are used in practice
◼ Wide Area Networks (WANs)
◼ A wide area backbone network connects different
LANs
◼ A standard protocol is needed for such
communication (TCP/IP)

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Example: Ad Hoc Networks
◼ Various devices connected to each other
without using an infrastructure
◼ Sensor Networks
◼ Similar to ad hoc Networks (may be considered a special
case of ad hoc networks)
◼ Have power constraints (Use non-rechargeable battery)
◼ Mesh Networks
◼ Another example of ad hoc networks
◼ Used for provide communications to remote areas

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Media and Signal Spectra

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