CHAPTER II TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS

Transmission is the process of transporting information between end points of a system or

network. The end-to-end communication distance is often very long and there are many electrical
systems on the line. These systems, network elements such as exchanges, are connected to the
other elements with connections provided by the transmission systems. In this topic we discuss
the basic restrictions and requirements for transmission and the characteristics of various
transmission media and equipment used in the telecommunications core network.

2.1 BASIC CONCEPT OF A TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

In this first section we look at the basic elements present in all transmission systems. We
introduce the basic functions of these elements and discuss their roles for the successful
transmission of information.

2.1.1 Elements of a Transmission System

The main elements of a communication system are shown in Figure 2.1. The transducers,
such as a microphone or a TV camera that we need to convert an original signal to an electrical
form are omitted; unwanted disturbances such as electromagnetic interference and noise are
included. Note that bidirectional communication requires another system for simultaneous
transmission in the opposite direction.

Figure 2.1 Basic concept of transmission system.

2.1.1.1 Transmitter

The transmitter processes the input signal and produces a transmitted signal suitable to
the characteristics of a transmission channel. The signal processing for transmission often

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involves encoding and modulation. In the case of optical transmission, the conversion from an
electrical signal format to an optical one is carried out in the transmitter.

2.1.1.2 Transmission Channel

The transmission channel is an electrical medium that bridges the distance from the source
to the destination. It may be a pair of wires, a coaxial cable, a radio path, or an optical fiber.
Every channel introduces some amount of transmission loss or attenuation and, therefore, the
transmitted power progressively decreases with increasing distance. The signal is also distorted
in the transmission channel because of different attenuation at different frequencies.

Signals usually contain components at many frequencies and if some are attenuated and some are
not, the shape of the signal changes. This change is known as distortion. Note that a transmission
channel often includes many speech or data channels that are multiplexed into the same cable
pair or fiber.

2.1.1.3 Receiver

The receiver operates on an output signal from the channel in preparation for delivery to
the transducer at the destination. Receiver operations include filtering to take away out-of-band
noise, amplification to compensate for transmission loss, equalizing to compensate for distortion
(different attenuation of frequency components), and demodulation and decoding to reverse the
signal processing performed at the transmitter.

2.1.1.4 Noise, Distortion, and Interference

Various unwanted factors impact the transmission of a signal. Attenuation is undesirable

because it reduces signal strength at the receiver. Even more serious problems are distortion,
interference, and noise, the last of which appears as alterations of the signal shape.

To decrease the influence of noise, the receiver always includes a filter that passes through only
the frequency band of message frequencies and disables the propagation of out-of-band noise.

2.2 SIGNALS CARRIED OVER THE NETWORK

Services that the telecommunications networks provide have different characteristics.

Required characteristics depend on the applications we use. To understand the present structure
of the telecommunications network, we have to understand what types of signals are transmitted
through the telecommunications network and their requirements. In this section we look at the
requirements of various applications, characteristics of analog voice channels, fundamental
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differences between analog and digital signals, analog-to-digital conversion, and a logarithmic
measure of signal level, the decibel.

2.2.1 Types of Information and Their Requirements

Modern digital networks transmit digital information transparently; that is, the network
does not necessarily need to know what kind of information the data contain. This information
that is transmitted through the network may be any one of the following:

• Speech (telephony, fixed, or cellular);

• Moving images (television or video);

• Printed pages or still picture (facsimile or multimedia messaging);

• Text (electronic mail or short text messaging);

• Music;

• All types of computer information such as program files.

For digital transmission, analog signals such as speech are encoded into digital form and
transmitted through the network as a sequence of bits in the same way computer files are
transmitted. However, although all information is coded into digital form, the transmission
requirements are highly dependent on the application; because of these different requirements,
different networks and technologies are in use. Video and e-mail applications, for example, require
different architectures. Network technologies have taken two main development paths: one for
speech services and another for data services. The telephone network and ISDN have been
developed for constant-bit-rate voice communication that is well suited to speech transmission.
Data networks such as LANs and the Internet have been developed for bursty data transmission.

2.3 SIMPLEX, HALF-DUPLEX, AND FULL-DUPLEX COMMUNICATION

In telecommunications systems the transmission of information may be unidirectional or

bidirectional. The unidirectional systems that transmit in one direction only are called simplex,
and the bidirectional systems that are able to transmit in both directions are called duplex
systems. We can implement bidirectional information transfer with half- or full-duplex
transmission as shown in Figure 2.1.

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In simplex operation the signal is transmitted in one direction only. An example of this principle
is broadcast television, where TV signals are sent

Figure 2.2 Simplex, half-duplex, and full-duplex transmission.

from a transmitter to TV sets only and not in the other direction. Another example is a paging
system that allows a user to receive only alphanumerical messages.

In half-duplex operation the signal is transmitted in both directions but only in one direction at
a time. An example of this is a mobile radio system where the person speaking must indicate by
saying the word over that she is done transmitting and the other person is allowed to transmit.
LANs use a high-speed, half-duplex transmission over the cable even though users may feel that
the communication is continuously bidirectional, that is, full duplex.

In full-duplex operation signals are transmitted in both directions at the same time. An example
of this is an ordinary telephone conversation where it is possible for both people to speak
simultaneously. Most modern telecommunications systems use the full-duplex principle, which we
call duplex operation for short.

2.3 FREQUENCY AND BANDWIDTH

To understand the requirements of different applications for a telecommunications

network, we must understand the fundamental concepts of frequency and bandwidth. The
information that we transmit through a telecommunications network, whether it is analog or

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digital, is in the form of electrical voltage or current. The value of this voltage or current changes
through time, and this alteration contains information.

The transmitted signal (the alteration of voltage or current) consists of multiple frequencies.
The range of frequencies is called the bandwidth of the signal. The bandwidth is one of the most
important characteristics of analog information and it is also the most important limiting factor
for the data rate of digital information transfer.

2.3.1 Frequency

We can see the telecommunications signal as a combination of many cosine or sine waves
with different strengths and frequencies. The frequency refers to the number of cycles through
which the wave oscillates in a second.

In electrical terms, an alternating current (ac) changes its direction of flow several times
per second. This variation in direction is known as a cycle, and the term frequency refers to the
number of cycles in a second that is measured in hertz. If a signal has 1,000 complete cycles in a
second, then its frequency is 1,000 Hz or 1 kHz.

A pure sine wave, like that shown in Figure 2.3, is generated with a loop of wire rotated in a
magnetic field at a constant rate. This fundamental waveform can be seen as a cosine of the angle
of the phase rotating at a constant rate. The strength of the voltage or current alters according
to the cosine curve when time increases. The length of the phase corresponds to the maximum
value of the signal and it is called amplitude, shown as A in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.2 Cosine wave and frequency.

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We can see any telecommunications signal as a sum of these fundamental waveform cosine waves
that are expressed as

v(t) = Acos(ωt+φ) = Acos(2πft +φ) (2.1)

where f is frequency, the number of complete cycles in a second expressed in hertz, 1 Hz = 1/sec;
t is time in seconds, and φ is the phase shift (phase of the cosine wave at time instant t = 0). The
angular frequency ω in radians per second is ω = 2πf, which comes from the fact that one
complete cycle of a phase makes up an angle of 2π radians.

The periodic time or period T in seconds represents the time of one complete cycle:

T = 1/f and f = 1/T (2.2)

Wavelength λ represents the propagation distance in one cycle time, thus,

λ = c/f = cT (2.3)

where c is the velocity of the signal. For a sound wave, the velocity in the air is approximately
346 m/s; for light or radio waves, approximately, c = 300,000 km/sec.

2.3.2 Bandwidth

The voice signal, which is the most common message in telecommunications network, does
not look similar to a pure cosine wave in Figure 2.3. It contains many cosine waves with different
frequencies, amplitudes, and phases combined together. The range of frequencies that is needed
for a good enough quality of voice, so that the speaker can be recognized, was defined to be the
range from 300 to 3,400 Hz. This means that the bandwidth of the telephone channel through
the network is 3,400 – 300 Hz = 3.1 kHz.

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 Figure 2.3 Bandwidth of the telephone speech channel.

As shown in Figure 2.3. A human voice contains much higher frequencies, but this bandwidth was
defined as a compromise between quality and cost. It is wide enough to recognize the speaker,
which was one requirement for telephone channel. Bandwidth is not strictly limited in practice,
but signal attenuation increases heavily at the lower and upper cutoff frequencies. For speech,
channel cutoff frequencies are 300 and 3.4 Hz, as shown in Figure 2.3. The bandwidth is normally
measured from the points where the signal power drops to half from its maximum power.
Attenuation or loss of channel is given as a logarithmic measure called a decibel (dB), and half
power points correspond to a 3-dB loss. Bandwidth, together with noise, is the major factor that
determines the information-carrying capacity of a telecommunications channel. The term
bandwidth is often used instead of data rate because they are closely related.

2.4 ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS

Most of the systems in the modern telecommunications network are digital instead of
analog. In this section we look at the fundamental characteristics of analog and digital signals and
how they influence the performance and operation of telecommunications systems.

2.4.1 Analog and Digital Signals

The difference between analog and digital form is easily understood by looking at the two
watches in Figure 2.4. A true analog watch has hands that are constantly moving and always show

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the exact time. A digital watch displays “digits” and the display jumps from second to second and
shows only discrete values of time.

Another example could be the slope of analog voltage where all values of voltage can be measured
as shown in Figure 2.4. In “digital slope,” only discrete values may be measured. In the example
of the figure, we have eight discrete values, 0 to 7, in the digital slope. This does not mean that
the digital systems perform worse than analog systems. If we want to improve the accuracy of
the digital system, we just increase the number of steps and, in principle, any voltage level can be
represented with the digital system as well.

Figure 2.4 Analog and digital signals.

2.4.2 Advantages of Digital Technology

Analog systems in a telecommunications network have gradually been replaced with digital
systems. Development of digital circuits and software technologies has made digital systems more
and more attractive. The most important advantages of digital technology over analog technology
are as follows:

• Digital functions make a high scale of integration possible.

• Digital technology results in lower cost, better reliability, less floor space, and lower
power consumption.

• Digital technology makes communication quality independent of distance.

• Digital technology provides better noise tolerance.

• Digital networks are ideal for growing data communication

• Digital technology makes new services available.

• Digital system provides high transmission capacity.

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 • Digital networks offer flexibility.

An analog system requires the accurate detection of signal values inside its dynamic range,
that is, between the maximum and minimum values of the signal. Digital systems use binary signals
internally. A binary signal has only two values, and the only problem is to distinguish these two
values from each other. The dynamic range is well defined and linearity is not required.

This makes the elements of digital circuits simple, and the utilization of compact technology for
very complicated functions, such as integrated circuits, is feasible.

As a consequence, circuit integration leads to a smaller number of electronic components, smaller

equipment; lower manufacturing costs, lower maintenance costs because of better reliability, and
less power consumption.

More and more complex integrated circuits are replacing many lower scale integrated circuits.
This decreases system costs, because the increased complexity of components does not cost
much in volume. When integrated circuits are manufactured in volume, complex ones do not cost
much more than less complex circuits. In addition, the smaller number of separate components
gives better reliability.

In long-distance connections, we have to amplify or regenerate the signal on the line many times.
When we amplify an analog signal on the line, we amplify noise at the same time. This added noise
decreases the quality of an analog signal, that is, decreases the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio.

In the case of a digital system we use regenerators or repeaters instead of amplifiers.

Repeaters regenerate the signal symbol by symbol, that is, transmit further the value that is
closest to the received value. The regenerated signal is a sequence of digital symbols with nominal
values and thus it contains no noise. If the noise is low in the input of each regenerator, symbols
of the digital signal are regenerated without errors and we receive exactly the same digital
message on the other side of the world as it was at the transmitting end. The operation of a
digital repeater or regenerator will be described later.

Modern switches digitize speech in the subscriber interface. If the path through the
network is fully digital, conversion back to analog is done only at the far end. There is only one
analog-to-digital and one digital-to-analog conversion regardless of the communication distance,
that is, whether we make a call to our neighbor or to other side of the world.

The digital systems have to identify only signals from a set of discrete values. If symbols
are not mixed because of too high a noise level, noise does not have any impact on the operation.
Analog communication usually requires a much better S/N than low error rate digital
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communication. As a consequence, digital systems can utilize channels with much higher noise
levels and they can tolerate higher interference than analog systems.

If the network is analog, a digital message has to be modulated into the frequency band of
the analog telecommunications channel. This reduces the capacity available for the user. For
example, a voice channel in the digital telephone network has a data capacity of 64 Kbps. If we
use it via an analog subscriber loop with a voice-band modem, the data rate is restricted in
practice to approximately 30 Kbps. With a digital subscriber line (DSL) (e.g., ISDN), the user
data are exactly the same 64 Kbps used inside the network.

2.4.3.1 Information, Messages, and Signals

The concept of information is central to communication. However, information is a loaded

word, implying schematic and philosophical notions and, therefore, we prefer to use the word
message instead. Message means the physical manifestation of information produced by a source.
Systems handling messages convert them into electrical signals suitable, for example, for a
certain transmission media.

2.4.3.2 Analog Message

An analog message is a physical quantity that varies through time, usually in a smooth and
continuous fashion. Examples of analog messages are acoustic pressure produced when you speak.
One example of an analog message is the voice current on a conventional subscriber telephone line
as illustrated in Figure 2.5.

2.4.3.3 Digital Message

A digital message is an ordered sequence of symbols selected from a finite set of discrete
elements. Examples of digital messages are the letters printed on this page or the keys you press
at a computer keyboard. When you press a key at your computer keyboard, each key stroke
represents a digital message that is then encoded into a set of bits for binary transmission.

Because the information resides in discrete symbols, a digital communication system should
deliver these symbols with a specified degree of accuracy in a specified amount of time. The main
concern in the system design is that symbols remain unchanged, which is the final requirement
for transmission accuracy.

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 Figure 2.5 Examples of messages.

We need modems for the transmission of digital messages over analog channels. The
modems receive a message from the terminal in the form of binary data and send it as an analog
waveform to the speech channel as shown in Figure 2.5. Current modems do not modulate or
change the analog waveform at the rate of the binary data they receive from the terminal.

Instead they encode a set of bits into a digital symbol that may get many more values than just
two. Each multilevel symbol corresponds to a set of bits and it is sent as one analog waveform to
the line. When receiving a certain analog signal on the other end, the receiver detects a set of
bits defined to correspond to that signal.

When a digital network is used to transmit digital messages, signals are in digital form from end
to end. Instead of a modem, a network terminal is needed at the subscriber’s premises to encode
binary signals into digital pulses suitable for cable transmission to an exchange site.

2.5 POWER LEVELS OF SIGNALS AND DECIBELS

In this final section on signals we explain the decibel, a measure of signal level and its change. We
use this logarithmic measure or its variants in the telecommunications network for many purposes,
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for example, to express the voice level or the transmission and reception power of radio systems,
such as mobile telephones, or an optical line system.

2.5.1 Decibel, Gain, and Loss

Along the long-distance communication connection or channel, the power of the signal is reduced
and amplified over and over again. The signal power needs to be rigidly controlled to keep it high
enough in relation to background noise and low enough to avoid system overload and resulting
distortion.

The reduction of signal strength, loss or attenuation, is expressed in terms of power loss. When
the signal is regained, this is expressed in terms of power gain. Thus the absolute gain of ten
corresponds to the loss of 1/10.

Alexander Graham Bell was the first to use logarithmic power measures. This was found to be
handy and the unit for power gain was named in Bell’s honor as decibel (dB). The gain in decibels
is defined as follows:

𝐏𝐨𝐮𝐭
𝐠 𝐝𝐁 = 𝟏𝟎 𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝟏𝟎 (𝐠) = 𝟏𝟎 𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝟏𝟎 ( ) (2.4)
𝐏𝐢𝐧

If the output and input powers are the same, the absolute gain and loss both have values of 1 and
the corresponding gain and loss in decibels are each 0 dB. If the gain is 10, the corresponding
decibel value of gain is 10 dB. The loss is correspondingly 1/10, that is, equal to –10 dB. Thus if
the power is reduced, the gain in decibels results in a negative value. Figure 2.6 presents an
element in a telecommunications network with a certain input power and an output power. The
formulas of loss (attenuation) and gain are given in the figure as well.

In telecommunications systems we usually have many elements in a chain. If the overall gain or
loss needs to be calculated, all gain figures (which

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 For example, a gain of 100000000 corresponds to the gain of 80 dB

Figure 2.6 Gain, loss, and decibels.

often are very large or small numbers) must be multiplied. If the gain of each element is presented
in decibels, the figures (which usually have values of less than 100) are added along the chain to
determine the overall gain in decibels as shown in Figure 2.6.

Decibels allow us to add small positive or negative numbers instead of multiplying with very large
or very small numbers. For example, a gain of 100,000,000 corresponds to a gain of 80 dB.

Note that the decibel is the measure of power gain and, if we are interested in how voltage level
changes, the impedances must be considered. The voltage and power gains are the same only if
the impedances at the points where the power and voltage are measured are the same. The
following formula gives the power gain if input and output voltages and impedance are known:

(2.5)

The impedances in the preceding equation are assumed to be real numbers.

2.5.2 Power Levels

In the previous section we expressed power ratios in decibels. That does not tell us
anything about the actual power in watts, only the ratio. Instead of expressing the actual power
in watts, we can use the decibel-based figures for this measurement also. Power levels in practical
systems may vary from picowatts to tens of watts, corresponding to variations from 1 to

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1,000,000,000,000. Power measures based on decibels can be used to express this wide power
range in an easy way. The level of absolute power is often expressed in dBm, where the actual
power is compared to 1-mW power. The power level in dBm is given by the expression 10 log10(P/1
mW) dBm. If we need to know absolute power in watts, we can easily calculate it from the given
dBm value.
Absolute power level dBm is commonly used instead of the absolute power in watts to
express, for example, the optical output and received power of optical line systems or the
received radio signal strength of a mobile telephone. It is very handy to use power levels in dBm
together with gain or attenuation in decibels. Assume that the input power level in Figure 2.6 is
given in dBms and we know gain in decibels. Then we obtain the output power level in dBm simply
by adding input level and gain. This comes from

To illustrate the use of decibels, we will look at some examples. Let us consider the radio relay
system shown in Figure 2.7. Antenna gains and radio link loss are measured or given in decibels.
Determine the received power level. We first change

Fig 2.7 Radio relay systems.

Example: Figure 2.8 shows an optical

line system where transmission
power level and length and
attenuation of the fiber are given.
Determine the power P 2,dBm and
power in watts.

Fig 2.8: Optical fiber system.

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