Communication Systems

Lecture 1
Introduction

Engr. Dr. Farzana Arshad

 Communication Systems

o Text Book
o Modern Analog and Digital Communication
systems By B.P. Lathi

o Reference Books
o Communication Systems By Simon Haykin
o Communication Systems Engineering By J.G.
Proakis and M. Salehi
 Grading Criteria

o Mid Term exam……..….

……….25%
o Assignments……………………..10
%
o Quizzes………………………….15%
o Final Exam……………..……….50%
 CLOs
To Understand the basic components of communication systems,
understanding of linear (AM) and non-linear (FM &PM) modulation and
demodulation schemes. Basic concepts of probability and random processes.

Apply the concepts of Fourier series and Fourier Analysis over different
signals.

Perform and analyze the amplitude modulation and demodulation techniques

(AM, DSB, DSB-SC, SSB, VSB, and QAM), frequency mixer. Perform and
analyze the Angle modulation (FM & PM) demodulation and Pulse
modulation schemes.
To Compare the performance of various analog communication systems in
the presence of noise.

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Course Outline

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Communication Systems

o Section I: INTRODUCTION
o Introduction to communication system
o Fourier Transform
o Analysis and Transmission of Signals

o Section II: ANALOG COMMUNICATION

SYSTEMS
o Amplitude Modulation: (DSB, SSB, USB, LSB,
VSB)/ Demodulation
o Exponential Modulation (FM, PM) /Demodulation
o FM Receivers
o Phased Lock Loops
o Section III: Random Processes
o Random Variable and Random Process
o PSD of A Random Process
o Types of Random Processes
o Multiple Random Processes

o Section IV: Behavior of analog systems in

the presence of noise
o Baseband systems
o Amplitude modulated systems
o Optimum Pre emphasis De-emphasis systems
o Behavior of FM Signals in the presence of noise
 Communication Systems

o A communication system conveys information

from its source to a destination.
o Examples:
o Telephone
o TV
o Radio
o Cell phone
o Satellite
 Communication Systems
o A communication system is composed of the
following:

Fig. 1 Block Diagram of Communication System

 Basic Components of a
Communication System
• Input Transducer
o Source: Analog or digital
o Example: Speech, music, written text,
pictures
o Input Transducer: Converts the
message produced by a source to a
form suitable for the communication
system.
o Example:
o Speech waves Microphone
Voltage
 Transmitter
 Converts electrical signal into a form suitable for
transmission through the channel (physical medium)
 Need to do this because the transducer output signal
cannot, in most cases, be transmitted directly (doesn’t
match the channel)
 Conversion is made through modulation: amplitude
(AM), frequency (FM) & phase (PM). Examples: AM &
FM radio broadcast • Other functions: filtering,
amplification, radiation
 Examples: TV station, radio station, web server
 Channel
o Physical medium that does the transmission
o Examples: Air, wires, coaxial cable, radio wave, laser
beam, fiber optic cable
o Every channel introduces some amount of distortion,
noise and interference
o This is the physical medium between the transmitter and
the receiver
o Can be wired (telephone line) or wireless (radio)
o Whatever the medium, the signal is corrupted by noise
and interference
o Examples: thermal noise, lightning discharge, automobile
ignition noise, interference from other users etc.
o Channel may be highly non-stationary (i.e., fading)
o Significant signal attenuation may be introduced (100-
200dB)
o Other types of signal distortions (i.e., spectrum
 Receiver
o Main function: to recover the message from the
received signal
o Somewhat inverse of the transmitter function
o Demodulation: inverse of the modulation
o Operates in the presence of noise & interference.
Hence, some distortions are unavoidable.
o Some other functions: filtering, suppression of noise &
interference
o Examples: TV set, radio, web client
 Output Transducer

o Converts electrical signal into the

form desired by the system
o Examples: Loudspeakers, PC
Communication Systems
Today

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Examples of Communication
Channels

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Capacity of a Channel
• The most important question for a
communication channel is the maximum rate at
which it can transfer information.
• There is a theoretical maximum rate at which
information passes error free over the channel,
called the channel capacity C.
• The famous Hartley-Shannon Law states that
the channel capacity C is given by:
C=B*log(1+(S/N)) b/s
where B is the bandwidth, S/N is the signal-to-
noise ratio.
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Signal to noise ratio
Bandwidth
Bandwidth
Fundamental Limitations

• Therefore, there are two factors that

determine the capacity of a channel:
– Bandwidth
– Noise
Frequency Spectrum

• Most precious resource in

communications is “frequency spectrum”
• The “frequency spectrum” has to be
shared by a large number of users and
applications:
• AM Radio, FM Radio, TV, cellular
telephony, wireless local-area-networks,
satellite
 Frequency spectrum
• Transmission over the airwaves uses
different frequency bands
• Useful frequency bands are not limitless
• Spectrum is a natural resource that must
be used efficiently
• Spectrum is allocated to operators by
the Government – Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)

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Frequency spectrum

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The complete frequency spectrum
(zero frequency DC to light).

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Electromagnetic spectrum in terms
of wavelength

As frequency f decreases ⇒ the wavelength λ increases ⇒ antenna

dimension d increases

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 Channel and Signal
Bandwidth
• Generally, the bandwidth is a measure of the width of a range of frequencies from
the minimum to the maximum frequency values, measured in hertz (Hz ≡ 1/s).
• In continuous-time signals, Hz means number of cycles (oscillations) per second.
• In discrete-time signals, Hz means number of samples per second.
• Channel bandwidth: is the range of signal bandwidths allowed by a communication
channel without significant loss of energy (attenuation). Figure 13 shows various
channel types with their bandwidths.
• Likewise, each signal also has a bandwidth B that measures the maximum range
of its frequency components (which allows the signal to transmit with reasonable
fidelity). This is constrained (limited) by the transmitter.
• To understand the definition of signal bandwidth, consider the speech (audio)
signal which has a maximum frequency of 20 KHz. However, the bandwidth of
audio signal varies depending on application, for example:
• Audio telephone system: the main objective is “intelligibility” (i.e. clearness), so the
bandwidth of 3 – 4 KHz is sufficient.
• Audio CD (or MP3): the main objective is “high-fidelity”, so the bandwidth should
be between 15 – 20 KHz.

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 Voice spectrum (for intelligibility
applications)

• The faster a signal changes, the higher its maximum frequency

(hence bandwidth).
• A signal rich in content (that changes quickly) have larger
bandwidth than a signal that is dull or vary slowly. For example:
• High bandwidth: a battle scene in a movie.
• Low bandwidth: a video of sleeping animals.
• A signal can be successfully send over a channel if the channel
bandwidth exceeds the signal bandwidth.

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Channel Impairments
Attenuation
Channel type and channel Length
Solution to Attenuation
Linear Distortion
Linear distortion Effects
…
Solution to Linear Distortion
Non Linear Distortion
Non Linear Distortion
 Noise
• Internal and External Noise
• Internal Noise: Generated by components within a
communication system (thermal noise)
• External Noise:
– Atmospheric noise (electrical discharges)
– Man-made noise
– Interference (multiple transmission paths)
-The effect of external noise can be minimized and
eliminated.
The effect of internal noise can be minimized but
never eliminated
Examples of Noise; Cross talk
Solution for external Noises
Solution for Internal Noises
Impairments All together
 Early Communication Systems
Year Event
1838 Telegraphy (Morse)
1876 Telephone (Bell)
1902 Radio transmission
(Marconi)
1933 FM radio
1936 TV broadcasting
1953 Color TV
…

Year Event
1962 Satellite communication
1972 Cellular phone
1985 Fax machines
1990s GPS, handheld computers
 Communication Systems Today

• Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for voice,

fax, modem
• Radio and TV broadcasting
• Computer networks (LANs, WANs, and the Internet)
• Satellite systems
• Cable television (CATV) for video and data
• Cellular phones
• Bluetooth
• GPS
 Classification of
Communication Systems
• Analog vs. Digital

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Comm Systems are classified based on
the type of signal sent on the Channel
Modulation and Digitization
Analog Baseband Systems
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 Analog Baseband Systems
• An analog baseband system sends the analog
• baseband signal m(t) as is (without any modifications).
• Advantages:
• – Simplest possible system.
• – Inexpensive to build.
• Usually used for short-distance communications.
• Examples of such systems in the next slide
Example Analog Baseband
Systems
Modulation and Digitization
Example Carrier Systems

• • Examples of analog carrier systems:

• – AM and FM radio broadcasting.
• – Analog TV broadcasting (NTSC and PAL).
• • Examples of digital carrier systems:
• – Digital radio broadcasting.
• – Digital TV broadcasting (DVB-S, DVB-T, ATSC)
• – Wi MAX metropolitan area network.
• – Wi-Fi wireless local area network.
• – Cellular Telephony (2nd, 3rd and 4th generations).
• – Old dial-up modems.
Analog and Digital Carrier Systems

• Modulation (i.e., analog and digital carrier

• systems) advantages:
• – Allows the use of reasonable antenna
lengths.
• – Allows Multiplexing (FDM). As well as CDMA
and
• OFDMA in digital systems.
 Modulation
• Analog signal generated by the message source is called
“baseband signal” (such a signal has low frequency components,
see Figure 14 above).
• Baseband signals may be directly transmitted without modulation
(e.g. audio telephone signal with approx. 3 KHz bandwidth is
transmitted on twisted pair wire with almost the same bandwidth).
• However, baseband signals are not always suitable for direct
transmission.
• When signal and channel frequencies do not match, channel
cannot be moved (see the figure below).
• In this case, the signal must be moved to the right channel
bandwidth.
• Thus, the message signal must be modified for possible (efficient)
transmission. This modification is called “modulation”.

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 Important reasons for modulation

• Ease of radiation / transmission:

• For efficient radiation of electromagnetic (EM) energy,
the radiating antenna size relates to the wavelength of
the transmitted signal (λ).

• C is the speed of light; that is 3×108 m/s.

• Note that the wavelength λ is inversely
proportional to the frequency f 62
 Modulation

In modulation, the signal m(t) is combined with

a high-frequency signal called the carrier.
• Hence, frequencies are shifted
Need modulation

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 …
• In the modulation process, the baseband (message)
signal modulates a carrier signal.
• Carrier is a sinusoid of high frequency.
• Through modulation, one parameter of the carrier
signal – e.g. amplitude, frequency or phase – is varied
in proportion to the baseband signal m(t).
• We have three types of modulation:
• o Amplitude Modulation (AM).
• o Frequency Modulation (FM).
• o Phase Modulation (PM).
•

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Modulation and Digitization
 Digitization
• To convert the analog baseband signal into a
• digital baseband signal :
• Sampling.
• – Quantization.
• – Mapping.
• – Encoding (coding)
• – Pulse Shaping
• • Digital baseband Advantages:
• – Immunity to Noise.
• – Allows Multiplexing at baseband level (TDM).
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Source and Destination
Example Digital Baseband Systems

• • Digital baseband Advantages (Continue):

• – More bandwidth efficient (compression and line
• coding).
• – Allows exchanging SNR for Bandwidth at the
• baseband level.
• – For more, see Handout.
• • Examples of digital baseband systems:
• – Serial (RS-232) and USB port connections.
• – Ethernet (a popular local area network).
• – Telephony (between local exchanges), such as the
• T-1, T-2, …, E1, E2, … etc.
Effect of noise on analog and
digital signals

Clearly, a digital communication system can better withstand (resist)

noise and distortion, thus it is more immune to noise.

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 Viability of Regenerative Repeaters
in digital communications
• For digital systems:
• Repeater stations are placed along the communication path of a digital system at
distances short enough to ensure that noise and distortion remain within a limit.
• At each repeater station, the incoming pulses are detected and new clean pulses
are transmitted to the next repeater station.
• This process prevents the accumulation of noise and distortion along the path by
cleaning the pulses periodically at the repeater stations.
• For analog systems
• There is no way to avoid the accumulation of noise and distortion along the
communication path, as signal and noise within the same bandwidth cannot be
separated.
• Amplification is of little help, because it enhances the signal and the noise in the
same proportion (as mentioned above).
• One solution to reduce the effect of noise is to filter the signal then amplify it. In
this way, the noise components outside the frequency band of the signal are
removed, hence the total power of the noise is reduced and the SNR will increase
• Repeaters used in analog systems basically consist of filters and then amplifiers
(they are not “regenerative” repeaters)
•
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 Example
• A digital signal with 1 mV amplitude is to travel along 3000 km. If the
amplitude is attenuated by 0.2 mV every 10 km, find the minimum number of
regenerative repeaters required to withstand (resist) this distortion (given
that the minimum amplitude which can be interpreted by the receiver as high
voltage is 0.2 mV).
Due to the noise immunity advantage of digital systems over analog ones,
almost all communication systems being installed today are digital.

Why do we study analog communication?

The answer is because of the following reasons:
• Old analog communication facilities such as AM and FM radio
broadcasting are still in use (the quality of received signal is still
acceptable).
• The only way to understand digital communication is to study the
modulation and demodulation techniques used in analog
communication systems.

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Telecommunication Research Area