Noise in Communication

Systems

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Noise in Communication Systems

Outline :

 Introduction
 Thermal Noise
 Shot Noise
 Signal - to – Noise
 Noise Factor – Noise Figure
 Noise Temperature
 BER

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 Introduction

Noise is the static you hear in the speaker when you tune any AM or FM
receiver to any position between stations. It is also the “snow” or “confetti” that
is visible on a TV screen.
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 Introduction

Noise is a general term which is used to describe an “unwanted

signal which affects a wanted signal.”

Noise is a random signal that exists in a communication

system.
Random signal cannot be represented with a simple
equation.

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 Sources of noise
Noise

Internal Noise External Noise

Man-made noise and natural
Due to random movement of
resources
electrons in electronic circuit.
External noise comes from
Electronic components in a
sources over which we have little
receiver such as resistors, or no control
diodes, and transistors are
major sources of internal noise •Industrial sources
motors, generators,
• Thermal (agitation) noise manufactured equipment
•Atmospheric sources / static
• Shot noise electricity
•Transit time noise speaker when there
is no signal present 5
 Introduction (Cont’d)
• The noise level in a system is proportional to
temperature and bandwidth, the amount of
current flowing in a component, the gain of the
circuit, and the resistance of the circuit.

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 Noise Effect
• Degrade system performance for both analog and digital
systems.
• The receiver cannot understand the original signal.
• The receiver cannot function as it should be.
• Reduce the efficiency of communication system.

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 Noise - Type of Noise

 The are several types of noise, among them are:

1. Atmospheric
2. Extraterrestrial (Cosmic & Solar)
3. Thermal Noise
4. White Noise
5. Shot Noise
6. Quantization Noise

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 Atmospheric Noise (Static)
• Results due to spurious radio waves inducing
voltages at antenna creating spurious
waveforms

• Reasons
• Weather conditions (moisture, lightening and thunder)
• Dominant upto 30 MHz

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 Extraterrestrial
• Solar
– Due to radiation from sun

• Cosmic
– Due to radiations from other heavenly bodies

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 Industrial
• Created by man due to several reasons
– Line passing near by a transformer
– Interference by other coexisting equipment
– (TV remotes and IR equipments)

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 Thermal Noise (Johnson Noise /white noise)

Thermal noise is the result of the random motion of charged particles

(usually electrons) in a conducting medium such as a resistor.

This type of noise is generated by all resistances (e.g. a resistor,

semiconductor, the resistance of a resonant circuit, i.e. the real part of the
impedance, cable etc).
Movement of the electrons
will forms kinetic energy in
the conductor related to the
temperature of the
conductor.

When the temperature increases the movement of free electrons will

increases and the current flows through the conductor.
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 Thermal Noise (Johnson Noise) (Cont’d)

Experimental results (by Johnson) and theoretical studies (by Nyquist) give
the mean square noise voltage as
_ 2
V 4 k TBR (volt 2 )

Where k = Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38 x 10 -23 Joules per K

T = absolute temperature (Kelvin)
B = bandwidth noise measured in (Hz)
R = resistance (ohms)

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 Thermal Noise (Johnson Noise)

For example :

50 kΩ resistor at a temperature of 290 K, 3 kHz bandwidth. Find V rms

value of noise:
Vn = √ 4 x 1.38 x 10-23 x 290 x 3000 x 50

= 49 nV

from Kelvin to Kelvin

Celsius [°C] = [K] − 273.15 [K] = [°C] + 273.15

Fahrenheit [°F] = [K] × 9⁄5 − 459.67 [K] = ([°F] + 459.67) × 5⁄9

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 Shot Noise

•Shot noise is a type of electronic noise that occurs when the finite
number of particles that carry energy, such as electrons in an electronic
circuit or photons in an optical device

• Shot noise was originally used to describe noise due to random

fluctuations in electron emission from cathodes in vacuum tubes
(called shot noise by analogy with lead shot).

• Shot noise also occurs in semiconductors due to the release of charge

carriers.

• Shot noise is found to have a uniform spectral density as for thermal

noise (White noise)
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How to determine noise level in communication
system?
• Noise effect can be determined by measuring:
- Signal to Noise Ratio, SNR for analog system
- Noise Factor, F
- Noise Temperature, Te .
- probability of error or bit error rate, BER for digital system

• To determine the quality of received signal at the receiver or an

antenna, SNRi is used.

• SNR o is always less than SNRi , due to the facts that the existence of
noise in the receiver itself. In the receiver usually constitute a process of
filtering, demodulation and amplification.

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 Noise Calculation
• SNR is a ratio of signal power, S to noise power, N.

S
SNR 10 log dB
N
• Noise Figure, F
Si N i
F dB
So N o

• Noise factor, NF NF 10 log F

Si N i
10 log dB
So N o
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 Signal to Noise

The signal to noise ratio is given by

S Signal Power , Ps ( watts )

N Noise Power , Pn( watts )

The signal to noise in dB is expressed by

S S
10 log10 dB
N N

 S 
  dB S dBm  N dBm for S and N measured in mW.
N

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 Signal to Noise

• Example :
For an amplifier with an output signal power of 10 W and an
output noise power of 0.01 w, determine the signal to noise
power ratio

• Solution :
S Ps 10
  1000
N Pn 0.01
To express in dB;

S S 10
  dB 10 log10   10 log 30dB
N N 0.01
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 Signal to Noise

• Example :
For an amplifier with an output signal voltage of 4V, an output noise
voltage of 0.005 V, and an input and output resistance of 50 ohm,
determine the signal to noise power ratio.

Solution :

S  Vs  4
  dB 20 log10   20 log 58.06dB
N  Vn  0.005

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 Noise Factor- Noise Figure (Cont’d)

Consider the network shown below,

Noise factor, F =
S N 
IN

S N 
OUT

lower the value of F, the better the network.

• F equals to 1 for noiseless and in general F > 1.

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 Noise Factor- Noise Figure (Cont’d)

Noise figure (NF) is the Noise factor converted to dB

Noise Figure (NF) dB = 10 log10 (F)

If every variable is a dB Noise figure;

NF = SNRin − SNRout

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29
 Noise Temperature

Equivalent noise temperature Te is not the physical temperature

of the amplifier, but rather a theoretical construct that is an
equivalent temperature that produces that amount of noise power
Noise temperature (Te) is expressed as :

Te = T(F-1)
Where;
Te = equivalent noise temperature (Kelvin)
T = environmental temperature (reference value of 290 K)
F = Noise factor
 What is Error Rate?

• The error rate is the degree of errors in the

transmission of data due to bad hardware or
noisy links. The higher the error rate the less
reliable the connection or data transfer will
be.
• It occurred in digital communication.
BER = The number of erroneous bits received
total number of bits transmitted
 Noise - Bit Energy
The signal also measured in terms of the bit energy in
joules (J), Eb.
The enery per bit is simply the energy of a single bit
of information, Eb .
It is defined as below:
Eb = CTb (J/bit)

Eb = energy of a single bit (joules per bit)

Tb = time of a single bit (seconds)
C = carrier power (watts)
 Summary
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• Thermal Noise V 4 k TBR (volt 2 )

S Signal Power , Ps ( watts )

• Signal - to – Noise 
N Noise Power , Pn( watts )

• Noise Factor
S N 
IN

S N OUT

• Noise Figure
Noise Figure (NF) dB = 10 log10 (F)

• Noise Temperature Te = T(F-1)

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