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Decibel

The document discusses decibels and how they are used to represent relative and absolute comparisons of power levels on a logarithmic scale. It explains that decibels are calculated by taking the base-10 logarithm of the ratio between two power levels and multiplying by 10. It also outlines some common decibel operations like adding and subtracting decibels when combining or comparing power levels.

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Nikhil Walia
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
11K views

Decibel

The document discusses decibels and how they are used to represent relative and absolute comparisons of power levels on a logarithmic scale. It explains that decibels are calculated by taking the base-10 logarithm of the ratio between two power levels and multiplying by 10. It also outlines some common decibel operations like adding and subtracting decibels when combining or comparing power levels.

Uploaded by

Nikhil Walia
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The decibel definition

Warming-up

Decibel is a relative comparison between numbers...

whatever the numbers are!

A(dB) 10 log10

P1 P2
whatever the numbers are!

Absolute comparison in decibel between numbers...

A(dBunity) 10 log10
P A(dBW) 10 log10 1 Watt

P Punity
P 1 milliWatt

A(dBm) 10 log10

dBm = dBW + 30
RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION November 25th, 1999 ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira

The mystic of decibels

Arithmetic operations 3 2= 6

Decibel operations dB + dB Multiplying numbers means adding the numbers in decibels dB

5 dB + 3 dB = 8 dB

4=

2 dB - dB Dividing numbers means subtracting the numbers in decibels dB

9 dB - 6 dB = 3 dB

RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION

November 25th, 1999

ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira

The mystic of decibels

Power absolute linear scale


40 mW 3 dB

Power absolute logarithmic scale


16 dBm 3 dB

Decibel operations
13 dBm + 3 dB = 16 dBm 16 dBm - 3 dB = 13 dBm 16 dBm - 13 dBm = 3 dB

dBm + dB dBm dBm - dB dBm

dBm - dBm dB

20 mW

13 dBm

13 dBm + 16 dBm = 29 dBm

dBm + dBm

794 mW

Undefined!
18 dBm

1 mW

0 dBm
20 mW + 40 mW = 60 mW

RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION

November 25th, 1999

ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira

Struggling against decibels

Power - absolute logarithmic scale

+
- 74 dBm - 86 dBm -(74 dBm + 86 dBm )
- 70 dBm
Linear scale

- 74 dBm 10-74/10 0.000000039 mW

Undefined!

+
- 80 dBm 10-86/10 0.0000000025 mW 0.0000000415 mW - 86 dBm - 90 dBm
Logarithm scale

10 log (0.0000000415) = -73.8 dBm

RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION November 25th, 1999 ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira

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