Communication Systems

Lecture 1
Introduction to Communication Systems

Dr. Adnan Ismail Al-Sulaifanie

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

College of Engineering
University of Duhok
2020 - 2021
Outline

I Communication systems and its components.

I Analog and Digital Communication Systems
I Definition and objectives of analog modulation.
I Types of Communication systems.
I Bandwidth definitions.
I Electrical noise.
I Transmission loss and signal attenuation.
I Channel Capacity law.

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References

1. Proakis, Communication systems engineering, chapter 1

2. Lathi, Modern digital and communication systems, chapter 1
3. Ziemer, Principles of communications, chapter 1

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Components of a communications system
A communication system is any system in which information is transmitted from
one physical location to another. It consists of:
I Input transducer: The device that converts a physical signal from a source to
an electrical signal.
I Transmitter sends the information out over the channel.
I Transmission channel is the physical medium that the information travels
through in going from point A to point B.
I Receiver: The device that recovers the transmitted signal from the channel
I Output transducer: The device that converts the received signal back into a
useful quantity

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Analog and Digital Communication Systems

I Analog Signal is a signal that can take on any amplitude and is well-defined at
every time.
I Discrete-time Signal is a signal that can take any amplitude but is defined only
at a set of discrete times.
I Digital Signal is a signal whose amplitude can take on only a finite set of
values, normally two, and is defined only at a discrete set of times.

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Analog Communication System

I An analog communication system is a communication system where the

information signal sent from point A to point B can only be described as an
analog signal.

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Telegraph

I Telegraph is invented and built by Samuel Morse in 1844.

I The device had three states:
• Off ⇒ key was not pressed.
• Dot ⇒ key was pressed for a short time and then released.
• Dash ⇒ key was pressed for a longer time and then released.
I The overall system could send about two letters a second, or 120 letters a
minute.
I Each letter of the alphabet was represented by a particular sequence of dots
and dashes.
I To keep the time to send a message short, the most commonly used letters in
the alphabet were represented by the fewest possible dots or dashes.
I Example: letter "t" was represented by a single dash and "e" was represented
by a single dot.
I This system of representing letters is the well-known Morse code.
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Telegraph

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Digital Communication System

I A digital communication system is a communication system where the

information signal sent from A to B can be fully described as a digital signal.
I Data is sent from one computer to another over a wire.
I The computer at point A is sending 0s or 1s to the computer at point B
I A 0 is being represented by 5 V for a duration of time T and a 1 is being
represented by a +5 V for the same duration T.

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Types of Communication systems

I Simplex Systems is a communication systems which provide only one-way

communication.
I Half Duplex Systems allow two-way communication by using the same radio
channel for both transmission and reception. At any given time, the user can
either transmit or receive information.
I Full Duplex Systems allow simultaneous two-way communication.
Transmission and reception is typically on two different channels.

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Bandwidth

I Is one of the fundamental parameters which control the rate and quality of
transmitted information.
I Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower frequencies in a
continuous band of frequencies.
I Channel bandwidth refers to the range of frequencies the channel can transmit
with reasonable Fidelity.
I The rate (speed) of information transmission is directly related to channel
bandwidth.
I Every signal is composed of a large number of sinusoidal waves of different
amplitude and frequencies
I The bandwidth of the signal is determined by the maximum frequency
component.

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Signal Bandwidth

Example: Determine the bandwidth of following signal:

∫
1 T /2 T1 1
a0 = x(t)dt = =
T −T /2 T 2
∫ T /2
1 1 nπ
an = x(t) cos(nw0 t)dt = sin( )
T −T /2 nπ 2
∫ T /2
1
bn = x(t) sin(nw0 t)dt = 0
T −T /2

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 ∫
1 T /2 2 1
Pt = x (t)dt =
T −T /2 2
∑+∞
Pt = an2 = a02 + a12 + a22 + a32 + ....
n=−∞
Pt = ( 12 )2 + 2 ∗ ( π1 )2 + 2 ∗ ( 3π
1 2
) = 0.475W
0.475
This is equal to = 95% of the total power
0.5
95% of the total power is occupied by the band < 4ω0

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Definition of Bandwidth

Bandwidth can be defined in different ways:

1. Absolute bandwidth is where 100% of the energy is confined between some
frequency range of fa ⇒ fb .
2. Half-power bandwidth (3 dB bandwidth) is the frequency(s) where the signal
power starts to decrease by 3 dB.
3. Null-to-null bandwidth Frequency spacing between a signal spectrums first set
of zero crossings.
4. Occupied bandwidth is the frequency range that contains 99% of the signal
energy.
5. Relative power spectrum bandwidth is where the level of power outside the
bandwidth limits is reduced to some value relative to its maximum level (i.e. -40
dB or 10−4 ).

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Electrical Noise
I Electrical noise may be define as any undesired voltage or current that
appeared the receiver side.
I Noise signals are small at point of origin (usually in mV).
I Problem occurs at the receiver because the information signals are also small
when they reached the receiver and so have to be amplified.
I Amplifying the information signal also amplifies the noise.
I The signal-to-noise power ratio (S/N) is a relative measure of the desired signal
power to the noise power.
Signal power Ps
SNR = =
Noise power Pn
Ps
SNRdB = 10 log
Pn

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Channel Distortion

I A channel is a physical medium behaves like a filter that attenuates and

distorts the transmitted signal.
I Signal is distorted due to physical phenomena like frequency-dependent filter,
multi-path effect, and Doppler shift (linear distortion).
I Channel also causes non-linear distortion through attenuation that varies with
the signal amplitude.
I The effect of channel distortion can be compensated partially by using
equalizer with the gain and phase characteristics complementary to those of
the channel.

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Transmission Loss and Decibels

I Any physical channel attenuates the signal transmitted through it.

I The amount of signal attenuation generally depends on the physical medium,
the frequency of operation, and the distance between the transmitter and the
receiver.
I We define the loss (L) in signal transmission as the ratio of the
input/transmitted power (Pt ) to the output/received power (Pt ) of the channel
Pt
L=
Pr
or in decibels
LdB = 10 log(L) = 10 log(Pt ) − 10 log(Pr )
I In wired channels, the transmission loss is usually given in terms of dB per unit
length; e.g., dB/Km.
For example, the transmission loss in coaxial cable of 1 cm diameter is about 2
dB/Km at a frequency of 1 MHz.
I The loss generally increases with an increase in frequency.
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Example

Determine the transmission loss for a 10 Km and a 20 Km coaxial cable if the

of LdB = 2 dB/Km at the 1 MHz frequency operation

LdB
Pt
LdB = 10 ∗ 2 = 20 dB =⇒ = 10 10 = 100 =⇒ Pr = 10−2 Pt
Pr
LdB
Pt
LdB = 20 ∗ 2 = 40 dB =⇒ = 10 10 = 10000 =⇒ Pr = 10−4 Pt
Pr

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Example

Determine the free space path loss for a signal transmitted at 1 MHz over a
distances of 10 Km and a 20 Km.
( 4πd )2
L=
λ ( 4πd )2 ( 4πd ) c
LdB = 10 Log = 20 Log λ=
λ λ f
4 ∗ π ∗ 10000
LdB = 20 ∗ Log( ) = 52.44 dB =⇒ L = 105.244 = 175388
300
1
Pr = ∗ Pt = 5.7 ∗ 10−6 Pt
175388
4 ∗ π ∗ 20000
LdB = 20 ∗ Log( ) = 58.46 dB =⇒ L = 105.846 = 701455
300
1
Pr = ∗ Pt = 1.43 ∗ 10−6 Pt
701455
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Problems of Communication

I The technical problem: Hardware availability, economic factors, and

regulations.
I Physical limitation: laws of nature (i.e bandwidth and noise).
S
I Channel Capacity: C = B ∗ log(1 + )
N
This is the maximum transmission rate or upper limit of of the channel (Haltely
Shannon Law)
Signal type Frequency range Required SNR (dB)
Just Intelligible Voice 500 – 2000 Hz 5 – 10
Telephone Quality Voice 200 – 3200 Hz 25 – 35
AM broadcasting quality Audio 100 – 5000 Hz 40-50
High Quality Audio 20 – 20000 Hz 55 – 65
Television Video 60 Hz – 4.2 MHz 45-55

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