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Basic Elements of Communication System

Any communication system has three basic elements - a transmitter that converts a message signal into a form suitable for transmission through a channel, a channel that acts as the medium to carry the signal between transmitter and receiver, and a receiver that retrieves the message signal from the transmitted signal received via the channel. The transmitter converts the message signal into an electrical signal, which is then modulated and amplified before being transmitted. The channel carries the modulated signal but it may be distorted or have noise added. The receiver performs the inverse functions to recover the original message signal.

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Arunangshu Pal
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255 views

Basic Elements of Communication System

Any communication system has three basic elements - a transmitter that converts a message signal into a form suitable for transmission through a channel, a channel that acts as the medium to carry the signal between transmitter and receiver, and a receiver that retrieves the message signal from the transmitted signal received via the channel. The transmitter converts the message signal into an electrical signal, which is then modulated and amplified before being transmitted. The channel carries the modulated signal but it may be distorted or have noise added. The receiver performs the inverse functions to recover the original message signal.

Uploaded by

Arunangshu Pal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Basic Elements of Communication System

Any communication system has three important elements. They are the transmitter, channel, and
receiver. The block diagram of a general form of communication system is as shown.

A transmitter is located at one place and the receiver at another with the channel as a medium. The
signal from the source is called a message signal, and these signals are fed into the transmitter.
The main purpose of the transmitter is to convert the message signal produced by the source of
information into a suitable form for transmission through the channel. The channel (wired or wireless)
is the physical medium that connects the transmitter and receiver. When the transmitted signal
propagates, it may be distorted due to its imperfection, and some noise is added to the transmitted
signal.

Detailed Study of Basic Components of Communication System


Information: The idea or message that is to be conveyed is information. The message may be
single or a set of messages. The message can be a symbol, code, group of words, or any pre-
decided unit.
Transmitter: The transmitter consists of a transducer, modulator, amplifier, and transmitting
antenna in radio transmission.
Note:
1. A transducer converts sound signals into electric signals.
2. Modulator performs mixing of the electric audio signal with the high-frequency radio wave.
3. The amplifier boosts the power of the modulated signal. (increase the voltage)
4. The signal is radiated in the space with the aid of an antenna.

Communication channel: The duty of the communication channel is to carry the modulated


signal from transmitter to receiver. The communication channel is also called a transmission
link or medium.
The term channel refers to the frequency range allocated to a particular transmission or
service.

Table: Different channels


Receiver: The receiver consists of:
Pickup antenna: To pick the signal
Demodulator: To separate the audio signal from the modulated signal
Amplifier: To boost up the weak audio signal
Transducer: converts back audio signal in the form of electrical pulses into sound waves.

The Transmission Path/process

A typical transmission path of a Wireless Communication System consists of Encoder, Encryption,


Modulation and Multiplexing. The signal from the source is passed through a Source Encoder, which
converts the signal in to a suitable form for applying signal processing techniques.
The redundant information from signal is removed in this process in order to maximize the utilization
of resources. This signal is then encrypted using an Encryption Standard so that the signal and the
information is secured and doesn’t allow any unauthorized access.
Channel Encoding is a technique that is applied to the signal to reduce the impairments like noise,
interference, etc. During this process, a small amount of redundancy is introduced to the signal so that
it becomes robust against noise. Then the signal is modulated using a suitable Modulation Technique
(like PSK, FSK and QPSK etc.) , so that the signal can be easily transmitted using antenna.
The modulated signal is then multiplexed with other signals using different Multiplexing Techniques
like Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) or Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) to share the
valuable bandwidth.
The Channel
The channel in Wireless Communication indicates the medium of transmission of the signal i.e. open
space. A wireless channel is unpredictable and also highly variable and random in nature. A channel
maybe subject to interference, distortion, noise, scattering etc. and the result is that the received signal
may be filled with errors.
The Reception Path
The job of the Receiver is to collect the signal from the channel and reproduce it as the source signal.
The reception path of a Wireless Communication System comprises of Demultiplexing ,
Demodulation, Channel Decoding, Decryption and Source Decoding. From the components of the
reception path it is clear that the task of the receiver is just the inverse to that of transmitter.
The signal from the channel is received by the Demultiplexer and is separated from other signals. The
individual signals are demodulated using appropriate Demodulation Techniques and the original
message signal is recovered. The redundant bits from the message are removed using the Channel
Decoder.
Since the message is encrypted, Decryption of the signal removes the security and turns it into simple
sequence of bits. Finally, this signal is given to the Source Decoder to get back the original
transmitted message or signal.

Types of Communication System


Communication systems are classified according to the nature of information, mode of
transmission, or types of the transmission channel.
According to the nature of the information source, there are three types of
communication systems-
(i) Speech transmission
(ii) Picture transmission
(iii) Facsimile transmission (FAX): This involves the exact reproduction of a document or
picture which are static.
According to the mode of transmission of information, there are two types of
communication systems-
(i) Analogue communication: The communication system, which uses analogue signals, is
called an analogue communication system.
Table: Few analogue communication systems

(ii) Digital communication: In this system, digital signals are used.


Table: Few digital communication systems
According to the transmission channel, there are two types of communication systems-
(i) Line communication          (ii) Space communication
According to the type of modulation, there are six types of communication systems-
(i) Amplitude modulation (AM)
(ii) Frequency modulation (FM)
(iii) Phase modulation (PM)
(iv) Pulse amplitude modulation (PAM)
(v) Pulse time modulation (PTM)
(vi) Pulse code modulation (PCM)
Analogue and Digital Signals
In the communication system, a signal means a time-varying electrical signal containing
information.
Analogue signals: It is a continuous waveform that changes smoothly and continuously over
time.
(i) Analogue signals can be easily generated from the information source by using a suitable
transducer, e.g. pressure variations of sound waves can be converted into corresponding
current or voltage pulses by a microphone(mic).
(ii) An analogue signal is represented by a sine wave.

(iii) The frequency of analogue signals(speech or music) varies in audible range


i.e. 20Hz20Hz to 20kHz20kHz.
(iv) Bandwidth is the range over which the frequencies of a signal vary.

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