EEE400 COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS 1

Basics of a Communication System Ek1

put
Information
Source and Output
Input Transmitter Channel Receiver Transducer
Transducer B C D E
A
Source and
A) Information Source: Audio, image, text, data

Input Transducer: Converts source to electric signal

 Microphone
 Camera
 Keyboard

B) Transmitter :
 Converts electrical signal into form suitable for channel
 Modulator
 Amplifier

C) Channel:
Medium used to transfer signal from transmitter to receiver.
 Wire lines
 Fiber optic cable
 Atmosphere
Often adds noise / weakens & distorts signal

D) Receiver
 Extracts an estimate of the original transducer output
 Demodulator
 Amplifier Channel Receiver Output

E) Output Transducer: Converts electric signal to useable form

 Speaker
 Monitor

Types of Communications Systems Wk. 2

1) Analogue systems

These involve continuous signals varying in amplitude, frequency or phase. When varying in amplitude,
these signals are more prone to noise than other signals. They are simpler to implement but limited in
capacity.

2) Digital systems
 Digital signals are represented as pulses or ones and zeroes to show presence or absence of a pulse.
Because these systems are transmitting pulses, in detection, we will be concerned about the presence or
absence of pulses and therefore they will be least affected by noise. Capacity will also depend on speed of
pulses transmission and consequently, it is easier to have high capacity systems. For example, mobile
telephony in Kenya started with an analog system ETACS (Extended Total Access Communications
System with only 2000 subscriber capacity. However when the network was upgraded to a digital system, it
came with 20,000 subscriber capacity and it has continued to grow to today’s Safaricom network of over 30
million subscribers.

3) Point to point communication

As the term suggests, these are communications systems linking one point to another one. One can describe
a connection between Nairobi – Mombasa as point to point. A communication from John to James can be
point to point.

4) Point to Multipoint.

This is when transmission from one source is directed to a number of receivers. e.g. broadcasting.

5) Broadcasting:

Broadcasting is a major service meant to inform, educate and entertain the public. It is provided as radio
broadcasting and TV broadcasting. Broadcasting is also a form of point to multipoint as brought out in 4)
above.

6) Simplex Communication.

Simplex communication is a strictly one-way communication like in some SMS’s we receive where one
cannot reply to the sender.

7) Half Duplex

Half Duplex communication is a form of communication which is both ways but one way at a time, Take
Police Radio as an example a policeman will speak and when through, he will announce so by saying over
so that the other party can speak. They will continue like this and at the end, one of them will terminate call
by telling the other party over and out.

8) Full Duplex:

In full duplex communication, communication is available both ways. However for meaningful
communication, one party has to wait for the other party to say his part and then respond.

Limitations of Communications Systems

Noise: Communications signal accumulates noise as it travels through a communications channel and this may reach
a level comparable to the signal level. At this stage, it will be difficult to distinguish the signal from noise leading to
difficulties in signal retrieval. This provides a limitation as to how far a signal can travel through a communication
channel and still remain recognizable.
Bandwidth: We always need to communicate so much data or information but often, the limit is how much
information we can pack in a channel. Bandwidth is a limiting factor in this case.

Attenuation: Whether through cable or radio signal attenuation will occur. On cables, attenuation is proportional to
cable length while in radio communication, attenuation which is referred to as free space loss is proportional to
distance squared and frequency squared. This limits how far a communication signal can travel in a communication
channel and remain strong enough to be detected.

Time delay: This is another factor limiting a communication system. Speed of light is 3x 10 8 meters per second and
this is the speed at which electromagnetic waves travel. Where distances are reasonably large and where the media
allows dispersion, some frequencies will be delayed more than others causing distortions.

Even in non-dispersive media normal communication can be impaired if significant delay is experienced in the
channel.

Amplitude (Linear) Modulation Wk. 4 (see separate notes)

Baseband:-This is the low frequency modulating signal e.g. voice signal which is 300Hz to 4KHz, music about
20KHz and TV which is 4MHz, to modulate a high frequency carrier signal in modulation.

Carrier signal is a high frequency signal about which a baseband signal is heterodyned.

Modulation Wk. 5

Amplitude Modulation:

Double Sideband Full carrier (DSB-FC) , Power efficiency is m 2 /2+m2 where m is the modulation index Am/Ac
Am being amplitude of the message signal and Ac being amplitude of the carrier signal. 0<m< 1 or maximum of m
is 1. If m> 1, distortion will occur.

Maximum power efficiency occurs at m=1 which works out to be 1/3.This is because information is carried on the
sidebands and not on the carrier present in the transmitted signal which has a high power. Since the signal is also
double sideband, the bandwidth required is twice the bandwidth of the message signal. (See separate notes)

Double Sideband suppressed carrier DSB -SC

In order to improve on power efficiency, the carrier frequency is suppressed using a balanced modulator. From this
process, the carrier signal is suppressed and only the two sidebands are transmitted. Power efficiency is now 100%
but this comes at a cost in where coherent detection is required. The carrier signal left behind during transmission
need to be accurately regenerated at the receiver failing which the output signal will be affected by a factor Cos(Δω)
where Δω is the variation in carrier frequency generated at the receiver.
.

Modulation Wk. 6

Single Sideband (SSB),

When I presented DSB SC there was an improvement in the power efficiency up to 100%. The bandwidth utilization
however remained twice the message bandwidth, It was also noted that the two sidebands carry the same
information and it is sufficient to transmit all information by transmitting one sideband only. This can be achieved
by passing the DSB-SC signal through LPF or HPF to select lower sideband or upper sideband for transmission as
may be required.
Vestigial Sideband (VSB).

This is another important modulation system which is achieved by transmitting a sideband and a vestige of the other
sideband. This enables transmission of low frequency signals including DC signals as required in the TV
transmission, this system of modulation is used in TV transmission.

The complex envelope (see separate notes)

Most of data networks are using duplex transmission while using different channels in the same medium that
connects transmitter and receiver. If the channels are physical and not logical, transmission uses separate wires for
transmission and reception. Each of the channels is half-duplex, but together it makes full-duplex. The use of full-
duplex increases data transmission rate. Modern network interface cards are configured for full-duplex support by
default.

What is modulation?

Modulation is the process of putting information onto a high frequency suitable for transmission. Such a frequency
is referred to as a carrier frequency(Frequency Translation)
Once this information is received, the low frequency information must be removed from the high frequency carrier.
A process referred to as demodulation.

The reasons for modulation are;

To facilitate transmission

To support multiple transmissions via a single channel(Frequency division multiplex)

To avoid interference
Different Methods of modulation

1.Analogue modulation- The modulating signal and carrier both are analogue signals

Examples: Amplitude Modulation (AM) , Frequency Modulation (FM) , Phase Modulation (PM)

2.Pulse modulation- The modulating signal is an analogue signal but Carrier is a train of pulses

Examples : Pulse amplitude modulation (PAM), Pulse width modulation (PWM), Pulse position modulation (PPM)