EE 365 Communication Systems

Mid-Term Solution
(Spring 2018)

Problem 1 Signal Power, Loss & Gain (2+3 =5 points)

A signal with signal power Pin = 100 mW is the input signal to a transmission cable with loss of
α = 1.5 dB/km . The cable is 100 km in length. Repeaters are used to avoid the signal's getting
lost in noise. The signal power during transmission cannot be allowed to fall below 1 mW at any
point on the cable and each repeater has a power gain of 20 dB.
a) What is the minimum number of repeaters necessary?
b) Using the minimum number of repeaters what is the output signal power?

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Problem 2 Fourier Transform Properties (2+3 = 5 points)

The Fourier transform X(f) for a signal x(t) is shown in Figure.

Let g(t) = x(−2t) and y(t) = x (4 −2t),
Carefully sketch |G(f)| and |Y (f)|.

Problem 3 Double-sideband suppressed carrier signal (5 x 3 = 15 points)

A carrier signal cos(Ct) is combined with a two-tone message signal m(t),

m(t )  3cos(mt )  sin(3mt )
where m = 5  103 radians/sec and C = 2  104 radians/sec.

(a) Write an expression for the modulated signal m(t) cos(Ct) = DSB(t).

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(b) At the receiver the modulated signal is received and input to the demodulator shown
below.

DSB (t) x(t) y(t)

filter

2cos(ct)
The carrier at the demodulator is 2 cos(ct) and is followed by a filter.
Find an expression for the signal x(t).

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(c) Describe the filter parameters (or requirements) that you would select to recover the
message signal m(t) from x(t)?

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Problem 4 Baseband Signal Recovery (5 x 3 = 15 points)

A frequency-translated baseband signal m(t) (frequency shifted by c) is given by (t) =

m(t)cos(ct). We may recover m(t) by multiplying (t) by a local oscillator signal given by
cos(ct + ). The parameter  represents a phase shift. In this problem you are asked to
investigate the effect of this offset in phase angle  .

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Problem 5 Single-Tone Modulated AM (5 x 3 = 15 points)

A single-tone message signal m(t) is combined with a carrier signal to give an amplitude
modulated signal of the form, AM (t )  AC 1  Am cos(mt )   cos(C t )
We are told that the maximum and minimum values of AM(t) has values of
AM (t ) maximum  AC 1  Am   1.0 volt
AM (t ) minimum  AC 1  Am   0.4 volt
The maximum value occurs when cos(mt) = 1 & the minimum value occurs when cos(mt) = -1.
Determine the following parameters:

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 Problem 6 Nonlinear AM Modulator (10 points)

current iD Given the nonlinear AM

modulator shown in Fig:
The total diode input voltage vD
is smaller than the turn-on
BP voltage of the diode and the
AC cos(C t )
+ F + diode current is
R=1 x(t )
@
y (t )
iD   (4vD  vD2 )
  m(t ) _ _
C Note this is a linear term plus a
quadratic term in voltage vD.
The carrier is ACcos(Ct) and
the message signal is a DC term
 plus the time-varying message m(t). The message signal bandwidth is B Hz, where C >> 2 B.
Derive an expression for the output signal y(t) given that the center of the band-pass filter is at C.
[Note: Assume all of current iD flows through resistor R (and R = 1).]

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Problem 7 Envelope Detector (10 points)

We have an envelope detector to be used to cover the entire AM radio broadcast band from 550
kHz to 1600 kHz. The envelope detector consists of a smoothing capacitor in parallel with a
resistor R = 5 k. The smoothing capacitor C is tunable over the AM radio band. We want to
determine the range of smoothing capacitor values assuming that we must vary the capacitance
value from one end of AM radio band to the other end of the AM radio band. For proper
operation of the envelope detector the reciprocal of the RC time constant must meet the criteria:
1
Bm   fC
RC
Where Bm is the bandwidth (or greatest frequency) of the baseband (voice) message m(t) and fC is
the carrier frequency of the radio station being considered. You may decide to use the
“geometric mean” of Bm and fC to select the capacitance value for a particular station within the
AM radio band (see HINT). For AM radio each station is allowed Bm = 5 kHz. With R = 5 k,
determine the range of smoothing capacitor values to cover the entire AM radio band using the
geometric mean to determine RC for any AM radio station. In other words, one must choose a
capacitor that will tune over what range of capacitance values to cover 550 kHz to 1600 kHz?

HINT: For each value of fC corresponding to the AM radio station’s carrier frequency, the
geometric mean of the RC value is determined using

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Problem 8 Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) (2.5 x 4 = 10 points)

Suppose that you have joined in your first job as a communication engineer and the service
provider has asked you to design an FDM system where every message signal has bandwidth no
greater than 44.1 kHz.

a) If you are asked to multiplex 50 message signals using DSB-SC modulation for every
subcarrier, what will be the (total) transmission bandwidth of the FDM system?

50*44.1kHz*2

b) If you are asked to multiplex 50 message signals using SSB modulation for every
subcarrier, what will be the (total) transmission bandwidth of the FDM system?

50*44.1kHz

c) If you are given a transmission bandwidth of 4.41 MHz for the FDM system, what is the
largest number of message signals you can handle using QAM for every subcarrier?

100 (double than DSB-SC)

d) Can vestigial sideband (VSB) be used for this system? Does it have any advantage or
disadvantage (or both) over SSB and DSB-SC for this system?

Compromise b/w bandwidth requirement of DSB and SSB; suitable for message signals with no
DC content

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Problem 9 (5 x 3 = 15 points)

Two signals m1(t) and m2(t), both band-limited to 5000 Hz, are to be transmitted simultaneously
over a channel by the frequency division multiplexing scheme shown in the figure below.

The signal at point b is the multiplexed signal, which now amplitude-modulates a carrier of
frequency 20, 000 Hz. The modulated signal at point c is transmitted over an ideal
(distortionless) channel.

a) Sketch signal spectra at points a, b and c.

b) What must be the bandwidth of the ideal channel in order to pass all the signals through?

c) Design a receiver to recover m1(t) and m2(t) from the modulated signal at point c. (use
back-side of this page)

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