ENSC327

Communications Systems
24: Ch. 9: Noise in Analog Systems

Jie Liang
School of Engineering Science
Simon Fraser University
1
Chapter 9 Noise in Analog Comm.

Chap 9 studies noise performance of various analog modulations

Various SNRs in a system:

Pre-detection SNR

Post-detection SNR

Reference SNR (also known as Channel SNR)

Figure of Merit

SNR in DSB

SNR in AM

SNR in SSB

SNR in FM

Main Conclusions:

DSB and SSB have the same noise performance as the baseband comm system.

AM has worse noise performance, but has simpler receiver (envelope detector )

FM has much better noise performance, at the price of the increased bandwidth.2
Receiver Model

Channel model: additive white Gaussian noise with psd N0/2.

Receiver model: ideal band-pass filter and ideal demodulator.

Noise
w(t) Bandwidth: BT

The BPF is usually a part of a mixer , e.g., in superhet receiver.

The output freq of the BPF is the intermediate frequency (IF) (455kHz in
AM, 10.7MHz in FM). It’s denoted as fc in Chap 9.

The bandwidth BT of the BPF is the bandwidth of the modulated signal
(2W in AM and DSB, W in SSB, 2(D+1)W in FM. W is msg. bandwidth).

The noise after the BPF is thus narrowband noise (Chap 8):

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9.3 Band-pass System Structures

Mixer is usually used to translate the IF frequency to
the RF frequency, or vice versa.

The IF frequency is denoted as fc in Chap. 9.

fc fc

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 SN(f)
N0/2
BT
Pre-detection SNR

w(t)
At the input to the demodulator: x(t)=s(t)+n(t),
The bandwidth of x(t):
The power of the narrowband noise is:

Pre-detection Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) at the demodulator
input (after bandpass filter):
power of modulated signal
SNR pre = =
power of the narrowband noise
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Post-detection SNR

w(t)

The output of the demodulator: recovered message with noise.

The bandwidth of the output signal is usually the bandwidth
of the message signal m(t), denoted as W.

The output noise psd depends on the modulation scheme.

Post-detection Signal to Noise Ratio :

Recovered message power

SNR post = .
Output noise power

This is the SNR perceived by the users. 6

Reference SNR

To compare noise performances of different modulation systems, we need a
reference baseband transmission model, which transmits the message
directly without any modulation.

For fair comparison, the transmitted power should be the same as that in a
bandpass modulation system.

The bandwidth of the LPF at the receiver equals to the message bandwidth

Channel noise
The reference SNR is defined as:

Average power of modulated signal

SNR ref = =
Average noise power in the message bandwidth
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Figure of Merit

The reference SNR can be used to normalize the post-detection
SNR of different methods, so that we can compare them:
Postdetection SNR
Figure of Merit =
Reference SNR

It shows whether a modulation system has better noise

performance than the baseband reference system or not.

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Chapter 9 Noise in Analog Comm.

Various SNRs in a system:

Pre-detection SNR

Post-detection SNR

Reference SNR (also known as Channel SNR)

Figure of Merit

SNR in DSB

SNR in AM

SNR in SSB

SNR in FM

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9.4 SNR in DSB-SC

The modulated DSB-SC signal at the transmitter:
s (t ) = Ac m(t ) cos(2πf c t + θ )

θ is a uniform random variable in [0, 2π], but is fixed during the
transmission (The reason for including θ is that the time origins
of m(t) and cos(2πfct) are independent).

A linear DSB-SC receiver using coherent demodulation:

Superhet
receiver:

Note the two filters generally have different bandwidths (BW):

 The BPF’s bandwidth is
 The LPF’s bandwidth is 10
Pre-detection SNR of DSB-SC
2
Ac P
SNR DSB
pre = .
2  0 BT

In DSB, BT is 2W, where W is the message bandwidth.

Proof: The pre-detection SNR is defined as:

power of modulated signal
SNR pre = =
power of the narrowband noise

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Post-detection SNR of DSB-SC

The post-detection SNR is defined as:
Recovered message power
SNR post = .
Output noise power

The signal after the bandpass filter: x(t ) = s(t ) + n(t ).

n(t) is narrowband noise with psd N0/2 and bandwidth BT.

Assuming θ = 0:

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 Post-detection SNR of DSB-SC

Bandwidth W

After multiplying with the carrier:

After low-pass filter with bandwidth W, the output is

Only in-phase noise appears after LPF! 13

Post-detection SNR of DSB-SC

Bandwidth W

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 Post-detection SNR of DSB-SC

Pre-detection SNR:

Post-detection SNR:

To get Figure of Merit, we need the reference SNR:

SNR DSB Post SNR

ref = Figure of Merit = =
Ref SNR

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Post-detection SNR of DSB-SC

Example: Problem 9.2
−17

DSB with 0 = 4 × 10 watts/Hz, W = 4kHz
f c = 200kHz, [ ]
E s 2 (t ) = −80dBm
Find the post-detection SNR.
Solution:

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Chapter 9 Noise in Analog Comm.

Various SNRs in a system:

Pre-detection SNR

Post-detection SNR

Reference SNR (also known as Channel SNR)

Figure of Merit

SNR in DSB

SNR in AM

SNR in SSB

SNR in FM

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 9.5 Noise in AM with Envelope Detector

Modulated signal in AM: s (t ) = Ac [1 + k a m(t )]cos(2πf c t )

AM Receiver: mixer followed by an envelope detector

The BW of the BPF is

After the BPF,

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 Pre-detection SNR in AM

Power of modulated signal:

Power of the noise after the BPF:

Pre-detection SNR: SNR AM

pre =

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Post-detection SNR in AM

The result after BPF can be written as

where the envelope is

When the SNR is high,

DC term Ac can be removed by a capacitor, so final output is:

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Post-detection SNR of AM

The envelope detector output

The recovered message power is

AM Post-detection SNR:

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 2 2
A k P
SNR AM
post = c a
2  0W
Figure of Merit of AM

To get Figure of Merit, we need the reference SNR:

SNR AM
ref =

Post SNR
Figure of Merit = =
Ref SNR

s (t ) = Ac [1 + k a m(t )]cos(2πf c t ),

To avoid over-modulation, we need

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Figure of Merit of AM
Post SNR
AM Figure of Merit = =
Ref SNR

The noise performance of AM is worse than the DSB-SC,

because at least half of the power is spent on the carrier.

The benefit we get is the simpler envelope detector.

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Chapter 9 Noise in Analog Comm.

Various SNRs in a system:

Pre-detection SNR

Post-detection SNR

Reference SNR (also known as Channel SNR)

Figure of Merit

SNR in DSB

SNR in AM

SNR in SSB

SNR in FM

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9.6 Pre-detection SNR in SSB
Ac

SSB signal: s (t ) = (m(t ) cos(2πf ct ) m mˆ (t ) sin (2πf ct ))
2

To get the power of SSB signal, we need the following facts:

1. m(t) and its Hilbert transform are orthogonal:
E (m(t )mˆ (t ) ) = 0.
This is because Hilbert transform rotates the signal by 90o.
Example:

2. m(t) and its Hilbert transform have the same power.
Proof:

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Pre-detection SNR in SSB
2
Ac P
Pre-detection SNR of SSB: SNR SSB
pre = .
4  0W

Proof:

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Post-detection SNR in SSB
Ac

SSB signal: s (t ) = (m(t ) cos(2πf ct ) m mˆ (t ) sin (2πf ct ))
2

SSB signal can be demodulated by coherent method too.

Using narrowband representation of the noise, the
received signal is (use LSB as example):

After multiplying with the carrier and LPF:

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Post-detection SNR in SSB

SN(f)
W

0 / 2
f
-fc fc

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Post-detection SNR in SSB

nI(t) has the same power as n(t)

output noise power of nI(t)/2 is:

Post-detection SNR in SSB SNR SSB

post =

Reference SNR in SSB: SNR SSB

ref =

Post SNR
Figure of Merit: SSB Figure of Merit = =
Ref SNR
The noise performance of SSB is the same as DSB and baseband system. 29
Post-detection SNR of DSB-SC

Example: Problem 9.5

SSB with  0 = 4 × 10 watts/Hz, W = 4kHz , E [s (t )] = −80dBm
−17 2

Find the post-detection SNR.

Solution:

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Chapter 9 Noise in Analog Comm.

Various SNRs in a system:

Pre-detection SNR

Post-detection SNR

Reference SNR (also known as Channel SNR)

Figure of Merit

SNR in DSB

SNR in AM

SNR in SSB

SNR in FM

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9.7-9.8 Noise in FM
(Not covered in the final exam)
t
s (t ) = Ac cos(2πf ct + 2πk f ∫ m(τ )dτ )
0

It can be shown that the figure of merit of FM modulation is

2
3B 
Figure of merit =  T  .
4W 
 Performance depends on the bandwidth of the modulated signal!
This is different from DSB, AM, and SSB.
 An increase in the bandwidth BT can significantly improve the
noise performance of FM system. 32
Chapter 9 Noise in Analog Comm.

Main Conclusions:
 DSB and SSB have the same noise performance as the
baseband comm system.
 AM has worse noise performance, but has simpler receiver
(envelope detector )
 FM has much better noise performance, at the price of the
increased bandwidth.

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