Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN)

Additive White Gaussian Noise is a linear combination of Gaussian and white noise and is
the most widely used model for communication channels. We call it additive because the
impulse is uncorrelated and White noise refers to the fact that it has equal amount of all
frequency components in the band just like all frequencies in the visible spectrum make up
white color when added together. It has a flat or constant power spectral density. Because
of its statistically random nature and as per the central limit theorem, its distribution
approximates to the Gaussian curve and that is why it is called Gaussian noise.

Bandwidth Criteria
There are different criteria to represent the bandwidth of a signal as depicted in the figure
below:

a. Half-power bandwidth: This is the interval between frequencies at which G x ( f ) has

dropped to half power, or 3 dB below the peak value. In terms of power a 3 dB
reduction in level represents half the power so it's easy to see why this is referred to
as the half-power bandwidth.
 b. Equivalent rectangular or noise equivalent bandwidth: It is defined by,
W N =P X /G x (f c ) , where P X is the total signal power over all frequencies and G x ( f c )
is the value of G x ( f ) at the band center.
c. Null-to-null bandwidth: It is the width of the main spectral lobe, where the most of
the signal power is contained. It is the most popular measure of bandwidth for
digital communications.
d. Fractional power containment bandwidth: It is the band that leaves exactly 0.5% of
the signal power above the upper band limit and exactly 0.5% of the signal power
below the lower band limit hence occupying 99% of the signal power.
e. Bounded power spectral density: The band outside which G x ( f ) is below a certain
stated level below as compared to that found at the band center. Typical attenuation
levels might be 35 or 50 dB.
f. Absolute Bandwidth: This is the interval between frequencies outside of which the
spectrum is zero. It is a useful abstraction but for realizable filters the bandwidth is
infinite.

Sampling
The conversion of a continuous signal to a discrete signal by measuring its value at regular
time intervals is called sampling. This is achieved in time domain by multiplying the signal
with an impulse train.

One would think that the sampling period (the time after which a sample is picked) can be
kept very small to get an accurate version of the sampled signal but it has a practical
implication and that is called aliasing. The term aliasing refers to the distortion that occurs
when a continuous time signal has frequencies larger than half of the sampling rate. The
process of aliasing describes the phenomenon in which components of the signal at high
frequencies are mistaken for components at lower frequencies. This effect is also shown
when seen in the frequency domain as the regions will be shifted by an amount equal to the
sampling frequency.

The Nyquist Sampling Theorem states that to avoid aliasing occurring in the sampling of a
signal the sampling rate should be greater than or equal to twice the highest frequency
present in the signal. This is referred to as the Nyquist sampling rate.