Communication Systems

Course Information
• Instructor: Dr. Irfan Arshad

• Text Book: “Fundamentals of Communication

Systems”, by John G. Proakis & Masoud Salehi,
1st or 2nd Edition

• “Modern Digital & Analog Communication

Systems” by B. P Lathi. 3rd Edition
• Program Learning Outcomes: The course is designed for the
students to achieve
– Engineering Knowledge: PLO-1
– Problem Analysis: PLO-2

• Course Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of

the course, the student will be able to:
– Analyse different analog modulation schemes under idealconditions:CLO-1
– Demonstrate the knowledge related to the concepts of probability and randomprocesses:
CLO-2
– Analyse different analog modulation schemes in non-ideal (noisy) environment:CLO-3

• Course Pre-requisites:
– Probability Methods in Engineering (Essential)
– Signals & Systems (Essential)
– Electronic Devices and Circuits
 16 Weeks Course Breakup
Elements of Electrical Communication System, Communication Channels and their Characteristics,
Week No. 1
Mathematical Models for CommunicationChannels
Introduction to Modulation and Amplitude Modulation (AM), Double-Sideband Suppressed-Carrier AM (DSB-
Week No. 2
SC AM), Conventional AM
Week No. 3 Introduction to Hilbert Transforms, Single-Sideband AM (SSB AM), Vestigial-Sideband AM (VSBAM)
Week No. 4 Implementations of AM Modulators andDemodulators
Week No. 5 Signal Multiplexing, AM RadioBroadcasting
Week No. 6 Introduction to Angle Modulation, Representation of Frequency Modulated and Phase Modulated Signals
Week No. 7 Spectral Characteristics of Angle-ModulatedSignals
Week No. 8 Implementation of Angle Modulators andDemodulators
Review of Probability and Random Variables (RV): Sample space, Events, and Probability, Conditional
Week No. 9
Probability, Random Variables
Week No. 10 Review of Probability and Random Variables: Functions of a RV, Multiple RVs, Sums of RVs
Statistical Averages, Wide-Sense Stationary Processes, Multiple Random Processes, Random Process and
Week No. 11
Linear Systems
Week No. 12 Power Spectral Density of a Random Process, Power Spectral Density of a SumProcess
Week No. 13 Gaussian Processes, White Processes, Filtered NoiseProcesses
Effect of Noise on a Baseband Systems, Effect of Noise on DSB-SC AM, Effect of Noise on SSB AM, Effect
Week No. 14
of Noise on ConventionalAM
Week No. 15 Effect of Noise on AngleModulation
Week No. 16 Pre-emphasis and De-emphasis Filtering, Comparison of Analog-ModulationSystems
 Lecture 01
INTRODUCTION
What’s Communication System?
A system designed to transfer/send messages or information
between one or more destinations with the use of electronic
circuits is called Electrical Communication System
 Milestones in Communications
• Telegraphy and Telephony:
– 1799, Invention of electric battery by AlessandroVolta
– 1837, Electric Telegraph by Samuel Morse, the MORSE Code
– 1875, Electric Telegraph by Emile Baudot, the BAUDOT Code
– 1870, Invention of Telephone by Alexander GrahamBell
– 1906, Invention of the triode amplifier by Lee Defrost

• Wireless Communication:
– 1820, Discovery of Electric current produces a Magnetic field by Oersted
– 1831, Faradays Law by the Michael Faraday
– 1864, EM theory formulation by James C. Maxwell
– 1887, Verification of EM theory by Hertz
– 1895, Wireless telegraphy by Guglialmo Marconi
– 1920, AM Radio broadcast by Edwin Armstrong
– 1933, FM Radio broadcast by Edwin Armstrong

• Television:
– 1929, Invention of Television system by V.K.Zworykin
– 1936, Television Broadcasting

• Satellite and Cellular Communication:

– 1947, Invention of Transistor by Brattain, Bardeen and WilliamShockley
– 1958, Invention of IC by Jack Kilby and RobertNoyce
– 1958, Invention of Laser by Townes and Schawlow
– 1962, Satellite communication
– 1988 Digital Cellular System 2000, 3G Network 2010, 4G LTE 2020, 5G
Elements of an Electrical Comm. Sys.

• Information Source: A source of information in the form of

– Audio signal: Speech, Music, Voice, etc.
– Visual signal: Picture, Video, etc.
– Textual signal: Data, Fax, Email, etc.
Output of source is non-deterministic, defined in probabilistic
terms.
• Transducer: To convert output of source into an electrical
signal suitable for transmission and vice-versa
– Microphone: Audio signal to electrical signal
– Video camera: Image signal to electricalsignal
Elements of an Electrical Comm. Sys.
• Transmitter: Converts a message signal into a form suitable
for transmission via a process called modulation. Transmitter
functions are:
– Modulation (AM, FM, PM)
– Multiplexing (FDM, TDM, etc., )
– Filtering of information-bearing signal
– Amplification of modulated signal
– Radiation of signal via transmittingantennas

• Channel: The physical medium used to send information signal

from transmitter to the receiver. Channel introduces
– Distortion (amplitude and phase distortion, signal attenuation,unequal
amplification, multipath distortion, etc.)
– Noise (Thermal noise, man-made noise, atmospheric noise,etc.)
– Interference from other users of the channel

• Receiver: Reconstructs and recovers message signal contained

in received signal via a process called demodulation. Receiver
functions are:
– Signal demodulation
– Signal filtering
– Noise suppression
Communication Channels & their Characteristics
Amount of data transmitted realizably
through any communication channel is
limited by the channel bandwidth and
power in the transmitted signal

1. Wire-line Channels:
– Guided electromagnetic channels with modest
bandwidths
– Twisted pair wire-lines BW  1MHz
– Coaxial cable BW  100MHz
– Extensive utilization in telephone network

2. Fiber Optic Channels:

– Information is transmitted by varying
(modulating) intensity of light source with
message
– Transmitter is a light source: LED or Laser
– Optical fiber BW  THz
– Utilization in short and long distance telephone
networks and telecommunication services
including voice, data and video.
 Communication Channels & their Characteristics
3. Wireless Electromagnetic Channels:
– EM energy is radiated through antenna. For
efficient EM radiation, antenna must be longer
than 1/10 of the .

Ground-wave propagation
– Uses area btw surface of the earth and
ionosphere for transmission
– For MF band (0.3-3 MHz)
– Atmospheric noise, man-made noise and
thermal noise

Sky-wave propagation
– Due to the total internal reflection of the EM
waves by the ionosphere
– For HF band (3-30 MHz)
– Signal multipath and signal fading

Line-of-Sight propagation
– EM waves pass through ionosphere, so LOS
propagation is possible.
– For VHF band and higher
– Thermal noise and cosmic noise
Communication Channels & their Characteristics
4. Underwater Acoustic Channels:
– Acoustic signals are used to communicate data from the under water to surface
of the ocean. Used in ocean exploration
– EM waves do not propagate under water (except at very low frequencies) due
to signal attenuation
– The attenuation of EM waves in water is expressed in terms of skindepth,
which is the distance signal is attenuated by1/e
– Ambient ocean and man made acoustic noises.

4. Storage Channels:
– Magnetic tapes (Audio and Video tapes)
– Magnetic disks (Hard drive)
– Solid State Disks (Hard drive, USB, etc.)
– Optical Disks (CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc.)
Mathematical Models for Comm. Channels
• The Additive Noise Channel: Additive Gaussian Noise
channel, the most commonly used model for analysis and
design of CS taking into account the thermal noise.

• The Linear Filter Channel: For physical channels like wire-

line telephone channels which employ filters to meet the
bandwidth limitations.
Mathematical Models for Comm. Channels
• The Linear Time-Variant Filter Channel: For physical
channels like underwater acoustic channels which involve time-
variant multipath propagation of the transmitted signal
 Digital Comm. Sys.

• Analog source information can be converted to digital form and

then transmitted through digital communication system
• Benefits of digital transmission over analog transmission
– Signal fidelity is better controlled
– Channel bandwidth is preserved through redundancyremoval
– Digital communication systems are cheaper to implement
 Elements of Digital Comm. Sys.
• Source Encoder: To generate binary information sequence,
i.e., convert output of analog or digital source into an efficient
sequence of binary digits with little or no redundancy.
• Channel Encoder: Introduces error protection by adding some
redundancy in a controlled fashion to overcome the effect of
noise and interference.
• Digital Modulator: To map binary information sequence into
signal waveforms to enable transmission.

• Digital Demodulator
• Channel Decoder
• Source Decoder