Analog and Digital

Communication
Systems
Chapter 2: Signals
 Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

 Distinguish various types of signals and their properties

 Understand bandwidth requirements of various signals

 Understand the impact of noise in a communication system

 Represent signals in both time and frequency domains

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 Signals

 A signal is a quantity that varies as a function of time. More

importantly a signal carries information.

 Most communication systems are electronic in nature. Therefore for

a signal to be processed by a communication system it must at
some point become an electrical quantity (voltage or current).

 It must be understood however that signals can exist as non

electrical quantities (such as electromagnetic waves in free space or
light in fibre optic channel).

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 Classification of Signals

 Signals in communication systems typically fall into the following

mathematical classifications:

1. Deterministic or random
2. Energy or power
3. Periodic or aperiodic
4. Complex or real
5. Analog or digital
6. Continuous time or discrete time

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 Energy vs Power Signals

 The energy, Ex, of a signal x(t) is

 x(t) is called an energy signal when Ex < ∞.

 The signal power, Px, is

 Note that if Ex < ∞, then Px = 0 and if Px > 0, then Ex =∞.

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 Periodic versus Aperiodic

 A periodic signal is one that repeats itself in time.

 x(t) is a periodic signal when

 The period is T0 and the frequency is f = 1/T0

 An aperiodic signal is defined to be a signal that is not periodic.

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 Real versus Complex Signals

 A complex signal comprises both real and imaginary components.

where x(t) and y(t) are both real signals.

 A magnitude, α(t) and phase, θ(t), representation of a complex

signal is also commonly used, i.e.,

where

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 Continuous Time Signals versus
Discrete Time Signals

 A signal that is specified for every value of time t is a continuous

time signal.

 A signal that is specified only at discrete points of k is a discrete

time signal.

 Often a discrete signal is denoted by x(k), where k is an integer and

a discrete signal often arises from (uniform) sampling of a
continuous time signal, e.g., x(k) = x(kT s), where T s is the sampling
period.

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 Analog and Digital Signals

 A signal whose amplitude can take on any value in a continuous

range is an analog signal, ie, the magnitude of an analog signal
can take on an infinite number of values.

 A digital signal is one whose magnitude can take on only a finite

number of values.

 A digital signal may have more than two predetermined values. A

digital signal whose magnitude can take on M values is an M-ary
signal.

 A binary signal is a special digital signal where M = 2.

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 Deterministic and Random
Signals
 A signal whose physical description is known completely either in a
mathematical form or graphical form is a deterministic signal.

 A signal that is known only in terms of probabilistic description such

as mean value, mean square value and distributions rather than its
full mathematical and graphical description is a random signal. Its
pattern is quite irregular.

 All message signals are random signals.

 Most noise signals are random signals.

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 Signal-to-Noise Ratio

 Noise is unwanted interference from both internal and external

sources, which can degrade or distort a signal.
 The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, also designated SNR, indicates the
relative strengths of the signal and the noise in a communication
system.
 The S/N ratio is computed by using either voltage or power values:

where
Vs = signal voltage
Vn = noise voltage
Ps = signal power
Pn = noise power
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 Sources of Noise

Noise can be classified based on its source of generation such as:

• External Noise. Noise is generated external to the communication system.

• Internal Noise. Noise is created within the communication system.

See more details in the table below:

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 Sources of Noise
– External noise

 External noise comes from sources over which we have little or no

control—industrial, atmospheric, or space.

 Regardless of its source, noise shows up as a random ac voltage

whose amplitude and frequency vary over a wide range. One can
say that noise in general contains all frequencies, varying randomly.
This is generally known as white noise or Johnson noise. (A white
noise signal occupies a theoretically infinite bandwidth)

 (1) Industrial Noise. Industrial noise is produced by manufactured

equipment, such as automotive ignition systems, electric motors,
and generators. Any electrical equipment that causes high voltages
or currents to be switched produces transients that create noise.

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 Sources of Noise
– External noise

 (2) Atmospheric Noise. The electrical disturbances that occur

naturally in the earth’s atmosphere are another source of noise.
Atmospheric noise is often referred to as static. Static usually comes
from lightning. Like industrial noise, atmospheric noise shows up
primarily as amplitude variations that add to a signal and interfere
with it.

 (3) Extraterrestrial Noise. Extraterrestrial noise, solar and cosmic,

comes from sources in space. One of the primary sources of
extraterrestrial noise is the sun (solar flares), which radiates a wide
range of signals in a broad noise spectrum. Solar flares cause
tremendous radio signal interference and make many frequencies
unusable for communication.

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 Sources of Noise
– Internal noise

 Electronic components such as resistors, diodes, and transistors are

major sources of internal noise. Internal noise, although it is low
level compared to external noise, can be great enough to interfere
with weak signals.
 Internal noise can be classified as thermal noise, semiconductor
noise, and intermodulation distortion.
 Since the sources of internal noise are well known, there is some
design control over this type of noise.

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 Sources of Noise
– Internal noise

 (1) Thermal Noise. Most internal noise is caused by a phenomenon

known as thermal agitation, the random motion of free electrons in a
conductor caused by heat. Increasing the temperature causes this
atomic motion to increase. The apparent resistance of the conductor
thus fluctuates, causing the thermally produced random voltage we
call noise. Thermal agitation is an example of white noise.
 Thermal noise voltage can be calculated using the following formula:

where
Vn = rms noise voltage, V
k = Boltzman’s constant (1.38 3 10223 J/K)
T = temperature, K (°C 1 273)
B = bandwidth, Hz
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 Sources of Noise
– Internal noise

 (2) Semiconductor Noise. Electronic components such as diodes

and transistors are major contributors of noise. In addition to thermal
noise, semiconductors produce shot noise, transit-time noise, and
flicker noise.
 The most common type of semiconductor noise is shot noise which
is caused by random movement of electrons and holes in
semiconductor elements.
 Shot noise is also white noise in that it contains all frequencies and
amplitudes over a very wide range.
 The rms noise current in a device In is calculated with the formula

where q = charge of an electron, 1.6 x 10-19 C

I = direct current, A
B = bandwidth, Hz
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 Sources of Noise
– Internal noise

 (3) Intermodulation Distortion. Intermodulation distortion results

from the generation of new signals and harmonics caused by circuit
nonlinearities.

 Nonlinearities cause frequencies in the circuit to mix together,

forming sum and difference frequencies. When many frequencies
are involved, or with pulses or rectangular waves, the large number
of harmonics produces an even larger number of sum and difference
frequencies.

 These new frequencies can appear inside the bandwidth of the

amplifier for example, hence cannot be filtered out. As a result they
become interfering signals to the primary signals to be amplified.
They are a form of noise.
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 Time and Frequency Domain
Representation of Signals
 Up to this point we have only looked at signals represented in the
time domain, ie, the signals were shown as functions of time, x(t).

 Signals can also be described in the frequency domain. In a

frequency-domain representation, amplitude or power is shown on
one axis (vertical axis) and frequency is displayed on the other
(horizontal) axis.

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 Fourier Series

 It is very important in communication systems to represent a signal,

not only in the time domain, but also in the frequency domain.
 Fourier series is a Mathematical tool which is used to express
periodic time domain functions in the frequency domain.
 A periodic waveform has amplitude and repeats itself during a
specific time period T. Some examples of periodic waveforms are
sine, square, rectangular, triangular, and sawtooth.
 Figure below shows a rectangular wave, where A designates
amplitude, T represents period, and τ indicates pulse width.

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 Fourier Series

 The form for the Fourier series is as follows:

 Where

= the sum of n terms, in this case from 1 to infinity, where n

takes on values of 1, 2, 3, 4 ...
a0 , an, bn = the Fourier coefficients, determined by the type of
waveform
T = the period of the wave
f(t) = an indication that the Fourier series is a function of time.

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 Fourier Transform

 Fourier Transform is a Mathematical tool used to express

nonperiodic time domain functions in the frequency domain.
 Given a function x(t), then its Fourier transform is defined as:

 For example see the pulse and its Fourier transform shown below:

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 Frequency spectrum: application
of Fourier Series and Transform
 If any nonsinusoidal waves, such as square waves, are to be
transmitted by a communications system, then it is important to
realize that each such wave may be broken down into its component
sine waves.

 The bandwidth required will therefore be considerably greater than

might have been expected if only the repetition rate of such a wave
had been taken into account.

 As a general rule, the higher the harmonic, the lower its energy
level, so that in bandwidth calculations the highest harmonics are
often ignored.

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 Introduction to Communication
Systems - Summary

 6 types of signals: periodic/nonperiodic, analog/digital,

deterministic/random, continuous/discrete time, energy/power,
real/complex.
 Noise: sources of noise (internal/external)
 Time domain/frequency domain representation of signals
 Fourier series/Fourier Transforms

END
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