MODULE-2

BASEBAND TRANSMISSION

Intersymbol Interference

20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 1

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20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 2

Inter Symbol Interference
(ISI) is a form of distortion of a signal in which the pulse spreads out
and interferes with adjacent pulses in the sampling instant making the
communication less reliable

20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 3

Inter Symbol Interference
In an ideal system (theoretical), the
transmitted symbols arrive at the
receiver without any loss or
interference.

But in real scenario the “same” signal

arrives via multiple paths and consequently
with different delays.

20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 4

Inter Symbol Interference
Due to dispersive nature of the channel the transmitted symbol can be
received multiple times at the receiver, more or less as an “echo” effect
which is called delay spread.

20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 5

Inter Symbol Interference
The second cause is the multipath, the signal propagates along different
paths from the transmitter to the receiver.

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Inter Symbol Interference
Methods to deal with ISI
1) Nyquist Criterion: Force ISI effect to zero by signal design – pulse
shaping techniques
2) Guard band: Introduced between two successive symbols.
3) Partial Response Signalling: Introduce controlled amount of ISI in the
transmit side and prepare to deal with it at the receiver
4) Design algorithms to counter ISI: Learn to live with the presence of ISI
and design robust algorithms at the receiver – Viterbi algorithm
(maximum likelihood sequence estimation), equalizer etc.,
), equalizer etc.,

20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 7

Inter Symbol Interference
• Baseband binary PAM system

• Incoming binary sequence b0 consists of 1 and 0 symbols of duration T b

Baseband binary data transmission system

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Inter Symbol Interference
• PAM changes this sequence into a new sequence of short pulses each
with amplitude ak, represented in polar form as:

applied to a transmit filter of impulse response g(t):

transmitted signal

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Inter Symbol Interference
• The channel with impulse response h(t) modifies S(t) and also adds the
random noise.

• x(t) is the channel output, the noisy signal arriving at the receiver front end

• The receiver has a receive filter with impulse response c(t) and output y(t)

• Output y(t) is sampled synchronously with the transmitter

• The reconstructed samples are compared to a threshold and decision is taken

as for 1 or 0

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Inter Symbol Interference
Receive filter output is:

The scaled pulse µp(t) can be expressed as double convolution: the impulse
response of the transmit filter g(t), the impulse response of the channel filter h(t)
(channel) and the impulse response of the receive filter c(t):

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Inter Symbol Interference

In the frequency domain we have:

where P(f), G(f), H(f) and C(f) are FT of the respective p(t), g(t), h(t)
and c(t)

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Inter Symbol Interference
The received signal is sampled at times ti= iTb which, taking (4.44) in
mind and the norm. condition p(0) = 1 (µ is a scaling factor to account for
amplitude changes), can be expressed as:

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Inter Symbol Interference
• In the absence of noise and ISI we get an ideal pulse y(ti)=µai

• The ISI can be controlled (reduced) by the proper design of the transmit
and receive filter.

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Nyquist Criterion for Distortionless Baseband
Binary Transmission
Further the condition for zero ISI is

If P(t) sastisfies the above condition, the receiver output y(ti)

simplifies to
y(ti)=µai for all i

20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 17

Nyquist Criterion for Distortionless Baseband
Binary Transmission
• If we consider a sequence of samples {p[nTb]}, where n = 0, +/-1, +/-2…
Sampling in the time domain, produces periodicity in the frequency
domain (duality property) which in general can be expressed as:

FT of an infinite
sequence of delta
functions of
period Tb. Rb=1/Tb
bit rate (b/s)

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Nyquist Criterion for Distortionless Baseband
Binary Transmission
Pδ(f) is the FT of an infinite sequence of delta functions with period Tb,
weighted by the sample values of p(t).
So, it can also be expressed by:

where if we let m = i – k for i = k we have m = 0 and for i ≠ k we have

correspondingly m ≠0

20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 16

Nyquist Criterion for Distortionless Baseband
Binary Transmission

using the shifting property of the delta function

By normalization p(0) = 1

which represents the condition for zero ISI in the frequency domain.
The case when ISI is equal to zero is known as distortion-less
channel.
20EC403 – Inter Symbol Interference 17
Assessment Questions
Question #1
• A voice signal in the range 300 to 3300 Hz is sampled at 8000 samples/s.
We may transmit these samples directly as PAM pulses or we may first
convert each sample to a PCM format and use binary (PCM) waveforms
for transmission.
• a) What is the minimum system bandwidth required for the detection of
PAM with no ISI and with a filter roll-off characteristic of r = 1?
• b) Using the same filter roll-off characteristic, what is the minimum
bandwidth required for the detection of binary (PCM) waveforms if the
samples are quantized to eight levels?

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Assessment Questions
Question #2
• a) The signal propagating through a wireless communication medium has
a spreading of pulse. Mention the possible causes for the above
mentioned in a digital communication receiver.
• b) Justify the practical difficulties in implementing a filter for the signals that
are strictly bandlimited to 2W.

• Question #3
• A 300 to 3300 Hz voice signal is sampled at 10 ksamples/s. What is the
minimum transmission bandwidth required to send the PAM samples
without intersymbol interference?

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