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Lecture Five Noise in Communication Syst
Lecture Five Noise in Communication Syst
1 INTRODUCTION TO NOISE
Any electrical signal transmitted from one point to another point is classified as having two parts, the
desirable part and undesirable part, which is noise. The magnitude of noise is directly related with the
ability to recover the original signal without error. Below are the figures how the signal is corrupted by
the noise:
External Noise
External noise is noise that is generated outside the device or circuit. Below are the primary sources of
external noise:
(a) Lightning
(b) Solar noise
(c) Cosmic Noise
(d) Man-made noise
Lightning
It is a major source of noise and is caused by the static discharge of thunderclouds. A wide band of
frequencies is generated during discharge, thus affecting mostly low- and high frequency bands up to
30MHz .
Solar Noise
It is caused by ionized gases of the sun produce broad range frequencies that penetrate Earth’s atmosphere
at frequencies used by communication systems. These disturbances are especially intense when sunspot
activity peaks approximately every 11 years.
Cosmic Noise
It is caused by distant stars in our universe, like the sun, also radiate intense levels of noise at frequencies
that penetrate Earth’s atmosphere.
Man-made Noise
It is simply noise that is produced by mankind such as from electric motors, automobile ignition systems,
etc. man-made noise is most intense in the more populated metropolitan and industrial areas.
Internal Noise
Internal noise is caused by electrical interference generated within the device or circuit. Below are the
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primary sources of internal noise:
(a) Shot noise
(b) Thermal noise
Shot noise
The name originates from the sound that it produces at the audio output of a receiver. The sound is similar
to that leaf shot falling on top of a tin roof. This noise is caused by the random arrival of carriers (holes
and electrons) at the output element of electronic devices, such as diode and transistor.
Thermal Noise
It is caused by rapid and random movement of electrons within a conductor due to thermal agitation.
Since particles such as free electrons are in movement, they posses kinetic energy that is directly related
to the temperature of the resistive body. At absolute zero (Kelvin), the kinetic energy of all charged
particles becomes zero, therefore no thermal noise, but at temperature above 0° Kelvin, the charged
particles begin to move. At any instant time that the number of charged particles flowing in one direction
may exceed those flowing in the opposite direction, so, no DC current flows. But there is still about a few
micro volts exist that might overwhelming for most high-gain receivers compared to the signal amplitudes
received at the antenna input.
Below is the equation shows the mathematical relationship that was developed by Johnson:
Pn = kTB
where k = Boltzmann’s constant of 1.38 x 10 −23
T = absolute temperature of the device (oK)
B = bandwidth
Pn = noise power output
Cross Talk
Many of us have experienced listening to other telephone conversations. This type of noise called cross
talk occurs as a result of inductive and capacitive coupling from adjacent channels. Subscriber loops and
trunk circuits commonly multiplexed together to form bundled cables often have severe cross talk,
particularly in long lengths of cable.
Random noise appears across the terminals of a receiving antenna. This noise comes from two sources:
(1) thermal noise generated in the antenna’s ohmic resistance
(2) noise received (“picked up”) from other sources (both natural and man-made).
Often, the antenna noise is represented as though it were thermal noise generated in a fictitious resistance,
equal to the radiation resistance, at a temperature T A that would account for the actual delivered noise
power. That is, the antenna is modelled as a warm resistor, with value equal to the radiation resistance,
operating at some temperature of TA degrees Kelvin. TA is the value at which the
fictitious resistor would deliver an amount of noise power equal to what the antenna delivers. T A is called
the noise temperature of the antenna.
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all practical electronic systems, is the most predominant noise in many systems. Since the system
amplifies/attenuates its input signal and noise equally, and more noise is added by the system itself, the
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output is lower than the signal to noise ratio on the input. Noise factor
and noise figure characterize the extent of this degradation as the signal passes through the system.
Let (SNR)IN and (SNR)OUT denote the input and output signal-to-noise ratios, respectively, of the system
(these are specified in the same bandwidth). Let P si and Pni denote the input signal and noise powers,
respectively. Likewise, denote as Pso and Pno as the output signal and noise powers, respectively.
Then, Noise Factor is defined as the ratio of signal-to-noise power at the input of a device to the signal-
to-noise power at its output.
Then, system noise factor is defined as
…....(i)
where Ga = Pso/Psi is the power gain of the system (F > 1 in real-world, noisy systems. However,
the smaller F is the better.)
Now, Pno = GaPni + Pne, where Pne = GakTeB is noise added by the amplifier/device. Combine this with (ii)
to obtain
….......(ii)
Often, Noise factor F is converted to Decibels (dB). In this case, we use the name Noise Figure.
All amplifiers, for example contribute some degree of noise to the signal. If an amplifier generated no
noise of its own, its input and output SNR would be equal. Noise factor would be 1 in this ideal case,
which is equivalent to noise figure of 0dB
….......(v)
Alternatively, this result can be solved for
Te = T0 ( F − 1)........(vi)
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A standard noise source (a resistor at temperature T0) is connected to the input side. The noise power
output delivered to the load is
….............(vii)
Let Te1,2 denote the noise temperature of the cascaded network. comparison of equation (vii) to
equation (iv) leads to the conclusion
….........(viii)
Te1,2 accounts for the noise introduced by both two-ports acting together. It is the overall noise
temperature of the cascaded two-port.
This process can be extended to the case of n such cascaded two-port networks. Following the approach
just outlined, one can easily find that n cascaded networks has an overall noise temperature of
…......(ix)
where Te,k is the noise temperature of the kth network in the chain.
The overall noise factor of n cascaded networks can be expressed in terms of the individual noise factors.
From equation(v), we know Te = T0(Fk−1)...........(x)
where Fk is the noise factor of the kth network
Now substitute equation (x) into (ix) to obtain for the overall noise temperature of the cascaded network
Finally, use equation(v) in the previous expression for the two-port equivalent noise temperature in to
obtain
…....Friss' formula