communication Systems

Signal and System

 Signals are variables that carry information
 System is an assemblage of entities/objects, real or abstract,
comprising a whole with each every component/element
interacting or related to another one.
Systems process input signals to produce output signals

 Examples
i. Motion, sound, picture, video, traffic light…
ii. Natural system (ecosystem), human-made system
(machines, computer storage system), abstract system
(traffic, computer programs), descriptive system (plans)
 Signal Examples
• Electrical signals --- voltages and currents in a
circuit
• Acoustic signals --- audio or speech signals
(analog or digital)
• Video signals --- intensity variations in an image
(e.g. a CAT scan)
• Biological signals --- sequence of bases in a
gene
• Noise: unwanted signal
:
 Measuring Signals

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

Amplitude
0
1 22 43 64 85 106 127 148 169 190 211 232 253 274 295 316 337 358 379 400 421 442 463 484 505 526 547 568 589 610 631 652 673 694 715

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

-1

Period
 Definitions
• Voltage – the force which moves an electrical current
against resistance

• Waveform – the shape of the signal (previous slide is a

sine wave) derived from its amplitude and frequency
over a fixed time (other waveform is the square wave)

• Amplitude – the maximum value of a signal, measured

from its average state

• Frequency (pitch) – the number of cycles produced in a

second – Hertz (Hz). Relate this to the speed of a
processor eg 1.4GigaHertz or 1.4 billion cycles per
second
 Signal Basics
 Continuous time (CT) and discrete time (DT) signals
CT signals take on real or complex values as a function of an independent
variable that ranges over the real numbers and are denoted as x(t).

DT signals take on real or complex values as a function of an independent

variable that ranges over the integers and are denoted as x[n].

Note the subtle use of parentheses and square brackets to distinguish between
CT and DT signals.
 Analog Signals
• Human Voice – best example
• Ear recognises sounds 20KHz or less
• AM Radio – 535KHz to 1605KHz
• FM Radio – 88MHz to 108MHz
 Digital signals
• Represented by Square Wave
• All data represented by binary values
• Single Binary Digit – Bit
• Transmission of contiguous group of bits is a bit
stream
• Not all decimal values can be represented by
binary
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
 Analogue vs. Digital
Analogue Advantages
• Best suited for audio and video
• Consume less bandwidth
• Available world wide
• Less susceptible to noise

Digital Advantages
• Best for computer data
• Can be easily compressed
• Can be encrypted
• Equipment is more common and less expensive
• Can provide better clarity
 Analog or Digital
• Analog Message: continuous in amplitude and over
time
– AM, FM for voice sound
– Traditional TV for analog video
– First generation cellular phone (analog mode)
– Record player
• Digital message: 0 or 1, or discrete value
– VCD, DVD
– 2G/3G cellular phone
– Data on your disk
– Your grade
• Digital age: why digital communication will prevail
 Periodic vs. Aperiodic Signals
 Periodic signals have the property that x(t + T) = x(t) for all t.
 The smallest value of T that satisfies the definition is called the
period.
 Shown below are an aperiodic signal (left) and a periodic signal
(right).
 The Decibel (dB)
• Measure of power transfer

• 1 dB = 10 log10 (Pout / Pin)

• 1 dBm = 10 log10 (P / 10-3) where P is in Watts

• 1 dBmV = 20 log10 (V / 10-3) where V is in Volts

Communication System

A B
Engineering System

Social System

Genetic System

History and fact of communication

 What is a communications
system?
• Communications Systems: Systems
designed to transmit and receive
information

Info Comm Info

Source System Sink
 Block Diagram
Info
Source

m(t)
n(t)
message
noise
from
source

Transmitter Receiver
Channel
Tx s(t) r(t) Rx
transmitted received
signal signal m~ (t )
received
message
to
sink Info
Sink
 Telecommunication
• Telegraph
• Fixed line telephone
• Cable
• Wired networks
• Internet
• Fiber communications
• Communication bus inside computers to
communicate between CPU and memory
Wireless Comm Evolution:
UMTS (3G)

http://www.3g-generation.com/
http://www.nttdocomo.com/reports/010902_ir_presentation_january.pdf
Wireless Communications
• Satellite
• TV
• Cordless phone
• Cellular phone
• Wireless LAN, WIFI
• Wireless MAN, WIMAX
• Bluetooth
• Ultra Wide Band
• Wireless Laser
• Microwave
• GPS
• Ad hoc/Sensor Networks
 Comm. Sys. Bock Diagram

Noise

m(t) Tx Channel Rx ~ (t )
m
s(t) r(t)
Baseband Baseband
Bandpass
Signal Signal
• “Low” Frequencies Signal
• <20 kHz • “High” Frequencies
• Original data rate • >300 kHz
• Transmission data rate
Demodulation
Modulation or
Detection

Formal definitions will be provided later

 Aside: Why go to higher
frequencies?
Half-wave dipole antenna
c=fl
c = 3E+08 ms-1
l/2
Tx
Calculate l for

f = 5 kHz

f = 300 kHz

There are also other reasons for going from baseband to bandpass
 Power, Distortion, Noise
• Transmit power
– Constrained by device, battery, health issue, etc.
• Channel responses to different frequency and different time
– Satellite: almost flat over frequency, change slightly over time
– Cable or line: response very different over frequency, change
slightly over time.
– Fiber: perfect
– Wireless: worst. Multipath reflection causes fluctuation in
frequency response. Doppler shift causes fluctuation over time
• Noise and interference
– AWGN: Additive White Gaussian noise
– Interferences: power line, microwave, other users (CDMA
phone)
 Shannon Capacity
• Shannon Theory
– It establishes that given a noisy channel with information
capacity C and information transmitted at a rate R, then if
R<C, there exists a coding technique which allows the
probability of error at the receiver to be made arbitrarily
small. This means that theoretically, it is possible to
transmit information without error up to a limit, C.
– The converse is also important. If R>C, the probability of
error at the receiver increases without bound as the rate is
increased. So no useful information can be transmitted
beyond the channel capacity. The theorem does not
address the rare situation in which rate and capacity are
equal.
• Shannon Capacity C  B log 2 (1  SNR) bit / s
 How transmissions flow over
media
• Simplex – only in one direction
• Half-Duplex – Travels in either direction,
but not both directions at the same time
• Full-Duplex – can travel in either direction
simultaneously
 Coaxial Cable

•First type of networking

media used
•Available in different
types (RG-6 – Cable TV,
RG58/U – Thin Ethernet,
RG8 – Thick Ethernet
•Largely replaced by
twisted pair for networks
 Unshielded Twisted Pair
 Advantages
 Inexpensive
 Easy to terminate
 Widely used, tested
 Supports many
network types

 Disadvantages
 Susceptible to interference
 Prone to damage during
installation
 Distance limitations not
understood or followed
 Glass Media
• Core of silica, extruded glass or plastic
• Single-mode is 0.06 of a micron in diameter
• Multimode = 0.5 microns
• Cladding can be Kevlar, fibreglass or even steel
• Outer coating made from fire-proof plastic

 Advantages  Disadvantages
 Can be installed over long  Most expensive media to
distances purchase and install
 Provides large amounts of  Rigorous guidelines for
bandwidth installation
 Not susceptible to EMI RFI
 Can not be easily tapped (secure)
Wireless
 Wireless (2)

• Radio transmits at 10KHz to 1KHz

• Microwaves transmit at 1GHz to 500GHz
• Infrared transmits at 500GHz to 1THz
• Radio transmission may include:
– Narrow band
– High-powered
– Frequency hopping spread spectrum (the hop is
controlled by accurate timing)
– Direct-sequence-modulation spread spectrum (uses
multiple frequencies at the same time, transmitting
data in ‘chips’ at high speed)
 Connectors

Fibre Optic

RJ45

Token Ring

Thicknet
T-Piece
 The Bands
3KHz 30KHz 300KHz 3MHz 30MHz300MHz 3GHz 30GHz 300GHz 3THz

Submillimeter
Far

Range
ELF VLF LF MF HF VHF UHF SHF EHF Infra-
Red

Radio Optical
300mm 1500nm

1PetaHz 1ExaHz
O Y G B I V
Near R r e r n i
a l l d o
Infra- e n l
e
u i l Ultraviolet X-Ray
g o e g e
Red d e w n e o t

700nm 600nm 500nm 400nm