Additive White

Gaussian Noise
(AWGN) Channel
and Matched
Filter Detection
ELE 745 Digital
Communications
Xavier Fernando

ELE 745 AWGN Channel

PART I GAUSSIAN
DISTRIBUTION

Gaussian (Normal)
Distribution
The Normal or Gaussian distribution, is an
important family of continuous probability
distributions
The mean ("average", ) and variance (standard
deviation squared, 2) are the defining
parameters
The standard normal distribution is the
normal distribution with zero mean (=0) and
unity variance (2 =1)
Many measurements, from psychological to
thermal noise can be approximated by the
Gaussian distribution.

Gaussian RV

General Gaussian RV

PDF of Gaussian
Distribution

Standard Norma Distribution

CDF of Gaussian
Distribution

The Central Limit

Theorem

The sum of independent, identically

distributed large number of random
variables with finite variance is
approximately normally distributed under
certain conditions
Ex: Binomial distribution B(n,p) approaches normal for
large n and p
The Poisson() distribution is approximately normal N(,)
for large values of .
The chi-squared distribution approaches normal for large
k.
The Students t-distribution t() approaches normal N(0,1)
when is large.

Area under Gaussian PDF

The area within +/- is 68% (dark blue)

The area within +/- 2 is 95% (medium and dark blue)
The area within +/- 2 is 99.7% (light, medium, and dark blue)

Bit Error Rate (BER)

BER is the ratio of erroneous bits to correct
bits
BER is an important quality measure of
digital communication link
BER depends on the signal and noise power
(Signal to Noise Ratio)
BER requirement is different for different
services and systems
Wireless link BER < 10-6 while Optical BER < 1012

Voice Low BER while Data High BER

Logic 0 and 1 probability

distributions
Pe

1
2

P1 (Vth ) P0 (Vth )

P0 (Vth ) p ( y / 0)dy
Vth

P1 (Vth )

Vth

p( y /1)dy

Digital Receiver
Performance

Probability of error assuming

Equal ones and zeros
Where,

Pe

1
2

P1 (Vth ) P0 (Vth )

P0 (Vth ) p ( y / 0)dy
Vth

P1 (Vth )

Vth

p ( y /1)dy

Depends on the noise variance at on/off levels and the

Threshold voltage Vth that is decided to minimize the Pe;
Often Vth = V+ + V-

The Q
Function

Fx(x) = 1 Q(X)

Error Probability of On-Off Signaling

BER (Pe) versus

Q factor in a
Typical Digital
Communication
Link

PART-II
MATCHED FILTER
DETECTION