Air Interface

2
Analog Transmission

 In analog transmission, the state of line can vary

continuously and smoothly among an infinite
number of states
– States can be signal strengths, voltages, or other
measurable conditions
– Human voice is analog; telephone mouthpiece
generates analogous electrical signal

Strength

Time
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Digital Transmission

 Time is divided into fixed-length clock cycles

– Modems: a few thousand clock cycles per second
– LANs: millions of clock cycles per second

 The line is kept in one of only a few possible

states (conditions) during each time period
– this is why the signal must be kept constant

 At the end of each time period, the line may

change abruptly to another of these few states
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Digital Versus Binary Transmission

 Digital transmission: a few states

 Binary transmission: exactly two states (1 and 0)
– Binary is a special case of digital

Few States Two States

1
0

Digital Binary
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Digital Versus Binary Transmission

 Sender and Receiver associate one or more bits

with each state
– Simplest case: High state = 1, Low state = 0
– If four states, might have the following:
 Highest = 11
 Second highest = 10
 Next highest = 01
 Lowest = 00
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Wire Propagation Effects

 Propagation Effects
– Signal changes as it travels
– If change is too great, receiver may not be able to
recognize it

Original
Signal
Final
Signal

Distance
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Wire Propagation Effects: Attenuation

 Attenuation: Signal Gets Weaker as it Propagates

– May become too weak for receiver to recognize

Signal
Strength

Distance
 Distortion: Signal changes shape as it propagates
– Adjacent bits may overlap
– May make recognition impossible for receiver

Distance
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Wire Propagation Effects: Noise

 Noise: Thermal Energy in Wire Adds to Signal

– Noise floor is average noise energy
– Noise spikes are random energy affecting bits

Spike
Signal Signal
Strength
Error
Noise
Noise Floor
Time
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Wire Propagation Effects

 Noise and Attenuation

– As signal attenuates, gets closer to noise floor
– Smaller spikes can harm the signal
– So noise errors increase with distance, even if the
average noise level is constant
 Want a high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)
– Signal strength divided by average noise strength
– As SNR falls, errors increase
Signal Noise Floor
Strength Signal

SNR Distance
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Wire Propagation Effects: Noise & Speed

 Noise and Speed

– As speed increases, each bit is briefer
– Noise fluctuations do not average out as much
– So noise errors increase as speed increases

OK Error
Noise One Bit Noise One Bit
Spike Spike

Low Speed High Speed Average Noise

(Long Average Noise
During Bit (Short During Bit
Duration) Duration)
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Wire Propagation Effects: Interference

 Interference
– External signal converted to electrical energy
– Adds to signal, like noise
– Often intermittent (comes and goes), so hard to diagnose
– Often called electromagnetic interference (EMI)

Signal Signal
Strength

Interference
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Wire Propagation Effects: Cross-Talk Interference

 Cross-Talk Interference
– Multiple wires in a bundle each
radiates its signal
– Causes “cross-talk” interference
in nearby wires
 Wire Usually is Twisted
– Several twists per inch
– Interference adds to signal over half twist, subtracts
over other half - + Interference

Single Twist Signal

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Practical Issues in Propagation Effects

 Distance limits in standards prevent serious

propagation effects
– Usually 100 meters maximum for ordinary copper wire

 Problems usually occur at connectors

– Crossed wires
– Poor connections
– Cross-talk interference
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Radio Propagation

 Broadcast signal
– Not confined to a wire
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Radio Waves

 When Electron Oscillates, Gives Off Radio

Waves (electromagnetic waves)
– Single electron gives a very weak signal
– Many electrons in an antenna are forced to oscillate in
unison to give a practical signal
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Radio Propagation Problems

 Wires Propagation is Predictable

– Signals go through a fixed path: the wire
– Propagation problems can be easily anticipated
– Problems can be addressed easily
 Radio Propagation is Difficult
– Signals begin propagating as a simple sphere
– Inverse square law attenuation
 If double distance, only ¼ signal strength
 If triple distance only 1/9 signal strength
– Signals can be blocked by dense objects
– Creates shadow zones with no reception
Shadow
Zone
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Radio Propagation Problems

 Radio Propagation is Difficult

– Signals are reflected
– May arrive at a destination via multiple paths
– Signals arriving by different paths can interfere with
one another: called multipath interference
– Can be constructive or destructive interference
– Very different reception characteristics with in a few
meters or centimeters
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Radio Propagation: Waves

 Waves
Frequency in hertz (Hz) 1
Cycles per Second
3 Wavelength One Second
(meters) 7 Cycles

4
Amplitude
(strength)
2 1 Hz = 1 cycle per second
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Radio Propagation: Frequency Spectrum

 Frequency Spectrum
– Frequencies vary (like strings in a harp)
– Frequencies measured in hertz (Hz) 0 Hz
– Frequency spectrum: all possible frequencies from 0 Hz
to infinity
 Metric system
– kHz (1,000 Hz) kilohertz; note lower-case k
– MHz (1,000 kHz) megahertz
– GHz (1,000 MHz) gigahertz
– THz (1,000 GHz) terahertz
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Radio Propagation: Service Bands

 Service Bands
– Divide frequency spectrum into bands for services
– A band is a contiguous range of frequencies
– FM radio, cellular telephone service bands etc.

Cellular Telephone
Service
FM Radio
Bands
AM Radio
0 Hz
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Radio Propagation: Channels and Bandwidth

 Service Bands are Further Divided into Channels

– Like television channels
– Bandwidth of a channel is highest frequency minus
lowest frequency
 Example
– Highest frequency of a radio channel is 43 kHz
– Lowest frequency of the radio channel is 38 kHz
– Bandwidth of radio channel is 5 kHz (43-38 kHz)
Channel
Bandwidth Channel 3
Service
Channel 2 Band– FM Radio
Channel 1
0 Hz
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Radio Propagation: Channels and Bandwidth

 Shannon’s Equation -- W = B Log2 (1+S/N)

– W is maximum possible (not actual) transmission speed in channel
– B is bandwidth of channel: highest frequency - lowest frequency
– S/N is the signal-to-noise ratio
– The wider the channel bandwidth (B), the faster the maximum
possible transmission speed (W)

Maximum
Possible
Speed

Bandwidth
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Broadband vs. Baseband

 Baseband: Inject signal into medium & propagates

 Broadband: Different signals sent different channels
– Begin with baseband signal
– Modulate to fit in radio frequency signal (RF)
– Channel bandwidth is wide = broadband transmission
– Channel bandwidth is narrow = narrowband transmission