OVERVIEW OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Course Code: EEE 3205

Course Title: Communication Engineering

PRESENTED BY
SHUVO DEV
LECTURER, DEPT. OF EEE
JASHORE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
 COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
• Communication is the process describing transfer of information, data, instructions
between one or more systems through some media.
• Examples
• people, computers, cell phones, etc.
• Computer communication systems
• Signals passing through the communication channel can be Digital, or analog
• Analog signals: continuous electrical waves
• Digital signals: individual electrical pulses (bits)
• Receivers and transmitters: desktop computers, mainframe computers, etc.

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 COMMUNICATIONS COMPONENTS
• Basic components of a
communication system
• Communication technologies
• Communication devices
• Communication channels
• Communication software

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 COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
APPLICATIONS

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 COMMUNICATION DEVICES
• Any type of hardware capable of transmitting data, instructions, and information between
devices
• Functioning as receiver, transmitter, adaptor, converter
• Basic characteristics: How fast, how far, how much data!
• Examples: Dial-up modems, CATV, network interface cards
• Dial-up modem: uses standard phone lines
• Converts digital information into analog
• Consists of a modulator and a demodulator
• Can be external, internal, wireless
• Cable modem: a modem that transmits and receives data over the cable television
(CATV) network
• Also called broadband modem (carrying multiple signals)
• The incoming signal is split
• Requires a cable modem
• Network interface cards: Adaptor cards residing in the computer to transmit and
receiver data over the network (NIC)
• Operate with different network technologies (e.g., Ethernet)
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 COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): A client/server application that uses TCP for
transport to retrieve HTML pages.

• Domain Name Service (DNS): A name-to-address translation application that uses both
TCP and UDP transport.

• Telnet: A virtual terminal application that uses TCP for transport.

• File Transport Protocol (FTP): A file transfer application that uses TCP for transport.
• Network Time Protocol (NTP): An application that synchronizes time with a time source
and uses UDP for transport.

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 COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
• A channel is a path between two communication devices
• Channel capacity: How much data can be passed through the channel (bit/sec)
• Also called channel bandwidth
• Consists of one or more transmission media
• Carrying the signal having two types:
• Physical: wire cable
T1 lines
• Wireless: Air destination
T1 lines

network server

T3 lines

T1 lines

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 PHYSICAL TRANSMISSION MEDIA
• A tangible media
• Examples: Twisted-pair cable, coaxial cable, Fiber-optics, etc.
• Twisted-pair cable:
• Made of copper
• Coax-Cable:
• Consists of single copper wire surrounded by three layers of insulating and metal
materials
• Typically used for cable TV
• Fiber-optics:
• Strands of glass or plastic used to transmit light
• Very high capacity, low noise, small size, less suitable to natural disturbances

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 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION MEDIA
• Broadcast Radio
• Distribute signals through the air over long
distance
• Uses an antenna
• Typically for stationary locations
• Can be short range
• Cellular Radio
• A form of broadcast radio used for mobile
communication
• High frequency radio waves to transmit voice or
data
• Utilizes frequency-reuse

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 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION MEDIA

• Microwaves
• Radio waves providing high speed transmission
• They are point-to-point (can’t be obstructed)
• Used for satellite communication

• Infrared (IR)
• Wireless transmission media that sends signals
using infrared light- waves

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 OVERVIEW

Communication is the transfer of information from one place to another.

This should be done

- as efficiently as possible
- with as much fidelity/reliability as possible
- as securely as possible  

Communication System: Components/subsystems act together to

accomplish information transfer/exchange.
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 Elements of a Communication System

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 Elements of a Communication System

Input Transducer: The message produced by a source must be converted by a transducer to

a form suitable for the particular type of communication system.
Example: In electrical communications, speech waves are converted by a microphone to
voltage variation.
Transmitter: The transmitter processes the input signal to produce a signal suits to the
characteristics of the transmission channel.
Signal processing for transmission almost always involves modulation and may also
include coding. In addition to modulation, other functions performed by the transmitter are
amplification, filtering and coupling the modulated signal to the channel.

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 Elements of a Communication System
Channel: The channel can have different forms: The atmosphere (or free space), coaxial cable,
fiber optic, waveguide, etc.
The signal undergoes some amount of degradation from noise, interference and distortion
Receiver: The receiver’s function is to extract the desired signal from the received signal at
the channel output and to convert it to a form suitable for the output transducer.
Other functions performed by the receiver: amplification (the received signal may be
extremely weak), demodulation and filtering.

Output Transducer: Converts the electric signal at its input into the form desired by the system
user.
Example: Loudspeaker, personal computer (PC), tape recorders.
 ANALOG AND DIGITAL DATA

Data (Information) can be analog or digital. The term analog data refers to information
that is continuous; digital data refers to information that has discrete states.
Analog data take on continuous values. Digital data take on discrete values.

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 In communication systems, we commonly use periodic
analog signals and nonperiodic digital signals.

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 Analog and Digital Communication Systems
There are many kinds of information sources, which can be categorized into
two distinct message categories, analog and digital.

an analog communication system should deliver this waveform with a

specified degree of fidelity.

a digital communication system should deliver data with a specified degree

of accuracy in a specified amount of time.

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 ANALOG AND
DIGITAL
COMMUNICATION

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 Bandwidth
• Bandwidth may be defined as the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum occupied by a
signal.
• We may also define the bandwidth as the frequency range over which an information
signal is transmitted.
• Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower frequency limits of the signal.
• As an example, the range of music signals is 20 Hz to 15 kHz. Therefore, as shown in
the figure, the bandwidth is (f2 – f1)

• Thus, we write BW = f2 – f1 = 15000-20 = 14980 Hz

• The greater range of frequency, the higher transmission

capacity.
 Brief Chronology of Communication Systems
• 1844 Telegraph
• 1876 Telephony
• 1904 Radio
• 1923-1938 Television:
• 1936 Armstrong’s case of FM radio
• 1938-1945 World War II Radar and microwave systems
• 1948-1950 Information Theory and coding. C. E. Shannon
• 1962 Satellite communications begins with Telstar I.
• 1962-1966 High Speed digital communication
• 1972 Motorola develops cellular telephone.

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The first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of 
Motorola in New York City on 3 April 1973
 Cellular Network Evolution

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