Analog and Digital Modulations

September 2011 Lectured by Assoc Prof. Dr. Thuong Le-Tien

Slides with references from HUT Finland, La Hore uni., Mc. Graw Hill Co., and A.B. Carlsons Communication Systems book. Textbook: A . B . Carlson, et al. "Communication Systems", third ed., McGraw-Hill Inc., New York, 1986, 2002 ISBN: 0-07-100560-9
1

Communications

Communications = Information transfer This course is about communications

Limited to information in electrical form

We will not consider delivering newspapers

We will primarily cover information transfer at systems level

We will not deal [too much] with circuits, chips, signal processing, microprocessors, protocols, and networks
2

What exactly is information?

Information is a word that is too generic for our purposes

We will use the word message

A physical manifestation of information

What do communication systems have to do with messages?

Communication systems are responsible for producing an acceptable replica of message at the destination
3

Is Signal = Message?

Just like information, signal is also a generic word

Derived directly from information

Scientists and Engineers use signal to denote information in electrical form

We will use signal and message interchangeably

Can we classify signals?

Messages or signals can be classified: Analog

A physical quantity that varies with time, usually in a smooth or continuous fashion Fidelity describes how close is the received signal to the original signal. Fidelity defines acceptability An ordered sequence of symbols selected from a finite set of discrete elements When digital signals are sent through a communication system, degree of accuracy within a given time defines the acceptability

Digital

Examples

Analog Signals

Values are taken from an infinite set

Digital Signals

Values are taken from a discrete set

Binary Signals

1 0 0 0

1 0

Digital signals with just two discrete values

t
6

n( t ) m(t )
(Modulator) Analog or Digital

s( t )

m(t )
Demodulator

h( t )

Transmitter

Channel

Receiver

Transmitter

Modulation Coding Attenuation Noise Distortion Interference

Elements of Communication Systems

Channel

Receiver

Detection (Demodulation+Decoding) Filtering (Equalization)

7

Transmitter

What does modulation do?

Encodes messages (analog) or bits (digital) into amplitude, frequency, or phase of a carrier signal Also makes transmitted signal robust against channel impairments Source coding remove redundancy Channel coding add redundancy

Coding

Channels

Channel introduces impairments

Noise

Thermal noise is the most significant Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) Inter-symbol interference Constant attenuation Variable attenuation Crosstalk

Distortion

Attenuation and fading

Interference

Receiver

What does demodulator do?

Extracts messages or bits from the received signal Mitigates channel impairments by making use of equalizers Decodes the signal, especially if channel coding was performed at the transmitter

Fundamental Limitations

If practical implementation is not a concern and we dont worry about feasibility, is there something else that limits acceptable communications? Bandwidth

Channel must be able to allow signal to pass through Channels usually have limited bandwidth Can we reduce signal bandwidth? Do something at source Can we reduce it? Can we reduce its effects? Do something at the transmitter and receiver

Noise

Signal to Noise Ratio

11

Performance Criterion

How a good communication system can be differentiated from a sloppy one? For analog communications m (t ) to m ( t ) ? Fidelity! How close is SNR is typically used as a performance metric For digital communications Data rate and probability of error (BER) No channel impairments, no error With noise, error probability depends upon data rate, signal and noise powers, modulation scheme
12

Limits on data rates

Shannon obtained formulas that provide fundamental limits on data rates (1948) Without channel impairments, an infinite data rate is achievable with probability of error approaching zero For bandlimited AWGN channels, the capacity of a channel is:
C = B log(1 + SNR)
Bits/second

13

Example: PSTN, ADSL

Public Switched Telephone Network, Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line Components

Phone set (analog signal is generated), MODEM Local exchange (A/D conversion) Long-haul exchange Circuit-switched network Designed for voice communications and Internet Faxes and modems use PSTN for transmission of digital data in analog form
14

Characteristics

Example: PSTN
Long distance line

Local exchange

International exchange

International line

Local line

Long distance exchange

Long distance line

Long distance users

Local exchange

15

ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

Customer Premises
DSL Modem Line Splitter

Local Carrier End Office

Main Dist ribution Frame Local Loop Voice Telepho ne Network

Hub

Telepho ne

ATM Switch

ISP POP

Computer

Computer

DSL Access Multiplexer

Customer Premises

ISP POP ISP POP

ISP POP

Customer Premises

25

Example: Cellular
Islamabad

PSTN
MTSO MTSO

MTSO: Mobile Telephone Switching Office

Lahore
17

Example: Cellular

Cellular Communication System

A cell is assigned some number of channels Typically one channel is allocated to a user Users communicate with a base station Base station is connected to MTSO/PSTN AMPS is an analog system

Uses FM and frequency-division multiple access

Digital systems use digital modulation

18

Example: Radio broadcast

Two modes are used

AM

Amplitude modulation 600-1600kHz (MW), 1600kHz-22MHz (SW) 10kHz channels Frequency modulation 88-108MHz Channels centered at 200kHz intervals starting at 88.1MHz

FM

19

Example: Wireless LANs

Various standards IEEE 802.11a/b/g popular IEEE 802.11b

11Mb/s data rate 2.4-2.4835GHz band Modulation: Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS), Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) 55Mb/s data rate 5.725-5.825GHz band (in U.S.) Uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
20

IEEE 802.11a

Example: LANs and WANs

Local Area Networks (LANs)

Connect closely located computers Data bits are transmitted in chunks (packets) for efficiency/feasibility reasons Various LAN protocols are used in practice A wide area backbone network connects different LANs A standard protocol is needed for such communication (TCP/IP)
21

Wide Area Networks (WANs)

Example: Ad Hoc Networks

Various devices connected to each other without using an infrastructure

Sensor Networks

Similar to ad hoc Networks (may be considered a special case of ad hoc networks) Have power constraints (Use non-rechargeable battery) Another example of ad hoc networks Used for provide communications to remote areas

Mesh Networks

22

23