MSc Digital Communications

University of Baghdad-2011
Lecture -1
Introduction to Communications
System Parameters
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Basic Digital Communications System

Transmitter Channel

Receiver

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Information Source
Source encoder Channel encoder Digital Modulation
________________________________________________________________
Transmitter

Channel

_____________________________________________________________________
Destination
Source decoder
Channel decoder
Digital Demod
_____________________________________________________________________
Receiver

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Definitions
Information: Binary (0, 1)
Source encoder: remove any redundancy in
binary data (data compression)

Channel encoder: add redundancy so it can be

used to detect / correct errors

Digital modulator: map digital data to

analogue signal sent to destination by wire or wireless.

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Communication Channel
We can model the linear Gaussian channel in the form:
Input

Output

+
Random Variables of Gaussian distribution

Equivalent Gaussian Communication Channel

Output = Input + Noise

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Digital transmission
Noise corrupt data:

_________
_______________ t

_________
_______________ t

Digital demodulator: convert received analogue signal into digits

Channel decoder: use added redundancy to estimate original data
with possibly some errors
Source decoder: Decode the compression at transmitter.
Communication systems always have certain, fast processors, filters,
data storage.

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Performance of digital
communication system
System performance is dependable on the
following system parameters:
Speed of information transmission given
by Shannon channel capacity which is
limited by the available spectrum
(bits/sec/Hz)
Available transmission power which is
expressed by energy / bit ( Eb ) dB
Data transmission codes used
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Shannon channel capacity

Shannon theorem specifies the limit on the
rate of error free transmission for a powerlimited, band-limited channel in additive
white Gaussian noise.
channel capacity expressed in terms of
three key parameters: channel bandwidth
B, average received power S and noise
power spectral density N 0 at the channel
output.
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Shannon channel capacity

Shannon limit for channel capacity C is
S
C = B log 2 ( 1 +
) bits / sec
N0 B

S
C = 3.32 Blog10 ( 1 +
) bits / sec
N0 B

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Shannon channel capacity

Show that
Rb
2B

Eb

N 0 Rb
B

Eb , Rb , C
Where
are energy/bit, data
rate, and channel capacity.

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Electric field

Space that surrounds an electric charge.

An electric field or E-field exerts a force on
charged objects.
The concept of electric field was introduced
by Michael Faraday

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Electric field forces

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Magnetic field

Magnetic fields or H-field exists when there

is a changing electric field or an electric
current or permanent magnet.

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Magnetic field forces

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Radio waves
Radio is the wireless transmission of
signals by electromagnetic (EM) waves
with frequencies below those of light.
An EM has H & E field orthogonal to each
A wave is a disturbance that propagates
through space and transfer energy from
one point to another.

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EM waves
Electromagnetic waves travel in space with
speed of light. It has electric and magnetic
components and can travel in vacuum
(without media).
The electric and magnetic components of
EM wave oscillate at right angle to each
other and to the direction of energy
propagation and are in phase with each
other.
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EM Radiation
EM radiation occurs in radio waves,
microwaves, infrared radiation, visible
light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and
gamma rays.
Wave length ( ) is the distance between
successive crests (or troughs) of a wave
pattern.
f .
8

3
x
10
m / sec speed of light

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Data speed
Data rate is the speed in bits per second
(bits/sec) at which information is being
communicated.
1
Data R ate
pulse duration

Bandwidth
Spectrum occupied by the transmission in
Hz. Bandwidth and data rate are related
by system efficiency
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Rb
bits / sec/ Hz
B

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Noise and errors

Noise is the unwanted signal accompanies

the useful signal. Noise is mainly due to
thermal noise but it may include
interference from other transmitters.
Error rate is the rate at which transmission
error occur. When an error occurs binary
1 is received as 0 and binary 0 is
received as binary 1.
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Nyquist Bandwidth
Nyquist bandwidth is the minimum
bandwidth at which data can be
transmitted and recovered correctly. In
ideal case (no noise or interference) it is
equal

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DECIBEL:

A tenth of a Bel

The Bel is mostly used in acoustics invented

by Bell Telephone Lab (founder Alexander
Graham Bell) in 1924 to quantify the
reduction in audio level over a 1 mile
(1.6 km) length of standard telephone
cable.
The Bel was too large for everyday use, so
the decibel (dB), equal to 0.1 Bel (B),
became more commonly used.
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Power in dB
A decibel is a relation between two values
of POWER levels.

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Definitions of dBs
dBm power A in dB when power of
reference transmitter B = 1 mW.
Example 1 watt in dB = 30 dBm
dBi is gain of antenna when its radiation is
equal in all directions (omni directional
antenna). Omni directional antenna = 10
dBi when it has gain of 10 dB in all
directions
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Signal to noise ratio (SNR)

Signal to noise ratio is the power ratio
between the information signal power and
the background noise power where signal
and noise are measured within the same
bandwidth.

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SNR in dB

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Multimedia
Multimedia is media that uses multiple forms
of information content and processing (e.g.
text, audio, graphics, animation, video and
interactive applications such as gaming) to
inform or entertain the user or audience.
Multimedia Systems then support the
interactive use of text, audio, still images,
video, and graphics.

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Thermal noise floor

Thermal noise floor at room temperature T is
kTB
23
1
.
38
x
10
k=Boltzmanns Constant=
J/K
T=Temperature = 300 K
kT=

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4.14 x10 21 watts =-174 dBm

kTB= -174 +10 log10 ( B in Hz) dB
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Radio Link Design

Worked example

A radio system operating at centre frequency 850 MHz is detected by a

sensitive receiver located at 550 metres away and experiencing clear line of
sight. You may assume the following system parameters:
Transmitter power
15 dBm
Transmitter antenna gain 2 dBi
Receiver antenna gain 3.2 dBi
Receiver filter noise bandwidth (B) 120 Hz
Thermal noise floor -174+10 dB
Receiver noise figure 3 dB
Receiver threshold
5dB
Calculate the signal margin in dB. You may assume the free line of sight
loss in dB is 20 .

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