Module 14

Applications of Digital
Communication Systems

Module Intro
The last 15 years have been an on-going revolution in
the communications field. Television and cell phones
have both made the jump to all digital. Radio has also
gone digital with satellite service, but terrestrial radio
remains the only analog hold out (for now).
In this final module we look at several digital applications.
We will focus on 3 areas of high development activity.
First, well discuss the new digital TV definition. Then,
we look at a snapshot of 2nd,3rd, and 4th generation
cellular phones. And, we conclude with WiFi and
Bluetooth (IEEE 802.11).
2

Module Outline
Digital TV Broadcasting
ATSC Digital Standard
HD and SD Formats

Digital Cellular Systems

GSM/CDMA2000
1G,2G,3G,4G
Foliage Penetration

Other Wireless Applications

Bluetooth
WiFi

Lathi: Sections 6.8, 12.3, 12.8

Digital TV
HDTV
2009 TV broadcasting in the US switched from analog (NTSC) to
digital (ATSC- Advanced Television Systems Committee).
6 MHz - Bandwidth allowances for TV broadcasting did not change. So,
channels are still allocated 6MHz of broadcast bandwidth. With
MPEG-2 video compression, a 19.39 Mbit/s stream can fit into this
bandwidth.
19.39 Mbit/s - A broadcaster can choose to send a single program in full HD
with 19.39 Mbps.
Sub-channels - A broadcaster can also choose to divide the channel into
several different streams (perhaps four streams of 4.85 Mbps each).
These streams are called sub-channels, and this type of broadcasting
is called multicasting. For example, if the digital TV channel is Channel
53, then 53.1, 53.2 and 53.3 could be three sub-channels on that
channel. Each sub-channel can carry a different program. This feature
can be varied. For the premier of a movie the broadcaster can stream
only the 1 HD channel or convert to HD during prime time while
4
allocating 4 SD channels during the day.

Digital TV
Formats
i=interlaced (half the
picture image updates
every 60th of a second)

Standard
Definition
DTV

HDTV

p=progressive (the entire

picture image updates
every 60th of a second)

480i - The picture is 704x480 pixels, sent at 60 interlaced

frames per
second (30 complete frames per second).

480p - The picture is 704x480 pixels, sent at 60 complete
frames per
second.


720p - The picture is 1280x720 pixels, sent at 60 complete
frames per second.

1080i - The picture is 1920x1080 pixels, sent at 60 interlaced
frames per second (30 complete frames per second).

1080p - The picture is 1920x1080 pixels, sent at 60 complete
frames per second.
5

Digital TV
MPEG-2 Compression
I-frames Intraframe-coded
- This frame does not require information from previous frames to
reconstruct the image.
P-frames Prediction
- Information from the previous frame is used to predict the new
image content. Parts of the image that have changed since the
last frame may be sent via intraframe-coding. This means those
parts of the P-frame are not predicted from previous frames.
- These frames allow the data stream to be greatly decreased in size.
B-frames Contains information about future frames.
- B-frames allow for higher performance but also increase the latency
between reception of a video stream and display.

Digital TV
8VSB
8VSB is the modulation method used for broadcast in the
ATSC digital television standard. ATSC and 8VSB modulation is used primarily
in North America; in contrast, the DVB-T standard uses COFDM.

A modulation method specifies how the radio signal fluctuates to convey
information. ATSC and DVB-T specify the modulation used for over-the-air
digital television; by comparison, QAM is the modulation method used for
cable. The specifications for a cable-ready television, then, might state that it
supports 8VSB (for broadcast TV) and QAM (for cable TV).
8VSB is an 8-level vestigial sideband modulation. 8VSB is capable of
transmitting three bits (23=8) per symbol by amplitude modulating a
sinusoidal carrier to an intermediate frequency. The resulting signal is then
band-pass filtered with a Nyquist filter to remove redundancies in the side
lobes, and then again modulated to the broadcast frequency.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8VSB
Digital TV in North America uses the same 6MHz channel allocations as the former
Analog TV scheme.
7

Digital Cell Systems

Generations of Mobile
Phone Networks

1G (1982) Original, analog cellular systems (AMPS).

2G (1992) Differs from 1G in that both signaling
and speech channels are digital.
3G (2002) Mobile Broadband. Based on CDMA
techniques. Services include voice telephone,
mobile internet, video calls, and mobile TV.
4G Mobile phone generations have appeared every
10th year since 1G. Devices currently marketed as
4G, however, are more like advanced versions of
3G
(aka 4G LTE). 4G device standard does not include
telephones but data rates are expected to be up to

Digital Cell Systems

GSM Global System for Mobile communications
2G GSM is primarily a Second
Generation
communication network. It uses TDMA
to
80%
of the global
mobile
allow- multiple
access
to its market
users.
uses GSM. (1.5 billion people across
more than 212 countries)
TDMA characteristics (GSM)
Shares single carrier frequency with multiple users
Non-continuous transmission makes handoff simpler
Slots can be assigned on demand in dynamic TDMA
Less stringent power control than CDMA due to reduced intra cell
interference
Higher synchronization overhead than CDMA
Advanced equalization may be necessary for high data rates if the channel is
"frequency selective" and creates Intersymbol interference
Cell breathing (borrowing resources from adjacent cells) is more complicated
than
9
in CDMA.
Frequency/slot allocation complexity

Digital Cell Systems

CDMA2000/cdmaOne
2G Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel
offer CDMA based devices. (T-Mobile has
always been GSM while AT&T made the
switch to GSM back when it was still
Cingular.)
3G Smartphones continue to be CDMA.

Num. US
Customers

110M
100M

Mobility

4G LTE Departs from CDMA to use a

GSM based method.

50M

Characteristics (CDMA2000)
User signals have 1.25MHz uplink and
downlink bandwidth.

30M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
List_of_mobile_network
_operators_of_the_Americas#United_States

Adaptive modulations including: QPSK

(Quad Phase Shift Keying or 4-PSK, 8-PSK, and 16-QAM.

US Frequency Allocations:

10

Digital Cell Systems

Foliage Penetration
A challenge quickly identified in the cellular application is that of
foliage penetration.

RF energy is scattered by tree trunks and absorbed by leaves.

The solution to the loss problem is to put the cell antenna on a tower.
Shown here is a mathematical model for the loss observed by trees.

L f = 1.33 f
Tower

0.284
GHz

0.588
f

Full summer bloom.

Volume 100% full of trees (no
gaps).
Should be max attenuation
under
dry conditions.

11

Digital Cell Systems

Loss Model

Red line is expected

signal strength, if no tree
are present.

Dashed black line is the

design spec: -80dBm.
(About 3 Bars)

Blue line is expected

signal strength, with 30
tall trees raising antenna
height from 30 to 500.
[1] Weissberger, M. A., "An Initial Critical Summary of Models for Predicting the Attenuation of Radio Waves by
Trees," ESD-TR-81-101, Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center, Annapolis, MD, July 1982.

12

Wireless Applications
Bluetooth
- Differs from WiFi (IEEE 802.11) in that it is designed for short distance
comm links. (like a wireless mouse or printer)

- Employs Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) (In fact, Bluetooth
is 802.11 with a frequency hopping option. This option was dropped
from the 802.11 definition after the release of the 802.11a variant.)

- Operates in the 2.4 - 2.4835 GHz band, which is a license-free
frequency band set aside for Industrial, Scientific, and Medical
(ISM) purposes.

- Uses 79 subchannels with 1MHz bandwidths.

- Frequency hopping is slow - at a rate of 1600Hz.

- Modulation is binary GFSK (Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying); also called GFSK-2.

- Throughput is 723.1 kbit/s

- These details are for Version 1. A second Bluetooth version has also been
released.

- Version 2 throughput rate is 2Mbit/s.

13

Wireless Applications
IEEE 802.11 (WiFi)
802.11 is a set of IEEE standards that govern wireless networking
transmission methods. They are commonly used today in their 802.11a,
802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n versions to provide wireless
connectivity in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). It was originally
released in 1997. Frequency bands of use can be either 2.4GHz or
5.0GHz.

802.11b ruled as the default WLAN method for a while. It dropped the
FHSS option of the original definition and switched to CDMA.

The 802.11a standard uses the same core protocol as the original,
operates at 5GHz and uses a 52-subcarrier
orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) with a maximum
raw data rate of 54 Mbit/s, which yields realistic net achievable
throughput in the mid-20 Mbit/s.

802.11g is meant to be backward compatible with 802.11b. It thus has
both CDMA (802.11b) and OFDM (802.11a) mechanisms.

14

Summary

Digital TV has become a standard for television broadcasting in North

America. A 19.39Mbit/s data stream is compressed using MPEG-2 and line
coded with an 8 level technique. This digital signal is then modulated to a
6MHz bandwidth using Vestigial Sideband modulation. The same UHF/VHF
frequency allocations are still used for the new digital signals.

Cell phone technology is a fast paced world of development. Two primary

technology camps, GSM and CDMA, continue to compete for dominance.
Since introduction in 1982, cell phones have undergone generational
changes. We currently find ourselves at the dawn of the 4th Generation.

We make use of WiFi and Bluetooth devices every day. Bluetooth is a

derivative of the original 802.11 definition, which still makes use of frequency
hopping. Its purpose is extremely short distance connectivity. WiFi on the
other hand is our bread and butter connection between our computer and
the coffee shops wireless internet router. WiFi is officially called IEEE
Standard 802.11. Weve encountered 802.11a, b, and g variants. The
latest and greatest 802.11n makes use of MIMO to give us even faster data
transfer rates.
15