PRINCIPLES
OF COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS
Second Edition
Herbert Taub
Donald L. Schilling
Professors of Electrical Engineering
The City College of New York
McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
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ONE
SPECTRAL ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
Suppose that two people, separated by a considerable distance, wish 10 commu
ricate with one another. I there i a pair of conducting wires extending from one
Tocation to another, and if each place is equipped with # microphone and eat
piece, the communication problem may be solved. The microphone, at one end of
the wire communications channel, smpresses an electric signal voltage on the line,
‘which voltage is then received at the other end. The received signal. however, will
have associated with it an erratic, random, unpredictable voltage wavelorm
whieh is deseribed by the term nose. The origin of this noise will be discussed
more flly in Chaps. 7 and 14, Here we need but to note that at the atomic level
the universe is in a constant state of agitation, and that this agitation is the
source of a very great deal of this noige, Hecause of the length of the wire link. the
received message signal voltage will be greatly attenvated in comparison with its
level at the transmitting end of the link. As a result the message signal voltage
may not be very large in comparison with the noise voltage. and the message will
be perceived with difficulty or possibly not at all. An amplifier at the receiving
end will not solve the problem, since the amplifier will amplify signal and noise
slike. As a matter of fat, as we shall see, the amplifier itself may well be @ source
‘of additional noise.
'A principal concern of communication theory and a matter which we discuss
extensively in this book is precisely the study of methods to suppress, as far as
possible, the effect of noise. We shall see that, for this purpose, may be better
fot to transmit directly the original signal (the microphone output in our2 puNcIPLS OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
example). Instead, the original signal is used to generate a different signal wave
form. which new signal waveform is then impressed on the line. This processing
of the original signal to generate the transmitted signal is called encoding ot
nodulation. At the receiving end an inverse process called decoding or demodu-
Tation is requited to recover the original signe!
‘may well be that thee i a considerable expense in providing the wire com:
munication link. We ate therefore, naturally led to inquire whether we may use
the link more effectively by arranging forthe simultaneous transmission over the
Tink of more than just a single waveform. It wins out that such multiple tran
mission is indeed possible and may be accomplished in a number of ways. Such
‘Simultaneous multiple transmission is called multiplexing and is again @ principal
trea of concern of communication theory and of this book. It isto be noted that
‘when wire communications links are employed, then, at least in principle
feparate links may be used for individual messapes. When, however, the comme:
fications medium is free space, as in radio communication from antenna to
antenna, multiplexing i essential
in summary then, communication theory addresses itself to the following
questions: Given a communication channel, how do we arrange to transmit as
many simultaneous signals as possible, and how do we devise to suppress the
tllect of noise to the maximum extent possible? In this book, after a few mathe-
tatical preliminaries, We shall address ourselves precisely to these questions, frst,
to the matter of multiplexing, and thereafter tothe discussion of noise in commu
'A branch of mathematics which is of inestimable value in the study of com-
munications systems is spectral analysis. Spectra) analysis concerns itself with the
description of wavelorms in the jrequeney domain and with the correspondence
between the Irequency-domain description and the time-domain description. It is
assumed that the reader has some familiarity with spectral analysis, The presen
tation in this chapter is intended as a review, and will serve further to allow 9
Compilation of results which we shall have occasion to use throughout the
remainder ofthis text
1.1 FOURIER SERIES!
[A periodic function of time oft) having a fundamental period T, ean be represent
fd as an infinite sum of sinusoidal waveforms. This summation called a Fourie
‘series. may be written in several forms. One such form is the following.
ot) = Ag+ z A, cos Te + ze sin aay
ned [08 0
SPECTRAL ANALYSIS 3
while the coeficients 4, and B, are given by
‘Am alternative form for the Fourier series is
wip Cu+ 5 Cscos 224 o,) as)
whete Co, Cyvand @, are related t0 Ag, A,vand B by the equations
Com Ae (1.166)
C= JAE (11-66)
wd é.2tn (1-60
“The Fourier series of @ periodic function is thus seen to consist of a summ
tion of harmonies of a fundamental frequency fy = 1/Tq. The coefficients C, are
called spectral amplitudes; that i, C, isthe amplitude of the spectral component
08 (2anfot @,) at frequency nfp- A typical amplitude spectrum of a periodic
wavelorm is shown in Fig, I.t-1a, Here, at each harmonic frequency, a vertical
Tine has been drawn having a length equal to the spectral amplitude associated
with each harmonic frequency. Of course, such an amplitude spectrum, lackins
the phase information, does not specify the waveform 1).
tlrttiedy 4
3h a
o
Figure 11-1 (a) A onesided plot of spectral ampbiude of erode waveform, (6) Te eorespondinz
‘wosidd plo