Lecture #3 Role of Modulation (Cont.) Digital Vs Analog Signals Transmission Impairments

EE 4250: Modern Communication Systems
Lecture #3 Role of Modulation (cont.)
Digital vs Analog Signals
Transmission Impairments
Instructor: Dr. Aurenice Oliveira
Associate Professor – Electrical and Computer Engineering
 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Slide: 1
Analogue & Digital Signals
• An analog signal is any variable signal

continuous in both time and amplitude
• Analog transmission is a method of conveying

voice, digital data, image, or video information
using a continuous signal which varies in
amplitude, phase, or frequency
•The problem is that we live in an “analog

world.”
Thus, most of the time we have to convert
from digital to analog and vice-versa.
Same comparison between optical and
electrical signals.

Slide: 2
Digital Communication
• Digital technology breaks your voice (or television) signal into binary code
(“1”s and “0”s) transfers it to the other end where another device
(phone, modem or TV) takes all the numbers and reassembles
them into the original signal
• With “1”s and “0”s, it is easier to predict the signal in the end of the
transmission. That way, it can correct any errors that may have occurred
in the data transfer
What does all that mean to you? Clarity (data integrity)
- distortion-free conversations and clearer TV pictures
- more data, the nature of digital technology allows it to cram lots of
those 1s and 0s together into the same space an analog signal uses

Slide: 3
1
Example of Analogue & Digital Signals
In analog technology, a wave is recorded or used in its original form.
So, for example, in an analog tape recorder, a signal is taken straight from the microphone
and laid onto tape. The wave from the microphone is an analog wave, and therefore the wave
on the tape is analog as well.
That wave on the tape can be read, amplified and sent to a speaker to produce the sound.
In digital technology, the analog wave is sampled at some interval, and then turned
into numbers that are stored in the digital device. On a CD, the sampling rate is 44,000
samples per second. So on a CD, there are 44,000 numbers stored per second of music.
To hear the music, the numbers are turned into a voltage wave that approximates the
original wave.
The two big advantages of digital technology are:

The recording does not degrade over time. As long as the numbers can be read,
you will always get exactly the same wave.
Groups of numbers can often be compressed by finding patterns in them.
It is also easy to use special computers called digital signal processors (DSPs) to process
and modify streams of numbers.

© howstuffworks.com
Slide: 4
Digital Signal Analog Signal
1. Can be stored, transmitted, and 1. ______

reproduced “exactly”
2. Use more BW ?(There is no guarantee 2. Use less BW? (Analog signal processing can be done in
that digital signal processing can be real time and consumes less bandwidth)
done in real time and consumes more
bandwidth to carry out the same information)
Digital TV uses less BW.
3. Can be encrypted 3. ______
4. Can be more affected by noise 4. Can be more tolerant to noise. Ex: voice signal can
but it is easier to regenerate tolerate a large amount of distortion
(1s and Os with specific threshold) and still be intelligible
5. Use repeaters/regenerator 5. Use amplifiers (add distortion, amplifies signal and

noise)
6. Easier to multiplex, more efficient
6. Can be multiplexed
7. Better integration of services (voice,
video, data) 7. _________

Slide: 5
Advantages of Digital Transmission

over Analog Transmission
1. A digital signal is just a sequence of numbers representing the signal (i.e. audio, video etc.). Digital signal
can be stored, transmitted, and reproduced “exactly”. Algorithms can be used to detect and correct errors.
2. Digital signals use more or less bandwidth depending on your analysis:

a) one cram more information (audio, video) into the same space. Analog signal has infinite points. From this
point of view digital use less BW.
b) Digital signals use more bandwidth because the processing of the signal is not necessarily done in real
time and requires more bandwidth to transfer the same data. This is because digital signals are usually
synced to a clock and takes additional time and data.
However, analog signals can be processed in real time and do not need extra data and time to sync
up to a receiver. Therefore, analog signals will use less bandwidth.
Square waves are generally used in digital transmission. A square wave is represented by an infinite
number of sine or cosine harmonics of increasing frequencies. Hence for a perfect square wave
(theoretically), the bandwidth of channel or a signal spectrum would be infinite.
Also, for a perfect square wave the rise time/fall time is zero. So the bandwidth would be infinite.
But since there is always noise present, there is no perfect square wave signal.
For these reasons the bandwidth required for digital signal transmission is high when
compared to analog signal transmission.
3. Digital can be encrypted so that only the intended receiver can decode it
(like pay per view video, secure telephone etc.)

Slide: 6
2
Advantages of Digital Transmission
over Analog Transmission
4. Noise: digital signals can be more affected by noise than analog, however, it is easier to regenerate a digital
signal (specific amplitude value for zeroes, and ones, with specific threshold). Analog data such as voice can
tolerate large amount of distortion and the data remain intelligible.
Analog circuits require amplifiers, and each amplifier adds distortion and noise to the
Signal. With analog circuits, intermediate nodes amplify the incoming signal, noise and all.
In contrast, digital amplifiers (repeaters) regenerate an exact signal, eliminating
cumulative errors.
A repeater receives the signal, recovers the pattern of 1s and 0s, and retransmits a
new signal. The same technique may be used with an analog signal if it is assumed that
the signal carries digital data. The repeater recovers the digital data from the analog
signal and generates a new, clean analog signal.
5. An analog signal (infinite points) can be transmitted either at variable amplitude levels
(AM) or at a steady amplitude (FM). If the overall signal amplitude varies a lot
(too weak or too strong )- many ambiguities of interpretation can come into play
which will greatly affect the type of automatic machine decision-making that can be done.
6. Data integrity. Repeaters take out cumulative problems in transmission. Can thus
transmit longer distances.
7. Easier to multiplex large channel capacities with digital.
8. Better integration if all signals are in one form. Can integrate voice, video and digital
data. Voice, data, video, etc. can all by carried by digital circuits.

Slide: 7
Sec 1.2 – Digital and analog comm
• An important point – discrete, digital information is sometimes represented

with discrete wave forms, but this is not necessarily always the case.
– Simple example: a “1” could be represented by a 500 Hz sine wave,
and a “0” could be represented by a 1,000 Hz sine wave.
– Choices about the type of waveform most appropriate to some problem usually
require consideration of the “channel”, the physical medium through which the
signals must propagate to achieve communications.
• Advantages of digital comm over analog comm:

 Relatively inexpensive circuitry
 Encryption possible, which enhances or guarantees privacy
 Voice/data/video can be easily merged for transmission and decoding.
 Noise does not accumulate from repeater to repeater in long range applications
 Errors in the received data are generally small, even for noisy channels
 Errors can in general be detected and corrected through the use of error correcting codes.
• Disadvantages of digital comm:
 Greater bandwidth is required
 Synchronization between source “Advantages of digital outweigh the
and receiver is require disadvantages, digital comm is dominant.”

Slide: 8
Frequency vs. wavelength
Increasing frequency always decrease wavelength

Decreasing frequency always increases wavelength
Radio Frequency
Frequencies above the range of hearing are called radio frequencies
Any frequency above 20 kHz is considered radio frequency

Slide: 9
3
What is modulation?
Carrier:
• A carrier is a high frequency signal with constant frequency (resting mode).
• A carrier alone doesn’t carry any information that we can relate to such as speech or data.
Intelligence signal (or input or modulating or baseband signal ):

• It is the signal containing the information we want to transmit, for instance the voice.
(simple case: with a single

frequency signal)

Slide: 10
How do we modulate a signal?
How do we modulate ?
 by varying important parameters in the high-frequency carrier

Slide: 11
AM versus FM Modulation
Information wave Envelope
Sine-wave (carrier)
Amplitude Modulated (AM) carrier:
The instantaneous value of the carrier amplitude is varied
according to the amplitude (and freq.) of the modulating signal
Information wave
Sine-wave (carrier)
Frequency Modulated (FM) carrier:
The frequency of the carrier wave is varied
according to the amplitude (and freq.) of the modulating signal

Slide: 12
4
William Stallings
Wireless Communications and Networks, 2e

Slide: 13
Why is modulation necessary?

Why is modulation necessary ?
Why don’t we just transmit the intelligence signal directly?
Modulation is necessary because…

 minimize interference + separate channels (Ex: voice signal -> See next slide)
 signals need amplification to travel long distances (low vs high frequency)
 to optimized antenna sizes, which are proportional to wavelength

 = wavelength
c = speed of light 3 x 108 m/s
f = signal frequency
Ex1: Assuming f = 1 kHz,  = (3 x 108 ) / 103 = 3 x 10 5 m or 300 km (~ 186 miles)

Ex2: Assuming f = 150 MHz,  = (3 x 108 ) / 1.5 x 108 = 2 m
Antenna proportional to quarter wavelength  /4 = 0.5 m or 19.7 in
ITU Region 2 (the Americas), AM broadcast 530 to 1700 kHz, using 10 kHz spacing (525–1705 kHz),

Slide: 14
Male Fund. Freq. 100Hz to 900Hz

and Harmonics is 900Hz to 8KHz.
In telephony, voice signals are in the

range 300Hz to 3400 Hz, or BW 4KHz:
(Audible frequencies for humans are
20 Hz to 20KHz).
Female fund. Freq is 350Hz to 3KHz
and Harmonics is 3KHz to 17KHz.

Slide: 15
5
2) a) Energy of an electromagnetic wave is proportional to frequency and

square of amplitude.
b) Power at the receiver is inversely proportional to square of distance.
Now these two factors play an important role in communication system design.
Suppose you require a certain signal strength at the receiver side, this fixes your
lower limit to the power to be transmitted.
For a fixed value of power you can either increase the frequency or the amplitude
of the signal. The later is difficult (very high amplitude oscillation requires
large size transistors) whereas high frequency oscillations are easy to
achieve even with small size transistors.
For two waves of the same amplitude the higher frequency will have higher
energy content because the medium is vibrating at faster speeds and its
particles have higher kinetic energy.

Slide: 16
Modulation - Summary
Modulation:
Is the process of imposing information into the carrier by appropriately shaping the
carrier. The carrier will be shaped differently depending on the type of modulation,
whether is AM, FM, or PM modulation.
 Intelligence (information): low-frequency information modulated onto a high-frequency

carrier in a transmitter.
 Carrier: high-frequency signal that is modified to “carry” the intelligence
Demodulation:
Process of removing intelligence from the high-frequency carrier in a receiver

Slide: 17
Example of a Transmission System
(intelligence)
(carrier)

Slide: 18
6
Data Communication Model
bits Voltage shifts modulation demodulation Voltage shifts bits
The goal of any transmission system is to make m’ as close as possible to m

Slide: 19
Transmission Impairments
(Signal corruption during transmission)

Slide: 20
Limitations to performance of a comm. system
1) Electric noise
 undesired voltages or currents appearing in a circuit
 start small and get amplified
 External noise: noise in a received signal introduced by the

transmitting medium
 Internal noise: noise in a signal introduced by the receiver
2) Bandwidth (BW)
 is a measure of frequency range and is typically measured in hertz
 in radio comm. BW is the range of frequencies occupied by a modulated
carrier wave
 for different applications there are different precise definitions

Slide: 21
7
Limitations to performance of a comm. system
1) Bandwidth
The more limited bandwidth, the greater the distortion and the greater the
potential for error by the receiver
The greater the bandwidth of a transmission system, the higher is the data
rate that can be transmitted
2) Transmission Impairments

Slide: 22
Attenuation
Signal strength falls off with distance

Depends on medium
 For guided media, this is generally exponential
 For unguided media, attenuation is a more complex function of distance and the
makeup of the atmosphere
 Attenuation introduces three considerations for the transmission

engineer:
 Signal strength -> detection circuitry
 SNR -> error free
 Frequency dependency

Slide: 23
Attenuation Frequency dependency
• Waves attenuates much faster at higher frequencies
• Which signal has higher attenuation one at 2.4GHz or one at 5GHz?
• The reason high frequency waves have greater attenuation than low frequency
waves is due to viscosity. This radiates energy and reduces the amplitude of
the wave.
• Low frequency waves have longer wavelengths and their peaks have
lower pressure than high frequency waves. Consequently they lose less energy
with distance.

Slide: 24
8
Delay Distortion Effect
Broadening of the signal, causing spreading beyond

the bit time window.
Original time window in this example was 100 pico sec

Total for 3 bits = 300 pico sec.
With the spreading only two bits is occupying the

time window of 3 original bits.
Receiver now may read “111” instead of “101” because

the spreading in the center increased the voltage level,
bit “0” may now be recognized as bit “1”.

Slide: 25
Noise – Definition and Effects
 Noise is unwanted electrical or electromagnetic energy that

degrades the quality of signals and data. Noise is inserted between the
transmitter and receiver.
 In a hard-wired circuit such as a telephone-line-based Internet hookup,

external noise is picked up from appliances in the vicinity, from electrical
transformers, from the atmosphere, and even from outer space.
 Noise slows down the data transfer rate because the system must adjust
its speed to match conditions on the line

Slide: 26
Methods to Deal with Noise
 The traditional method has been to minimize the signal BW.

The less spectrum space a signal occupies, the less noise is
passed through the receiving circuitry
 However, reducing the BW limits the maximum speed of the data

that can be delivered
 Digital Signal Processing and optical fiber-based communication

systems are alternatives to minimize noise effects

Slide: 27
9
Types of noise
External
 Atmospheric
 Industrial (Human-made)
 Extraterrestrial
• Solar noise
• Cosmic noise
Internal (device)
 Thermal and Shot
 Low-frequency noise
 High-frequency noise

Slide: 28
External Noise (1)
Atmospheric noise:
 Caused by disturbances in the earth’s atmosphere
 Frequency content is spread over the entire radio spectrum, but its intensity is
inversely related to frequency  stronger at lower frequencies
 Static noise on AM radio receivers
 Additive effect
Sources:
 Lightening discharges
 Thunderstorms and other natural electric disturbances

Slide: 29
External Noise (2)
Impulse Noise:
Irregular pulses or noise spikes
Short duration, High amplitude
Can be generated by external electromagnetic disturbances, such

as lightning
 Not a major problem for analog data but can be significant for
digital data
A spike of 0.01 s will not destroy any voice data but will destroy
560 bits being transmitted at 56 kbps

Slide: 30
10
External Noise (3)
Human-made noise:
 Often produced by spark-producing mechanisms such as:
• car and aircraft ignition
• fluorescent lights
• commutators in electric motors
 It is radiated thought the atmosphere in the same way that antenna

radiates signal
 High voltage AC power lines contains surges of voltage caused by the

switching on and off of highly inductive loads such as electrical motors

Slide: 31
External Noise (4) – Solar Noise
Solar noise:
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught this image of an X9.3 solar flare on September 6, 2017.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/sun-solar-flare-strongest-auroras-space-science/

Slide: 32
• What is Solar Noise?

• What is Solar Flare?
• Why does it affect communications systems
 Solar radio bursts begin with a solar flare that injects high-energy electrons into
the solar upper atmosphere.
 Solar flare is an enormous explosion on the surface of the sun that occurs
when a buildup of magnetic energy in the sun’s atmosphere is suddenly
released. Flares occurs on the dividing line between areas of opposite
magnetic polarity.
 The sun radiates a broad spectrum of frequencies, including those,
which are used for broadcasting
 Radio waves are produced which then propagate to the
Earth and cover a broad frequency range.
 The solar radio waves act as noise over a frequency range, including
those used by GPS and other navigational systems

Slide: 33
11
 Solar flares are large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun lasting from min to
hours.
 The sudden outburst of electromagnetic energy travels at the speed of light, therefore any
effect upon the sunlit side of Earth’s exposed outer atmosphere occurs at the same time the
event is observed.
 The increased level of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation results in ionization in the
lower layers of the ionosphere on the sunlit side of Earth. Under normal conditions, high
frequency radio waves are able to support communication over long distances by refraction
via the upper layers of the ionosphere.
 When a strong enough solar flare occurs, ionization is produced in the lower, more dense
layers of the ionosphere (the D-layer), and radio waves that interact with electrons in layers
lose energy due to the more frequent collisions that occur in the higher density environment of
the D-layer.
 This can cause HF radio signals to become degraded or completely absorbed. This results in a
radio blackout – the absence of HF communication, primarily impacting the 3 to 30 MHz band.
The D-RAP (D-Region Absorption Prediction) product correlates flare intensity to D-layer
absorption strength and spread.
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/solar-flares-radio-blackouts
Slide: 34
General spectral allocations and uses

Slide: 35
General spectral allocations and uses

Slide: 36
12
 Forecasters from the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder,

Colo., observed two powerful solar flares on December 5 and 6, 2006.
 On December 6, 2006, a solar flare created an unprecedented intense

solar radio burst causing large numbers of receivers to stop tracking the
GPS signal.
 The Global GPS Network, a set of precise GPS receivers used for a variety of
scientific and real-time applications, also was affected by this solar disturbance.
These applications include a very high accuracy positioning service that can
provide a user's position with 10 to 20 cm accuracy anywhere in the world, on
land, in the air or in Earth's orbit.
 Using specially designed receivers built at Cornell University as sensitive space

weather monitors, Cornell scientists were able to make the first quantitative
measurements of the effect of earlier solar radio bursts on GPS receivers.

Slide: 37
13

Lecture #3 Role of Modulation (Cont.) Digital Vs Analog Signals Transmission Impairments

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EE 4250: Modern Communication Systems

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Analogue & Digital Signals

• An analog signal is any variable signal

• Analog transmission is a method of conveying

•The problem is that we live in an “analog

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

In analog technology, a wave is recorded or used in its original form.

The two big advantages of digital technology are:

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Digital Signal Analog Signal

1. Can be stored, transmitted, and 1. ______

3. Can be encrypted 3. ______

5. Use repeaters/regenerator 5. Use amplifiers (add distortion, amplifies signal and

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Advantages of Digital Transmission

2. Digital signals use more or less bandwidth depending on your analysis:

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

7. Easier to multiplex large channel capacities with digital.

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Sec 1.2 – Digital and analog comm

• An important point – discrete, digital information is sometimes represented

• Advantages of digital comm over analog comm:

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Frequency vs. wavelength

Increasing frequency always decrease wavelength

Frequencies above the range of hearing are called radio frequencies

Any frequency above 20 kHz is considered radio frequency

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Intelligence signal (or input or modulating or baseband signal ):

(simple case: with a single

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

How do we modulate a signal?

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Why is modulation necessary?

Why don’t we just transmit the intelligence signal directly?

Modulation is necessary because…

 signals need amplification to travel long distances (low vs high frequency)

 to optimized antenna sizes, which are proportional to wavelength

Ex1: Assuming f = 1 kHz,  = (3 x 108 ) / 103 = 3 x 10 5 m or 300 km (~ 186 miles)

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Why is modulation necessary?

Male Fund. Freq. 100Hz to 900Hz

In telephony, voice signals are in the

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

2) a) Energy of an electromagnetic wave is proportional to frequency and

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

 Intelligence (information): low-frequency information modulated onto a high-frequency

 Carrier: high-frequency signal that is modified to “carry” the intelligence

Process of removing intelligence from the high-frequency carrier in a receiver

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Example of a Transmission System

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

bits Voltage shifts modulation demodulation Voltage shifts bits

The goal of any transmission system is to make m’ as close as possible to m

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

 Aurenice M. Oliveira EE4250

Limitations to performance of a comm. system

 External noise: noise in a received signal introduced by the

 Internal noise: noise in a signal introduced by the receiver