COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Prof. Oscar Reyes – Universidad Industrial de Santander

DISCLAIMER
This presentation is meant for educational purposes only.
 O. Reyes

LESSON 1-2

The dB in Communications
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Summary
• What is a dB?
• What is measured in decibels?
• Power measurement
• Suffixes and reference values
• Conversion
• Other measurements
• Measurements using spectrum analyzers
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What is a dB?
• The decibel (dB) is a logarithmic unit used to measure power, sound
pressure, voltage or intensity or several other things. In communications,
the dB is a common way of describing a power ratio.

𝑃1
𝑃dB = 10 log10
𝑃2
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What is measured in decibels?

Power Gain Attenuation

Electric field … and

SNR
strength much more
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Power measurement
𝑃[W]
𝑃dB = 10 log10
1W
Examples:
1𝑊
𝑃1 = 1 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃1 dB = 10 log10 dB = 0 dB
1𝑊

10 𝑊
𝑃2 = 10 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃2 dB = 10 log10 dB = 10 dB
1𝑊

10𝟐 𝑊
𝑃3 = 100 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃3 dB = 10 log10 dB = 20 dB
1𝑊

2𝑊
𝑃4 = 2 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃4 dB = 10 log10 dB ≈ 3 dB
1𝑊

2𝟐 𝑊
𝑃5 = 4 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃5 dB = 10 log10 dB ≈ 6 dB
1𝑊
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Power measurement
𝑃[W]
𝑃dB = 10 log10
1W
Examples:
10−𝟏 𝑊
𝑃6 = 0.1 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃6 dB = 10 log10 dB = −10 dB
1𝑊

10−𝟐 𝑊
𝑃7 = 0.01 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃7 dB = 10 log10 dB = −20 dB
1𝑊

10−𝟑 𝑊
𝑃8 = 1 𝑚𝑊 ➔ 𝑃8 dB = 10 log10 dB = −30 dB
1𝑊

2−𝟏 𝑊
𝑃9 = 0.5 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃9 dB = 10 log10 dB ≈ −3 dB
1𝑊

2−𝟐 𝑊
𝑃10 = 0.25 𝑊 ➔ 𝑃10 dB = 10 log10 dB ≈ −6 dB
1𝑊
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Suffixes and reference values

𝑃
𝑃dB𝒙 = 10 log10
𝑃ref𝑥

Some suffixes: dBm, dBk, dB𝜇 (dBu), dBmV, dBc, dBi

Examples:
1 𝑚𝑊
𝑃8 = 1𝒎 𝑊; 𝑃8 dB = −30 dB ➔ 𝑃8 dBm = 10 log10 dBm
1𝒎𝑊
= 0 dBm

10𝟑 𝑚𝑊
𝑃1 = 1 𝑊; 𝑃1 dB = 0 dB ➔ 𝑃1 dBm = 10 log10 dBm = 30 dBm
1𝒎𝑊

2 𝑘𝑊
𝑃11 = 2 𝑘𝑊; 𝑃11 dB ≈ 33 dB ➔ 𝑃11 dBk = 10 log10 dBk ≈ 3 dBk
1 𝒌𝑊
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Conversion
𝑃ref𝑦
P dB𝒙 − 10 log10 [dB] = 𝑃 dB𝒚
𝑃ref𝑥

Examples:
1 𝒎𝑊
3 dB𝒌 − 10 log10 dB = 3 dB𝒌 − (−60 dB) = 63 dB𝒎
1 𝒌𝑊

1 𝒎𝑊
25 dB𝒖 − 10 log10 1 𝝁𝑊 dB = 25 dB𝒖 − 30 dB = −5 dB𝒎

1𝑊
−10 dB𝒎 − 10 log10 dB = −10 dB𝒎 − 30 dB = −40 dB
1 𝒎𝑊

1 𝒎𝑊
−40 dB − 10 log10 1𝑊
dB = −40 dB𝒖 − −30 dB = −10 dB𝒎
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Other measurements
𝑃𝑆
• Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): 𝑆𝑁𝑅dB = 10 log10
𝑃𝑁
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡
• Gain: 𝐺= ⇒ 𝐺dB = 10 log10
𝑃𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑖𝑛 𝟏
𝑃𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑖𝑛 𝑮 = ⇒ 𝑮𝐝𝐁 = −𝜶𝐝𝐁
• Attenuation: 𝛼= ⇒ 𝛼dB = 10 log10 𝑃 𝜶
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡

𝑊 ∏𝐺𝑖
𝐺𝑇 = ⇒ 𝐺𝑇 dB = ෍ 𝐺𝑖 [dB] − ෍ 𝛼𝑗 [dB]
𝑊 ∏𝛼𝑗
𝑖 𝑗
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Measurements using spectrum analyzers

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Measurements using spectrum analyzers

Reference level (dBm)

Vertical scale: dB/div

Span/Div – Span

Center Frequency (CF)

Sweep time

Resolution bandwidth

Video bandwidth
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Measurements using spectrum analyzers

Ref. level

𝜶𝒅𝑩 𝑮𝒅𝑩
𝑃dBm

dB/div

CF
𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 SPAN/div
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References
Proakis, 2015] J. Proakis, M. Salehi. Fundamentals of communication systems.
2 ed. England: Pearson Education Limited, 2015. In:
http://bibliotecavirtual.uis.edu.co:2168/?il=5615
[Wikipedia] Wikipedia in English, the free Encyclopedia. Visited on Nov. 2013.
[FCC]. www.fcc.gov. Propagation characterization