Optical Communication Theory and Techniques

Part I: Communication Theory and Digital Transmission

June 27, 2012

The signals used in a binary communication system are shown in the following figure.

s1 (t) s2 (t)
A A
T
2 T
t T t
−A

The channel simply adds white Gaussian noise, such that the received signal can be expressed as

r(t) = si (t) + w(t), 0 ≤ t ≤ T, i = 1, 2

where w(t) is a zero-mean Gaussian noise process with power spectral density N0 /2.

1. Determine the energy of s1 (t) and s2 (t) and their correlation coefficient ρ.
2. Suppose the optimum receiver is implemented using two matched filters, one matched to s1 (t)
and the other to s2 (t), as shown in the figure. Sketch their impulse responses h1 (t) and h2 (t).

C1

h1(t)
CHOOSE MAX

r(t) m̂
C2

h2(t)
t=T

3. Sketch the noise-free response of the two matched filters when the transmitted signal is s2 (t).
4. Suppose the optimum receiver is implemented using two correlators as shown in the figure.
Sketch the output of each integrator as a function of´ time for the interval 0 ≤ t ≤ T when the
t
transmitted signal is s2 (t) (i.e., sketch the functions 0 si (τ)s2 (τ)dτ, i = 1, 2, for 0 ≤ t ≤ T ).

s1(t) C1
RT
CHOOSE MAX

0
r(t) m̂
s2(t) C2
RT
0

5. Compare the sketches in (3) and (4). Are they the same? Explain briefly.
6. Assuming the signals are equally probable, give the probability of error for this binary commu-
nication system.
Solution:

1. The two signals have same energy E = A2 T as

ˆ T ˆ T
2
E1 = |s1 (t)| dt = A2 dt = A2 T
0 0
ˆ T ˆ T
2
E2 = |s2 (t)| dt = A2 dt = A2 T
0 0

The correlation coefficient is given by the normalized internal product, so, taking into account
the fact that the signals are real valued,
ˆ T
1
ρ= √ s1 (t)s2 (t)dt = 0
E1 E2 0
because the signals are orthogonal.

2. Each matched filter has impulse response hi (t) = si (T − t), thus

h1 (t) h2 (t)
A A

T
T t T t
2
−A

3. By convolution, we get

h1 (t) ⊗ s2 (t) h2 (t) ⊗ s2(t)

A2 T

A2 T/2

T 2T t T 2T t
−A T/2
2

4. Performing the integrals, we get

Rt Rt
0
s1(τ)s2 (τ)dτ 0
s2(τ)s2 (τ)dτ
A2 T

A2 T/2

T/2 T t T t

5. The outputs of the matched filters are different from the outputs of the correlators. The two sets
of outputs agree at the sampling time t = T .
6. For binary signaling in AWGN  d 
P(E ) = Q √
2N0
where
ˆ T
2
d = |s1 (t) − s2 (t)|2 dt
0
ˆ T ˆ T ˆ T
2 2
= |s1 (t)| dt + |s2 (t)| dt − 2 s1 (t)s2 (t)dt
0 0 0
p
= E1 + E2 − 2ρ E1 E2
√
In this case, ρ = 0 and E1 = E2 = E = A2 T , such that d = 2E and
r E 
P(E ) = Q
N0