Optical Communication Theory and Techniques

Part I: Communication Theory and Digital Transmission

January 15, 2014

1. Consider the signals s1 (t), s2 (t), and s3 (t) shown in the figure below.

s1 (t) s2 (t) s3 (t)

2
1 1 1

1 2 3 4 t 1 2 3 4 t 1 2 3 4 t
−1

(a) Justifying your answer, tell whether they are linearly independent.
(b) Find a basis for the space generated by the signals.
(c) Draw the signal constellation with respect to this basis.

2. A digital communication system employs the signals s1 (t), s2 (t), and s3 (t) in part 1 above. The
signals are equally probable, the channel is wideband, and the noise is additive, white and
Gaussian with power spectral density N0 /2.

(a) Determine an optimum detector employing only 2 correlators or matched filters.

(b) Determine the decision zones of the detector.
(c) Find an equivalent minimum-energy signal constellation.
(d) Sketch the signals corresponding to the minimum-energy constellation.

3. Verify whether the function



1 + j sin π f T
 | f | < 1/T
G( f ) = 

0 elsewhere

satisfies the Nyquist criterion at the time instants tk = kT .

Solution:

1.

(a) The signals are linearly independent if, for any t, c1 s1 (t) + c2 s2 (t) + c3 s3 (t) = 0 can only
be achieved by c1 = c2 = c3 = 0. Given the particular shape of the signals, we can write
the following set of 4 equations




 c1 + c2 + 2c3 = 0 0<t<1



c2 + c3 = 0
 1<t<2





 c1 + c3 = 0 2<t<3


−c1 + c2 = 0 3<t<4

whose solution is c1 = c2 = −c3 . For example, c1 = 1, c2 = 1, c3 = −1 is a solution.

Hence, the signals are not linearly independent. Indeed, it is easy to see that s3 (t) =
s1 (t) + s2 (t).
(b) As the signals are not linearly independent, the dimension of the space is less than 3.
It can be easily seen that s1 (t) and s2 (t) are orthogonal. Thus, the dimension is 2 and
an orthonormal basis {ϕ1 (t), ϕ2 (t)} can be obtained by simply normalizing s1 (t) and s2 (t),
whose energy is E1 = E2 = 3, such that
1
ϕ1 (t) = √ s1 (t)
3
1
ϕ2 (t) = √ s2 (t)
3

(c) Taking into account that s3 (t) = s1 (t) + s2 (t), we have

√
s1 (t) = 3ϕ1 (t)
√
s2 (t) = 3ϕ2 (t) (1)
√ √
s3 (t) = 3ϕ1 (t) + 3ϕ2 (t)

so that the images of the signals are

√ ! ! √ !
3 0 3
s1 = , s2 = √ , s3 = √ . (2)
0 3 3

Hence, the signal constellation is as follows:

ϕ2
√ s2 s3
3
s1
√ ϕ
3 1

2. (a) The optimum decision strategy is

(ˆ 4 ) ( )
T
m̂ = argmax r(t)si (t)dt + Ci = argmax r si + Ci
mi 0 mi
 where, as the signals are equally probable,

Ei 
3 ,
 i = 1, 2
Ci = − , Ei = 

2 6 , i = 3.
Taking into account (1), we have
si (t) = si1 ϕ1 (t) + si2 ϕ2 (t) ,
where si j are the components of the vectors in (2). Hence, the strategy can be written as
( ˆ 4 ˆ 4 )
m̂ = argmax si1 r(t)ϕ1 (t)dt +si2 r(t)ϕ2 (t)dt +Ci
mi 0 0
| {z } | {z }
r1 r2

and may be implemented using 2 correlators.

√
ϕ1 (t) 3 −3/2
R 4 r1 r s1
T

CHOOSE MAX
−3
r(t) rT s3 m̂
√
ϕ2 (t) 3 −3/2
R 4 r2 r s2
T

(b) Being the signals equaly likely, the decision zones are as shown below
ϕ2
√ s2 s3
3
D2 D3
√
3
2
D1 s
1
√ √ ϕ
2
3 3 1

(c) The barycenter of the constellation is given by

3
X √ !
1 2 3 2
c= P(mi )si = (s1 + s2 + s3 ) = √ = s3
i=1
3 3 3 3

and the images s0i of the set of signals minimizing the average energy are given by
s0i = si − c
whose constellation is
ϕ2
s′2 1
√ s′3
3
3

√ √ ϕ1
− 23 3 1
3
3

√ s′1
− 23 3
 (d) As
1√ 2√ 1 2
s10 (t) = 3ϕ1 (t) − 3ϕ2 (t) = s1 (t) − s2 (t)
3 3 3 3
2√ 1√ 2 1
s2 (t) = − 3ϕ1 (t) +
0
3ϕ2 (t) = − s1 (t) + s2 (t)
3 3 3 3
1√ 1√ 1 1
s3 (t) =
0
3ϕ1 (t) + 3ϕ2 (t) = s1 (t) + s2 (t)
3 3 3 3
the signals of the minimum-energy constellation are as shown below
s1 (t) s2 (t) s3 (t)
1
2
3
1 1 1
3 3 3

1 2 3 4 t 1 2 3 4 t 1 2 3 4 t
− 13 − 31
− 23 − 23
−1

3. Taking into account that the bandwidth of G( f ) is less than 1/T , the Nyquist criterion
X
G( f − k/T ) = T g(t0 )
k

reduces to verify that

G( f ) + G( f − 1/T ) = T g(t0 ) 0 < f < 1/T

As
1 + j sin π f T + 1 + j sin π( f − 1/T )T = 2
it turns out the G( f ) satisfies the Nyquist criterion and that g(t0 ) = 2/T .