Digital Communication & Information Theory

Course Code TC-311

LECTURE 2

Dr Sunila Akbar
 LECTURE 2 - OUTLINE
▪ Review of the Last Lecture

▪ Goals in DCS Design

▪ Block Diagram of a Typical DCS

▪ Basic Digital Communication Transformations

▪ Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature

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 Review of the Last Lecture
▪ Course Introduction
▪ Basic Communication System
▪ Why Digital?
1. Easy to regenerate the digital signal
2. Digital Circuits – Reliable, cost efficient, flexible implementation
3. Good Processing Techniques (Hardware + Software)
4. Easy to multiplex (TDM, CDMA)
5. Low error rate
6. Best suited for Datacoms
▪ Downsides of Digital Communications

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Goals in Digital Communication System Design
▪ To maximize transmission rate, R
▪ To maximize system utilization, U
▪ To minimize probability of bit error, PE
▪ To minimize required systems bandwidth, W
▪ To minimize system complexity, CX
▪ To minimize required power, Eb /No

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 Block Diagram
of a typical
Digital Communication System

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 Description of Each Block
1. Format
▪ Transforms source information into bits
▪ Ensure compatibility between source information and DCS
2. Source Encoder
▪ Remove redundant bits from message
3. Encrypt
▪ To maintain privacy i.e. preventing unauthorized extraction of information
(eavesdropping)
▪ To establish authentication i.e. preventing unauthorized injection of spurious
signals (Spoofing)
4. Channel Encoder
▪ Takes k information bits, adds (n−k) non-information bits in the signal to
generate code word (or channel symbol) of length n. Additional bits are used
for error detection / error correction. [Redundancy = n/k, code rate= k/n]
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 Description of Each Block
5. Multiplexing
▪ Provides resource sharing by combining different signals/symbols.
6. Pulse Modulation
▪ Define Pulse waveform (pulse shaping)
▪ Generate baseband (low-frequency) waveform
▪ Filtering to minimize transmission bandwidth
▪ When pulse modulation is applied to binary symbols the resulting
waveform is called pulse-code-modulation (PCM) waveform. In
telephone applications these waveforms are called line-codes
7. Bandpass Modulation
▪ Baseband signal is frequency translated by a carrier wave
▪ Required to meet transmission characteristics of channel

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 Description of Each Block
8. Synchronization (and clock signal)
▪ Involved in the control of all signal processing within DCS. It plays a role
in regulating operation of every block
9. Frequency Spread
▪ Spread spectrum techniques are important for interference and privacy
▪ Share bandwidth resources
10. Multiple Access
▪ Provide resource sharing for remote users
11. Transmitter Front End (Channel Coupler)
▪ Injects signal into the channel

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 Description of Each Block
12. Channel
▪ Actual propagation medium
▪ If channel impulse response is hc(t), transmitted signal is si(t) and noise is n(t)
then the received signal is r(t) = si(t)* hc(t) + n(t)
13. Receiver
▪ All the steps (except detect) preformed at transmitter are reversed at the
receiver side.
14. Detect
▪ Use decision theory to decide which symbol was transmitted
▪ Example: For binary symbols, compare received power/amplitude to decide
whether zero or one was transmitted

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Basic Digital Communication Transformations

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 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature
Information Source
▪ Device producing information to be communicated by a DCS, analog or
discrete
▪ Analog source - continuous range of amplitudes, e.g. output of a microphone
▪ Discrete source – values from a finite set, e.g. digits
Character
▪ Member of an alphanumeric/symbol (A to Z, 0 to 9)
▪ Characters can be mapped into a sequence of binary digits using one of the
standardized codes such as ASCII: American Standard Code for Information
Interchange
▪ EBCDIC: Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
Textual Message
▪ Sequence of characters
▪ e.g. HOW ARE YOU?, OK, &999 etc.

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 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature
Bit Stream
▪ Sequence of bits

Symbol (Digital Message)

▪ Group of ‘k’ bits considered as a unit – M-Ary
▪ Message symbol ‘mi (t)’ (i=1,…,M) from a finite symbol set or alphabet
▪ Size of the alphabet M, is M=2k , where k is the number of bits in the symbol

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 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature
Baseband Modulated Signal
▪ Each mi (t) symbol will be represented by one of a set of baseband pulse
waveforms g1 (t), g2 (t), … , gM (t)
▪ For transmitting a sequence of such pulses, unit Baud is sometimes used to
express the pulse rate (symbol rate)
Bandpass Modulated Signal
▪ For typical bandpass transmission, each gi (t) pulse will then be represented
by one of a set of bandpass waveforms s1 (t), s2 (t), … , sM (t)

Thus, for wireless systems, the symbol mi (t) is sent by

transmitting the digital waveform si (t) for T seconds, the symbol
time duration.
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 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature

Digital Waveform
▪ Voltage or current waveform (a pulse for baseband transmission, or a sinusoid
for bandpass transmission) that represents a digital symbol
▪ The waveform characteristics (amplitude, width, and position for pulses or
amplitude, frequency, and phase for sinusoids) allow its identification as one
of the symbols in the finite symbol set

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 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature
Data rate
log 𝑀
This quantity in bits per second (bits/s) is given by 𝑅 = 𝑘/𝑇= 2 bits/s, where 𝑘
𝑇
bits identify a symbol from 𝑀= 2 symbol set, and 𝑇 is the 𝑘-bit symbol duration.
k

T --- Symbol Duration

1/T --- Symbol per second (Symbol rate)
k --- Bits per symbol
R --- Bits per second (Bit rate)
[k (bits/symbol) x 1/T (symbols/sec)]

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Thank You ☺
Stay safe!

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