Analog Communication

Systems II
1. Noise

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 Noise
In any line or communication system, there would be some unwanted
voltages or currents in addition to the desired signal. The unwanted output
signal is known as noise and may be due to one or more different sources.

Noise Sources :
Noise in a communication system can be classified into two broad
categories:
(a) Internal Noise :
It is generated by components within a communication system, such as
resistors, electron tubes, and solid-state active devices.
(b) External Noise:
It results from sources outside a communication system, including
atmospheric, man-made, and extraterrestrial sources.
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 Thermal Noise:
It is the noise arising from the random motion of charge carriers ( usually
electrons ) in a conducting or semiconducting medium.
Historically , Jonson and Nyquist ( 1928 ) first studied thermal noise in metallic
resistors, hence the designation “Jonson Noise” or ”Resistance Noise”.
Nyquist theorem states that the mean-square noise voltage appearing across
the terminals of a resistor of R(ohms) at temperature T ( Kelvin ) in a
frequency band B ( Hz) is given by:

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Thus a noisy resistor can be represented by an equivalent circuit consisting
of a noiseless resistor in series with a noise generator of rms voltage Vrms .

Thevenin equivalent circuit for a noisy resistor.

Short-circuiting the terminals results in a short-circuit noise current of mean-

square value.

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 where G=1/R is the conductance of the resistor. The Thevenin equivalent
can therefore be transformed to the Norton equivalent .

Norton equivalent circuit for a noisy resistor.

The available average noise power is :

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The power spectrum density is the average noise power per hertz of the
bandwidth , and this is simply :

Power spectral density of thermal noise. 6

 Example 1:

Two resistors , 20 KΩ and 50 KΩ , are at room temperature (290°K ).

Calculate, for a bandwidth of 100 KHz , the thermal noise voltage:
(a) for each resistor ; (b) for the two resistors in series; (c) for the two
resistors in parallel.

Solution:

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 Shot Noise:
It is the second fundamental source of noise, it occurs in semiconductor
devices where carriers are liberated into potential barrier regions, such as occur
at pn- junctions . Shot noise is found to have a uniform spectrum density like
thermal noise, and the mean-square noise current depends directly on the
direct component of current .
The mean-square shot noise current for the semiconductor pn-junction diode is
found to be given by:

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Equivalent Noise Resistance:
It is sometimes convenient to represent the noise which originates in a
device by means of a fictitious resistance Rn , assumed to generate the noise
at room temperature. The actual device then being assumed noiseless.
An amplifier may have a specified noise resistance Rn , and an actual input
resistance Ri :

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 Example 2:
For the circuit shown below , calculate the signal voltage and the equivalent
noise voltage appearing at the input terminals for an effective noise bandwidth
of 10 KHz and at room temperature, where Rn = 400 Ω , Ri = 600 Ω ,Rs = 50 Ω ,
and Es = 1μV .

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 Siqnal -to-Noise Ratio :

ln telecommunications systems , AII signals will, in practice, be corrupted by

noise to some degree. The noise power in comparison with the signal power is
important and the best measure of this is the Signal-to-Noise power ratio .
The Signal-to-Noise ratio (often abbreviated to S/N ratio or SNR) of a signal is
given by :

and is usually expressed in decibels so that if the amplitudes are voltages or

currents, then:

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where all the amplitudes are usually measured as rms values.
Equivalently, if the signal and noise powers are measured, then:

The diagram shown below illustrates a sine-wave signal with noise added.
Here the signal and noise amplitudes are about 10 V and 1 V rms
respectively, so that the resulting S/N ratio is about 10 in voltage, or 20 dB.

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 Example 3 :

What is the S/N ratio in dB of the signal received by a radio receiver if the
voltage at the input of the radio is 1 mV rms and the noise contributed by
the receiver is 1 μV rms? (Assume that the receiver is the only source of
noise.)

Solution :
S/N ratio (in dB) = 20 log10( 1mV / 1μV) = 60 dB

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