RIZAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE AND

TECHNOLOGY
PASIG CAMPUS

Experiment
no. 4
Bandwidth Limiting and Restoring
Digital Signals

Submitted by:
Sta.Ana, Jhansel Ivan E.
Bingco, Ma. Famela
Dechosa, Loui Alpert

Professor:
Engr. Jenny M. Aruta
2 November 2022
Experiment 4 - Bandwidth Limiting and Restoring Digital Signals
In the classical communications model, intelligence (the message) moves from a
transmitter to a receiver over a channel. A number of transmission media can be used
for the channel including: metal conductors (such as twisted-pair or coaxial cable),
optical fibre and free-space (what people generally call the “airwaves”). Regardless of
the medium used, all channels have a bandwidth. That is, the medium lets a range of
signal frequencies pass relatively unaffected while frequencies outside the range are
made smaller (or attenuated). In this way, the channel acts like a filter. This issue has
important implications. Recall that the modulated signal in analog modulation schemes
(such as AM) consists of many sinewaves. If the medium’s bandwidth isn’t wide
enough, some of the sinewaves are attenuated and others can be completely lost. In
both cases, this causes the demodulated signal (the recovered message) to be
distorted. Similarly, recall that digital signals are also made up of many sinewaves
(called the fundamental and harmonics). Again, if the medium’s bandwidth isn’t wide
enough, some of them are attenuated and/or lost and this can change the signal’s
shape.

III. Answers to Questions

Question 1 Why does bandwidth limiting of the channel cause the PCM Decoder
module to output incorrect voltages as well as the correct one? Tip: If you’re not sure,
see the preliminary discussion.
Answer: Limiting the bandwidth of the channel causes the PCM Decoder to output
incorrect voltages. It is because as the bandwidth of a signal is decreased, the
quantization error will decrease. Due to the said factors, the error that will produce will
be large. This is because as other signals were removed, the output will be changed.
Therefore, not all signals will be retrieved.
Question 2 If this were a communications system transmitting speech, what would
these errors sound like when the message is reconstructed?

Answer: The errors from a communications system transmitting speech as the

message reconstructed sounds likely as noisy-channel.

Question 3 What two things are happening to cause the digital signal to change shape?
Answer: The two things that are happening to cause the digital signal to change shape
are the change of the width of the input and phase shift which causes the code to
change.
Question 4 What other change to your communication system distorts the digital signal
in the same way as increasing its bit-rate?
Answer: The frequency from the Voltage Controlled Oscillator changes
Question 5 Although the restored digital signal is almost identical to the original digital
signal, there is a difference. Can you see what it is? Tip: If you can’t, use one of the
scope’s Vertical Position controls overlay the two signals.
Answer: The amplitude will be high whenever there is gain.
Question 6 Can this difference be ignored? Why?
Answer: Yes, this can be ignored because the amplitude won't affect the bandwidth.
Question 7 Why do some DC voltages cause the comparator to output the wrong
information?
Answer: The DC voltage causes the comparator output wrong information because the
voltage must be specific under the bandwidth to be able to generate correct information.
Question 8 Why does the comparator begin to output the wrong information when this
control is turned far enough?
Answer: The comparator cannot be used to restore too much distorted signal.
Question 9 How can the comparator restore the bandwidth limited digital signal when it
is so distorted?
Answer: First, bandwidth limiting can distort the digital signal too much for the
comparator to restore accurately. Second, the channel can cause the received digital
signal to become phase shifted. For reasons not explained here this can cause other
problems for receivers.
IV. Data and Results

Part A – Fig 3

Part A – Fig 5

Part B – Fig 7
Part B – Fig 9

Part C – Fig 11

Part C – Fig 13
Part B – Eyes-Diagram
V. Proof of Experiments

Part A – Fig 3

Part A – Fig 5
Part B – Fig 7

Part C – Fig 9
Part C – Fig 11

Part C – Fig 13
Part B – Eyes-Diagram
 VI. Conclusion
Based on the results of this experiment, it can be concluded that limiting the
bandwidth of a signal has drawbacks. The first part of the experiment clearly
demonstrated that limiting a signal's bandwidth causes the PCM Decoder module's
output to have incorrect voltages due to errors produced by the decreased quantization
level caused by the decreased bandwidth. These errors caused by limiting a signal's
bandwidth can also be observed through sounds, where they appear as noise in the
sound output. The effects of bandwidth limiting on the shape of a digital signal can be
observed in the following part of the experiment. Digital signals generated by a
message, such as a sinewave or speech, cannot be used for this part of the experiment.
This is because the data stream is too erratic for the scope to lock onto and display a
stable sequence of 1s and 0s. As a result, it was modified with the addition of a Tunable
Low Pass Filter (LPF) after the sequence generator. A change in the shape of the signal
can be observed after modifying the circuit. The width of the input signal and the phase
shift of the output signal are the two factors that cause the signal's shape to change. It is
clear that the decoder has difficulty interpreting the bandwidth-limited signals. To
address this issue, the received digital signal must be cleaned up or "restored" before
being decoded, which was accomplished using a comparator. According to research,
the comparator greatly amplifies the difference between the voltages on its two inputs. If
an AC signal connected to one input swings above and below a DC voltage on the
other, this always produces a heavily clipped or "squared-up" version of the signal. A
variable DC voltage is connected to one of the comparator's inputs and a bandwidth
limited digital signal is connected to the other. To generate a digital signal on the
comparator's output, the bandwidth limited digital signal swings above and below the
DC voltage.