Delhi Technological University

Computer Network
Delhi Technological University

Module 1: Physical Layer Digital Transmission Basics

Instructor: Divyashikha Sethia

Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

Roadmap
• Theoretical basis for data communications
• Analog and digital signals
• Analog Signals
• Digital Signals
• Transmission Impairment
• Data Rate

Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

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The Theoretical Basis for Data

Communication
• Data must be transformed to electromagnetic signals

- analog data refers to information that is continuous –

continuous values eg: human voice
-digital data refers to information that has discrete states –
discrete values eg: data stored in computer

Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

Roadmap
• Theoretical basis for data communications
• Analog and digital signals
• Analog Signals
• Digital Signals
• Transmission Impairment
• Data Rate

Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

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Analog and digital signals

•Analog signals with infinite range of values

•Digital signals limited values

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Periodic and Nonperiodic

Signals
•Periodic signal – completes pattern within a time frame
called period and repeats the pattern over periods
•Nonperiodic signal – changes without any pattern repeating
over time
•Data communication use :
- periodic analog signals
- nonperiodic digital signals since they represent
variation in data

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PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or composite.

- A simple periodic analog signal, a sine wave, cannot be
decomposed into simpler signals.
- A composite periodic analog signal is composed of multiple
sine waves.

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PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS – A sine wave

Amplitude
Period

Parameters:
•Amplitude –absolute value of its highest intensity
•Period – time required to complete one cycle by
the signal usually in sec
•Frequency – number of periods in 1 s
•Phase describes the position of the waveform
relative to time 0.
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PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS – A sine wave

- Frequency:

•Frequency is the rate of change with respect to time. Change in

a short span of time means high frequency. Change over a long
span of time means low frequency.

•If a signal does not change at all, its frequency is zero. If a

signal changes instantaneously, its frequency is infinite.

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PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS – A sine wave

Wavelength is that distance a simple signal can travel in one

period
Wavelength = propagation speed * period
= propagation speed
----------------------
frequency

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PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS

• A complete sine wave in the time domain can be

represented by one single spike in the frequency domain.

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PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS –

time domain and frequency domain of three
sine waves

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Single-frequency sine wave is not useful

for data communication
• A single sine wave can carry electric
energy from one place to another. For
eg., the power company sends a single
sine wave with a frequency of say 60Hz
to distribute electric energy to our
houses.

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• If a single sine wave was used to

convey conversation over the phone,
we would always hear just a buzz.
• If we sent one sine wave to transfer
data, we would always be sending
alternating 0’s and 1’s, which does not
have any communication value.

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COMPOSITE SIGNALS

• If we want to use sine wave for communication, we need to change

one or more of its characteristics. For eg., to send 1 bit, we send a
maximum amplitude, and to send 0, the minimum amplitude.
•When we change one or more characteristics of a single-frequency
signal, it becomes a composite signal made up of many frequencies.

•A single-frequency sine wave is not useful in data communications;

we need to send a composite signal, a signal made of many simple
sine waves.

•According to Fourier analysis, any composite signal is a combination

of simple sine waves with different frequencies, amplitudes, and
phases.
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COMPOSITE SIGNALS

•If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a series of

signals with discrete frequencies;
•if the composite signal is nonperiodic, the decomposition gives a
combination of sine waves with continuous frequencies.

A composite periodic signal Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

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COMPOSITE SIGNALS
Decomposition of a composite periodic signal in the time and
frequency domains

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Bandwidth of composite signal

•The bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference

between the highest and the lowest frequencies contained in
that signal.

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DIGITAL SIGNALS

•In addition to being represented by an analog signal, information

can also be represented by a digital signal.

•For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and a 0 as

zero voltage.

•A digital signal can have more than two levels. In this case, we
can send more than 1 bit for each level.

•Bit Rate: number of bits sent in 1s

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Two digital signals: one with two signal levels
and the other with four signal levels

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Digital Signals

Most Digital signals are non periodic hence period and

frequency are not appropriate to represent
Parameters to represent digital signals:
•Bit Rate – Number of bits sent in 1 s
•Bit Length : Distance one bit occupies on transmission
medium
= propagation speed * bit duration

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Roadmap
• Theoretical basis for data communications
• Analog and digital signals
• Analog Signals
• Digital Signals
• Transmission Impairment
• Data Rate

Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

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TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

•Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect.

The imperfection causes signal impairment.

•This means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is not
the same as the signal at the end of the medium. What is sent is
not what is received.

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Causes of impairment

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Attenuation

•Attenuation is loss of energy as signal travels through medium while

overcoming resistance of the medium
•Part of the electrical energy converted to heat hence amplifier used to
compensate and amplify the signal
•Decibel (dB) used to measure relative strength of two signals at two
different points
•dB = 10 log10 P2
----
P1 Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

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Example for decibel

Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium and its

power is reduced to one-half. This means that P2 is (1/2)P1. In
this case, the attenuation (loss of power) can be calculated as

A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-half the power

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Distortion

•Signal changes its form or shape

•For a composite signal, each signal component has different
propagation speed in a medium and hence different delay in arriving
at receiver.
•Difference in delay causes difference in phases leading to
distortion Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

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Noise

•Types of Noise:
*Thermal : random motion of electrons in wire causes extra signal
*Induced: source like motors and appliances which act as sending
antenna and transmission as receiving antenna
*Crosstalk : effect of one wire on the other
*Impulse : is a spike that comes from power lines, lightning etc
•Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) = average signal power / average
noise power
SNRdb = 10 log 10 SNR in decibels
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Example

The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the noise is 1

μW; what are the values of SNR and SNRdB ?

Solution
The values of SNR and SNRdB can be calculated as follows:

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Roadmap
• Theoretical basis for data communications
• Analog and digital signals
• Analog Signals
• Digital Signals
• Transmission Impairment
• Data Rate

Divyashikha Sethia (DTU)

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DATA RATE LIMITS

•A very important consideration in data communications is how

fast we can send data, in bits per second, over a channel. Data rate
depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)
•Formulas:
1. Nyquist
2. Shannon

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Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate

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• An arbitrary signal with bandwidth B can completely be

reconstructed by making only 2B samples per second.
• Sampling the line faster than 2B times will not be useful
since higher frequency components cannot be recovered.
• Nyquist bit rate formula define the theoretical max bit rate:
Maximum Bit Rate = (2 x B) x log2 L bits /sec
B: bandwidth of channel
L: number of level used to represent data
BitRate: bit rate in bits per second

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Nyquist Bit Rate

• Cannot have any bit rate by increasing the number of levels

• Increasing the levels of a signal may reduce the reliability
of the system.
• Receivers over burdened to differentiate between levels

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Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz

transmitting a signal with two signal levels. The maximum bit
rate can be calculated as

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Noisy channel: Shannon Capacity

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• Shannon capacity to determine theoretical highest data rate

for noisy channel
SNR = signal-to-noise ratio = S/N
S – signal power
N – noise power
Maximum Capacity = bandwidth x log2(1+SNR)

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Example
•A telephone line normally has a bandwidth of 3000. The signal-
to-noise ratio is usually 3162.
•For this channel the theoretical highest capacity is calculated as

•This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line is
34.860 kbps. If we want to send data faster than this, we can
either increase the bandwidth of the line or improve the signal-
to-noise ratio.
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Example using both limits

• The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit; the Nyquist
formula tells us how many signal levels we need.
•We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this
channel is 63. What are the appropriate bit rate and signal level?
Solution
First, we use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit for the
maximum possible capacity:

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Example (continued)

•The Shannon formula gives us 6 Mbps, the upper limit.

For better performance we choose something lower, 4 Mbps, for
example.
•Then we use the Nyquist formula to find the number of signal
levels.

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References

Chapter 3 Data Signals, Forouzan

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THANK YOU

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