Data Transmission

Agenda
• Concepts and Terminology
• Analog and Digital Data Transmission
• Transmission Impairments
• Channel Capacity
Transmission Terminology

Transmitter Medium Receiver

• Transmission medium:
• Guided: twisted pair, coaxial cable, optical fiber
• Electromagnetic waves guided through a physical medium
• Unguided: wireless
• Propagation over air, vacuum, seawater
Transmission Types
• Direct link:
• Signals propagated directly between Tx and Rx
• No intermediate node (other than amplifiers and repeaters)

• Two types of transmission mediums:

• Point-to-point: A direct link exists between Tx and Rx (We focus on this type of link)

• Point-to-multipoint: More than one pair share the transmission medium, e.g.,
classic Ethernet
Time-domain concepts
• Electromagnetic
signal:

• Analog: continuous
signal intensity

• Digital: discrete
constant levels
Time-domain concepts
• Periodic signal
• 𝑠 𝑡+𝑇 =𝑠 𝑡 , −∞<𝑡 <
+ ∞ → 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 𝑇

• Peak amplitude: Maximum possible

amplitude

• Frequency:
• Number of cycles per second
• The rate of cycles
Frequency and Phase
• 𝑠 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛(2𝜋𝑓𝑡 + 𝜙)
• 𝜙 : phase
Peak
• 𝐴 : Peak amplitude amplitude 𝑻

• 𝑠 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝜔𝑡 + 𝜙)

1
• 𝑓 = Hz 𝑨 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝝓)
𝑇

𝑻
Wavelength
• A signal at a fixed point of space →
displayed as a function of time

• A signal at a fixed point of time →

displayed as a function of distance
 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛(2𝜋𝑓𝑡 + 𝜙)
We look at
signal at
time t and
distance d
𝑑

𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛(2𝜋𝑓𝑡 + 𝜙) 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛(2𝜋𝑓𝑡 + 𝜙)
We look at
signal at
time t+T
𝜆 = 𝜈𝑇
and
distance d 𝑑
Wavelength
• Electromagnetic signal → the signal strength is a sinusoid function of
distance
• Wavelength (𝜆): Distance occupied by a single cycle of the signal

𝜈
𝜆 = 𝜈𝑇 =
𝑓
• 𝜈: Speed at which the signal travels
• 𝜈 = 𝑐 = 3 × 108 𝑚Τ𝑠 for electromagnetic waves
Frequency domain concepts: Spectrum
4 4 𝟏
× 𝟏 × sin 2𝜋𝒇𝑡 ൗ𝟑 sin(2𝜋(𝟑𝒇)𝑡)
𝜋 𝜋

=
Frequency domain concepts: Spectrum
4 𝟏
𝑠(𝑡) ← 𝑠 𝑡 + ൗ𝟓 sin(2𝜋(𝟓𝒇)𝑡)
𝜋
Frequency domain concepts: Spectrum
4 𝟏
𝑠(𝑡) ← 𝑠 𝑡 + ൗ𝟕 sin(2𝜋(𝟕𝒇)𝑡)
𝜋
Frequency domain concepts: Spectrum
• Signal may contain a broad range of frequencies
4 1
𝑆 𝑡 = ෍ sin(2𝜋𝑘𝑓𝑡) Frequency : f =1/T
𝜋 𝑘
𝑜𝑑𝑑 𝑘
Frequency domain concepts: Spectrum
• Spectrum of a signal: Range of frequencies it contains and their
strength
X(t) X(f)
1
1 𝑓=
𝑇
1/3

1/5
1/7
…..
f 3f 5f 7f f

4 1 Most energy in the few

𝑆 𝑓 = ෍ sin(2𝜋𝑘𝑓𝑡) first components
𝜋 𝑘
𝑜𝑑𝑑 𝑘
Spectrum of a periodic signal
• Fundamental
frequency:
1
𝑓0 =
𝑇

• All frequency
components of a
signal are integer
multiples of
fundamental
frequency (𝑓0 )
Spectrum of a non-periodic continuous signal
• Rectangle pulse • Rectangle pulse spectrum
 Average and power
• For any non-periodic function 𝜈 𝑡 →

∞
1 𝑇/2 2 𝑑𝑡
Average: 𝜈(𝑡) = න 𝜈 𝑡 𝑑𝑡 Power: P= lim ‫׬‬ 𝜈 𝑡
𝑇→ ∞ 𝑇 −𝑇/2
−∞

• If 𝜈(𝑡) is periodic →

1 1
𝜈(𝑡) = න 𝜈 𝑡 𝑑𝑡 P= 𝜈 𝑡 2 = 𝜈 𝑡 2 𝑑𝑡
Average: Power: ‫׬‬
𝑇0 𝑇0 𝑇0 𝑇0

• Power signal has well-defined average power.

𝐴2
• Example: 𝜈 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜔0 𝑡 + 𝜙 → 𝜈(𝑡) = 0 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃 =
2
Frequency domain concepts: Spectrum
• Spectrum of a signal: Range of frequencies it contains and their
strength
X(t) X(f)
1
1 𝑓=
𝑇
1/3

1/5
1/7
…..
f 3f 5f 7f f
2 2
𝑇 4 1 1
𝑃= =1 𝑃= ∗ ෍ =1
𝑇 𝜋 2 𝑘
𝑜𝑑𝑑 𝑘
 Frequency response of a system
• The response of
the system to
different
frequencies

X(f) H(f) Y(f)

𝑓0 𝑓1 f 𝑓2 𝑓0 𝑓3 𝑓1 f 𝑓0 𝑓3
f
Frequency domain concepts: DC, Bandwidth
• DC Component:
• Component at zero frequency
• Or Average of the signal

• Absolute bandwidth
• Width of the spectrum →
𝑓𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑓𝑚𝑖𝑛

• Effective bandwidth
• Narrow band of frequencies
that contain most of the 𝟑𝒇
energy
Frequency domain concepts : DC, Bandwidth

No dc component
2f

4
𝑠 𝑡 = sin 2𝜋 𝒇 𝑡 + 𝟏ൗ𝟑 sin(2𝜋(𝟑𝒇)𝑡)
𝜋
Frequency domain concepts : DC, Bandwidth

𝑠(𝑡)

1 dc Infinite bandwidth

Effective bandwidth
𝑡
−𝑋/2 𝑋/2
Data rate and bandwidth
• Signal may contain a broad range of frequencies
• Transmission system (Tx+ medium+Rx): performs well in a limited range of
frequencies → limited bit rate
0 0

Frequency : f =1/T (Hz)

Data rate: 2/T = 2f

1 1 (bps)
Data rate and bandwidth: Case I
• Case I :
• Choose: f, 3f, 5f ->
Signal BW = 4f
• Channel BW = 4MHz

f = 1 MHz ->
data rate = 2 Mbps

f 3f 5f

4MHz
Data rate and bandwidth: Case II
• Case II :
• Choose: f, 3f, 5f ->
Signal BW = 4f
• Channel BW = 8MHz

f = 2 MHz ->
data rate = 4 Mbps

Doubling the BW ->

f 3f 5f Data rate is doubled
8MHz
Data rate and bandwidth: Case III
• Case III :
• Choose: f, 3f ->
Signal BW = 2f
• Channel BW = 4MHz

f = 2 MHz ->
data rate = 4 Mbps
Same data rate as Case II:
The receiver should be
f 3f
better in this case
4MHz
Data rate and bandwidth
• Observations:
• (Cases I, II): data rate = 2 *
bandwidth
• Doubling the bandwidth → data
rate is doubled

• (Cases II, III): A given bandwidth

support different data rates given
the ability of the receiver to
discern 0 and 1 in the presence of
the noise and impairments