Digital Communication & Information Theory

Course Code TC-311

Course Teacher
Dr Sunila Akbar
Assistant Professor
Department of Electronic Engg.
 TOPIC 1
Basic Communication System (Review)
 Main purpose of communication is to transfer information from a source to a
recipient via a channel or medium.
 Basic block diagram of a communication system:

Source Transmitter Channel Receiver Recipient

Analog or Transducer, Amplifier, Antenna, Amplifier,

e.g., Cable, Optical Demodulator, e.g., Person, (Loud)
Digital Modulator, Oscillator,
Fiber, Free Space Oscillator, Power Speaker, Computer
(Information) Power Amp., Antenna
Amp., transducer

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 Basic Communication System (Review)
Types of Information
Voice
Data
Video
Music
Email etc.

Information Representation

Communication system converts information into electrical/ optical/ electromagnetic signals appropriate for the
transmission medium.

Analog systems convert analog message into signals that can propagate through the channel.

Digital systems convert bits (digits, symbols) into signals.

•Computers naturally generate information as characters/bits.

•Most information can be converted into bits.
•Analog signals converted to bits by sampling and quantizing (A/D conversion).

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 Basic Communication System (Review)
Phenomena affecting signals during propagation/ transmission
 Distortion: Due to non-ideal response of transmission line/ circuits
 Noise: Unwanted electrical signals in the system
 Interference: Unwanted signals from other sources
Types of Communication Systems
 Public Switched Telephone Network (voice, fax, modem)
 Satellite systems
 Radio, TV broadcasting
 Cellular phones
 Computer networks (LANs, WANs, WLANs)

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 Analog vs. Digital Communication System
Analog
Signal comes from set of infinite
waveform shapes (with
theoretically infinite resolution).
Exact reproduction of signal at
destination is required.
Signal to Noise Ratio, Bandwidth
Efficiency
Digital
Signal comes from a finite set of
waveform shapes.
The objective is to determine
which waveform from the finite set
was sent.
Probability of Error (PE), Bandwidth
Efficiency

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 TOPIC 2
Why Digital?
1. Digital Signals are easy to regenerate as compared to
Analog Signals
 e.g., Binary digital circuits operate in one of the
two states – fully ON or fully OFF, which prevents
Noise and other disturbances from accumulating in
transmission.
 Use of regenerative repeaters before the
transmission is degraded to an ambiguous state.
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Why Digital?

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 Why Digital?
2. Digital Circuits are
 More reliable
 Low cost
 More flexible implementation
 Shorter design and production cycle

3. Good processing techniques are available for digital signals, such as

 Data compression (or source coding)
 Error Detection / Error Correction (or channel coding)
 Equalization
 Encryption and Privacy
 Security

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 Why Digital?
4. Different types of digital signals (voice, video, telegraph, etc.) can be
treated as identical signals
 A bit is a bit
5. Easy to mix signals and data using digital techniques
 TDM/CDM is easier than FDM
6. Digital signals - Low error rate - High fidelity
7. Best suited for data communication from computer to computer
 Such digital termination are naturally best served by digital communication
links

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 Downsides of Digital Communication System
1. Intensive signal processing (compared to analog)
2. Requires reliable “synchronization”
 Significant resources are allocated to the task of synchronization at various
levels
3. Requires Analogue to Digital (A/D) conversions at high rate
4. Requires larger bandwidth
5. Non-graceful degradation
 If SNR drops certain threshold, the Quality of Service (QoS) can change from
very good to very poor.

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