Noise in Communication

Systems
 NOISE
• Unwanted signals that tend to disturb the
transmission and processing of signals in
communication systems, and over which we have
incomplete control.
External Noise
• External Noise may be defined as that type of noise that is generated
external to a communication system. i.e. whose sources are external to
the communication system.
• For a given geographical point or location, external noise can not be
controlled.
• Thus, to reduce the effect of external noise, the only way is to shift
the communication system to another place or location which has
comparatively smaller external noise.
• Thus due to this reason, the satellites’ earth stations are generally
located in noise-free valleys.
 1. Atmospheric Noise
2. Extraterrestrial Noise
3. Industrial Noise
 Atmospheric noise
• Atmospheric noise, which is also called static, is produced by
lightning discharges in thunderstorms and other natural electrical
disturbances which occur in the atmosphere.
• Atmospheric noise contains spurious radio signals which are disturbed
over a wide frequency range.
• It has been observed that the field strength of atmospheric noise varies
approximately inversely with the frequency.
• Atmospheric noise becomes less severe at frequencies above about
30MHz.
•
 Extra-terrestrial Noise
• There are several types of extra-terrestrial noise or space noise
depending upon their sources. 
• Extra-terrestrial noise may be divided into the following two sub-
groups as under:
• Solar Noise
• Cosmic Noise
Solar Noise
• The sun is a big body at an extremely high temperature and it radiates
electrical energy in the form of noise over a very wide frequency
spectrum including also the frequency spectrum which is occupied by
radio communication
• This radiation of noise from the sun is termed as Solar noise.
Cosmic Noise
• This noise originates from the stars present in the outer space.
• As distant stars are also very high-temperature bodies and are also
termed as the sun;
• The noise generated from the star is similar to that generated from the
sun. Cosmic noise is also known as black body noise.
 Industrial Noise
• Industrial noise or man-made noise is that type of noise which is
produced by such sources as automobiles and aircraft ignition,
electrical motors, switch gears and leakage from high voltages
transmission line and several other heavy electrical equipment.
• Industrial noise is quite intensive in industrial areas, densely populated
urban areas.
 Internal Noise
• Internal Noise is that type of noise that is generated internally or
within the communication system or receiver.
• Shot Noise
• Partition Noise
• Low frequency or Flicker Noise
• High frequency or Transit time Noise
• Thermal Noise
Shot Noise
• Shot noise arises in active devices due to the random behavior of
charge carriers.
• In semiconductor devices shot noise is generated due to the random
diffusion of minority carriers or simply random generation and
recombination of electron-hole pairs.
• It is caused by random variations in the arrival of electrons(or holes) at
the output electrode of an amplifying device.
Partition Noise
• Partition noise is generated in a circuit when a current has to divide
between two or more paths.
• This means that the partition noise results from the random
fluctuations in the division.
 Thermal Noise
• The thermal noise or white noise or Johnson noise is the random
noise that is generated in a resistor due to rapid and random motion of
the molecules, atoms, and electrons.
• The noise power produced in a resistor is proportional to its absolute
temperature.
• Also, the noise power is proportional to the bandwidth over which the
noise is measured.
P = KTB
P = Maximum noise power output of a resistor
T = Absolute temperature
K = Boltzmann’s constant, B = Bandwidth of interest
 White Noise
• White noise is the noise signal whose power spectrum is flat i.e. will
have almost constant integrated power at different frequency bands of
same duration (bandwidth).
• White noise is made of almost all the frequencies and will have
constant power at all these frequencies; hence it is also analogous to
white light emitting all the frequencies in the same proportion. 
• It’s defined as a sound signal containing random and different
frequencies playing at the same intensity.
• White noise is commonly used in the production of electronic music
usually either directly or as an input for a filter to create other types of
noise signal.
 Band limited White Noise
• A White noise whose spectral components are finite over a band of
frequencies and zero at other frequencies is called band limited white
noise.
• It is also called filtered white noise.
• For signal processing, a band limited white noise is considered over a
specified frequency range.
 Colored Noise
• Noise can be filtered, a condition where one or more bands of
frequency have been attenuated; this is referred to as colored noise.
• Colored noise will have different integrated power at different
frequency bands of same duration.
• Depending upon whether it is gray, pink, blue or brown color it will
have different power spectrum. Based on this power concentration
varies at different frequencies
Noise Calculations