Digital Communications

Principles
Based on Lecture Notes by Elza Erkip

Yao Wang
Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY11201
http://eeweb.poly.edu/~yao
 Outline

• Digital Communication Systems

– Modulation of digital signals
– Error probability vs. SNR
– Error correction coding
– Channel capacity: noiseless case, and noisy case
– Advantages of digital communication

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 2

 How to send digital signals?

• Digital bits -> analog waveforms (digital modulation)

– Used in telephone modems, cell phones, digital TV, etc.
• Digital bits -> digital pulse sequences (line coding)
– Used in computer networks
• How do we deal with channel noise?
– Error detection (e.g. parity check)
– Error correction coding
• How fast can we send bits ?
– Channel capacity depends on bandwidth, modulation, and SNR

Shannon channel capacity formula

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 3

 Modulation of Digital Signals

• For transmission of digital bits over analog channels

– Convert group of digital bits into analog waveforms (symbols)
– The analog waveforms are formed by adapting the amplitude
and/or phase of a carrier signal (ASK or PSK)
– The carrier frequency is chosen based on the
desired/acceptable operating range of the channel
– An analog channel of bandwidth B can carry at most 2B
symbols/s. For reduced inter-symbol interference, lower than
2*B symbol rate is used typically
• Shannon’s capacity formula characterizes the dependency of
channel capacity on channel bandwidth and noise level
– Equalizer is used at the receiver to reduce the inter-symbol
interference

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 4

 A Simple Example

• Digital information: Sequence of 0’s and 1’s: 001101…..

• One bit every T seconds. During 0 < t < T
– To send a 0, send s0 (t ) = A cos(2πfct )
– To send a 1, send s1 (t ) = − A cos( 2πf c t )

• Input signal 0 0 1 1 0 1

• Modulated signal

• This is called Binary Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) or Binary Phase

Shift Keying (BPSK).
• For a channel with bandwidth B, T >=1/2B, to avoid inter-symbol
interference

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 5

 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)

M-ary ASK: each group of log2M bits generates a symbol. The number corresponding
to the symbol controls the amplitude of a sinusoid waveform. The number of cycles in
the sinusoid waveform depends on the carrier frequency.
(Also known as Pulse Amplitude Modulation or PAM)

4-ASK: 2 bits/symbol (00=-3, 01=-1, 11=1, 10=3)

“00”(-3A) “01”(-A) “11” (A) “10”(3A)

Example: Given a sequence: 01001011…, what is the analog form resulting from 4-ASK?

Symbol representation: “-1”,”-3”,”3”,”1”

Waveform:

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 6

 8-ASK

8-ASK: 3 bits/symbol (000=-7, 001=-5, 011=--3, 010=-1, 110=1, 111=3, 101=5, 100=7)

“001” “011” “010”

000

“110” “111”
“101”
“100”
The mapping from bits to symbols are done so that adjacent symbols only vary by 1 bit, to
minimize the impact of transmission error (this is called Gray Coding)
©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 7
 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(QAM)

M-ary QAM uses symbols corresponding to sinusoids with different amplitude

as well as phase, arranged in the two-dimensional plane.

Ex. 4-QAM (only phase change):

sin(ωct)

01=cos(ωct-3π/4) 00=cos(ωct-π/4)

cos(ωct)

11=cos(ωct-5π/4) 10=cos(ωct-7π/4)

Note this is equivalent to analog QAM if we interpret the first bit and second bit
coming from two pulse sequences!
©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 8
 Example of 4-QAM

Example: Given a sequence: 01001011…, what is the analog form resulting from 4-ASK?

Using the previous mapping, the analog waveform for the above sequence is

01 00 10 11

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 9

 16-QAM, etc.

16 QAM (4 bits/symbol): 64-QAM (6 bits/symbol)

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 10

 Vector Representation

• For BPAM, In s0 (t ) and s1 (t ) the term cos(2πf ct ) is common

– We can represent s0(t) = A, 0<t<T
s1(t) = -A, 0<t<T

s0(t) s1(t)
A T
t t
T -A
– Or

1 0
x x
-A 0 A

Ex: A digital sequence 100110 is sent as {A –A –A A A –A –A}

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 11
 Vector Representation for ASK

• M-ary ASK (M=4, send two bits at a time)

11 10 00 01
x x x x
-3A -A A 3A

• Labeling is done in such a way that adjacent points only

differ in one bit (called Gray mapping)
111 110 100 101 001 011 010 000

x x x x x x x x
-7A -5A -3A -A A 3A 5A 7A

8-ASK

Ex: A digital sequence 100010 is sent as {-3A , 5A,…}

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 12
 Two Dimensional Modulation

• Modulated signal si (t ) = Ac cos(2πf ct ) + As sin(2πf ct )

– 4-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation)

10 x A x 00
2A
A
x x
11 01
– 8-PSK (Phase Shift Keying)

x xx
x x
x xx
A

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 13

 Parameters of Modulation

• Three important parameters of a modulation scheme:

– Minimum distance dmin: The smallest distance among points in
vector representation, which affects error detection capability
– Average energy Eav
– Number of bits/symbol= log2(M)
• Example:
– 4-ASK: dmin=2A, Eav=2(A2+9A2)/4=5A2, log2(M)=2
– 4-QAM: dmin=2A, Eav=2A2, log2(M)=2
– For the same Eav and M, we want to maximize dmin (minimize
effect of transmission noise)
– For the same dmin and M, we want to minimize Eav (minimize
power consumption)

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 14

Other Digital Modulation Techniques

0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1

Original signal (in a pulse sequence)

Amplitude shift-keying (ASK)

Frequency shift-keying (FSK)

Phase shift-keying (PSK)

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 15

 Effect of noise

• Simple channel: Additive White Gaussian

Modulated Signal + Received Signal

Noise n(t)

• Noise n(t) is Gaussian

1 − ( x − m ) 2 / 2σ 2
p ( x / m is sent ) = e
2π σ
σ
m
©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 16
 Optimum Receiver for AWGN

• Received signal amplitude r

r=s+n, s=A or –A,

Left is the pdf of r, assuming s
is equally likely to be A and -A x x
-A 0 A
• Decide A (“1”) was sent if r>0, -A (“0”) was sent if r<0.
• How often do we make errors?
– Depends on the distance dmin=2A
• If s= A, n must be < -dmin/2
• If s=-A, n must be > dmin/2

– The larger is dmin, the less likely

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 17

 Error Probability of BPSK

• To have few errors we want A large compared to σ

• Signal to noise ratio= SNR = A2

σ2
−A ∞
1 1
Pe = P( A) ∫ e − x / 2σ dx + P (− A) ∫ e − x / 2σ dx
2 2 2 2
• Probability of error
−∞ 2π σ A 2π σ
If P ( A) = P (− A) = 1 / 2
∞ ∞
1 1 − x2 / 2
Pe = ∫ e − x / 2σ dx = ∫ dx = Q ( SNR )
2 2
e
Pe A 2π σ A/σ 2π

(
Pe = Q SNR )

SNR
©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 18
 Channel Error Detection

• By adding additional bits to the information bits, we can

also detect errors
• Parity Check (check-sum)
– Append a parity bit to the end of each block (called a frame) of k
information bits such that the total number of '1' is even or odd
• Used in IP packet for error detection because of simplicity
• Example:
• ASCII "G" = 1 1 1 0 0 0 1
• with even parity = append ?
• with odd parity = append ?

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 19

 Error Detection Probability

• Parity check can detect all single bit errors in a block (if fact all error
patterns with odd number of error bits)
• Cannot detect double errors or any even number of errors.
• Probability of k error bits in a n-bit frame (assuming bit error rate pb)
 n k
pn (k ) =   pb (1 − pb ) n −k
k
Ex : if n = 104 , pb = 10−6 (a good channel, e.g. ISDN)
1
pn (1) ≈ 10−2 , pn (2) ≈ 10−4 ≤ pn (1)
2
if n = 103 , pb = 10−3 (a not so good channel, e.g. wireless)
1
pn (1) ≈ 1, pn ( 2) ≈
2

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 20

 Cyclic-Redundancy Codes (CRC)

General Method:
• The transmitter generates an t-bit check sequence number from a
given k-bit data frame such that the resulting (k+t)-bit frame is
divisible by some number
• The receiver divides the incoming frame by the same number
• If the result of the division does not leave a remainder, the receiver
assumes that there was no error
• If n is large, undetectable error patterns are very unlikely
• Widely used in data communications

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 21

Error Correction by Channel Coding

• In addition to detect errors, we can correct errors by inserting parity bits.

This is called channel coding.
• Simplest channel code: Repetition coding:
– Instead of sending one 0, send three 0’s.
– If we receive more 0’s than 1’s: Decide 000 was sent
– Error probability=3 or 2 bits are wrong=
• =probability of receiving 111,110,101,011 Pe3 + 3(1− Pe )Pe2 ≈ 3Pe2
• Smaller than Pe
• Example: Old Pe=10^-2, New Pe=3*10^-4
– But the information rate is decreased
• Instead of R=1bit/sec, we have R=1/3 bits/sec
• More sophisticated channel codes can correct the same number of
errors with lower redundancy (less reduction in information rate)
– Block codes (Reed-Solomn codes), convolutional codes, turbo codes

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 22

 Channel Capacity

• Channel capacity = maximum number of bits/second we can sent

for reliable transmission
• What determines this?
– The receiver typically evaluate the received signal level over entire bit
interval, to determine which bit is sent (0 or 1)
– If we sent more bits/second, the interval of each bit is shorter, channel
noise will more easily make the receiver to make mistakes
– With higher order modulation, we decode multiple bits together over
each symbol interval
0 0 1 1 0 1

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 23

 Noiseless Case

• To send a digital sequence, we send a sequence of pulses

– level A representing “1”, and level –A for “0”
• If the interval of each pulse is T, what is the maximum frequency?
– The maximum frequency occurs when we have alternating 1 and –1,
spanning 2T time per cycle
– This signal has a maximum frequency of fmax=1/2T
– With a channel with bandwidth B, fmax =1/2T <=B
• T>=1/2B, C=1/T<=2B
• we can send at most C=2B bits/second !
• Instead of two-level pulse, we can use N-level pulse (m=log2N
bits/pulse), we can send C=2Bm bits/second (Nyquist channel
capacity)
• By increasing N (hence m), we can reach infinite bit rate!
– What is wrong?
– Here we assume the channel is noiseless, every level can be
distinguished correctly

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 24

 Channel Capacity (Noisy Case)

• When there are more levels in a pulse, the signal difference

between two adjacent levels is smaller (for the same total dynamic
range). Noise in communication channel is more likely to make the
received/detected level differ from the actual level.

2 level 4 level
• The channel capacity depends on the signal to noise ratio (SNR)
– SNR = signal energy / noise energy
• Shannel Channel Capacity
– C=B log2 (1+SNR) bits/second

– Ex: B=6MHz, SNR=20 dB = 100, C=?

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 25

 Advantages of Digital
Communication
• More tolerant to channel noise.
– With amplitude shift keying: as long as the noise does not change the
amplitude from one level to another level, the original bits can be
inferred
– With QAM: as long as the received signal is more close to the original
symbol than its neighboring symbols
– Each repeater can regenerate the analog modulated signals from
demodulated bits (noise do not accumulate)
• Can insert parity bits before sending data to allow
detection/correction of errors
• Can apply digital compression techniques to reduce data rate
subject to distortion criterion
• Different signals can be multiplexed more easily
– Internet packets can contain any types of signals, cell phones can send
different types of data

©Yao Wang, 2006 EE3414: Digital Communications 26

 What Should You Know

• What is digital modulation?

• One and two dimensional modulation schemes
• Parameters of digital modulation schemes
– Can calculate basic parameters for a given modulation scheme
– Understand the design objective
• Channel error detection and correction
– Should understand how simple parity check works and how
repetition coding works
• Channel capacity
– Understand the role of channel bandwidth and SNR in
determining channel capacity
• Advantages of digital communications

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 References

• A. Leon-Garcia, I. Widjala, Communication networks, Chap 3:

Digital transmission fundamentals.

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