EEET2465 Communication Engineering

Introduction to Communication Engineering

- Time and frequency domains
- Signal power and energy
- Signal propagation
Lecturer: Dr. W. F. Lee

Lecturer Information
Lecturer:
Dr. W. F. Lee
E-mail: [email protected]
Location:

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Assumed Knowledge and Course Outcomes

This course assumes that you have:
The ability to solve basic algebraic equations.
Competence in basic calculus.
The ability to perform Fourier Transforms on basic functions.
Knowledge of basic signal sampling theory.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

Represent information in the time or frequency-domains, with an
understanding of the equivalence between these domains.
Describe the theory and operation of analogue and digital
communication systems in time or frequency-domains including:
Analogue modulation systems (AM and FM/PM)
Baseband and modulated digital communication systems
Analyse and design simple optical fibre communication systems.
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Course Topics
The topics covered in this course include:
Signals and systems in a communication context
Amplitude modulation (AM)
Angle modulation including frequency and phase modulation, (FM
and PM)
Baseband digital communications
Digital modulation
Optical fibre communications

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Course Outline: Assessment

Laboratories (35%)
Four (4) labs (each over 4 weeks for FT/2 weekends for PT)

Assignments (3 x 5% = 15%)
Three (3) Blackboard tests on the three main topics (analogue
communications, digital communications and optical
communications)

Final examination (50%)

Two hours, closed book exam

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Laboratory work
Experiment 1: Introduction to LabView
Experiment 2: Amplitude Modulation (AM)
Experiment 3: Frequency Modulation (FM)
Experiment 4: Digital communications
Lab experiments are conducted in groups of up to 3 students.

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Laboratory and Tutorial Start Dates

Labs and tutorials start next week (week 2).
Experiment 1: Introduction to hardware
Introduces the hardware, the oscilloscope and LabVIEW software
used for data acquisition and frequency domain analysis.
Reviews some of the content from Signals and Systems (but in
hardware).

Make sure you are correctly timetabled into your lab and
tutorial classes before then.
If you havent timetabled into a lab/tute class go to:
http://sts.rmit.edu.au/STS
If you have any problems with timetabling e-mail:
[email protected]
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Assignments
There are three assignments this semester each worth 5%.
They will cover the topics
Analogue communication (AM, FM and PM)
Digital communication (both baseband and modulated)
Optical communications

These assignments will be randomised Blackboard tests.

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Overview of Learning Resources

Course material (i.e. lecture slides, tutorials, lab experiments,
etc) are available via myRMIT Studies.
Lab hardware modules will be provided during lab sessions.
The main prescribed reference for this course is the lecture
notes. These notes and the majority of the tutorial problems
are based around the following textbook:
Modern Digital and Analog
Communication Systems
International 4th edition
Authors: B.P Lathi and Z. Ding
Oxford University Press, 2010

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Further Reading

Students interested in further reading may consider the

following references (available at RMIT library):
1. Leon W. Couch, Digital and Analog Communication Systems,
Prentice-Hall, 2001.
2. Simon Haykin, Communications Systems, John-Wiley & Sons,
2000.
3. John G. Proakis, Masoud Salehi, Communications Systems
Engineering, Prentice-Hall, 2002.
4. Gerd Keiser, Optical Fibre Communications, Third Edition,
McGraw-Hill International Editions, 2000.
5. John M. Senior, Optical Fibre Communications, principles and
practice, Second Edition, Prentice Hall, 1992

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Blackboard
Blackboard (MyRMIT Studies) can be accessed by logging into
the system via the site: http://my.rmit.edu.au and clicking on
the link to Studies.
You will find material related to lectures, labs and tutorials on
Blackboard as well as staff contact details and updates on
important dates.

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Overview
In this lecture we will start by looking at what is
Communication Engineering and what areas of
communications are studied and researched at RMIT University.
The idea of signal power and energy, Parsevals Theorem and
the different measures of bandwidth will be covered next.
The second half of this lecture will look at signal propagation
and the behaviour of radio frequency signals at different
frequencies.
Lastly channel effects and signal distortion will be introduced
including multi-path interference, Doppler effect and additive
noise.

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What is Communication Engineering?

Communication Engineering
deals with the transfer of
information between two or more
parties
Communication Engineering
consists of three major subsections:

Networks

Systems

Communication Networks
Communication Systems
Communication Devices
Devices

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Communication Networks
An interconnected group of nodes
Communication Network Engineering deals with the control,
transfer, switching, and/or routing of information (traffic) between
nodes.
Examples:
PSTN
Mobile phones
Internet
LANs

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Communication Systems
A communication system is a physical transmission link that
allows the transfer of information from one point to another
A network is made up of multiple communication systems
Can be characterised by their transmission media:
Twisted pair/Coaxial
Wireless
Optical Fibre

Transmitter

Noise

Transmission
Media
Distance

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Receiver

Communication Devices
A communcation device is a physical component that provides
some form of communication function.
A communication system contains many communication
devices.
Examples:
Antenna
DSP devices
Laser Diode
Modulator
Multiplexer

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Why is Communication Engineering Important?

We currently live in what has been dubbed the information age
of human evolution.
This era will be judged as the time humans made huge
developments in the access, transfer and use of information.
Advances in the field of Communication Engineering enabled
this development.
Many services and applications we use daily rely on information
transfer:
Internet, email, telephony, text and data, TV, radio
GPS, remote controls
logistics, monitoring/sensing networks
biomedical data, etc.

Everything is becoming wireless!

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Communication Engineering
A primary aim of communication engineering is the reliable
transmission of information from a transmitter, through a
channel and to a receiver.
The information can be represented as a function of time called
a signal.
Noise

Transmitter

Transmission
Media

Receiver

Distance

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Examples of Communications Signals

Speech or music after conversion to electrical signals through a
microphone.
Video signals.
Sounds of animals or natural phenomena transmitted from a
sensor to a remote research station.
Brain (EEG), heart (ECG), or eye (EOG) signals (after
conversion to electrical signals through sensors) transmitted
from a patients room during a test or a medical tele-operation.
Photos sent from a satellite or spacecraft.
A radar signal reflecting from a flying object.

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Analogue Signals
Both digital and analogue signals can be transmitted through
a communication system.
Analogue signals were found to be continuous in both time
and amplitude.
Examples are voice, music, video, etc.

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Digital Signals
Digital signals are derived from sampled (discrete-time) signals,
they have a finite set of values for both time and amplitude.
Digital signals are represented as sequences of 1s and 0s.
The process of converting analogue signals to digital is to
sample the signal (make it discrete in time), quantise (make it
discrete in amplitude) and encode (i.e. assign binary values to
the samples).

100010101100110111101111111011011100101010000110010000110010
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Time & Frequency Domains of Signals and Systems

There are two approaches to analysing signals and systems: the
time domain approach and the frequency domain approach.
The two domains are equivalent, connected by a suitable
transformation (like the Fourier or Laplace transforms).

1.5
1
1/2

|S(f)|

s(t)

0.5

-0.5
1/6
-1

-1.5

1/10

2T

-5f

Time, sec
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-3f

-f

3f

5f

Frequency, Hz
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Time Domain Representation

A signal can be regarded as a function of time or frequency, for
example:

1
1
x(t ) = sin( 2f 0t ) + sin(3(2f 0 )t ) + sin(5( 2f 0 )t )
3
5
Can be represented in time as shown below:

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Frequency Domain Representation (Spectra)

This same signal can be represented in the frequency domain
as a spectrum.
The spectrum of a signal represents the frequencies that make
up that signal.

1
1
(
)
(
)
x(t ) = sin 2f 0t + sin 3(2f 0 )t + sin(5(2f 0 )t )
3

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DC Component of a signal
If a signal includes a component of zero frequency, that
component is referred to as a DC component of a signal.
In the time-domain a DC component can be seen when a
waveform is centred around a non-zero value, e.g. the function
below has a DC component equal to 0.5.
Note: signal is
now centred
around 0.5
instead of zero.

x(t ) =
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1
1
1
+ sin(2f 0t ) + sin(3(2f 0 )t ) + sin(5(2f 0 )t )
2
3
5
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DC Component of a signal
DC components of a signal are represented in the frequency
domain as a spike appearing at 0 Hz.
For the previous function its spectrum will look like:

x(t ) =
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1
1
1
+ sin(2f 0t ) + sin(3(2f 0 )t ) + sin(5(2f 0 )t )
2
3
5
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Transforms for Time & Frequency Domains

The most important transformations in applied sciences are:
Fourier Transform: which is a transformation from the time domain
to the frequency domain.
Laplace Transform: which is a transformation from the time
domain to the generalised (complex) frequency domain.

The Fourier transform of a signal is normally referred to as the

spectrum of the signal (as it describes the frequency spectrum
of the signal).
Fourier series is a specific representation that is used only for
periodic signals.

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Signal Power and Energy

From circuit theory you would be familiar with the three main
equations to use to calculate power dissipated in a circuit or
circuit element:

P = VI ,

P = I R,

V2
P=
R

For example the power dissipated in the circuit below can be

found to be: 2
2

P=

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V
10
100 1
=
=
= Watts
R 100 + (1500 || 1000 ) 700 7

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Signal Power and Energy

In Communications we consider power slightly differently and
speak in terms of average normalised power (normalised to
power dissipated over a 1 resistor).
Instantaneous power p(t ) can be defined as the power
dissipated over a 1 resistor by a voltage of amplitude of x(t ) .
This is given as:

p(t ) =| x(t ) |2
Since power is defined as the time average of energy the
instantaneous energy of a signal is given by:

e(t ) =| x(t ) |2 t

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Signal Power and Energy

Therefore the total normalised energy is given as:
T /2

E = lim

x(t )

dt

T / 2

and average normalised power as:

T /2

1
2
P = lim
x
(
t
)
dt
T T
T / 2

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Power and Energy Signals

Signals can be power signals, energy signals or neither.
Power signals are signals where the normalised average
power is finite and non-zero (i.e. 0 < P < ).
Similarly a signal is an energy signal if its total normalised
energy is finite and non-zero (i.e. 0 < E < ).
And signals that have both infinite energy and infinite power
cannot be classified as either energy or power signals, one
example is an exponential waveform (e.g. x(t ) = e t ) .

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Example 1.1 - Power and Energy Signals

Determine whether x (t ) = A. cos( 2t ) is a power or energy
signal (or neither).

Determine whether x(t ) = u (t )e t is a power or energy signal

(or neither).

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Example 1.1 - Power and Energy Signals

The signal is a power signal if:
T /2

E = lim

2
x
(t )dt =

T / 2

T /2

1
2
P = lim
x
(t )dt <
T T
T / 2

It is an energy signal if:

T /2

E = lim

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T /2

2
x
(t )dt <

T / 2

1
2
P = lim
x
(t )dt = 0
T T
T / 2

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Example 1.1a - Power in Periodic Signals

The energy of x (t ) = A. cos( 2t ) is shown by the shaded region
in the figure:

From this it can be seen as T this signal will have infinite

energy.
T /2

2
2
A
t
A
sin( 4t )
E = lim x 2 (t )dt = A2 cos 2 (2t )dt =
+
= as T
T
2
8
T / 2

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Example 1.1a - Power in Periodic Signals

As power is the time average of energy and the signal is
periodic, we can take the energy over a single period of this
signal:
T ( =1)
T /2
T
A2t A2 sin( 4t )
1
2
2
2
P = lim x (t )dt = A cos (2t )dt =
+

T
2
8

0
T / 2
0

A2

A2 This value is finite therefore

= + 0 [0 + 0] =
2 x(t) is a power signal
2

A2
2

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Example 1.1b - Energy Signals

The energy of x(t ) = u (t )e t is shown by the shaded region in
the figure:

In this case as T this signal will have finite energy.

T /2

1 2t
2
2
2t
u
(
t
)
x
(
t
)
dt
=
e
dt
=

2 e
T
0
T / 2
0

E = lim

1 1 1
= 0 1 = as T
2 2 2
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Example 1.1b - Energy Signals

The power of this (non-periodic) signal can similarly be
calculated as:
T /2

1
1 2t
1
2
2
P = lim u (t ) x (t )dt = e dt =
T T T / 2
T 0
T

T ( = )

1 2t
2 e

= 0 as T

This value is zero therefore x(t) is an energy signal

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Parsevals Theorem
Parsevals theorem can be used to relate signal energy/power
in the time-domain to the signals spectrum.
Parsevals theorem states:

E=

x(t ) dt =

X ( f ) df

This means signal energy/power can be determined in both the

time and frequency domains.

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Example 1.2 - Parsevals Theorem

Determine the average normalised power in the following
power signal in the time-domain and then using Parsevals
theorem calculate it from the frequency-domain.

x(t ) = 10 cos(20t ) + 7 cos(32t )

20
15
10

x(t)

5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Time, sec
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Example 1.2 - Parsevals Theorem

In the time-domain we can use the formula (derived in example
1.1a):
A2
P=
2
Therefore:
7 2 10 2 49 100
P=
+
=
+
= 74.5 Watts
2
2
2
2
20
15
10

x(t)

5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Time, sec
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Example 1.2 - Parsevals Theorem

Since Parsevals theorem states the two domains are
equivalent, we can find power by evaluating the square of each
component of the spectrum:
2

P = X ( f ) = 3.52 + 52 + 52 + 3.52 = 12.25 + 25 + 25 + 12.25

= 74.5 Watts
5

|X(f)|

3.5

3.5

0
-30

-20

-10

10

20

30

Frequency, Hz
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So far
So far we have looked at the idea of signal spectra and the link
between the time domain and frequency domains.
We have also looked at signal power and energy and
determined the parameters needed to classify a signal as a
power signal, energy signal or neither.
We have introduced Parsevals theorem which is used to link
the time and frequency domains together.
In the second half of this lecture we will consider some of the
characteristics of different transmission media.

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Spectrum and Bandwidth

The spectrum of a signal is a representation of the
frequencies, phases and amplitudes that make up the signal.
Bandwidth of a signal is based on the width of the positive part
of the spectrum, it can be defined in several different ways:
Absolute bandwidth is the maximum positive frequency minus the
minimum positive frequency in a signal.
3-dB (or half-power) bandwidth contains the part of the spectra
whose power falls no less than (1 / 2 ) Pmax (or no less than -3 dB
below the maximum on the dB scale).
First null-bandwidth is the width of the positive part of the
spectrum from the minimum frequency to the first time the power
falls to zero (i.e. a null-occurs) in the spectrum.
To name a few..

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Example 1.3: Spectrum and Bandwidth

Using the figure below, mark in the absolute, 3dB and first-null
bandwidths for the spectra given by:

1
X ( f ) = sinc
2

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f .(u( f + 10) u( f 10))

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Example 1.3: Spectrum and Bandwidth

The absolute bandwidth is the maximum +ve frequency
minus the minimum +ve frequency: Babs = 10 0 = 10 Hz.
The 3-dB bandwidth occurs when the magnitude falls below
1 / 2 . X ( f ) max this occurs around B3dB 0.884 Hz .

The first-null bandwidth is the width of the spectrum before it

becomes zero, i.e. Bnull = 2 Hz in this case.
B3dB
Bnull

Babs

1/1.414

0.884

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Effective Bandwidth
Another type of bandwidth is one called the effective
bandwidth (or essential bandwidth), or sometimes simply the
bandwidth.
Similar to the 3-dB bandwidth considered before, this type of
bandwidth applies to signals that may contain an infinite
number of spectral components but have most of their power
located in a smaller spectral region.
The spectral region where 95% (or greater in some
applications) of the signal power is located is known as the
effective bandwidth.

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Basic Communication System Model

Messages
Noise

Modulation /
Encoding

Source

Transmission
& Switching
Distance

Note: Link may be bi-directional

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Demodulation
\ De-coding

Receiver

Transmitter
The information source is generally a baseband signal (i.e. its
spectrum is concentrated around 0 Hz).
A transmitter consists of the following devices to convert the
information-bearing signal into a suitable form for transmission:
If the signal is non-electrical (e.g. audio or video signal), a
transducer (i.e. microphone or video camera) is necessary.
A modulation unit will convert the processed signal to a frequency
band suitable for the channel (e.g. RF band for wireless channel).
There may be a change in signal form as well (e.g. convert an
electrical signal into a light signal for optical fibres).
The baseband signal may also be transmitted without modulation.

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Receiver
At the receiver, the signal will be demodulated to baseband
frequency.
A signal processing unit may be used to process the baseband
received signal to reduce any channel distortion and/or noise to
obtain a reasonable estimate of the original message.
At the receiver there may also be need for decoding to occur,
for example converting digital signals back to analogue, or
decoding forward error correction (FEC) codes (if they were
applied at the transmitter).

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Wired Communication Channels

In wired communications signal transmission generally occurs
over a copper wire, coaxial cable, waveguide or optical fibre
channel.
Examples of systems that employ this method are:

The public switched telephone network (PSTN)

Wired Internet (ADSL, dial-up, etc)
Computer networks (Ethernet)
Optical fibre links

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Wired Telephony Example

An example of a wired system is the public
switched telephone network (PSTN).
The voice is converted to an electrical signal by
using a transducer.
This analogue signal is then transmitted to the
exchange where it is converted to digital at a
sampling rate of 8kHz and is then pulse code
modulated (PCM).
This digital signal is then routed to its ultimate
destination through switches and exchanges where
it is then converted back to analogue and sent via
copper wire to the receiver.

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Wireless Communications
In recent times wireless communications has become more
popular.
In wireless communications the channel used is free-space or
the atmosphere.
Examples of systems that employ this method are:

Mobile telephone networks (GSM, CDMA, 3G, etc)

Wireless Internet
Bluetooth
Television and radio broadcasting

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Mobile Telephony Example

Mobile telephony is an example of wireless communications.
Also called a cellular network, this system breaks a
geographical area into cells each with its own base station tower.
When using a mobile phone to make a call, the phone modulates
the speech signal and transmits it using radio waves to the
nearest base station.
The base station then routes the call through to a
mobile telephone switching office.
This in turn will route the call through to either
another base station (mobile -> mobile phone call)
or to a landline phone via a central exchange
(mobile -> landline phone call).

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Signal Propagation and Transmission Media

All communication systems involve the transmission of
information through a transmission medium.
A transmission medium can be either wired or wireless and all
transmission media have certain characteristics that need to be
considered when designing a communication system.
In wireless communication channels there are many things
that can affect the propagation of a radio wave and many
techniques that can be used to get a signal from a transmitter to
a receiver.
Radio waves are affected by the same phenomena as lightwaves, i.e. diffraction, reflection, refraction, absorption and
destructive/constructive interference.

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The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Shown to the right is the
electromagnetic spectrum.
For wireless communications the
regions that are of particular
interest are the low-frequency
range (~30 300 kHz) right
through to microwave frequencies
(>1 GHz).
These signals all propagate and
interact differently with the air
transmission medium.

Image used under Creative Commons licence: wikimedia.org (2012). Wikimedia Commons [online].
Available: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Electromagnetic-Spectrum.svg (by Victor Blacus)
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Signal Propagation in Wireless Channels

Ground-wave propagation: This is generally a technique used
for low frequency signals (< 2 MHz or MF band and below).
Low frequency signals are better able to diffract, or bend,
around objects. This characteristic means these types of signals
will bend and follow the Earths curvature.
This phenomena is taken advantage of for AM radio transmission
to allow long distance reception.

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Signal Propagation in Wireless Channels

Ionospheric propagation: This phenomena is utilised in the
transmission of signals between 2 30 MHz (or the HF band).
Ionospheric propagation is also called sky-wave propagation
and occurs due to changes in refractive index (n) between
different layers of the ionosphere.
The ionosphere is made up of four main layers: D, E, F1 and F2
each with their own effects on radio waves.

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Signal Propagation in Wireless Channels

Radio waves are effectively bounced off the ionosphere in a
zig-zag pattern to reach the receiver. They are bent according
to Snells Law:
i incident angle
n sin( r ) = sin(i )
r reflected angle
Sky-wave propagation is often used in amateur radio and
international broadcasting.

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Signal Propagation in Wireless Channels

Line-of-sight propagation (LoS): This type of transmission is
generally used for signals of high frequency (> 30 MHz or VHF
band and above).
As its name suggests, the transmitter and receiver are located in
direct line to each other.
Television, mobile phone and microwave signals are some
signals that need to be transmitted via the LoS method.

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Signal Propagation in Wireless Channels

The distance signals can propagate via line-of-sight transmission
is completely dependent on the radius of the Earth and the height
of the transmit and receive antennae.
Mathematically propagation distance and antenna height can be
determined via Pythagoras theorem:

(r + h )2 = d 2 + r 2
d = 2rh + h 2
d km 3.57.

hmetres

r = Earth' s radius (6,378.1 km)

h = height of antenna
d = Line - of - Sight distance (distance to LoS horizon)
d
h
r

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Multipath Scattering
Other natural phenomena can also
affect the transmission of data.
Multipath scattering is a problem
thats prominent in wireless
communications.
This phenomena occurs when a
signal is scattered off objects in a
transmission medium (such as
trees or buildings).
This causes a signal to arrive at a
receiver at different times via
several different paths.

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Multipath Scattering
In television reception,
multipath scattering can cause
ghosting to occur to a
picture.
Ghosting is very disruptive to
an image with multiple,
spatially offset ghost images
appearing on the screen.
The image (right) has been
affected by severe multipath
scattering.

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Lena image after being transmitted though a

wireless channel with three multipaths

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Multipath Scattering Channel Model

We can model a multipath transmission channel as a
system of delays and gains/attenuators.
Below is a block diagram showing this type of model of a
multipath channel with two paths:

td

is the time delay of the first (direct) path

t d + t

is the time delay of the second (scattered ) path

is the attenuatio n of the signal on the scattered path

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Multipath Scattering Channel Model

Using this model we can derive an impulse response and a frequency

response that will represent this channel:
= + +

Impulse response of the channel

= 2 + 2 +

= 2 1 + cos2 sin2
Frequency response of the channel
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The Doppler Effect

Another phenomena in
wireless communication is the
Doppler effect.
Doppler effect is caused by
motion of a transmitter and/or
receiver.
Like sound, RF frequencies
can appear to change
depending on whether the
transmitter is moving towards
or away from the receiver.
Think of the sound of a
moving ambulance as it
passes by.
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The Doppler Effect

As a transmitter is moving toward the receiver the frequency
will appear at the receiver to be of higher frequency.
As the transmitter moves away from the receiver the
frequency will be perceived as of lower frequency.

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Noise
Noise is another type of distortion that can effect a transmitted
signal
The most important kind of noise encountered in
communication systems can be formulated as additive white
noise.
This type of noise can be caused by naturally occurring factors
such as solar radiation from the sun and thermal noise from
heat sources.
Noise can also be generated by proximity to other electrical
sources.

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Additive White Noise

Additive white noise has a constant two-sided power spectral
density (PSD) for all frequencies.
The name white indicates the inclusion of all frequencies
(analogous to white light including all the colours of a rainbow).
Theoretically, this means infinite noise power. However, in
practice all channels are bandlimited (i.e. they only pass a
certain range of frequencies).
Communication systems use BPFs to filter out the expected
information signal, centred at the carrier frequency, immediately
after RF stage.

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Signal-to-Noise Ratio
In analogue communication systems, performance evaluation
is generally based on the estimation of the received signal-tonoise ratio (SNR)
SNR = Signal power / Noise power
SNR in Baseband Transmission
If there is no modulation (e.g., in short-range transmission),
we call the SNR baseband SNR (SNRb)

Lena image with Additive White Noise. (Signal-to-noise ratio increasing from left to right)
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Finally
This lecture has covered some of the fundamentals of
Communication Engineering including what is Communication
Engineering and the concept of power/energy in signals.
The second half of this lecture has looked at some of the
considerations we need to make when transmitting information
over various channels.
We looked at the different ways signals can propagate at certain
frequencies.
Multipath channel distortion
Doppler effect, and
Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN).

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