Chapter 4

Signals

©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000

CONTENTS

 Introduction
 Analog Signal
 Digital Signal
 Transmission Impairment
 Performance

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 Introduction
 To be transmitted, data must be transformed to
electromagnetic signals.
 Signals can be analog or digital. Analog signals can have
an infinite number of values in a range; digital signals
can have only a limited number of values.
 In data communication, we commonly use periodic
analog signals and aperiodic digital signals.

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Analog Signal

Analog Signal

Single Composite

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 Single Signal

 Sine Wave is a fundamental form of a periodic

analog signal
Sine Wave Equation:
s(t) = A sin (2πft + Φ)

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 Peak Amplitude
 Signal represent the absolute value of highest intensity, proportional to
energy
 Example: Electric signal, amplitude is measured in volt (v)

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 Period and Frequency
 Frequency and period are inverses of each other.
 Frequency is the rate of change with respect to time. Change
in a short span of time means high frequency. Change over a
long span of time means low frequency.
 If a signal does not change at all, its frequency is zero. If a
signal changes instantaneously, its frequency is infinite.

f=1/T

T=1/f

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 Units of periods and frequencies

Unit Equivalent Unit Equivalent

Seconds (s) 1s hertz (Hz) 1 Hz

Milliseconds (ms) 10–3 s kilohertz (KHz) 103 Hz

Microseconds (ms) 10–6 s megahertz (MHz) 106 Hz

Nanoseconds (ns) 10–9 s gigahertz (GHz) 109 Hz

Picoseconds (ps) 10–12 s terahertz (THz) 1012 Hz

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 Example 1

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 Phase
Phase describes the position of the waveform
relative to time zero.

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11
 Example

 A sine wave is offset 1/6 of a cycle with respect

to time zero. What is its phase in degrees and
radians?
 We know that one complete cycle is 360
degrees.
Therefore, 1/6 cycle is
(1/6) 360 = 60 degrees
= 60 x (2π /360) rad
= 1.046 rad

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 Time Domain & Frequency
Domain

 An analog signal is best represented in the frequency domain.

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 Composite Signal

 A single-frequency sine wave is not useful in

data communications; we need to change one
or more of its characteristics to make it
useful.
 When we change one or more characteristics
of a single-frequency signal, it becomes a
composite signal made of many frequencies.
 According to Fourier analysis, any composite
signal can be represented as a combination of
simple sine waves with different frequencies,
phases, and amplitudes.

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 Composite Signal
Square wave

Three Harmonics

Adding first
three harmonics

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 Frequency Spectrum
Comparison
 A signal using the frequency domain and containing all
its components

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 Bandwidth
 The range of frequencies that medium can pass
 The difference between the highest and the
lowest frequencies

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 Example 2
If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves with
frequencies of 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz, what is the
bandwidth? Draw the spectrum, assuming all components have a
maximum amplitude of 10 V.
B = fh - fl = 900 - 100 = 800 Hz
The spectrum has only five spikes, at 100, 300, 500, 700, and
900

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 Example 3
A signal has a bandwidth of 20 Hz. The highest frequency is 60 Hz.
What is the lowest frequency? Draw the spectrum if the signal
contains all integral frequencies of the same amplitude.

B = fh - f l fl = 60 - 20 = 40 Hz
20 = 60 - fl

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 Example 4
A signal has a spectrum with frequencies between
1000 and 2000 Hz (bandwidth of 1000 Hz). A
medium can pass frequencies from 3000 to 4000 Hz (a
bandwidth of 1000 Hz). Can this signal faithfully pass
through this medium?

The answer is definitely no. Although the signal can

have the same bandwidth (1000 Hz), the range does
not overlap. The medium can only pass the frequencies
between 3000 and 4000 Hz; the signal is totally lost.
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 Digital Signal
 Square wave ( 1 and 0)
 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and 0 as a zero voltage

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 Bit rate & interval
 Bit interval is the time required to send one
single bit.
 Bit rate is the number of bits interval (number of
bits send in 1 second.)
 Bit interval and bit rate is inverses of each other

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 Example 5

A digital signal has a bit rate of 2000 bps. What

is the duration of each bit (bit interval)

The bit interval is the inverse of the bit rate.

Bit interval = 1/ 2000 s = 0.0005 s
= 0.000500 x 106 ms = 500 ms

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 Analog vs. Digital
 The analog bandwidth of a medium is expressed
in hertz; the digital bandwidth, in bits per
second.
 Digital transmission needs a low-pass channel.
 Analog transmission can use a band-pass
channel.

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Data Rate Limit
Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate

Bit Rate = 2  B  log2 L

Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity

C = B log2 (1 + SNR)

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 Example 7
Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz
transmitting a signal with two signal levels. The maximum
bit rate can be calculated as
Bit Rate = 2  3000  log2 2 = 6000 bps

Consider the same noiseless channel, transmitting a signal

with four signal levels (for each level, we send two bits).
The maximum bit rate can be calculated as:
Bit Rate = 2 x 3000 x log2 4 = 12,000 bps
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 Example 8
Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value of the signal-
to-noise ratio is almost zero. In other words, the noise is so strong
that the signal is faint. For this channel the capacity is calculated as
C = B log2 (1 + SNR) = B log2 (1 + 0)

= B log2 (1) = B  0 = 0
We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a regular telephone
line. A telephone line normally has a bandwidth of 3000 Hz (300 Hz
to 3300 Hz). The signal-to-noise ratio is usually 3162. For this
channel the capacity is calculated as
C = B log2 (1 + SNR) = 3000 log2 (1 + 3162)
= 3000 log2 (3163)
C = 3000  11.62 = 34,860 bps 27
 Example 9
We have a channel with a 1 MHz bandwidth. The SNR
for this channel is 63; what is the appropriate bit rate and
signal level?

First, we use the Shannon formula to find our upper limit.

C = B log2 (1 + SNR) = 106 log2 (1 + 63) = 106 log2 (64) = 6 Mbps

Then we use the Nyquist formula to find the
number of signal levels.
6 Mbps = 2  1 MHz  log2 L  L = 3
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Transmission Impairment

Impairment

Attenuation Distortion Noise

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 Attenuation

 Loss of energy

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 Example 12

Imagine a signal travels through a transmission medium and its power

is reduced to half. This means that P2 = 1/2 P1. In this case, the
attenuation (loss of power) can be calculated as

10 log10 (P2/P1) = 10 log10 (0.5P1/P1) = 10 log10 (0.5)

= 10(–0.3) = –3 dB

Imagine a signal travels through an amplifier and its power is

increased ten times. This means that P2 = 10 ¥ P1. In this case, the
amplification (gain of power) can be calculated as
10 log10 (P2/P1) = 10 log10 (10P1/P1)
= 10 log10 (10) = 10 (1) = 10 dB
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 Distortion

 Signal changes its form or shape

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 Noise

 Types of noise such as thermal noise, induced noise,

crosstalk and impulse noise

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 Throughput

 Measurement of how fast data can pass through an

entity

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 Propagation Time
Propagation speed measures the distance a signal
or a bit can travel through a medium in 1 s.
Propagation time measures the time required for a
signal or a bit can travel through a medium from one
point to another.
Propagation time is calculated by dividing the
distance by the propagation speed

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THE END

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©The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2000