intersymbol interference

intersymbol interference: 1. In a digital transmission system, distortion of the received

signal, which distortion is manifested in the temporal spreading and consequent overlap
of individual pulses to the degree that the receiver cannot reliably distinguish between
changes of state, i.e. , between individual signal elements. Note 1: At a certain threshold,
intersymbol interference will compromise the integrity of the received data. Note 2:
Intersymbol interference attributable to the statistical nature of quantum mechanisms sets
the fundamental limit to receiver sensitivity. Note 3: Intersymbol interference may be
measured by eye patterns. 2. Extraneous energy from the signal in one or more keying
intervals that interferes with the reception of the signal in another keying interval. (188)
3. The disturbance caused by extraneous energy from the signal in one or more keying
intervals that interferes with the reception of the signal in another keying interval. (188)

Intersymbol interference
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In telecommunication, intersymbol interference (ISI) is a form of distortion of a signal

in which one symbol interferes with subsequent symbols. This is an unwanted
phenomenon as the previous symbols have similar effect as noise, thus making the
communication less reliable. ISI is usually caused by multipath propagation or the
inherent non-linear frequency response of a channel causing successive symbols to "blur"
together. The presence of ISI in the system introduces errors in the decision device at the
receiver output. Therefore, in the design of the transmitting and receiving filters, the
objective is to minimize the effects of ISI, and thereby deliver the digital data to its
destination with the smallest error rate possible. Ways to fight intersymbol interference
include adaptive equalization and error correcting codes.
[1]
Contents

• 1 Causes
o 1.1 Multipath propagation
o 1.2 Bandlimited channels
• 2 Effects on eye patterns
• 3 Countering ISI
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 Further reading

• 7 External links

[edit] Causes
[edit] Multipath propagation

One of the causes of intersymbol interference is what is known as multipath propagation

in which a wireless signal from a transmitter reaches the receiver via many different
paths. The causes of this include reflection (for instance, the signal may bounce off
buildings), refraction (such as through the foliage of a tree) and atmospheric effects such
as atmospheric ducting and ionospheric reflection. Since all of these paths are different
lengths - plus some of these effects will also slow the signal down - this results in the
different versions of the signal arriving at different times. This delay means that part or
all of a given symbol will be spread into the subsequent symbols, thereby interfering with
the correct detection of those symbols. Additionally, the various paths often distort the
amplitude and/or phase of the signal thereby causing further interference with the
received signal.

[edit] Bandlimited channels

Another cause of intersymbol interference is the transmission of a signal through a

bandlimited channel, i.e., one where the frequency response is zero above a certain
frequency (the cutoff frequency). Passing a signal through such a channel results in the
removal of frequency components above this cutoff frequency; in addition, the amplitude
of the frequency components below the cutoff frequency may also be attenuated by the
channel.

This filtering of the transmitted signal affects the shape of the pulse that arrives at the
receiver. The effects of filtering a rectangular pulse; not only change the shape of the
pulse within the first symbol period, but it is also spread out over the subsequent symbol
periods. When a message is transmitted through such a channel, the spread pulse of each
individual symbol will interfere with following symbols.
As opposed to multipath propagation, bandlimited channels are present in both wired and
wireless communications. The limitation is often imposed by the desire to operate
multiple independent signals through the same area/cable; due to this, each system is
typically allocated a piece of the total bandwidth available. For wireless systems, they
may be allocated a slice of the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit in (for example, FM
radio is often broadcast in the 87.5 MHz - 108 MHz range). This allocation is usually
administered by a government agency; in the case of the United States this is the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC). In a wired system, such as an optical fiber cable,
the allocation will be decided by the owner of the cable.

The bandlimiting can also be due to the physical properties of the medium - for instance,
the cable being used in a wired system may have a cutoff frequency above which
practically none of the transmitted signal will propagate.

Communication systems that transmit data over bandlimited channels usually implement
pulse shaping to avoid interference caused by the bandwidth limitation. If the channel
frequency response is flat and the shaping filter has a finite bandwidh, it is possible to
communicate with no ISI at all. Often the channel response is not known beforehand, and
an adaptive equalizer is used to compensate the frequency response.

[edit] Effects on eye patterns

For more details on eye patterns, see eye pattern.

One way to study ISI in a PCM or data transmission system experimentally is to apply
the received wave to the vertical deflection plates of an oscilloscope and to apply a
sawtooth wave at the transmitted symbol rate R, 1/T to the horizontal deflection plates.
The resulting display is called an eye pattern because of its resemblance to the human eye
for binary waves. The interior region of the eye pattern is called the eye opening. An eye
pattern provides a great deal of information about the performance of the pertinent
system.

1. The width of the eye opening defines the time interval over which the received
wave can be sampled without error from ISI. It is apparent that the preferred time
for sampling is the instant of time at which the eye is open widest.
2. The sensitivity of the system to timing error is determined by the rate of closure
of the eye as the sampling time is varied.
3. The height of the eye opening, at a specified sampling time, defines the margin
over noise.

An eye pattern, which overlays many samples of a signal, can give a graphical
representation of the signal characteristics. The first image below is the eye pattern for a
binary phase-shift keying (PSK) system in which a one is represented by an amplitude of
-1 and a zero by an amplitude of +1. The current sampling time is at the center of the
image and the previous and next sampling times are at the edges of the image. The
various transitions from one sampling time to another (such as one-to-zero, one-to-one
and so forth) can clearly be seen on the diagram.
The noise margin - the amount of noise required to cause the receiver to get an error - is
given by the distance between the signal and the zero amplitude point at the sampling
time; in other words, the further from zero at the sampling time the signal is the better.
For the signal to be correctly interpreted, it must be sampled somewhere between the two
points where the zero-to-one and one-to-zero transitions cross. Again, the further apart
these points are the better, as this means the signal will be less sensitive to errors in the
timing of the samples at the receiver.

The effects of ISI are shown in the second image which is an eye pattern of the same
system when operating over a multipath channel. The effects of receiving delayed and
distorted versions of the signal can be seen in the loss of definition of the signal
transitions. It also reduces both the noise margin and the window in which the signal can
be sampled, which shows that the performance of the system will be worse (i.e. it will
have a greater bit error ratio).

The eye diagram of the same system with multipath

The eye diagram of a binary PSK effects added
system

[edit] Countering ISI

There are several techniques in telecommunication and data storage that try to work
around the problem of intersymbol interference.

• Design systems such that the impulse response is short enough that very little
energy from one symbol smears into the next symbol.

Consecutive raised-cosine impulses, demonstrating zero-ISI property

• Separate symbols in time with guard periods.
• Apply an equalizer at the receiver, that, broadly speaking, attempts to undo the
effect of the channel by applying an inverse filter.
• Apply a sequence detector at the receiver, that attempts to estimate the sequence
of transmitted symbols using the Viterbi algorithm.