Principles of Communications

Information Theory

± Information theory is quantitative body of

knowledge which has been established about
“information”, to enable systems designers and
users to use the channels allocated to them as
efficiently as possible.

± For transmission systems, “information” means

exactly the same as it does in other situations,
as it is realized that “meaning” is quite unimportant
when it comes to measuring the quantity of
information.

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 Principles of Communications

Information in a
Communication System

Communication System

± states that it is the process of sending, receiving

and processing of information by electronic
means

± exists to convey a message

± this messages come from the information

source, which originates it, in the sense of
selecting one message from a group of
messages

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 Principles of Communications

Analog and Digital

Communications

Baseband Channel
Analog Analog
Source Destination

Analog Signal and Baseband Transmission

Channel
Analog Modulator Demodulator Analog
Source (Transmitter) (Receiver) Destination

Analog Transmission using Modulation and Demodulation

Digital
Channel
Digital Coder Decoder Digital
Source Destination

Digital Signal Transmitted on Digital Channel

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 Principles of Communications

Analog and Digital

Communications

Analog
Channel
Digital Modem Modem Digital
Source Destination

Digital Signal Transmitted by Modem

Digital
Channel
Analog A/D Conversion Decoding and Analog
Source and Coding D/A Conversion Destination

Analog Signal Transmitted Digitally

Analog
Channel
Analog A/D Conversion Modem Modem Decoding and Analog
Source and Coding D/A Conversion Destination

Analog Signal Digitized and Transmitted by Modem

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 Principles of Communications

Digital Advantages

± Better control of noise and distortion

± Better suited to processing and multiplexing

± Use signal regeneration rather than signal

amplification

± Simpler to measure and evaluate

± Better suited to evaluate error performance

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 Principles of Communications

Digital Disadvantages

± The transmission of digitally encoded analog

signals requires more bandwidth than simply
transmitting the analog signal.

± Analog signals must be converted to digital

codes prior to transmission and converted back
to analog at the receiver.

± Requires precise time synchronization between

transmitter and receiver blocks.

± Incompatible with existing analog facilities.

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 Principles of Communications

Removal of Noise and

Distortion from
Digital Signal

0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1
Voltage

1V

0V
Time
Digital Signal as Transmitted

0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1
1V

Threshold
0V
Time
Received Signal with added Noise and Distortion

Distorted Regenerated
Signal Receiver Transmitter
Signal

Digital Repeater

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 Principles of Communications

Excessive Noise on a
Digital Signal

0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1
Voltage

1V

0V
Time
Digital Signal as Transmitted

0 ? 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 ? 0 0
1V

Threshold
0V
Time
Received Signal with excessive Noise and Distortion

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 Principles of Communications

Capacity of a
Noiseless Channel

± Limited by frequency response of channel and

the complexity of the code used

± Only the fundamental of the signal used needs

to pass through the channel

± Given by Shannon-Hartley Theorem:

C = 2Blog2M

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 Principles of Communications

Data Rate in
Noisy Channel

± Limits bit rate regardless of modulation

scheme or coding

± Given by Shannon limit:

C = 2Blog2(1 + S / N)

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 Principles of Communications

Examples

1. Calculate the capacity of a standard 4 KHz

telephone channel with a 32 dB signal to noise
ratio.

Solution:
C = B log 2 (1 + S/N)
C = 3100 log 2 (1 + 1585)
C = 3100 log 2 1586
C = 3100 x 10.63
C = 32.953 Kbps

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 Principles of Communications

Examples

2. A system has a bandwidth of 4 KHz and a signal to

noise ratio of 28 dB at the input receiver. Calculate
the following:

a. Its information carrying capacity

b. The capacity of the channel, if its bandwidth is
doubled, while the transmitted signal power
remains constant.

Solution:

a. S/N = antilog (28/10) = 631

C1 = 4000 log2 (1 + 631)
C1 = 4000 x 9.304
C1 = 37.216 Kbps

b. C 2 = 8000 log 2 (1 + 631/2)

C2 = 8000 x 8.306
C2 = 66.448 Kbps

As a matter off interest, taking a ratio of the two

capacities gives C 2/C 1 = 66.448/37.216 = 1.785
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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Modulation

± Used to transmit analog information,

such as continuous speech or data.

± It is a system in which continuous

waveforms are sampled at a regular
intervals.

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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Modulation

2 Categories of Pulse Modulation:

1. Analog – the indication of sample amplitude

may be infinitely variable.

2. Digital – the indication of sample amplitude

to the nearest predetermined level is sent.

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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Amplitude
Modulation

± In pulse amplitude modulation the

amplitude of a train of constant width
pulses is varied in proportion to the sample
valued of the modulation signal. The
pulse are usually taken at equally spaced
intervals of time.

f(t)

φPAM(t)

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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Duration
Modulation

@ Also called Pulse-Width Modulation

(PWM)
@ Used in large audio amplifiers
@ Also used in control systems
@ Formerly used in communications but
not much any more

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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Time
Modulation

@ In pulse-modulated systems, as in an analog

system, the intelligence may be impressed on
the carrier by varying any of its characteristics.
The amplitude of the pulse is maintained at a
constant level, but either the width or the
position of the pulse is dependent on the
modulating signal level.

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 Principles of Communications

SamplingTheorem

@ It states that if the sampling rate in any pulse

modulation system exceeds twice the maximum
signal frequency, the original signal can be
reconstructed in the receiver with minimal distortion.

@ The sampling frequency (fA) must be more than

twice the highest frequency contained in the analog
signal (fS).
fA > 2fS

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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Width
Modulation

@ In pulse width modulation the modulating

signal is sampled periodically at a rate fast
enough to satisfy the requirements of the
sampling theorem

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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Position
Modulation

@ In pulse position modulation the modulating signal is

samples again to satisfy the sampling theorem. At each
sampling instant a pulse is generated with a fixed
amplitude and width.

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 Principles of Communications

Pulse Code
Modulation

@ A continuous signal can set sampling intervals be

quantised and coded into binary information. We
can then transmit this binary code using a train of
pulses representing 1’s and 0’s of binary code. In
effect we are quantising the sampled analogue
signal into a number of discrete levels and use a
code to designate each level at each sample time.

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 Principles of Communications

PCM Techniques

Sampler Quantizer

5
4
1
3 Encoder
2
0
1
0 1 01 0 0 1 01 1

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 Principles of Communications

PCM Techniques
Sampling

@ The average human voice occupies the frequency

spectrum between 300 Hz and 3,400 Hz. To
accommodate this range, the standard telephone
voice channel has a bandwidth of 4,000 Hz (4 KHz)

@ To digitize a voice signal, it must be sampled at

twice the highest frequency. i.e. 8,000 times per
second

Nyquist Sampling Theorem:

@ Fundamental theory of digital processing which
determines the sampling rate
@ States that if a band-limited signal is sampled at regular
intervals of time and at a rate equal to or higher than
twice the highest significant signal frequency, then the
sample contains all the information of the original signal

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 Principles of Communications

PCM Techniques
Quantizing
@ The key to digitizing a pulse amplitude modulated
signal (PAM) is to assign a binary code to each
pulse, corresponding to its amplitude. The series of
pulses can then be represented as a stream of
binary words, which are used to form a digital
signal.

@ These binary codes are referred to as quantizing

intervals.

@ Standard PCM uses an 8-bit word to code a

quantized level; as a result, there are 28, or 256
different quantizing levels.

@ Since the sampling rate is 8,000 times per second,

and 8 bits are required to encode each sample, the
bit rate required for a single PCM channel is:
(8,000 samples/sec) x (8 bits/sample) = 64,000 bits/
sec

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 Principles of Communications

PCM Techniques
Encoding
@ The conversion from the signals of one repertoire to
those of another.
Note: encoding and decoding are processes in which
only the form and not the meaning of information is
modified.
Multiplexing
@ Several input signal are combined for simultaneous
transmission along a single line.
Demultiplexing
@ A technique for recovering the original individual signals
from the incoming multiplex signal.
Decoding
@ The conversion from the signals of one repertoire to
those of another.

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 Principles of Communications

Linear PCM

@ Steps between voltage levels are all the same

size
@ Gives very good results provided enough bits
are unused
@ Problems arise when few bits used
@ Many signals are towards the low end of range
and are represented by only a few bits
@ These low-level signals are greatly distorted

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 Principles of Communications

Companding

@ Low-level signals are boosted at transmitter so

they are represented by more bits

@ This reduces distortion for low-level signals

@ Distortion for high-level signals is increased but is

still less than for low-level signals

@ At the receiver, gain must be reduced for low level

signals to compensate

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 Principles of Communications

Companding

@ At transmitter (or recorder): compression

@ At receiver (or playback): expansion

@ Dolby and dBx are well-known forms of

companding used in consumer audio systems
@ Telephone system has its own version called
mu-law companding

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 Principles of Communications

PCM Coding

PCM Coding

Analog Input
Low Pass Sample and
Filter Hold Circuit

Digital Serial
Output Parallel/Serial A/D Converter (and
conversion Compressor if required)

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 Principles of Communications

Sample and Hold

Circuit

Sample and Hold Circuit

Input
Q Output

Sampling pulse

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 Principles of Communications

PCM Decoding

Digital Serial
Output
Serial/Parallel D/A Converter (and
conversion Expansion if required)

Low Pass Sample and

Filter Hold Circuit
Analog Input

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 Principles of Communications

Codec
@ Stands for coder/decoder
@ One chip can do both
@ Sometimes called a combo chip

Differential PCM

@ Transmits only the difference between one sample

level and the next
@ Can be done with fewer bits per sample, based
on the assumption that consecutive samples
usually have similar amplitudes
@ The most extreme form of differential PCM is
delta modulation

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 Principles of Communications

Delta Modulation

Slow
Variatio Rapid
Constant
n Variatio
Amplitude

Amplitude
n

Time
Input Signal

Slow
Variatio
Amplitude

Amplitude

n
Slope 1
Granual Overloa
Noise d

0
Time Time
Reconstructed Output Signal Transmitted Digital Signal

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 Principles of Communications

Slope Overload

@ Occurs in delta modulation system when sampling

rate is too slow

@ System can’t keep up with rapid changes in

voltage

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 Principles of Communications

Slope Overload

Adaptive Delta Modulation

Slow
Variation Rapid
Constant
Variation
Amplitude

Amplitude

Time
Input Signal

Slow
Variation
Amplitude

Amplitude

1
Granual Slope
Noise Overload
Reduced
0
Time Time
Transmitted Digital Signal Reconstructed Output Signal

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