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FUNDAMENTALS OF
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
HISTORY

- the official first Morse code message transmitted in the

US on May 24, 1844, to officially open the
Baltimore–Washington telegraph line.
 Communication System:
❖hand gestures and facial expressions
❖Verbal communication system using sound waves
❖Smoke signals or tom-tom drums

Using electricity:
1837 – Samuel Finley Breese Morse invented the workable telegraph
1838 – 1848 - Morse process the patent and was granted
- used electromagnetic induction which transfer dots, dashes and spaces using
metallic wire
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson invented the telephone
1894 – Marchese Guglielmo Marconi 🡪 transmit wirelessly
1906 – Lee deForest invented the triode vacuum tube for amplification of signals
1920 – Radio station KDKA began broadcasting using AM in Pittsburgh, Pensylvania
1931 – Major Edwin Howard Armstrong patented the FM
1935 – commercial broadcasting of monophonic FM
 Technological Transmission Advances

• Weak electric currents could operate a receiver at a distance

• More than 1000 miles over open wire
1900 • About 200 miles on underground cable

• Vacuum-tube line amplifiers enabled speech to be transmitted

by longer distance
1913

• Coast-to-coast long distance telephone connections were

established
1915
 Technological Transmission Advances

• Transatlantic radiotelephone service was introduced

1927

• J.R. Carson at Bell Laboratories developed FDM (Frequency Division

Multiplexing)
1930’s • 12 conversations were conducted over two pairs of cable wires

• Coaxial cables were introduced to permit wideband transmission of

telephone signals
1941
Technological Transmission Advances

•Satellite
communications
1960’s deployed
TELECOMMUNICATION STANDARDS
ITU – International Telecommunications Union
(a.k.a. CCITT)
- International standards and prevailing
local standards outside North America

ANSI- American National Standards Institute

- Sponsor T1 committee and other standards
- Carrier standards for North America

IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force

- Internet protocol standards worldwide
- Produce high quality, relevant technical
documents that influence the way people
design, use and manage the internet
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
-created several committees such as:
802 committee – data communication
standards

ECMA – European Computer Manufacture

- Standards for computer equipment in Europe

Industry Forums:
ATM Forums, DSL Forums, etc..
- Manufacturers and carriers common positions
of equipment and standards
 Telcordia
-also known as Bellcore
- Common standards
and procedures for local
carriers with U.S.
LAWS THAT DRIVE TECHNOLOGY
• The potential difference (voltage) across an ideal conductor

Ohm’s Law is proportional to the current through it

• Determine the distance that signals could be sent without
amplification

Moore’s • The number of transistors that can fit onto a square inch of
silicon double every 12 months
Law
Gilder’s • The total bandwidth of communication systems triples
every 12 months
Law
 • The value of a network is
Metcalfe’ proportional to the square of
the number of nodes
s Law • The cost per user remains the
same or even reduces

Murphy’s • Anything that can go wrong will

go wrong at the worst possible
Law time
Moore’s Law and Gilder’s Law
Graph
 FACTORS THAT MAKE TELECOM DIFFICULT

•very long history : from 1876 to present

✔Many things are what they are due to what
happened in the past
•Long-lived products and standards
•Peer to peer communications
✔Harder problems of compatibility,
connectivity, routing and congestion control
•Reliability
✔Extreme and continuous
TODAY’S COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
 PSTN Design

► Local exchange
► Handles local calls
► Routes long distance calls over multiplexed high-speed
connections

► Circuit switched network tailored for voice

► Faxes and modems modulate data for voice channel
► DSL uses advanced modulation to get 1.5-6.0 Mbps
 Cellular System Basics
BASE
STATION

► Geographic region divided into hexagonal cells1

► Frequencies/timeslots/codes are reused at spatially-separated
locations. (Analog systems use FD, digital systems use TD or CD.)
► Co-channel interference between same color cells
► Handoff and control coordinated through cell basestations
 Cellular Phone Backbone Network
Mobile telephones depend on the PSTN — except for mobiles within
the same MTSO (mobile telephone switching office)
San Francisco

BS
BS

New York
MTSO PSTN MTSO

BS
Internet Internet
 Local Area Networks (LAN)
01011011

0101
0101
01011011

•1011

► “Local” means every computer can hear every other computer

► Packet switching instead of circuit switching (no dedicated
channels)
► Data is broken down into packets
► Originally proprietary protocols; e.g., Ethernet was a
collaboration between Intel, DEC, and Xerox. (DEC?)
 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN)
01011011 0101 1011

Wireless
Access
Point

► WLANs connect “local” computers (100m range) to an access

point
► As with LANs, data is broken down into packets
► Channel access is shared (random access)
► Access protocols for WLANs are much more complex than for
LANs
► Backbone Internet provides best-effort service (no QOS
guarantee)
Wide Area Networks; the
Internet
Satellite Systems

► Satellites cover very large areas

► Different orbit heights: GEOs (39000 Km) versus LEOs (2000
Km)
► Optimized for one-way transmission, such as radio (XM, DAB)
and television (SatTV) broadcasting
► Latency (round trip delay) can be a problem
 Bluetooth

► Ericsson, 1994, named for King Harald Bl˚atand Gormsen

► Intended as replacement for cables, such as RS-232
Now used for input devices, cell phones, laptops, PDAs, etc.
► Short range connection (10–100 m)
► Bluetooth 1.2 has 1 data (721 Kbps) and 3 voice (56 Kbps)
channels, and rudimentary networking capabilities
 Chapter 1
Elements and Limitations of Communication Systems

Communication system – information transfer

Information – no precise definition
Message – physical manifestation of information as produced by the source

2 message categories:

1. Analog – physical quantity that varies continuously with time

Ex. Acoustic sound, angular position of an aircraft gyro, light intensity at
some point in a TV image
Fidelity – measure of correctness
2. digital – ordered sequence of symbols selected from a finite set of discrete
elements
Ex. Letters, listing of hourly temperature readings, etc..
Accuracy – symbols should be delivered in a specified amount of time
 Block Diagram of a Communication System

Input Output
signal signal
source destination
Input Communication Output
transducer system transducer

Converts message to an
electrical signal, ex.
Microphone, speaker
 Block Diagram of A Communication System with Noise

Input Transmitted Received

signal signal Signal
Output
source
signal
Transmitter Transmission Receiver
Channel destination

Noise, interference and

distortion
 Elements of a communication system
1. transmitter – process input signal to produce a transmitted signal suitable for
transmission’s channel characteristics.

2. transmission channel – electrical medium that bridges the distance from source to
destination.
Ex. Pair of wires, coaxial cable, fiber optics, radio wave or laser beams

Attenuation – loss, factors affecting transmission channel

3. Receiver – operates on the output signal from the channel in preparation for deliver
to the transducer at the destination.

Operations:
Amplification
Decoding
Demodulation
filtering
 WIRED TRANSMISSION CHANNEL

UTP Cable – Unshielded Twisted Pair

Fiber optics cable

Coaxial Cable
WIRELESS (RADIO) TRANSMISSION CHANNEL
 Power Measurements

dB – decibel
- measure ratios
- measure magnitude of earthquakes, i.e., Richter scale measures the intensity of
earthquake relative to a reference intensity
- measure intensity of acoustical signals in dB-SPL (SPL – sound pressure level, i.e.
zero dB-SPL 🡪the threshold of hearing)
10 dB-SPL 🡪 sound of rustling leaves
120 – 140 dB-SPL 🡪 sound produced by a jet engine
120 dB-SPL 🡪 threshold of pain
- measure power ratios
- used to avoid using excessively large or extremely small numbers
- transmission-measuring unit

Where
To measure power gain or loss

Negative (-) dB 🡪 output power is less than input power, power loss
Positive (+) dB 🡪 output power is more than input power, power gain
dBm – unit of measurement used to indicate the ratio of a power level with respect to a
fixed reference level (1mW)
1mW – average power produced by a telephone transmitter across a 600 – ohm
load which can be used until today for 50-,75-,600-,900-,124- & 300-ohm
load

Convert a power level of 200mW to dBm:

 Power Levels, Gains and Losses

Example: Given a three-stage system comprised of two amplifiers and one filter, the
input power is 0.1mW, the absolute power gains are: Ap1 = 100, Ap2 = 40, Ap3=0.25.
Determine (a) the input power in dBm, (b) output power (Pout) in watts and dBm,
(c) the dB gain of each of the three stages, and (d) the overall gain in dB.

Solution:
a. The input power in dBm is

b. Output power:
c. dB value of the three gains are:

d. Total power gain in dB

*please read page 11-12 (Tomasi)

 Undesirable effects in transmission channel:
1. distortion – waveform perturbation

appears when desired signal is turned off

equalizers can correct or reduced its effect

2. interference – contamination of signal by extraneous signal from human sources –

other transmitted, power lines and machinery, switching circuits and so on.

3. RFI – Radio Frequency Interference

4. Noise – random and unpredictable electrical signal produced by natural processes

both internal and external to the system.
 Kinds of Transmission:

1.Simplex – SX
1.one way

2.Duplex – DX
1.two way
•half-duplex – one at a time
•full – duplex – simultaneous
 Fundamental Limitations

2 Kinds of Constraints:

1. Technological problems – hardware availability, economic factors, federal

regulations, etc..
2. Fundamental physical limitations – laws of nature

- bandwidth and noise

• Bandwidth:
Ex. Video – greater bandwidth
Voice – B = 3 kHz
Digital – B = r/2 with r 🡪 symbols/sec
• Noise:
Ex. Thermal noise – random motion of particles
🡪 Signal is now measured in S/N or signal to noise ratio
🡪 the higher the S/N, the more negligible the thermal noise

Channel Capacity:

🡪 Hartley-Shannon Law
 Modulation and Coding

Modulation – the process of changing the characteristics of the

information-bearing signal

2 components:
1. modulating signal
2. carrier signal

3 Kinds of modulation for analog signal:

1. AM – Amplitude modulation
2. FM – Frequency Modulation
3. PM – Phase Modulation
Modulation Benefits & Applications:
Main Purpose – generate a modulated signal suited to the
characteristics of the transmission channel

Practical Benefits:

For efficient transmission

❑Antenna length can be made shorter
Antenna length, where = wavelength of the signal
where f = frequency of signal

Ex. f = 100 Hz
and

antenna length
Overcome hardware limitations

where B 🡪 Bandwidth and

🡪 center frequency

❖the lower the fractional bandwidth, the lower the hardware costs and
complications
▪fractional bandwidth should be within 1-10%

❖signals with large bandwidth should be modulated on high-frequency

carriers

high information rate 🡪 high carrier frequency

Reduce noise and interference

1. one early transatlantic cables were apparently destroyed by

high – voltage rupture in an effort to obtain a usable received signal
2. FM has the property of wideband noise reduction

For frequency assignments – several stations can use the

frequency spectrum

for multiplexing

Multiple access – variation of multiplexers

Modulation 🡪 signal – processing for effective transmission

Coding 🡪 symbol-processing operation for improved

communication when information is digital

Encoding 🡪 Transforms a digital message into a new sequence

of symbols

Channel Coding 🡪 introduce controlled redundancy to further improve

the performance reliability in a noisy channel

Error Control Coding 🡪 Appending extra check digits to each

binary codeword 🡪 detect or correct errors 🡪 increase bandwidth

where k 🡪 no. of binary digits

 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

▪ Modulation and multiplexing are electronic

techniques for transmitting information efficiently from
one place to another.
▪ Modulation makes the information signal more
compatible with the medium.
▪ Multiplexing allows more than one signal to be
transmitted concurrently over a single medium.
 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Baseband Transmission
▪ Baseband information can be sent directly and
unmodified over the medium or can be used to
modulate a carrier for transmission over the medium.
▪ In telephone or intercom systems, the voice is placed on
the wires and transmitted.
▪ In some computer networks, the digital signals are applied
directly to coaxial or twisted-pair cables for transmission.
 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Broadband Transmission
▪ A carrier is a high frequency signal that is modulated by
audio, video, or data.
▪ A radio-frequency (RF) wave is an electromagnetic
signal that is able to travel long distances through
space.
 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Broadband Transmission
▪ A broadband transmission takes place when a carrier
signal is modulated, amplified, and sent to the antenna
for transmission.
▪ The two most common methods of modulation are:
▪ Amplitude Modulation (AM)
▪ Frequency Modulation (FM)
▪ Another method is called phase modulation (PM), in
which the phase angle of the sine wave is varied.
 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Figure 1-7: Modulation at the transmitter.

 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Figure 1-8: Types of modulation. (a) Amplitude modulation. (b) Frequency modulation.
 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Broadband Transmission
▪ Frequency-shift keying (FSK) takes place when data
is converted to frequency-varying tones.

▪ Devices called modems (modulator-demodulator)

translate the data from digital to analog and back again.

▪ Demodulation or detection takes place in the receiver

when the original baseband (e.g. audio) signal is
extracted.
 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Multiplexing
▪ Multiplexing is the process of allowing two or more
signals to share the same medium or channel.
▪ The three basic types of multiplexing are:
▪ Frequency division
▪ Time division
▪ Code division
 1-4: Modulation and Multiplexing

Figure 1-11: Multiplexing at the transmitter.

1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

▪ The range of electromagnetic signals encompassing

all frequencies is referred to as the electromagnetic
spectrum.
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Figure 1-13: The electromagnetic spectrum.

1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Frequency and Wavelength: Frequency

▪ A signal is located on the frequency spectrum according
to its frequency and wavelength.
▪ Frequency is the number of cycles of a repetitive wave
that occur in a given period of time.
▪ A cycle consists of two voltage polarity reversals,
current reversals, or electromagnetic field oscillations.
▪ Frequency is measured in cycles per second (cps).
▪ The unit of frequency is the hertz (Hz).
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Frequency and Wavelength: Wavelength

▪ Wavelength is the distance occupied by one cycle of a
wave and is usually expressed in meters.
▪ Wavelength is also the distance traveled by an
electromagnetic wave during the time of one cycle.
▪ The wavelength of a signal is represented by the Greek
letter lambda (λ).
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Figure 1-15: Frequency and wavelength. (a) One cycle. (b) One wavelength.
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Frequency and Wavelength: Wavelength
Wavelength (λ) = speed of light ÷ frequency
Speed of light = 3 × 108 meters/second
Therefore:
λ = 3 × 108 / f
Example:
What is the wavelength if the frequency is 4MHz?
λ = 3 × 108 / 4 MHz
= 75 meters (m)
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Frequency Ranges from 30 Hz to 300 GHz

▪ The electromagnetic spectrum is divided into segments:

Extremely Low Frequencies (ELF) 30–300 Hz.

Voice Frequencies (VF) 300–3000 Hz.
Very Low Frequencies (VLF) include the higher end of the
human hearing range up to
about 20 kHz.
Low Frequencies (LF) 30–300 kHz.

Medium Frequencies (MF) 300–3000 kHz

AM radio 535–1605 kHz.
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Frequency Ranges from 30 Hz to 300 GHz

High Frequencies (HF) 3–30 MHz

(short waves; VOA, BBC
broadcasts; government and
military two-way communication;
amateur radio, CB.
Very High Frequencies (VHF) 30–300 MHz
FM radio broadcasting (88–108
MHz), television channels 2–13.
Ultra High Frequencies (UHF) 300–3000 MHz
TV channels 14–67, cellular
phones, military communication.
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Frequency Ranges from 30 Hz to 300 GHz

Microwaves and Super High 1–30 GHz
Frequencies (SHF)
Satellite communication, radar,
wireless LANs, microwave ovens

Extremely High Frequencies (EHF) 30–300 GHz

Satellite communication, computer
data, radar
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Optical Spectrum
▪ The optical spectrum exists directly above the
millimeter wave region.
▪ Three types of light waves are:
▪ Infrared
▪ Visible spectrum
▪ Ultraviolet
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Optical Spectrum: Infrared

▪ Infrared radiation is produced by any physical
equipment that generates heat, including our bodies.
▪ Infrared is used:
▪ In astronomy, to detect stars and other physical bodies in the
universe,
▪ For guidance in weapons systems, where the heat radiated
from airplanes or missiles can be detected and used to guide
missiles to targets.
▪ In most new TV remote-control units, where special coded
signals are transmitted by an infrared LED to the TV receiver to
change channels, set the volume, and perform other functions.
▪ In some of the newer wireless LANs and all fiber-optic
communication.
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Optical Spectrum: The Visible Spectrum

▪ Just above the infrared region is the visible spectrum
we refer to as light.
▪ Red is low-frequency or long-wavelength light
▪ Violet is high-frequency or short-wavelength light.
▪ Light waves’ very high frequency enables them to
handle a tremendous amount of information (the
bandwidth of the baseband signals can be very wide).
1-5: The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Optical Spectrum: Ultraviolet

▪ Ultraviolet is not used for communication
▪ Its primary use is medical.
 1-6: Bandwidth
▪ Bandwidth (BW) is that portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum occupied by a signal.

▪ Channel bandwidth refers to the range of

frequencies required to transmit the desired
information.
 1-6: Bandwidth
More Room at the Top
▪ Today, virtually the entire frequency spectrum between
approximately 30 kHz and 300 MHz has been spoken
for.
▪ There is tremendous competition for these frequencies,
between companies, individuals, and government
services in individual carriers and between the different
nations of the world.
▪ The electromagnetic spectrum is one of our most
precious natural resources.
 1-6: Bandwidth
More Room at the Top
▪ Communication engineering is devoted to making the
best use of that finite spectrum.
▪ Great effort goes into developing communication
techniques that minimize the bandwidth required to
transmit given information and thus conserve spectrum
space.
▪ This provides more room for additional communication
channels and gives other services or users an
opportunity to take advantage of it.
 1-6: Bandwidth
Spectrum Management and Standards
▪ Spectrum management is provided by agencies set up
by the United States and other countries to control
spectrum use.
▪ The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
and the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) are two agencies
that deal in spectrum management.
▪ Standards are specifications and guidelines necessary
to ensure compatibility between transmitting and
receiving equipment.
 1-7: A Survey of
Communications Applications
▪ Simplex
▪ AM and FM ▪ Paging services
broadcasting ▪ Navigation and
▪ Digital radio direction-finding
▪ TV broadcasting services
▪ Digital television (DTV) ▪ Telemetry
▪ Cable television ▪ Radio astronomy
▪ Facsimile ▪ Surveillance
▪ Wireless remote control ▪ Music services
▪ Internet radio and
video
 1-7: A Survey of
Communications Applications
▪ Duplex
▪ Telephones ▪ Family Radio service
▪ Two-way radio ▪ The Internet
▪ Radar ▪ Wide-area networks
▪ Sonar (WANs)
▪ Amateur radio
▪ Metropolitan-area
▪ Citizens radio
networks (MANs)
▪ Local area networks
(LANs)
Analog Signals
▪ An analog signal is a smoothly and continuously
varying voltage or current. Examples are:
▪ Sine wave
▪ Voice
▪ Video (TV)
Figure 1-5: Analog signals (a) Sine wave “tone.” (b) Voice. (c) Video (TV) signal.
Digital Signals
▪ Digital signals change in steps or in discrete increments.
▪ Most digital signals use binary or two-state codes.
Examples are:
▪ Telegraph (Morse code)
▪ Continuous wave (CW) code
▪ Serial binary code (used in computers)
Figure 1-6: Digital signals (a) Telegraph (Morse code). (b) Continuous-wave (CW)
code. (c) Serial binary code.
Digital Signals
▪ Many transmissions are of signals that originate in
digital form but must be converted to analog form to
match the transmission medium.
▪ Digital data over the telephone network.
▪ Analog signals.
▪ They are first digitized with an analog-to-digital (A/D)
converter.
▪ The data can then be transmitted and processed by
computers and other digital circuits.