IT203 Data Communication and networking Module 2

MODULE 2
Data and signals, Analog Signals, Digital Signals - Transmission Impairments, Data Rate
Limits: Channel Capacity, Nyquist Bit Rate, Shannon Capacity, Performance parameters
- Bandwidth, Throughput, Delay & Jitter.
Digital-To-Digital Conversion: Line Coding Schemes: Unipolar, Polar, Bipolar - Block
Coding, Scrambling, Analog-To-Digital Conversion: Pulse Code Modulation, Delta
Modulation - Digital-To-Analog Conversion: ASK, FSK, PSK.

Communication model

Data communication is defined as exchange of data between 2 devices over a

transmission-medium.
 A communication-system is made up of
o hardware (physical equipment) and
o software (programs)
 For data-communication, the communicating-devices must be part of a
communication-system
 Four attributes of a communication-system:
1)Delivery
 The system must deliver data to the correct destination.
2) Accuracy
 The system must deliver the data accurately.
 Normally, the corrupted-data are unusable.
3)Timeliness
 The system must deliver audio/video data in a timely manner
 This kind of delivery is called real-time transmission.
 Data delivered late are useless.
4)Jitter
 Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival-time.
 In other words, jitter is the uneven delay in the delivery of audio/video
packets.

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Components of Communication System

Five components of a communication-system (Figure 1.1):
1)Message
2)Sender
3)Receiver
4)Transmission-Medium
5)Protocol

1)Message
 Message is the information (or data) to be communicated.
 Message may consist of
 number/text
 picture or
 audio/video
2)Sender
 Sender is the device that sends the data-message.
 Sender can be
 computer and
 mobile phone
3)Receiver
 Receiver is the device that receives the message.
 Receiver can be
 computer and
 mobile phone
4)Transmission Medium

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 Transmission medium is physical-path by which a message travels from sender to

receiver.
 Transmission-medium can be wired or wireless.
 Examples of wired medium:
 twisted-pair wire(used in landline telephone)
 coaxial cable(used in cable TV network)
 fiber-optic cable
 Examples of wireless medium:
 radio waves
 microwaves
 infrared waves(ex: operating TV using remote control)
5)Protocol
 A protocol is a set of rules that govern data-communications.
 In other words, a protocol represents an agreement between the communicating-
devices.
 Without a protocol, 2devices may be connected but not communicating.

Simplex, half duplex and full duplex transmission

Three ways of data-flow between 2 devices:
1) Simplex
2) Half-duplex
3) Full-duplex

1) Simplex
 The communication is unidirectional
o (For ex: The simplex mode is like a one-way street).
 On a link, out of 2 devices:
o Only one device can transmit
o Another device can only receive.
 For example (Figure 1.2a):
o The monitor can only accept output.
 Entire-capacity of channel is used to send the data in one direction.

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2) Half Duplex
 Both the stations can transmit as well as receive but not at the same time.
(For ex: The half-duplex mode is like a one-lane road with 2 directional
traffic).
 When one station is sending, the other can only receive and vice-versa
 For example(Figure 1.2b): Walkie-talkies
 Entire-capacity of a channel is used by one of the 2 stations that are transmitting
the data.
3) Full Duplex
 Both stations can transmit and receive at the same time.
(For ex: The full-duplex is like a 2-way street with traffic flowing in both
directions at the same time).
 For example(Figure 1.2c):
Mobile phones (When 2 people are communicating by a telephone line, both
can listen and talk at the same time)
 Entire-capacity of a channel is shared by both the stations that are transmitting the
data.

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Data and signals

In communication system a signal is generated by the transmitter and transmitted over a
medium. The signal is a function of time, but it can also be expressed as a function of
frequency.
Analog and digital Data and Signals
Analog &Digital Data
• To be transmitted, data must be transformed to electromagnetic-signals
• Data can be either analog or digital.
1) Analog Data refers to information that is continuous.
For example: The sounds made by a human voice.
2) Digital Data refers to information that has discrete states.
For example: Data are stored in computer-memory in the form of 0s and 1s
Analog &Digital Signals
• Signals can be either analog or digital (Figure 3.2).
1) Analog Signal has infinitely many levels of intensity over a period of time.
2) Digital Signal can have only a limited number

Periodic &Non-Periodic Signals

The signals can take one of 2 forms: periodic or non-periodic.
1)Periodic Signal
 Signals which repeat itself after a fixed time period are called Periodic Signals.
 The completion of one full pattern is called a cycle.
2)Non-Periodic Signal
 Signals which do not repeat itself after a fixed time period are called Non-Periodic
Signals.

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For periodic signals, time and frequency are the inverse of each other. Specifically, a
periodic signal can be quantified by its period which is how long it takes for the signal to
repeat itself or by its frequency which is how many times the signal repeats itself in a
given time.:

and

Since period and frequency are inverses of each other, time domain analysis and
frequency domain analysis are, in a way, inversely related as well.
Amplitude is a measurement of how large a wave is. It represents the wave's energy.

Time Domain and Frequency Domain concepts

Time Domain Concepts

 Viewed as a function of time
 an electromagnetic signal can be either analog or digital.
 Time domain plot shows the changes in signal amplitude with respect to time
 It shows how a signal changes over time

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Frequency Domain Concepts

 Refers to the analysis of a signal with respect to frequency
 It shows how much of the signal lies within each given frequency band over
arrange of frequencies

Transmission Impairments
• Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect.
• The imperfection causes signal-impairment.
• This means that signal at beginning of the medium is not the same as the signal at
end of medium.
• What is sent is not what is received.
• Three causes of impairment are
1) Attenuation
2) Distortion &
3) Noise.

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Attenuation
• As signal travels through the medium, its strength decreases as distance increases.
This is called attenuation
• As the distance increases, attenuation also increases.
• For example: Voice-data becomes weak over the distance & loses its contents
beyond a certain distance.
• To compensate for this loss, amplifiers are used to amplify the signal

Distortion
• Distortion means that the signal changes its form or shape
• Distortion can occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies.
• Different signal-components
→have different propagation speed through a medium.
→have different delays in arriving at the final destination.
• Differences in delay create a difference in phase if delay is not same as the period-
duration.
• Signal-components at the receiver have phases different from what they had at the
sender.

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• The shape of the composite signal is therefore not the same.

Noise
• Noise is defined as an unwanted data
• In other words, noise is the external energy that corrupts a signal.
• Due to noise, it is difficult to retrieve the original data/information.
Four types of noise:
i) Thermal Noise
 It is random motion of electrons in wire which creates extra signal not originally
sent by transmitter.
ii) Induced Noise
 Induced noise comes from sources such as motors &appliances.
 These devices act as a sending-antenna. The transmission-medium acts as the
receiving-antenna.
iii) Crosstalk
 Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other.
 One wire acts as a sending-antenna and the other as the receiving-antenna.
iv) Impulse Noise
 Impulse Noise is a spike that comes from power-lines, lightning, and so on.
(spike a signal with high energy in a very short time)

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Noise

Data Rate Limits: Channel Capacity, Nyquist Bit

Rate, Shannon Capacity

Channel Capacity
The maximum rate at which data can be transmitted over a given communication
path, or channel, under given conditions, is referred to as the channel capacity.
Four basic concepts:
Data rate: The rate, in bits per second (bps), at which data can be communicated
Bandwidth: The bandwidth of the transmitted signal as constrained by the
transmitter and the nature of the transmission medium, expressed in cycles per
second, or Hertz
Noise: The average level of noise over the communications path
Error rate: The rate at which errors occur, where an error is the reception of a1 when
a 0 was transmitted or the reception of a 0 when a 1 was transmitted.

For digital data, this means that we would like to get as high a data rate as possible at
a particular limit of error rate for a given bandwidth. The main constraint on
achieving this efficiency is noise.
Two theoretical formulas can be used to calculate the data-rate:
1)Nyquist for a noiseless channel and
2)Shannon for a noisy channel.

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Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate

For a noiseless channel, the Nyquist bit-rate formula defines the theoretical
maximum bit-rate

where
bandwidth = bandwidth of the channel
L = number of signal-levels used to represent data
BitRate = bitrate of channel in bps
According to the formula,
 By increasing number of signal-levels, we can increase the bit-rate.
 Although the idea is theoretically correct, practically there is a limit.
 When we increase the number of signal-levels, we impose a burden on the
receiver.
 If no.of levels in a signal is 2, the receiver can easily distinguish b/w 0 and 1.
 If no.of levels is 64, the receiver must be very sophisticated to distinguish b/w
64 different levels.
 In other words, increasing the levels of a signal reduces the reliability of the
system.
Example 1

Example 2

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Example 3

Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity

 In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel; the channel is always noisy.
 For a noisy channel, the Shannon capacity formula defines the theoretical
maximum bit-rate.

where bandwidth = bandwidth of channel in bps.

SNR = signal-to-noise ratio and
Capacity= capacity of channel in bps.

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 This formula does not consider the no. of levels of signals being transmitted (as
done in the Nyquist bit rate).
This means that no matter how many levels we have, we cannot achieve a
data-rate
higher than the capacity of the channel.
 In other words, the formula defines a characteristic of the channel, not the method
of transmission.
Examples
1

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3.

Performance parameters - Bandwidth, Throughput,

Delay & Jitter.
One important issue in networking is the performance of the network

1. Bandwidth

It can be used in two different contexts with two different measuring values:
 bandwidth in hertz
 bandwidth in bits per second
Bandwidth in Hertz
Bandwidth in hertz is the range of frequencies contained in a composite signal or the range of
frequencies a channel can pass.(eg: bandwidth of a subscriber telephone line is 4 kHz.)

Bandwidth in Bits per Seconds

The term bandwidth can also refer to the number of bits per second that a channel, a link, or even
a network can transmit.(bandwidth of a Fast Ethernet network (or the links in this network) is a
maximum of 100 Mbps)

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Examples:
1.

2.

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2. Throughput
The throughput is a measure of how fast we can actually send data through a
network.

A link may have a bandwidth of B bps, but we can only send T bps through this
link with T always less than B. In other words, the bandwidth is a potential
measurement of a link; the throughput is an actual measurement of how fast we
can send data.
For example, we may have a link with a bandwidth of 1 but the devices
connected to the end of the link may handle only 200 kbps. This means that we
cannot send more than 200 kbps through this link.
Example
A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an average of
frames per minute with each frame carrying an average of 10,000 bits. What is
the throughput of this network?
Solution

We can calculate the throughput as

Throughput = 12,000 x 10,000 =2 Mbps

60
3. Latency
The latency or delay defines how long it takes for an entire message to completely
arrive at the destination from the time the first bit is sent out from the source.

Latency =propagation time + transmission time + queuing time + processing delay

Propagation Time
Propagation time measures the time required for a bit to travel
from the source to the destination. The propagation time is
calculated by dividing the distance by the propagation speed.

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Propagation time =
Propagation speed

The propagation speed of electromagnetic signals depends on the

medium and on the frequency of the signal.

Example:

Transmission Time

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Example:

Example:

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Bandwidth and Delay Product

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Example

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Queuing Time
The third component in latency is the queuing time, the time needed for each
intermediate or end device to hold the message before it can be processed. The
queuing time is not a fixed factor; it changes with the load imposed on the
network. When there is heavy traffic on the network, the queuing time increases.

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An intermediate device, such as a router, queues the arrived messages and

processes them one by one. If there are many messages, each message will have
to wait.

4. Jitter
Another performance issue that is related to delay is jitter. We can roughly say
that jitter is a problem if different packets of data encounter different delays and
the application using the data at the receiver site is time-sensitive (audio and
video data, for example). If the delay for the first packet is 20 ms, for the second
is 45 ms, and for the third is 40 ms, then the real-time application that uses the
packets endures jitter.

Encoding digital data into digital signal

 Data as well as signals that represents data can either be digital or analog.
 Line coding is the process of converting digital data to digital signals.
 By this technique we converts a sequence of bits to a digital signal.
 At the sender side digital data are encoded into a digital signal and at the receiver
side the digital data are recreated by decoding the digital signal.

Line coding schemes can be divided into five categories

1. Unipolar (eg. NRZ scheme).
2. Polar (eg. NRZ-L, NRZ-I, RZ, and Biphase – Manchester and differential
Manchester).
3. Multi level binary (eg: Bipolar AMI and Pseudoternary).

Unipolar scheme
In this scheme, all the signal levels are either above or below the axis.
Non return to zero (NRZ)
 It is unipolar line coding scheme in which positive voltage defines bit 1 and the
zero voltage defines bit 0.
 Signal does not return to zero at the middle of the bit thus it is called NRZ. For
example: Data = 10110.

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 But this scheme uses more power as compared to polar scheme to send one bit per
unit line resistance.

Polar schemes
In polar schemes, the voltages are on the both sides of the axis.
NRZ-L and NRZ-I
 These are somewhat similar to unipolar NRZ scheme but here uses two levels of
amplitude (voltages).
 For NRZ-L(NRZ-Level), the level of the voltage determines the value of the bit,
typically binary 1 maps to logic-level high, and binary 0 maps to logic-level low
 For NRZ-I(NRZ-Invert), two-level signal has a transition at a boundary if the
next bit that we are going to transmit is a logical 1, and does not have a transition if
the next bit that we are going to transmit is a logical 0.
Note – For NRZ-I we are assuming in the example that previous signal before
starting of data set “01001110” was positive. Therefore, there is no transition at the
beginning and first bit “0” in current data set “01001110” is starting from +V.
Example: Data = 01001110.

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Return to zero (RZ) –

One solution to NRZ problem is the RZ scheme, which uses three values positive,
negative, and zero. In this scheme signal goes to 0 in the middle of each bit.
Note – The logic we are using here to represent data is that for bit 1 half of the signal is
represented by +V and half by zero voltage and for bit 0 half of the signal is represented
by -V and half by zero voltage. Example: Data = 01001.

Biphase (Manchester and Differential Manchester )

Manchester encoding
 It is somewhat combination of the RZ (transition at the middle of the bit) and
NRZ-L schemes.
 The duration of the bit is divided into two halves.
 The voltage remains at one level during the first half and moves to the other level
in the second half.
 The transition at the middle of the bit provides synchronization.

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Differential Manchester is somewhat combination of the RZ and NRZ-I schemes.

 There is always a transition at the middle of the bit but the bit values are
determined at the beginning of the bit. If the next bit is 0, there is a transition, if
the next bit is 1, there is no transition.
Note
1. The logic we are using here to represent data using Manchester is that for bit 1
there is transition form -V to +V volts in the middle of the bit and for bit 0 there is
transition from +V to -V volts in the middle of the bit.
2. For differential Manchester we are assuming in the example that previous signal
before starting of data set “010011” was positive. Therefore there is transition at the
beginning and first bit “0” in current data set “010011” is starting from -V. Example:
Data = 010011.

Multilevel binary - Bipolar schemes

In this scheme there are three voltage levels positive, negative, and zero. The voltage
level for one data element is at zero, while the voltage level for the other element
alternates between positive and negative.
 Bipolar Alternate Mark Inversion (Bipolar AMI) – A neutral zero voltage
represents binary 0. Binary 1’s are represented by alternating positive and negative
voltages.

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 Pseudoternary – Bit 1 is encoded as a zero voltage and the bit 0 is encoded as

alternating positive and negative voltages i.e., opposite of AMI scheme. Example:
Data = 010010.

The bipolar scheme is an alternative to NRZ. This scheme has the same signal rate as
NRZ, but there is no DC component as one bit is represented by voltage zero and
other alternates every time.

Encoding digital data into analog signals -ASK, FSK,

PSK
 Digital-to-analog conversion or modulation
 Digital-to-analog conversion is the process of changing one of the characteristics
of an analog signal based on the information in digital data.

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Techniques

NOTE:
Bit rate, N, is the number of bits per second (bps).
Baud rate is the number of signal elements per second (bauds).
In the analog transmission of digital data, the signal or baud rate is less than
or equal to the bit rate.
S=Nx1/r bauds
Where r is the number of data bits per signal element.
Example:
1. An analog signal carries 4 bits per signal element. If 1000 signal elements are sent
per second, find the bit rate.
Solution
In this case, r = 4, S = 1000, and N is unknown. We can find the value of N from

2. An analog signal has a bit rate of 8000 bps and a baud rate of 1000 baud. How

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many data elements are carried by each signal element? How many signal elements
do we need?
Solution
In this example, S = 1000, N = 8000, and r and L are unknown. We find first the
value of r and then the value of L.

Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)

 In ASK the strength of the carrier signal is varied to represent binary 1 or 0
 Both frequency and phase remain constant while the amplitude changes
 A bit duration is the period of time that defines one bit
 The peak amplitude is constant and its value depends on the bit(0/1)

OOK(on-off-keying) - A popular ASK technique. In this one of the bit values is

represented by no voltage.
Advantage: Reduction in energy
Bandwidth of ASK

The bandwidth B of ASK is proportional to the signal rate S.

B = (1+d)S

“d” is due to modulation and filtering, lies between 0 and 1.

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Example:
1. Find the minimum bandwidth for an ASK signal transmitting at 2000 bps. The
transmission mode is half-duplex.
Solution : In ASK the baud rate and bit rate are the same. The baud rate is therefore
2000. An ASK signal requires a minimum bandwidth equal to its baud rate.
Therefore, the minimum bandwidth is 2000 Hz.
2. Given a bandwidth of 5000 Hz for an ASK signal, what are the baud rate and bit
rate?
Solution: In ASK the baud rate is the same as the bandwidth, which means the baud
rate is 5000. But because the baud rate and the bit rate are also the same for ASK, the
bit rate is 5000 bps.
3. Given a bandwidth of 10,000 Hz (1000 to 11,000 Hz), draw the full-duplex ASK
diagram of the system. Find the carriers and the bandwidths in each direction.
Assume there is no gap between the bands in the two directions.
Solution: For full-duplex ASK, the bandwidth for each direction is BW = 10000 / 2 =
5000 Hz The carrier frequencies can be chosen at the middle of each band (see Fig.
5.5).

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fc (forward) = 1000 + 5000/2 = 3500 Hz fc (backward) = 11000 – 5000/2 = 8500 Hz

Frequency Shift Keying

 Frequency of carrier signal is varied to represent binary 1 0r 0
 Frequency of the signal during each bit duration is constant and its value
depends on the bit (1/0)
 Both peak amplitude and phase remains constant
 FSK avoids most of the noise problems of ASK
 Limiting factors of FSK are the physical capabilities of the carrier.

Bandwidth of FSK

If the difference between the two frequencies (fc1 and fc2) is 2Df, then the required BW
B will be:
B = (1+d)xS +2Df

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Example
1. Find the minimum bandwidth for an FSK signal transmitting at 2000 bps.
Transmission is in half-duplex mode, and the carriers are separated by 3000 Hz.
Solution: For FSK BW = baud rate + fc1 − fc0 BW = bit rate + fc1 − fc0 = 2000 +
3000 = 5000 Hz
2. Find the maximum bit rates for an FSK signal if the bandwidth of the medium is
12,000 Hz and the difference between the two carriers is 2000 Hz. Transmission is in
full-duplex mode.
Solution:
Because the transmission is full duplex, only 6000 Hz is allocated for each
direction. BW = baud rate + fc1 − fc0 Baud rate = BW − (fc1 − fc0 ) = 6000 − 2000
= 4000 But because the baud rate is the same as the bit rate, the bit rate is 4000 bps.
Phase Shift Keying
 phase of carrier signal is varied to represent binary 1 0r 0
 maximum bit rate in PSK is greater than ASK
 PSK is much more robust than ASK as it is not that vulnerable to noise, which
changes amplitude of the signal.

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PSK constellation
A constellation diagram helps us to define the amplitude and phase of a signal
when we are using two carriers, one in quadrature of the other.
The X-axis represents the in-phase carrier and the Y-axis represents quadrature
carrier.
2-PSK –Uses two variations of asignal to represent two bits

4-PSK – uses four variations of a signal, each phase shift represents two bits

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Relationship between baud rate and bandwidth in PSK

Example:
1. Find the bandwidth for a 4-PSK signal transmitting at 2000 bps. Transmission is in
half-duplex mode.
Solution:
For PSK the baud rate is the same as the bandwidth, which means the baud rate is
5000. But in 8-PSK the bit rate is 3 times the baud rate, so the bit rate is 15,000 bps.
2. Given a bandwidth of 5000 Hz for an 8-PSK signal, what are the baud rate and bit
rate?
Solution : For PSK the baud rate is the same as the bandwidth, which means the baud
rate is 5000. But in 8-PSK the bit rate is 3 times the baud rate, so the bit rate is
15,000 bps.
QAM
Quadrature amplitude modulation is a combination of ASK and PSK.

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