Data and Signal

PEC Rothna, PhD

Institute of Technology of Cambodia

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Contents
 Analog vs. Digital
 Periodic and Non-periodic signal
 Parameters associated signal
 Frequency, Phase, Bandwidth
 Digital Signal and data rate
 Baseband vs. Bandpass signal

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Analog and Digital
 Data can be analog or digital.
 The term analog data refers to information that is continuous;

 Analog data take on continuous values.

 Analog signals can have an infinite number of values in a range.
 Digital data refers to information that has discrete states.
 Digital data take on discrete values.
 Digital signals can have only a limited number of values.

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Periodic Signal
 In data communications, we use periodic analog signals
and nonperiodic digital signals.
 Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or
composite.
 A simple periodic analog signal, a sine wave, cannot be
decomposed into simpler signals. A composite periodic analog
signal is composed of multiple sine waves.

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Periodic Signal
 Important of signal characteristics
 Sine Wave

 Wavelength
 Time and Frequency Domain
 Composite Signals
 Bandwidth

Two signals with the same phase

and frequency, but different
amplitudes

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Periodic Signal
 Two signals with the same amplitude and phase, but
different frequencies

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Example
 The power we use at home has a frequency of 60 Hz. The
period of this sine wave can be determined as follows:

 The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency in

kilohertz?

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Frequency vs. Phase
Note

If a signal does not change at all, its

frequency is zero.
If a signal changes instantaneously, its
frequency is infinite.

Phase describes the position of the

waveform relative to time 0.

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Frequency vs. Phase
 Three sine waves with the same amplitude and frequency, but different
phases

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Wavelength
 Wavelength is the distance of one complete cycle

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Time vs. Frequency Domain Plot

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Time vs. Frequency Domain Plot

A complete sine wave in the time domain

can be represented by one single spike in
the frequency domain.

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Time vs. Frequency Domain Plot
 The time domain and frequency domain of three sine
waves

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Composite Signals
 A single-frequency sine wave is not useful in data
communications
 We need to send a composite signal, a signal made of
many simple sine waves.
 According to Fourier analysis, any composite signal is a
combination of simple sine waves with different
frequencies, amplitudes, and phases.
 If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a
series of signals with discrete frequencies.
 If the composite signal is nonperiodic, the decomposition gives
a combination of sine waves with continuous frequencies.

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Composite Signals
 Composite signal created by combining three sinusoidal
signals

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Composite Signals
 Decomposition of a composite periodic signal in the time and frequency
domains

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Non-Periodic Signal

The bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference

between the highest and the lowest frequencies
contained in that signal.

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Bandwidth
The bandwidth of periodic and nonperiodic composite signals

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Bandwidth of Periodic Signal
 If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves with frequencies
of 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz, what is its bandwidth? Draw the
spectrum, assuming all components have a maximum amplitude of 10
V.
 Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency, and B the

bandwidth. Then

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Bandwidth of Non-Periodic Signal
 A nonperiodic composite signal has a bandwidth of 200 kHz, with a
middle frequency of 140 kHz and peak amplitude of 20 V. The two
extreme frequencies have an amplitude of 0. Draw the frequency
domain of the signal.
 Solution
 The lowest frequency must be at 40 kHz and the highest at 240 kHz.

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Examples
 An example of a nonperiodic composite signal is the signal
propagated by an AM radio station. In the United States,
each AM radio station is assigned a 10-kHz bandwidth. The
total bandwidth dedicated to AM radio ranges from 530 to
1700 kHz.
 Another example of a nonperiodic composite signal is the
signal propagated by an FM radio station. In the United
States, each FM radio station is assigned a 200-kHz
bandwidth. The total bandwidth dedicated to FM radio
ranges from 88 to 108 MHz.

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Examples
 Another example of a nonperiodic composite signal is the
signal received by an old-fashioned analog black-and-white
TV. A TV screen is made up of pixels.
 If we assume a resolution of 525 × 700, we have 367,500
pixels per screen.
 If we scan the screen 30 times per second, this is 367,500 ×
30 = 11,025,000 pixels per second.
 The worst-case scenario is alternating black and white pixels.
We can send 2 pixels per cycle.
 Therefore, we need 11,025,000 / 2 = 5,512,500 cycles per
second, or Hz. The bandwidth needed is 5.5125 MHz.

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Fourier Analysis
 Every composite periodic signal can be represented with a
series of sine and cosine functions.

Note

Fourier analysis is a tool that changes a

time domain signal to a frequency domain
signal and vice versa.

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Fourier Series

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Examples Fourier Series Representation

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Examples Fourier Series Representation

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Fourier Transform
 Fourier Transform gives the frequency domain of a
nonperiodic time domain signal.

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Time-limited and Band-limited Signals
 A time limited signal is a signal for which the amplitude
 s(t) = 0 for t > T1 and t < T2
 A band limited signal is a signal for which the amplitude
 S(f) = 0 for f > F1 and f < F2

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Digital Signal

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Digital Signal
 In addition to being represented by an analog signal,
information can also be represented by a digital signal.
 For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage
 0 as zero voltage.
 A digital signal can have more than two levels.
 In this case, we can send more than 1 bit for each level.
 Key terms
 Bit Rate
 Bit Length
 Digital Signal as a Composite Analog Signal

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Digital Signal

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Digital Signal: Examples
 A digital signal has eight levels. How many bits are needed
per level? We calculate the number of bits from the formula

 Each signal level is represented by 3 bits.

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Digital Signal: Examples
 A digital signal has nine levels.
 How many bits are needed per level?
 We calculate the number of bits by using the formula.
 Each signal level is represented by 3.17 bits.
 However, this answer is not realistic.
 The number of bits sent per level needs to be an integer as well
as a power of 2.
 For this example, 4 bits can represent one level.

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Digital Signal: Rates
 Assume we need to download text documents at the rate of
100 pages per sec.
 What is the required bit rate of the channel?
 Solution
 A page is an average of 24 lines with 80 characters in each
line. If we assume that one character requires 8 bits (ascii),
the bit rate is

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Digital Signal: Rates
 A digitized voice channel is made by digitizing a 4-kHz
bandwidth analog voice signal.
 We need to sample the signal at twice the highest frequency
(two samples per hertz).
 We assume that each sample requires 8 bits. What is the
required bit rate?

 Solution
 The bit rate can be calculated as

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Digital Signal: Rates
 What is the bit rate for high-definition TV (HDTV)?
 Solution
 HDTV uses digital signals to broadcast high quality video
signals. The HDTV screen is normally a ratio of 16 : 9. There
are 1920 by 1080 pixels per screen, and the screen is renewed
30 times per second. Twenty-four bits represents one color
pixel.

 The TV stations reduce this rate to 20 to 40 Mbps through

compression.

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Bandwidth of Digital Signal
 The time and frequency domains of periodic and
nonperiodic digital signals

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Baseband Transmission

Note

A digital signal is a composite analog signal

with an infinite bandwidth.

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Baseband Transmission

Note

Baseband transmission of a digital signal that

preserves the shape of the digital signal is possible
only if we have a low-pass channel with an infinite or
very wide bandwidth.

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Bandwidth of Low-Pass Channel
 Bandwidths of two low-pass channels

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Bandpass Channel

Note

If the available channel is a bandpass channel,

we cannot send the digital signal directly to the
channel; we need to convert the digital signal to
an analog signal before transmission.

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Bandpass Channel
 Modulation of a digital signal for transmission on a
bandpass channel

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Transmission Impairment

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Transmission Impairment
 Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect.
 The imperfection causes signal impairment.

 This means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is not the

same as the signal at the end of the medium.

 What is sent is not what is received.

 Three causes of impairment are

 attenuation, distortion, and noise.

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Attenuation
 Means loss of energy -> weaker signal
 When a signal travels through a medium it loses energy
overcoming the resistance of the medium
 Amplifiers are used to compensate for this loss of energy by
amplifying the signal.

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Attenuation: Example
 Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium
and its power is reduced to one-half.
 This means that P2 is (1/2)P1.
 In this case, the attenuation (loss of power) can be calculated
as

A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-

half the power.

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Decibels

Sometimes the decibel is used to measure signal power in milliwatts. In

this case, it is referred to as dBm and is calculated as dBm = 10 log10 Pm ,
where Pm is the power in milliwatts. Calculate the power of a signal with
dBm = −30.

Solution
We can calculate the power in the signal as

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Example
 The loss in a cable is usually defined in decibels per
kilometer (dB/km). If the signal at the beginning of a cable
with −0.3 dB/km has a power of 2 mW, what is the power
of the signal at 5 km?
 Solution
 The loss in the cable in decibels is 5 × (−0.3) = −1.5 dB.
We can calculate the power as

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Distortion
 Means that the signal changes its form or shape
 Distortion occurs in composite signals

 Each frequency component has its own propagation speed traveling

through a medium.
 The different components therefore arrive with different delays at
the receiver.
 That means that the signals have different phases at the receiver
than they did at the source.

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Noise
 There are different types of noise
 Thermal - random noise of electrons in the wire creates an
extra signal
 Induced - from motors and appliances, devices act are
transmitter antenna and medium as receiving antenna.
 Crosstalk - same as above but between two wires.
 Impulse - Spikes that result from power lines, lightning, etc.

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Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
 To measure the quality of a system the SNR is often used.
 It indicates the strength of the signal w.r.t the noise power in the

system.
 It is the ratio between two powers.

 It is usually given in dB and referred to as SNRdB.

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Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
 The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the noise
is 1 μW; what are the values of SNR and SNRdB ?
 Solution
 The values of SNR and SNRdB can be calculated as follows:

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Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
 The values of SNR and SNRdB for a noiseless channel are

 We can never achieve this ratio in real life; it is an ideal.

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Problem
1) What is the bandwidth of a signal that can be decomposed
into five sine waves with frequencies at 0, 20, 50, 100,
and 200 Hz? All peak amplitudes are the same. Draw the
bandwidth.
2) Which signal has a wider bandwidth, a sine wave with a
frequency of 100 Hz or a sine wave with a frequency of
200 Hz?
3) What is the bit rate for the signal

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Problem
1) A signal travels from point A to point B. At point A, the
signal power is 100 W. At point B, the power is 90 W.
 What is the attenuation in decibels?

2) The attenuation of a signal is −10 dB. What is the final

signal power if it was originally 5 W?

3) A line has a signal-to-noise ratio of 1000 and a bandwidth

of 4000 KHz. What is the maximum data rate supported by
this line?

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Problem
1) A signal with 200 milliwatts power passes through 10
devices, each with an average noise of 2 microwatts.
 What is the SNR?
 What is the SNRdB?
2) If the peak voltage value of a signal is 20 times the peak
voltage value of the noise,
 what is the SNR?
 What is the SNRdB?

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