EEE 3105 : Communication Systems

Course Instructor: Dr. Mosabber Uddin Ahmed

Noise in Communication System
▶ In communication system, noise is an unwanted and undesired
quantity in electrical signals.
▶ Noise is a summation of unwanted or disturbing energy arises from;
❖ Natural source: includes elements such as atmosphere, sun, and other galactic
sources.
❖ Man-made sources: includes sources as spark-plug ignition noise, switching
transients and other radiating electromagnetic signals.
▶ Noise is ever present part of all systems and resulting degradation
in the quality of transmitted and received signal.
▶ In analog systems, noise deteriorates the quality of the received signal, e.g.the appearance of
“snow”on the TV screen, or “static” sounds during an audio transmission.
▶ In digital communication systems, noise degrades the throughput because it requires
retransmission of data packets or extra coding to recover the data in the presence of errors.
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Different types of noise are generated by different devices and different processes.
❖ Thermal noise: it’s a natural form of noise also called Johnson–Nyquist noise. It is unavoidable, and generated by
random thermal motion of charge carriers (usually electrons), inside an electrical conductor, which happens
regardless of any applied voltage. A communication system affected by thermal noise is often modelled as an
additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel.
❖ Shot noise: Shot noise in electronic devices results from unavoidable random statistical fluctuations of the electric
current when the charge carriers (such as electrons) traverse a gap. If electrons flow across a barrier (in diode),
then they have discrete arrival times. Those discrete arrivals exhibit shot noise.
❖ Flicker noise: also known as 1/f noise, is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum that falls off steadily
into the higher frequencies, with a pink spectrum. It occurs in almost all electronic devices and results from a
variety of effects.
❖ Burst noise: also known as popcorn noise (for popping or crackling sounds), consists of sudden step-like
transitions between two or more discrete voltage or current levels, as high as several hundred microvolts, at
random and unpredictable times. Each shift in offset voltage or current lasts for several milliseconds to
seconds.
❖ Transit-time noise: If the time taken by the electrons to travel from emitter to collector in a transistor becomes
comparable to the period of the signal being amplified, that is, at frequencies above VHF and beyond, the
transit-time effect takes place and noise input impedance of the transistor decreases. From the frequency at
which this effect becomes significant, it increases with frequency and quickly dominates other sources of noise.
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While noise may be generated in the electronic circuit itself, additional noise energy can be coupled into a circuit
from the external environment, by inductive coupling or capacitive coupling, or through the antenna of a radio
receiver.
❖ Intermodulation Noise: Caused when signals of different frequency share the same medium.
❖ Crosstalk: Phenomenon in which a signal transmitted in one circuit or channel of a transmission systems
creates undesired interference onto a signal in another channel.
❖ Interference: Modification or disruption of a signal travelling along a medium.
❖ Atmospheric Noise: This noise is also called static noise and it is the natural source of disturbance caused
by lightning discharge in thunderstorm and the natural (electrical) disturbances occurring in nature.
❖ Industrial Noise: Sources such as automobiles, aircraft, ignition electric motors and switching gear, High
voltage wires and fluorescent lamps cause industrial noise. These noises are produced by the discharge
present in all these operations.
❖ Solar Noise: that originates from the Sun is called solar noise. Under normal conditions there is constant
radiation from the Sun due to its high temperature. Electrical disturbances such as corona discharges, as well
as sunspots can produce additional noise. The intensity of solar noise varies over time in a solar cycle.
❖ Cosmic Noise: Distant stars generate noise called cosmic noise. While these stars are too far away to
individually affect terrestrial communications systems, their large number leads to appreciable collective
effects.
 SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio)
▶ In communication systems, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), is a measure of
signal strength relative to
background noise in signal.
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
𝑆𝑁𝑅 =
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
• The ratio is usually measured in decibels (dB).
▶ If the incoming signal strength in microvolts is Vs, and the noise level,
also in microvolts, is Vn, then the signal-to-noise ratio, SNR in decibels is
given by the formula: S/N = 20 log10(Vs/Vn).
▶ Ideally, Vs is greater than Vn, so a high signal-to-noise ratio is
positive.
This results in the signal being clearly readable.
▶ If Vs is less than Vn, then SNR is negative, representing a low signal-to-
noise ratio. In this type of situation, reliable communication is generally not
possible unless steps are taken to increase the signal level and/or
decrease the noise level at the destination (receiving) computer or
terminal.
 Communication Channels
• Communication channels provide pathways to convey information. A
communication channel can be either a physical transmission medium or
a logical connection over a multiplexed medium. The physical
transmission medium refers to the material substance that can
propagate energy waves, such as wires in data communication. And the
logical connection usually refers to the circuit switched connection or
packet-mode virtual circuit connection, such as a radio channel.

▶ There are two main kinds of communication channels i.e.

▶ Simplex
▶ Duplex
▶ Half Duplex
▶ Full Duplex
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❖ Simplex: A simplex communication channel only sends information in one direction. For
example, a radio station usually sends signals to the audience but never receives signals
from them. The good part of simplex mode is that its entire bandwidth can be used during
the transmission.
❖ Half Duplex: In half duplex mode, data can be transmitted in both directions on a signal
carrier except not at the same time. At a certain point, it is actually a simplex channel
whose transmission direction can be switched. Walkie-talkie is a typical half duplex
device. An advantage of half-duplex is that the single track is cheaper than the double
tracks.
❖ Full Duplex: A full duplex communication channel is able to transmit data in both
directions on a signal carrier at the same time. It is constructed as a pair of simplex links
that allows bidirectional simultaneous transmission. U sing the full duplex mode can
greatly increase the efficiency of communication.
• Unicast ~has one transmitter& one receiver,e.g. walkie talkie, website.
• Broadcast ~has onetransmitter & multi receiver,Wi-Fi, radio,mobile tower.
• Multicast ~oneor more transmitter to a particular groupof receivers,video conference.
 Channel Bandwidth & Rate of Communication
• The bandwidth B of a channel is the range of frequencies that it can transmit with
reasonable accuracy and precision.
• For example, if a channel can transmit a signal with proper accuracy having frequency
ranging from 0 Hz to 5000 Hz, the channel bandwidth is 5 kHz.
▶ The rate of information transmission is directly proportional to bandwidth B.
• If channel bandwidth B can transmit N pulses per second then to transmit KN pulses per
second, channel bandwidth should be KB.
▶ For example, consider the possibility of increasing the speed of information transmission by
time compression of signal. If the signal is compressed in time by factor of 2, it can be
transmitted in half time, speed of transmission is doubled. Transmitting this signal without
distortion, channel bandwidth must also be doubled.
▶ The quality of information transmission is related to signal power i.e. increasing the signal
power can reduce the effect of channel noise resulting in accuracy of transmission.
▶ To maintain a given rate & accuracy of information transmission, signal power and channel
bandwidth are exchangeable i.e. reducing B to increase signal power and vice versa.
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• The two primary communication resources are Signal power & bandwidth B.
• The design of communication scheme having B and signal power depends on the
application. E.g. Telephone channel has limited bandwidth of 3kHz but transmitted power
is high, whereas space vehicles have infinite bandwidth but power is limited.
• SNR is proportional to signal power, SNR and bandwidth are exchangeable.
• If a given rate of information transmission requires a channel bandwidth B1 and signal-
noise-ratio SNR1, then it is possible to transmit the same information over a channel
bandwidth B2 and signal-noise ratio SNR2,
History of Communications
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