Introduction to Physical Layer –

Part 2
Introduction to Data Communications (COMP 3721)

Week 3
Instructor: Md. Navid Bin Anwar
Winter 2023
Learning Outcomes of This Lecture
• By the end of this lecture you will be able to
 Explain the transmission of digital signals.
Explain what are the categories of transmission impairment and
how they affect signals.
 Explain and compute the limits of data rate using Shannon
Capacity and Nyquist formulas.
 Describe what is bandwidth.
 Describe transmission modes.
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Review
• Data must be changed to signals for transmission.
• Analog vs digital signals.
• Characteristics of periodic analog signals.
• Composite analog signals.
• Characteristics of digital signals.
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Transmission of Digital Signals
• From now on, we consider nonperiodic digital signals.
• Two approaches for transmission of digital signals:

Baseband Transmission

Broadband Transmission
(Modulation)
Baseband Transmission
• Baseband transmission
 a digital signal is sent over a channel without changing the digital signal to
an analog signal.
 requirement: a low-pass channel (i.e., the lowest frequency contained in the
channel is zero).
 we have a dedicated medium with a bandwidth constituting only one
channel.
 real-life example:
 a LAN: almost every wired LAN today uses a dedicated channel for two
stations communicating with each other (bus and star topologies, etc)
Baseband Transmission –
a Low-pass Channel with a Wide Bandwidth
• 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.
Baseband Transmission –
a Low-pass Channel with a Wide Bandwidth
• If we have a medium, such as a coaxial cable or fiber optic cable,
with a very wide bandwidth, two stations can communicate by using
digital signals with very good accuracy.
 Baseband Transmission – Continued

In baseband transmission, the required bandwidth is proportional to

the bit rate; if we need to send bits faster, we need more bandwidth.

Unfortunately, low-pass channels are less common in real life.

Real-Life Examples of Broadband Transmission
1) Sending of computer data through a telephone subscriber
line, the line connecting a resident to the central telephone
office.
the lines designed to carry voice and have a bandwidth with
frequencies between 0 and 4kHz  can be used as a low-pass
channel but it is considered as a bandpass channel, why?
2) Digital cellular phones convert the digitized voice signal to a
composite analog signal before sending.
their allocated bandwidth is very wide, so, why not sending
the digital signal without conversion?
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Transmission Impairment
The imperfection of transmission media causes signal impairment.

Attenuation

Impairment
Distortion
Causes

Noise
Attenuation
A wire carrying electric signals gets warm, if not hot, after a while,
why?
Attenuation
• Attenuation: loss of energy to overcome the resistance of the medium.
• Amplifier: to compensate for the loss.
Attenuation – Decibel
• decibel (dB)
measures the relative strengths of two signals or one signal at two different
points (to show that a signal has lost or gained strength).
negative: if a signal is attenuated
positive: if a signal is amplified

𝑃2 𝑉2
dB = 10 log 10 𝑃 = 20 log 10 𝑉
1 1

P1 and P2 : powers of a signal at points 1 and 2, respectively

V1 and V2 : voltages of a signal at points 1 and 2, respectively
Decibel – Example
Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium and its power
is reduced to one-half. Find the attenuation (loss of power).
Decibel – Example
Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium and its power
is reduced to one-half. Find the attenuation (loss of power).

Answer:

1
𝑃2 𝑃
dB = 10 log10 = 10 log10 2 1
= 10 log10 0.5 = 10(-0.3) = -3 dB
𝑃1 𝑃1
Distortion
• Distortion: the signal changes its form or shape.
 can occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies.
 signal components at the receiver have phases different from what they
had at the sender.
Noise
• Different types of noise may corrupt the signal.
Noise
Type Definition
Thermal noise The random motion of electrons in a wire, which creates
an extra signal not originally sent by the transmitter

Induced noise From sources such as motors and appliances (these

devices act as a sending antenna, and the transmission
medium acts as the receiving antenna)

Crosstalk noise The effect of one wire on the other (one wire acts as a
sending antenna and the other as the receiving antenna)

Impulse noise A spike (a signal with high energy in a very short time)
that comes from power lines, lightning, and so on
Noise – SNR
• Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR):
 high SNR: the signal is less corrupted by noise
 low SNR: the signal is more corrupted by noise
 since SNR is the ratio of two powers, it is often described in decibel
units.
SNRdB = 10 log10 SNR

 the values of SNR and SNRdB for a noiseless channel:

SNR – Example
The average power of a signal is 10 mW and the average power of
the noise is 1 μW;what are the values of SNR and SNRdB?
SNR – Example
The average power of a signal is 10 mW and the average power of
the noise is 1 μW;what are the values of SNR and SNRdB?

10 mW = 0.01 W= 0.01 x 106 µw = 10,000 µw

SNR = (10,000 µw) / (1 µw) = 10,000
SNRdB = 10 log10 10,000 = 10 log10 104 = 40 dB
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Data Rate Limits
• Data rate (also called bit rate or capacity)
 indicates how fast we can send the data, in bps, over a channel.
 relies on three factors:
1) the available bandwidth
2) the number of signal levels
3) the quality of the channel (the level of noise)
 two theoretical formulas for calculating the data rate:
1) Nyquist (for a noiseless channel)
2) Shannon (for a noisy channel)
Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate
The Nyquist bit rate formula defines the theoretical maximum bit
rate for a noiseless channel:

BitRate = 2  bandwidth  log2L

bps bandwidth of the number of

the channel signal levels
Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate
The Nyquist bit rate formula defines the theoretical maximum bit
rate for a noiseless channel:

BitRate = 2  bandwidth  log2L

bps bandwidth of the the number of

channel signal levels

Increasing the levels of a signal may reduce the reliability

of the system. Why?
 Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity
• In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel; the channel is always noisy.
• The Shannon capacity indicates the theoretical highest data rate for a noisy channel:

• Capacity = bandwidth  log2 (1 + SNR)

the capacity of the bandwidth of channel

in bps the channel
 Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity
• In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel; the channel is always noisy.
• The Shannon capacity indicates the theoretical highest data rate for a noisy channel:

• Capacity = bandwidth  log2 (1 + SNR)

the capacity of the bandwidth of channel

in bps the channel

No matter how many levels we have, we cannot achieve a data

rate higher than the capacity of the channel.
Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity – Continued

If we have an extremely noisy channel in which the value of

the signal-to-noise ratio is almost zero (the noise is so strong
that the signal is faint), the capacity of this channel is zero
regardless of the bandwidth (we cannot receive any data
through this channel).
Using Both Nyquist Bit Rate and Shannon Capacity

The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit.

The Nyquist formula tells us how many signal levels we need.
Example 1
We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth
of 30 kHz. How many signal levels do we need?
Example 1
We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth
of 30 kHz. How many signal levels do we need?

We can use the Nyquist formula as follows:

265,000 = 2 x 30,000 x log2L  log2L = 4.417 
L = 24.417 = 21.362 levels
Example 1
We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth
of 30 kHz. How many signal levels do we need?

We can use the Nyquist formula as follows:

265,000 = 2 x 30,000 x log2L  log2L = 4.417 
L = 24.417 = 21.362 levels
Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either increase the
number of levels or reduce the bit rate.
 Example 2
We have a channel with a 1MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is
63. What are the appropriate bit rate and signal level?
 Example 2
We have a channel with a 1MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is
63. What are the appropriate bit rate and number of signal levels?

We use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit as follows:

C = B log2(1 + SNR) = 106 log2(1 + 63) = 106 log264 = 6,000,000 bps
= 6 Mbps
 Example 2
We have a channel with a 1MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is
63. What are the appropriate bit rate and number of signal levels?

We use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit as follows:

C = B log2(1 + SNR) = 106 log2(1 + 63) = 106 log264 = 6,000,000 bps
= 6 Mbps
Then, we use the Nyquist formula as follows:
6 Mbps = 2 x 1 MHz x log2L  log2L = 3  L = 23 = 8
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Bandwidth
• In networking, the term “bandwidth” can be used in two different
contexts:
1) bandwidth in hertz
the range of frequencies included in a composite signal or the
range of frequencies a channel can pass.
2) bandwidth in bits per second  we call it bit rate
the number of bits per second that a channel, a link, or even a
network can transmit (the speed of bit transmission in a channel or
link).
• Relationship between the bandwidth in hertz and bandwidth in bits per second
an increase in bandwidth in hertz  an increase in bandwidth in bits per
second.
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Transmission Modes

Digital Data
Transmission Modes

Parallel

Serial
Transmission Modes – Parallel Transmission
n=8
 Transmission Modes – Parallel Transmission
n=8

Parallel transmission can increase the transfer speed by a

factor of n over serial transmission.
 Transmission Modes – Parallel Transmission
n=8

Advantage:
speed
Disadvantage:
cost

Parallel transmission can increase the transfer speed by a

factor of n over serial transmission.
Transmission Modes – Serial Transmission
 Transmission Modes – Serial Transmission

With only one communication channel, serial transmission

reduces the cost of transmission over parallel by roughly a
factor of n.
 Transmission Modes – Serial Transmission

With only one communication channel, serial transmission

reduces the cost of transmission over parallel by roughly a
factor of n.
Evolution of USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Agenda
 Review
 Transmission of Digital Signals
 Transmission Impairment
 Data Rate Limits
 Bandwidth
 Transmission Modes
 Summary
Summary
• Baseband and broadband transmission of digital signals.
• Transmission impairment, including attenuation, distortion, and
noise can impair a signal.
• Data rate limits using Shannon Capacity and Nyquist formula.
• Bandwidth is one of the main performance metrics used in data
communications.
References
[1] Behrouz A.Forouzan, Data Communications & Networking with TCP/IP Protocol
Suite, 6th Ed, 2022, McGraw-Hill companies.