Data Communication Techniques And Computer
Networks
Chapter 4: Transmission Impairment
4.1
4.1. 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.
Topics discussed in this section:
Attenuation
Distortion
Noise
4.2
Figure 4.1 Causes of impairment
4.3
Figure 4.2 Attenuation
4.4
Example 4.1
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
Solution
A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-half
the power.
4.5
Example 4.2
A signal travels through an amplifier, and its power is
increased 10 times. This means that P2 = 10P1 . In this
case, the amplification (gain of power) can be calculated
as
Solution
4.6
Example 4.3
One reason that engineers use the decibel to measure the
changes in the strength of a signal is that decibel
numbers can be added (or subtracted) when we are
measuring several points (cascading) instead of just two.
In Figure 4.3 a signal travels from point 1 to point 4. In
this case, the decibel value can be calculated as
Solution
4.7
Figure 4.3 Decibels for Example 4.3
4.8
Example 4.4
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
4.9
Example 4.5
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
4.10
Figure 4.4 Distortion
4.11
Figure 4.5 Noise
4.12
Example 4.6
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:
4.13
Example 4.7
The values of SNR and SNRdB for a noiseless channel
are
Solution
We can never achieve this ratio in real life; it is an ideal.
4.14
Figure 4.6 Two cases of SNR: a high SNR and a low SNR
4.15
4.2. DATA RATE LIMITS
A very important consideration in data communications
is how fast we can send data, in bits per second, over a
channel. Data rate depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)
Topics discussed in this section:
Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate
Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity
Using Both Limits
4.16
Note
Increasing the levels of a signal may
reduce the reliability of the system.
4.17
Example 4.8
Does the Nyquist theorem bit rate agree with the
intuitive bit rate described in baseband transmission?
Solution
They match when we have only two levels. We said, in
baseband transmission, the bit rate is 2 times the
bandwidth if we use only the first harmonic in the worst
case. However, the Nyquist formula is more general than
what we derived intuitively; it can be applied to baseband
transmission and modulation. Also, it can be applied
when we have two or more levels of signals.
4.18
Example 4.9
Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000
Hz transmitting a signal with two signal levels. The
maximum bit rate can be calculated as
Solution
4.19
Example 4.10
Consider the same noiseless channel transmitting a
signal with four signal levels (for each level, we send 2
bits). The maximum bit rate can be calculated as
Solution
4.20
Example 4.11
We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with
a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How many signal levels do we
need?
Solution
We can use the Nyquist formula as shown:
Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either
increase the number of levels or reduce the bit rate. If we
have 128 levels, the bit rate is 280 kbps. If we have 64
levels, the bit rate is 240 kbps.
4.21
Example 4.12
Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value
of the signal-to-noise ratio is almost zero. In other words,
the noise is so strong that the signal is faint. For this
channel the capacity C is calculated as
Solution
This means that the capacity of this channel is zero
regardless of the bandwidth. In other words, we cannot
receive any data through this channel.
4.22
Example 4.13
We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a
regular telephone line. A telephone line normally has a
bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is usually
3162. For this channel the capacity is calculated as
Solution
This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line
is 34.860 kbps. If we want to send data faster than this,
we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or
improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
4.23
Example 4.14
The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels.
Assume that SNRdB = 36 and the channel bandwidth is 2
MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be calculated
as:
Solution
4.24
Example 4.15
For practical purposes, when the SNR is very high, we
can assume that SNR + 1 is almost the same as SNR. In
these cases, the theoretical channel capacity can be
simplified to
For example, we can calculate the theoretical capacity of
the previous example as
4.25
Example 4.16
We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR
for this channel is 63. What are the appropriate bit rate
and signal level?
Solution
First, we use the Shannon formula to find the upper
limit.
4.26
Example 4.16 (continued)
The Shannon formula gives us 6 Mbps, the upper limit.
For better performance we choose something lower, 4
Mbps, for example. Then we use the Nyquist formula to
find the number of signal levels.
Solution
4.27
Note
The Shannon capacity gives us the
upper limit; the Nyquist formula tells us
how many signal levels we need.
4.28
