Introduction to Computer Networks
Fundamental Limits (§2.1)
Professor of Computer Science & Engineering
Topic
• How rapidly can we send
information over a link?
– Nyquist limit (~1924) »
– Shannon capacity (1948) »
• Practical systems are devised
to approach these limits
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Key Channel Properties
• The bandwidth (B), signal strength
(S), and noise strength (N)
– B limits the rate of transitions
– S and N limit how many signal levels
we can distinguish
Bandwidth B Signal S,
Noise N
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Nyquist Limit
• The maximum symbol rate is 2B
1010101010101010101
• Thus if there are V signal levels,
ignoring noise, the maximum bit
rate is: R = 2B log2V bits/sec
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Claude Shannon (1916-2001)
• Father of information theory
– “A Mathematical Theory of
Communication”, 1948
• Fundamental contributions to
digital computers, security,
and communications
Electromechanical mouse
that “solves” mazes! Credit: Courtesy MIT Museum
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Shannon Capacity
• How many levels we can distinguish depends on S/N
– Or SNR, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio S+N
– Note noise is random, hence some errors 0
N
• SNR given on a log-scale in deciBels: 1
– SNRdB = 10log10(S/N)
2
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Shannon Capacity (2)
• Shannon limit is for capacity (C),
the maximum information carrying
rate of the channel:
C = B log2(1 + S/N) bits/sec
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Wired/Wireless Perspective
• Wires, and Fiber
– Engineer link to have requisite SNR and B
→Can fix data rate
• Wireless
– Given B, but SNR varies greatly, e.g., up to 60 dB!
→Can’t design for worst case, must adapt data rate
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Wired/Wireless Perspective (2)
• Wires, and Fiber Engineer SNR for data rate
– Engineer link to have requisite SNR and B
→Can fix data rate
• Wireless Adapt data rate to SNR
– Given B, but SNR varies greatly, e.g., up to 60 dB!
→Can’t design for worst case, must adapt data rate
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Putting it all together – DSL
• DSL (Digital Subscriber Line, see §2.6.3) is widely used
for broadband; many variants offer 10s of Mbps
– Reuses twisted pair telephone line to the home; it has up to
~2 MHz of bandwidth but uses only the lowest ~4 kHz
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DSL (2)
• DSL uses passband modulation (called OFDM §2.5.1)
– Separate bands for upstream and downstream (larger)
– Modulation varies both amplitude and phase (called QAM)
– High SNR, up to 15 bits/symbol, low SNR only 1 bit/symbol
Voice Up to 1 Mbps Up to 12 Mbps
ADSL2: 0-4 Freq. 26 – 138 143 kHz to 1.1 MHz
kHz kHz
Telephone Upstream Downstream
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