Fundamental Aspects of

Digital Communications
 Block Diagram of a Digital Communication System

Transmitter Receiver

Source Channel Channel Source

Modulator Channel Demodulator
encoder encoder decoder decoder

Input Information Output

Information
transducer Source Synchronization transducer
sink
 Digital

Examples of Digital:
- Networks and devices: Wireless networks, Internet, MP3 players, smartphones, HDTV, GPS, and satellite TV and
radio
- Applications: entertainment (e.g., wireless video on demand), education (e.g., online interactive multimedia
courses), information (e.g., 3-D video streaming) and business (e.g., mobile commerce)

Definition of Digital:
- Transmission of a message using binary digits (bits) or symbols from a finite alphabet during a finite time interval
(bit or symbol duration)
- A bit or symbol occurring in each interval is mapped onto a continuous-time waveform that is then sent across the
channel
- Over any finite interval, the continuous-time waveform at the channel output belongs to a finite set of possible
waveforms

3
 Advantages of Digital

Design efficiency: An essentially unlimited range of signal conditioning and processing options available to the
designer, effective tradeoffs among power, bandwidth, performance, and complexity

Versatile hardware: Digital circuits, with exponential increase in their processing power, are generally less sensitive to
physical effects, such as vibration, aging components, and external temperature, and also allow a greater dynamic range

New and enhanced services: Internet services and different services, with various modalities, into the same
transmission scheme or to enhance services through transmission of some additional information

Control of quality: A desired distortion level can be initially set and then kept nearly fixed at that value by using
appropriately-spaced regenerative repeaters, so the accumulation of noise and interference is not allowed

Improved security: Digital encryption can make the transmitted information virtually impossible to decipher using
complex cryptographic systems.

Flexibility, compatibility and switching: Signal storage, reproduction, interface with computers, access and search of
information in electronic databases, and the ability to dynamically switch and route messages of various types

4
 Drawbacks of Digital

Signal processing intensive: A very high degree of signal processing with high computational load and
complexity—for every one of the three major functions of source coding, channel coding, and modulation in the
transceiver—is required; due to major advances, this is no longer a major drawback

Additional bandwidth: More bandwidth than analog systems is required, unless compression (source coding) and
𝑀-ary (vis-à-vis binary) signaling techniques are heavily employed; due to major advances in compression
techniques and bandwidth-efficient modulation schemes, additional bandwidth is no longer a critical issue

Synchronization: A significant share of resources allocated to synchronization, including carrier phase and
frequency recovery, timing (bit or symbol) recovery, and frame and network synchronization is always required, and
it can be achieved at the expense of a high degree of complexity

Non-graceful performance degradation: Digital communication systems yield non-graceful performance

degradation when signal power drops below a certain threshold, i.e., a small reduction in signal power yields a
considerable increase in bit error rate

5
 Synchronization

Network synchronization is required when transmitters need to be synchronized by varying the timing and frequency of
their transmissions to correspond to the expectations of the receiver to ensure satisfactory operation of the receiver.
Examples include transmitting base stations to a mobile receiver crossing the cell boundaries in a mobile cellular system
or satellite dishes beaming signals towards a single satellite receiver. In most cases, the transmitter relies on a return path
from the receiver to determine the accuracy of its synchronization.

Carrier synchronization is the generation of a reference sinusoidal (carrier) signal with a frequency and phase closely
matching those of the transmitted (modulated) signal. This reference carrier is used to perform a coherent demodulation
operation to create the original baseband (modulating) signal.

Symbol synchronization is the generation of a timing reference to find the correct sampling instants at the receiver. This
clock is used to extract the input sequence of symbols. Symbol synchronization and phase synchronization are rather
similar, as they both need to provide in the receiver a replica of a portion of the transmitted signal.

6
 Communication Modalities

Attributes:
- The main sources of information broadly include: text (e.g., alphanumeric characters), audio (e.g., speech, music),
and visual (e.g., image, video)
- The confluence of voice, data, image, music, text, graphics and video is widely known as multimedia
- The characteristics of all these modalities and their transmission requirements are distinct
- Humans produce and perceive audio and visual signals in an analog form, and thus require analog-to-digital
conversion

Compression:
- Compression is achieved by
i) exploiting redundancy to the largest extent possible, and
ii) associating the shortest binary codes with the most likely outcomes
- Compression methods are:
i) lossless compression used in texts and sensitive data, so the original data can be reconstructed exactly, i.e., the
compression is completely reversible, and
ii) lossy compression used in audio and visual signals, in that permanent loss of information in a controlled manner
is involved, and it is therefore not completely reversible
7
 Audio

Speech:
- Only about 1% of the power in speech lies above 4 kHz
- The power in speech concentrates in the frequencies 100–800 Hz, above which it declines quite drastically
- The power contents in 100–800 Hz and 800-4000 Hz ranges allows speaker and speech recognition respectively
- Telephone speech requires a bandwidth of about 100–3100 Hz and requires an SNR of about 27–40 dB
- Analog speech at the 40-dB quality can be converted into a 64 kbps digital signal using an 8-bit PCM technique
- As long as the BER falls in the range of 10-4 to 10-5 or less, it is considered high quality speech
- The 64-kbps rate can be reduced to a range of 1.2 kbps to 13 kbps, depending on the required speech quality

Music:
- High fidelity music requires a bandwidth of 20–20,000 Hz
- Both loudness and musical pitch is perceived more or less logarithmically
- The two elements that are important in high-fidelity music are the SNR value and the dynamic range
- The bit rate requirement for standard stereo CD-quality music is 1.411 Mbps using a 16-bit PCM technique, which
in turn results in an SNR of about 90 dB
- The BER requirement for CD-quality music is about 10-9 or less
- Compression based on prediction can reduce 1.411 Mbps to tens of kbps

8
 Visual

Image:
- A two-dimensional array of values that must be reduced to a one-dimensional waveform, typically accomplished by
the scanning process, such as raster scanning consists of successive lines across the image
- A standard black-and-white 8.5” 11” page, with the modest resolution of 600 dots per inch, has about 4.2 MB
- An 8’’ 10” color print, with 400 400 pixels per square inch and 24 bits per pixel (8 bits for each of the three
primary colors of red, green and blue) has about 38.4 MB
- By using image compression techniques, such as modified Huffman coding and JPEG image coding standard for
compression of still images, about two orders of magnitude can be achieved

Video:
- Video is a moving picture, and from a signal processing standpoint, video is actually a succession of still images
- The North American NTSC-TV signal has a bandwidth of 4.2 MHz, and leads to an uncompressed digital video
signal of about 250 Mbps, if there are 30 frames/second, 720 480 pixels/image frame, and 24 bits/pixel.
- The HDTV signal requires an uncompressed digital video stream of about 1.5 Gbps, provided that there are 30
frames per second, 1920 1080 pixels per frame, and 24 bits per pixel.
- Using MPEG-2, the uncompressed digital video for the NTSC-TV and HDTV can be reduced to about 6 Mbps and
19.4 Mbps, respectively, and both can then utilize the allocated 6-MHz bandwidth.

9
 Communication Network: OSI Model

Application Application
Layer Layer

Presentation Presentation
Layer Layer

Session Session
Layer Layer

Transport Transport
Layer Layer

Network Network Network Network

Layer Layer Layer Layer

Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link

Layer Layer Layer Layer

Physical Physical Physical Physical

Layer Layer Layer Layer

End device Intermediate node Intermediate node End device

10
 Layered Architecture

Encapsulation/decapsulation:
- A technique in which a data unit consisting of a number of bits from one layer is placed within the data field portion
of the data unit of another layer is called encapsulation
- Encapsulation is done at the source and decapsulation at the destination, whereas at the intermediate points, such as
routers, both decapsulation and encapsulation are carried out

Addressing:
- Any communication that involves two parties needs two addresses: a source address and a destination address
- Apart from the physical layer, which only consists of bits and does not need addresses, each layer has a pair of
addresses

Multiplexing/demultiplexing:
- Multiplexing involves the sharing of a layer by several next-higher layer protocols, one at a time
- Demultiplexing means that a layer can decapsulate and deliver a data unit to several next-higher layer protocols

11
 OSI Physical Layers

Layer 1: Physical Layer is concerned with the transmission of unstructured bit streams over a physical link; it deals
with the mechanical, electrical, and procedural characteristics to establish, maintain, and deactivate the physical link.

Layer 2: Data Link Layer provides the reliable transfer of data across the physical link; it sends blocks of data (frames)
with the necessary synchronization, and error and flow control.

Layer 3: Network Layer provides upper layers with independence from the data transmission and switching
technologies used to connect systems; it is responsible for establishing, maintaining, and terminating connections.

Layer 4: Transport Layer provides reliable, transparent transfer of data between end points; it provides end-to-end
error recovery and flow control. It is a liaison between the upper three layers and the lower three layers.

Layer 5: Session Layer provides the control structure for communication between applications; it establishes, manages
and terminates connection (session) between cooperating applications, and also provides recovery.

Layer 6: Presentation Layer performs generally useful transformations on data to provide a standardized application
interface and to provide common communication services.

Layer 7: Application Layer provides services to the users of the OSI environment. Examples are transaction server, file
transfer protocol, and network management.

12
 OSI Physical Layers: An Analogy

To communicate by a computer over the Internet to send digital data or a telephone over the Public Switched Telephone
Network (PSTN) to send analog voice, they invoke protocols at all seven layers of OSI. As an analogy, the
categorization of the seven levels from top to bottom for a typical telephone call may be viewed as follows:

• Layer 7: Application Layer Concerns: Am I talking to the right person? Should I call back later?
• Layer 6: Presentation Layer Concerns: Are we talking the same language?
• Layer 5: Session Layer Concerns: Who will re-establish the call if we are cut off?
• Layer 4: Transport Layer Concerns: What is the most cost-effective way to handle this call?
• Layer 3: Network Layer Concerns: Redial for a busy signal. Disconnect when it is completed.
• Layer 2: Data Link Layer Concerns: Talk or listen when you are supposed to. Ask for a repeat, if needed.
• Layer 1: Physical Layer Concerns: These are the actual sounds spoken and heard.

13
 Communication Network: OSI Model

Data source

Data AH

Data AH PH

Data AH PH SH

Data AH PH SH TH

Data AH PH SH TH NH

DT Data AH PH SH TH NH DH

Transmission
DT Data AH PH SH TH NH DH PH
medium
AH:Application Header SH: Session Header NH:Network Header DT: Data Link Trailer
PH: Presentation Header TH: Transport Header DH: Data Link Header PH: Physical Header

14
Communication Network: TCP/IP Protocol Suite

TCP/IP Protocol Suite OSI Model

Application
Layer

Presentation
Application Layer
Layer

Session
Layer

Transport
Host-to-Host Transport Layer (e.g., TCP, UDP)
Layer

Network
Internet Protocol (IP)
Layer

Data Link
Network Interface
Layer

Physical
Physical Layer
Layer

15
 Fiber-Optic Cable

Cladding

Core

Transmitter Receiver
Cladding

- An optical fiber is a dielectric waveguide that transports light signals just as metallic cable transports electrical signals
- An optical fiber consists of a very fine cylinder of glass (core) surrounded by a concentric layer of glass (cladding)
- The core has a slightly higher optical density (index of refraction) than the cladding
- When a ray of light from the core approaches the cladding, the ray is completely reflected back into the core, and the
ray of light is guided within the fiber, information is transmitted by varying the intensity of the light source with the
message signal
- The light in the fiber is periodically amplified and regenerated by repeaters along the transmission path, and at the
receiver, the light intensity is detected by a photodiode
- Optical fibers have unique characteristics, such as an enormous potential bandwidth, low transmission losses,
immunity to electromagnetic interference, small size and weight, ruggedness, and flexibility
- They can provide almost error free transmission rates up to 100s Gbps over 10s km, as attenuation is 0.2–0.5 dB/km

16
 Twisted-Pair Cable

Insulator Conductor

- Twisted-pair was designed and built mainly for speech communications in the telephone network
- A twisted-pair cable consists of two insulated conducting (copper) wires, closely twisted together to reduce the susceptibility to
crosstalk and noise, one of the wires is used to carry signals to the receiver, and the other is used only as a ground reference
- At a given frequency, a higher gauge (thicker) wire yields a higher signal attenuation
- The attenuation for twisted-pair, measured in dB per distance, sharply increases with frequencies above 100 kHz
- Since the attenuation per distance is higher for higher frequencies, the bandwidth of twisted-pair decreases with distance
- Depending on the gauge of the twisted-pair, the attenuation can range between 1–4 dB/km at 4 kHz and 10–20 dB/km at 1 MHz
- For digital transmission over twisted-pair cable, repeaters are required every couple of kilometers
- To improve voice transmission, the transmission frequencies are limited to 4 kHz to reduce the crosstalk and loading coils are
added to provide a flatter transfer function, which in turn limit digital transmission rate over telephone lines to below 40 kbps
- A digital subscriber line (DSL) can however provide much higher rates for short distances, provided that the user equipment and
the interface at the central office are both changed to match the DSL transmission requirements. Besides distance, there are other
factors, such as the size of the wire, the signaling type, cross-talk interference from other lines, and the SNR value, which can
affect the available bandwidth and in turn the transmission rate in the DSL

17
 Coaxial Cable

Inner
conductor
Inner
Outer Insulator
Outer conductor
Plastic Insulator
cover

- A coaxial cable consists of an inner (central) conductor of solid or stranded wire (usually copper) and an outer conductor of metal
foil, braid, or a combination of two, separated by a dielectric insulating material, the outer conductor is also enclosed in an
insulating sheath, and the whole cable can be protected by a plastic cover
- As opposed to twisted-pair cables, coaxial cables provide much better immunity to crosstalk and interference, offer much larger
bandwidths (hundreds of MHz), but yield higher levels of attenuation
- Although coaxial cable has a much higher bandwidth, the signal weakens rapidly and requires the frequent use of repeaters,
roughly every kilometer or so
- The widest use of coaxial cable is for the distribution of television signals in cable TV systems, and it is also used for local area
networks (LANs)
- Rates up to tens of Mbps are feasible using coaxial cables, with 10 Mbps being the standard. The attenuation can range between 7–
27 dB/km at 10 MHz

18
 Telephone and Cable Networks: Spectrum Allocation

Data Data
POTS upstream downstream
band band band
ADSL (25 4.3125 kHz) (224 4.3125 kHz)
𝑓 (kHz)
0 4 25 138 1104

Telephony
Data
& data Video
downstream
CATV upstream band
band
band (80 6 MHz)
(33 6 MHz)
(6 6 MHz)
𝑓 (MHz)
5 42 54 550 750
 Network Topology

Node Node Node Node

Hub

Node
Node Node
Node Node
Node Node
Star topology Ring Topology

Node

Node
Node Node Node Node

Node

Tree Topology
Node Node Node Node

Mesh Topology Bus Topology

 Radio Spectrum

- Radio encompasses the electromagnetic spectrum in the range of 3 kHz to 300 GHz, and the range of 300 MHz to
300 GHz is known as microwave radio frequencies

- Radio spectrum is a very scarce commodity, and efficient use of any part of spectrum is of paramount importance

- Frequency assignments and technical standards are set internationally by the International Telecommunications
Union- Radiocommunication (ITU-R)

- The energy in a radio frequency (RF) current can radiate off a conductor into space as electromagnetic waves (radio
waves) using an antenna, this is the basis of radio technology

- The frequency bands are designated in logarithmic frequency, the progression of frequency bands has increasingly
larger bandwidths, and different frequency bands have different propagation characteristics

- Rain attenuation, which refers primarily to the absorption of a microwave frequency signal by atmospheric rain,
snow or ice, is a dominant source of signal degradation. Rain attenuation is a function of many factors, such as
location, distance, elevation angle, and frequency.
21
 Frequency Bands

Frequency band Frequency range Wavelength range Transmission media Propagation mode

Extra Low Frequency (ELF) 3 – 30 Hz 100,000 – 10,000 km Wire pairs Ground wave

Super Low Frequency (SLF) 30 – 300 Hz 10,000 – 1,000 km Wire pairs Ground wave

Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) 300 – 3 kHz 1,000 – 100 km Wire pairs Ground wave

Very Low Frequency (VLF) 3 – 30 kHz 100 – 10 km Wire pairs Ground wave

Low Frequency (LF) 30 – 300 kHz 10 – 1 km Wire pairs Ground wave

Medium Frequency (MF) 0.3 – 3 MHz 1 – 0.1 km Wire pairs & coaxial cable Ground wave & sky wave

High Frequency (HF) 3 – 30 MHz 100 – 10 m Coaxial cable Sky wave

Very High Frequency (VHF) 30 – 300 MHz 10 – 1 m Coaxial cable Sky wave & line of sight

Ultra High Frequency (UHF) 0.3 – 3 GHz 1 – 0.1 m Coaxial cable & waveguide Line of sight

Super High Frequency (SHF) 3 – 30 GHz 100 – 10 mm Waveguide Line of sight

Extra High Frequency (EHF) 30 – 300 GHz 10 – 1 mm Waveguide Line of sight

Infrared 0.3 – 430 THz 1 mm – 700 nm Optical fibers Laser beams

Visible Light 430 – 750 THz 700 – 400 nm Optical fibers Laser beams

Ultraviolet 0.75 – 30 PHz 400 – 10 nm Optical fibers Laser beams

22
 ISM Bands

- Some parts of radio spectrum have been designated as industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands

- There are a dozen ISM bands, such as 2.4–2.5 GHz and 5.725–5.875 GHz

- The ISM bands allow limited power transmission from various transmitting devices as well as unintentional
radiations, such as microwave ovens, and short-range, low-power communication systems, including Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth devices, and cordless phones

- The communication equipment operating in ISM bands must tolerate any interference generated by other ISM
equipment as users have no regulatory protection

23
 Radio Transmission: Advantages

- Radio uniquely allows the realization and deployment of mobile systems with a multitude of diverse wireless
applications and services

- Radio inherently possesses broadcast, narrowcast, and multicast capabilities

- Radio networks can be quickly implemented or reconfigured and extra terminals be easily introduced or removed

- Radio systems do not require right-of-way and can be deployed by procuring only the sites where the antennas are
located

- Signal level can be maintained over much longer distances in radio systems than in wired systems, as with an
increase in the distance, the attenuation in decibels increases only logarithmically in radio systems but linearly in
wired systems

24
 Radio Transmission: Disadvantages

- The radio spectrum is finite and scarce and, unlike wired media, it is not possible to procure additional capacity. An
operating frequency in a radio band can be reused only in sufficiently-distant geographical areas or by certain
multiple access schemes

- To maximize its utility, the radio spectrum is mainly regulated by government agencies, as regulatory bodies apply
strict requirements on the emission characteristics of radio communication equipment, and frequency coordination
is generally required when planning radio systems

- Interference, which is the energy that appears at the receiver from sources other than its own transmitter, is a major
degradation in radio systems

- Path characteristics (i.e., attenuation and distortion) tend to vary with time, often in an unpredictable way; multipath
fading, a significant impairment in radio communications especially in mobile systems, occurs when the transmitted
signal arrives at the receiver via propagation paths at different delays

- Signals can be much more easily intercepted in wireless systems than in wired systems; it is thus a more challenging
task to make radio-based systems more secure.
25
 Ground-Wave Propagation
Signal propagation

Transmit Receive
antenna antenna

Earth

- The dominant mode of propagation for frequencies below 2 MHz

- The Earth and the ionosphere act as a waveguide for radio wave propagation
- Propagation is done by diffraction in all directions around the curved surface of the earth for thousands of kilometers
- Distance depends on the amount of power in the signal
- The atmospheric noise level is rather high
- Applications include long-range navigation and maritime communications, radio beacon, and AM radio broadcasting

26
 Sky-Wave Propagation
Ionosphere

Signal Signal
propagation propagation

Transmit Receive
antenna antenna

Earth

- The dominant mode of propagation in the frequency range of 2 MHz to about 30 MHz or in some cases 60 MHz
- Sky-wave propagation results when the signal is reflected from the ionosphere, the angle of reflection and the loss
of signal depend on the frequency, the time of the day, the season, and the sunspot activity
- Signal multipath and fading can be a source of degradation
- The typical transmission range in sky-wave propagation can be in hundreds of kilometers
- Applications include FM radio broadcasting, short-wave broadcasting, amateur radio, and CB radio

27
 Line-of-Sight Propagation

Transmit Receive
antenna Signal propagation
antenna

Earth

- It is the dominant mode of propagation from the upper part of the VHF band up to and including the EHF band
- Signals must be transmitted in straight lines directly between directional, hence the term line of sight
- The direct path connecting the antennas in terrestrial communications can be affected by the curvature of the earth
- The maximum distance between transmit and receive antennas for direct line-of-sight radio propagation is
approximately 𝐷 17 𝐻 𝐻 , where 𝐻 and 𝐻 are the heights of transmit and receive antennas in meters
respectively, and 𝐷 is the maximum distance in kilometers over which communications between them can take place
by direct line-of-sight radio signals
- Applications include off-the-air (VHF and UHF) TV broadcasting and geostationary satellite communications

28
 Synchronous and Asynchronous Time-Division Multiplexing

Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a digital multiplexing technique for combining several low-data-rate signals into
one high-data-rate signal. In TDM, the available transmission channel is time-shared by a number of different sources.
In TDM, the digital data or the digitized data from different sources are interleaved in time into a single digital data
signal to be transmitted over the channel.
In synchronous TDM, each source has an allotment in the output even if it does not have data to transmit. In statistical
TDM, a source is given access to the multiplexer only during periods of activity
A1 A2 A3 A1 A2 A3
D
B2 B3 M A1 C1 A2 B2 D2 … E B2 B3
U M
C1 C3 X U C1 C3
X
D2 D3 D2 D3

A1 A2 A3 A1 A2 A3
D
B2 B3 M A1 C1 A2 B2 D2 A3 B3 C3 … E B2 B3
U M
C1 C3 X U C1 C3
X
D2 D3 D2 D3

29
 Frequency-Division Multiplexing and Wavelength-Division Multiplexing

Frequency-division multiplexing
(FDM) is a multiplexing technique that
𝑓 𝑓
combines many signals into a single,
D
high-bandwidth signal. In FDM, the 𝑓 M
⋯
E 𝑓
𝑓
bandwidth of a link is greater than the U M
⋮ X U ⋮
combined bandwidths of the signals to X
be transmitted, and the available 𝑓 𝑓

transmission channel bandwidth is thus

divided into a number of nonoverlapping
frequency bands
Wavelength-division multiplexing 𝜆 𝜆
(WDM) is an analog multiplexing D
𝜆 𝜆
technique to combine optical signals. In M 𝜆 𝜆 ⋯ 𝜆 E
U M
WDM, the available fiber-optic ⋮ X Optical fiber U ⋮
X
transmission channel is shared by a
𝜆 𝜆
number of different light sources. WDM
is conceptually quite similar to FDM

30
 Communication Modes

In simplex mode, transmission is unidirectional, that is transmission always occurs only in one direction, the simplex
mode uses the entire capacity of the channel to send data in one direction

Transmitter Receiver

In half-duplex mode, transmission is bi-directional, but only in one direction at a time, the end devices can both transmit
and receive, but not at the same time, in half-duplex mode, the entire capacity of the channel is taken over by whichever
of the two devices is transmitting at the time

Transmitter or Receiver

In full-duplex mode, transmission is simultaneously bi-directional, the end devices can transmit & receive
simultaneously

Transmitter both Receiver

31
 Duplexing Methods

The means to provide two independent channels for two-way communications is called duplexing.
Frequency

In frequency-division duplexing (FDD), two disjoint Receive

bands of frequency are provided to users. With FDD,
two different carrier frequencies, one from each band, Channel
spacing
are assigned to a user, one carrier frequency for
transmission and one for reception by the user. Transmit

A guard band is required between the two bands.

Time

In time-division duplexing (TDD), time rather than Frequency

frequency is used to separate the transmission and
reception of the signals, and thus a single frequency
is assigned to a user for both directions.
Guard
TDD provides quasi-simultaneous bidirectional flow time
of information. A guard time between transmit and Transmit Receive Transmit Receive
receive streams is required.
Time

32
 Multiple Access Schemes

Multiple access allows remote sharing of a common transmission medium by many users, in which the medium is
𝑐
partitioned into separate communication channels and then dedicated to particular users upon their requests.
𝑐 𝑐

Spread spectrum is
𝑓
a multiple access through
𝑓
which a transmission 𝑓

bandwidth several orders

of magnitude greater
𝑡 𝑡 than the minimum
In frequency-division multiple In time-division multiple required RF bandwidth 𝑡
access (FDMA), the channel access (TDMA), the available is used, this is achieved by using a pseudorandom
bandwidth is divided into channel bandwidth in its noise-like spreading code in the transmitter to
nonoverlapping frequency bands, entirety is used by every user, spread the bandwidth, i.e., to make it into a
where each band is dynamically but the users take turns in wideband signal, and employing the same code in
assigned to a specific user to making use of the channel in a the receiver to despread the received signal so as
transmit data timely manner to recover the original message signal

33
Evolution of Telecommunications with a Focus on Mobile Communications

Telegraphy
(1840s)
Telephony
(1870s)

Radio
(1910s)

Mobile
(1940s)

Cellular
(1980s)

Digital
(1990s)

Internet-enabled
(2000s)

Wideband multimedia
(2010s)

Broadband IP-based
(2020s)
 Radio Wave Propagation Mechanisms

Tx Rx Tx Rx Tx Rx

Obstacle Wall Street sign

(a) Line-of-sight transmission (b) Reflection (c) Scattering

Tx Tx Tx

Clouds Tree Building

Rx Rx Rx
(d) Refraction (e) Absorption (f) Diffraction
 Frequency Reuse Pattern of Hexagonal Cells

1
2 2
Three-cell clusters 3 3 3 3
1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3
1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2
3 3 3
1 1 Cell
2 radius 𝑅
Reuse
distance 𝐷

2
Seven-cell clusters 7 3 2
1 7 3 2
6 4 1 7 3
5 6 4 1
2 5 6 4
7 3 2 5
1 7 3
6 4 1 Cell
5 6 4 radius 𝑅
5
Reuse distance
𝐷
 Hexagonal Cells

Cell splitting

Cell sectoring

One 360° sector Three 120° sectors Six 60° sectors

 Attenuation

- Every channel introduces some transmission attenuation (loss). By increasing the physical distance between the
transmitter and the receiver, the signal power (strength) at the receiver decreases

- For wired media, attenuation has an exponential dependence on distance, that is, the attenuation in dB increases
linearly with the distance, whereas for wireless systems the attenuation in dB increases logarithmically with the
distance, the signal level is thus more attenuated in wired systems than in wireless systems

- Example: Suppose for a given distance the loss in a guided medium and an unguided medium are both 𝑥 dB. If we
increase the distance by a factor of 1000, then the loss in the guided medium is 1000𝑥 dB, whereas that in the
unguided medium is only 𝑥 10 log 1000 𝑥 30 dB

- To compensate for transmission loss, amplifiers must be used to enhance the signal level; however, amplification
can then boost other types of degradations, such as noise and interference levels, as well.

38
 Noise

- Noise refers to unwanted, ever-present, random waves that tend to disturb the transmission of signals, and filtering
is used to reduce noise contamination, but there inevitably remains some amount of noise that cannot be eliminated

- There are several types of noise, such as thermal noise (due to the random motion of electrons in a conductor), shot
noise (due to the discrete nature of current flow in electronic devices), and impulse noise (due to natural sources,
such as lightning, and man-made sources, such as high-voltage power lines)

- Noise is generally assumed to be added to the signal

- It is also generally assumed that noise is white, thus emanating an equal amount of noise power per unit bandwidth
at all frequencies

- Due to the central limit theorem, the aggregate of a number of different noises can be assumed to have a Gaussian
distribution

- Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is the most common type of noise considered in digital communication
systems, and constitutes one of the most fundamental system limitations

39
 Interference

- Interference refers to energy that appears at the receiver from sources other than its own transmitter, it can be in
wired cables in the form of crosstalk and echo, but it is significantly more dominant in radio communications

- Interference can be generated by other users of the same frequency or by equipment that inadvertently transmits
energy outside its band and into the bands of adjacent channels or systems

- There are various ways to practically remove or significantly minimize radio interference in most cases, including:
• Appropriate filtering with stringent requirements
• Appropriately-placed physical barriers
• Transmit and receive antennas with high directivity
• Spatial (geographical) separation between wanted and interfering sources, and
• Strict requirements set by regulatory bodies on the emission properties of equipment

40
 Distortion

Due to the non-ideal channel, the transmitted signal changes its form or shape, thus resulting in signal distortion

Linear distortions:
- Amplitude distortion when the channel amplitude response is not constant (or almost within 1 dB)
- Phase (delay response) when the phase response of the channel is not linear
- Delay distortion is critical in data and video transmission, however, but insensitive to the human ear

Nonlinear distortion:
- The relationship between the input and output signals is not linear (i.e., the superposition principle is not held),
- It brings about intermodulation (i.e., the output has new frequency components that are not present in the spectrum
of the input signal but now lie inside the input bandwidth)

Multipath fading:
- It exists in radio communications, and it is considerably more prevalent in mobile radio systems
- It occurs when more than one version of the transmitted signal arrives at the receiver, with different delays
- Multipath fading can result in very wide fluctuations in the random amplitude and phase of the received signal

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 Transmission Impairments: An Example

𝑡 𝑡
Transmitted signal Interfered signal

𝑡 𝑡
Attenuated signal Noisy signal

𝑡 𝑡
Distorted signal Received signal

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 Modulation Process and Types

Modulation Process:
- A process through which an information-bearing message (i.e., modulating) signal is used to modify (i.e., modulate)
some parameter (e.g., amplitude, frequency, phase) of a periodic (such as a high-frequency sinusoidal) signal known
as a carrier wave, individually or in combination, to produce the modulated signal for transmission
- It is similar to when a musician may modulate a tone by varying its volume (amplitude), its timing (phase), and its
pitch (frequency)

Modulation Types:
- Amplitude-shift keying (ASK), frequency-shift keying (FSK), phase-shift keying (PSK), and a hybrid of ASK and
PSK, known as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)
- PSK and QAM are used in digital communication systems far more often than ASK and FSK

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 Modulation Benefits

Modulation for efficient radio transmission:

- For radio communications, antennas are needed to radiate (transmit) and receive the modulated signal, and the size
of the antenna depends on the wavelength and the application
- Modulation helps translate the message signal with low frequency components into a signal with much higher
frequency components, the resulting modulated signal can thus possess a much smaller wavelength, and that in turn
allows much smaller antennas
- Example: line-of-sight radio propagation generally requires antennas whose physical dimensions are at least 10%
of the signal’s wavelength, an audio signal with at 100 Hz requires an antenna about 300 km, but with modulation
at 100 MHz, the antenna needs to be only about 30 cm long
- Example: cellular mobile telephone antennas are typically 25% of the signal wavelength, so for the above-
mentioned audio signal, an antenna spanning 750 km would be required, but with modulation at 900 MHz, the
equivalent antenna diameter would be only about 8 cm

Modulation to match channel characteristics:

- Modulation allows modification of the message signal to a form suited to the characteristics of the transmission
channel, the majority of practical channels have bandpass characteristics and modulation translates the frequency
components of the lowpass message signal to the passband range
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 Modulation Benefits

Modulation for frequency assignment:

- Modulation allows many radio and television stations to broadcast simultaneously in a given geographical area
- Since each station has a different assigned carrier frequency, the desired broadcast signals can be separated from
others by tuning the receiver to select different stations as required

Modulation for multiplexing:

- When more than one signal needs to utilize a single channel, modulation may be used to translate different signals to
different spectral locations
- Applications include FM stereophonic broadcasting and cable TV, in which a number of TV channels along with the
upstream and downstream Internet traffic are all integrated into a single channel

Modulation to allow common processing:

- Modulation allows the processing equipment to operate in some fixed frequency range and instead translate the
frequency range of the signal to correspond to the fixed frequency range of the processing equipment
- This is the case when in a system, such as AM radio, all RF signals coming from various AM radio stations are
converted to a certain intermediate-frequency (IF) in a receiver

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 Modulation Benefits

Modulation to overcome hardware limitations:

- The performance, design, and cost of some signal processing devices, such as filters and amplifiers, often depend on
the signal spectral location and the ratio of the highest to lowest signal frequencies
- It is generally desirable to keep the ratio of signal bandwidth to its center frequency within 1% to 10%

Modulation to reduce noise and interference:

- By expanding the bandwidth of the transmitted signal, the noise and interference immunity can be enhanced
- Applications include FM radio and spread spectrum techniques, where bandwidth increase is traded for noise and
interference reduction

Modulation to allow design trade-offs:

- Modulation techniques, employing digital M-ary (vis-à-vis binary) signaling, can provide a balancing act to
optimally achieve digital communication design objectives, such as, higher transmission rate, lower transmit power,
smaller signal bandwidth, lower bit error rate, and more modest complexity
- By increasing M, bandwidth can be saved at the expense of an increase in bit error rate and by using trellis-coded
modulation, transmission rate can be enhanced, not with an increase in bandwidth but at the expense of increased
modem complexity

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 Fundamental Limits in Digital Transmission

- The quality of digital transmission can be determined by two parameters: the transmission bit rate and the bit error
rate (i.e., the fraction of bits that are received in error)
- In principle, it is possible to design a system that operates with zero BER even though the channel is noisy
- These two parameters in turn can be determined by the channel bandwidth W, measured in Hz and the SNR at the
receiver input, where the average signal power S and the average noise power N are both measured in watts (W)
- Shannon addressed the question of determining the maximum achievable bit rate at which error-free transmission is
possible over a channel of bandwidth W Hz and of a given SNR, by using sufficiently complex channel coding
- Shannon stated that the channel capacity for a band-limited, power-limited channel with additive white Gaussian
noise (AWGN) is given by the following formula:
𝑆 𝐸 𝑅
𝐶 𝑊 log 1 𝑊 log 1
𝑁 𝑁 𝑊
- Note that the capacity 𝐶 is in bits per second (bps), the limited bandwidth 𝑊 is in Hz, the SNR is in a linear (not
logarithmic) scale, the logarithm is to the base 2, 𝑁 𝑁 𝑊, where 𝑁 represents the noise power spectral density
in Watts/Hz, and 𝑆 𝑅𝐸 , where 𝑅 represents the bit rate in bps and 𝐸 is the bit energy in Joules 𝐽
- The BER can be made arbitrarily small only if the transmission rate 𝑅 is less than the channel capacity 𝐶. However,
the Shannon’s information capacity theorem does not say how to design the system

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 Network Security and Cryptography

The network network security requirements are as follows:

1) Confidentiality, i.e., ensuring the transmitted message is hidden from unauthorized parties.
2) Authentication, i.e., verifying the communicating parties are those they claim to be.
3) Integrity, i.e., confirming that the message content has not been tampered with.
4) Non-repudiation, i.e., not being able to deny the transmission between the two parties has taken place.

Cryptography is the science of making secret communication to make messages secure.

By encryption, an original message, called plaintext, is transformed into a coded message, called ciphertext. The
reverse process is called decryption.
The algorithm used for encryption and decryption is often called a cipher and the process of encryption and decryption
requires a secret key, without which the unauthorized parties must not be able to recover the original message.

A key is a number (value) that the cipher operates on. To encrypt a message, an encryption algorithm, an encryption key,
and the plaintext are needed and to decrypt it, a decryption algorithm, a decryption key, and the ciphertext are required.
The encryption and decryption algorithms are public, that is, anyone can access them, but the keys are secret and thus
need to be protected. There are two broad categories of cryptography: private-key cryptography, also known as
symmetric-key cryptography, and public-key cryptography, also referred to as asymmetric-key cryptography.

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Digital Communication Design Objectives

 Maximize transmission rate (bps)

 Minimize bit error rate
 Minimize signal bandwidth (Hz)
 Minimize transmit power (W)
 Maximize system throughput
 Minimize overhead and signaling bits
 Minimize noise and interference (W)
 Minimize overall delay (s)
 Minimize jitter (s)
 Maximize system security
 Maximize system flexibility
 Maximize system capacity (bps)
 Minimize computational load
 Minimize system complexity
 Maximize system utilization
 Maximize system reliability
 Minimize system cost ($)
 Minimize access/usage fee ($)

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 Digital Communication Design Constraints

 The Shannon capacity theorem (and the Shannon limit)

 The Nyquist theoretical minimum bandwidth requirement
 Source entropy for lossless compression
 Subjective perception for lossy compression
 Government regulations (e.g., frequency allocations, coordination and planning)
 Technological limitations (e.g., state-of-the-art components)
 Laws of nature (e.g., multipath fading, ionospheric propagation)
 De jure and de facto standards (e.g., IEEE, ISO, Bluetooth)
 User device specifications (e.g., aesthetics, size, weight, cost)
 User interface requirements (e.g., user-friendly features, quick responses)
 Mass, power and real estate envelopes (e.g., satellite buses)
 Networking and connectivity requirements (e.g., mobile service coverage)
 Radiation restrictions (e.g., acceptable health hazard in mobile devices)
 Service and traffic differentiation (e.g., user and application priority)
 Maintainability (e.g., ease of testing, monitoring and control)
 Upgrade requirements (e.g., forward and backward compatibility)
 Application requirements (e.g., user traffic patterns and multimedia characteristics)
 Market considerations (e.g., risks, economies of scale, affordability)

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