Wireless Communication and Mobile

Computing
(ECEg5412)
Chapter 1 : Introduction to communication systems

AASTU
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering

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Outline
Chapter 1 : Introduction to communication systems
• Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication
• Some Common wireless mobile radio Systems
• Capacity of Wireless Channels and Shannon spectral efficiency
• Modulation and Multiplexing
• Attenuation and Noise
• Communication Errors and Prevention

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

What is wireless Communication?

• Transfer of information (i.e., voice, data, and multimedia) over a distance
without the use of electrical wires
• Distances involved may be: Short, e.g., bluetooth or large, e.g., satellite
• Information is transmitted using electromagnetic waves Which frequencies
are suitable? A couple of slides later!
• Is a broadcast medium
• Multiple access methods are required
• Transmissions are prone to interference
• Wireless channel is unpredictable, e.g., multipath, mobility System design
is more challenging in wireless than in wired communication

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Why wireless Communication?

• Freedom from wires
• No cost of installing wires or rewiring
• No bunches of wires running here and there
• Instantaneous communications without the need for physical connection setup
(Bluetooth, Wi-Fi)
• These same reasons drive the market ….
• Various emerging standards….IEEE 802.15.3

Global coverage
• Communications can reach where wiring is infeasible or costly – Rural areas, old
buildings, battle fields, outer space, vehicular communications, RFIDs
• Wireless Ad-hoc Networks

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Why wireless Communication?

Stay connected
• Roaming – allows flexibility to stay connected anywhere and anytime
• Rapidly growing market attests to public need for mobility and uninterrupted
access
Flexibility
• Services reach you wherever you go (mobility)
• You don’t have to go to the lab to check your mail
• Connect to multiple devices simultaneously (no need for physical connectivity)
• Increasing dependence on telecommunication services for business and personal
reasons
• Consumers and businesses are willing to pay for it

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Main components of a communication system

• All electronic communication systems have a transmitter, a communication
channel or medium, and a receiver.
• The process of communication begins when a human being generates some kind
of message, data, or other intelligence that must be received by others.
• This message, in the form of an electronic signal, is fed to the transmitter, which
then transmits the message over the communication channel. The message is
picked up by the receiver and relayed to another human.
• Along the way, noise is added in the communication channel and in the receiver.
Noise is the general term applied to any phenomenon that degrades or interferes
with the transmitted information.

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Main components of a communication system

A general model of all communication systems.

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Physical and wireless transmission medias

Transmission is the process of transporting information between end
points of a system or a network. Transmission systems use four basic
media for information transfer from one point to another:
1. Copper cables, such as those used in LANs and telephone subscriber
lines;
2. Optical fiber cables, such as high-data-rate transmission in
telecommunications networks;
3. Radio waves, such as cellular telephones and satellite transmission;
4. Free-space optics, such as infrared remote controllers.

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Physical and wireless transmission medias

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Frequency Allocation

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

United States Frequency Allocation Chart

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

What constitutes a good frequency for wireless communication?

• Suitable for various environments
• Indoor, outdoor
• Penetration of walls, circumvention of obstacles
• Susceptibility to environmental conditions
• E.g., weather (rainfall, fog)
• Different frequencies attenuated differently
• The higher frequency range, the better the BW available but the more the
attenuation As frequency increases, wavelength decreases..
• Complexity of circuitry and antenna size
• Circuit design at high frequency is challenging
• Energy consumption of transmit/receive circuits
• Regulatory aspects and money paid to get license
• Some frequencies are reserved for specific usage, some are free
• Available bandwidth
• The more the money, the longer it takes for the operators’ return
• Slows down rate of new technology introduction
• E.g., Total Cost of 3G Licenses in Europe 110bn Euros

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication

Typical Frequencies and Applications

• FM radio ~ 88 MHz
• TV Broadcast ~ 200 MHz
• GSM phones ~ 900 MHz
• UMTS phones ~ 2GHz
• GPS ~ 1.2 GHZ
• PCS Phones ~ 1.8 GHz
• Bluetooth ~ 2.4 GHz
• WiFi ~ 2.4 GHz
• Around 2 GHz is the ISM band
• Is a license-free band

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Basic concept of wireless/ Radio communication
Spectrum Regulations
Worldwide spectrum controlled by ITU-R
ITU auctions spectral blocks for set applications
Some spectrum set aside for universal use
“Spectral allocation/regulation heavily impacts the evolution of wireless technologies!!”

Standard Bodies
CCIR (Consultative Committee on International Radio)
Study groups for radio spectrum usage and interworking of wireless systems
Radio Communications Sector ITU-R (formally CCIR and IFRB)
World conference, radio regulations
Telecommunication Standardization Sector ITU-T (formally CCITT)
All worldwide wireline and wireless standards
IEEE standards often accepted

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 Some Common wireless mobile radio Systems

• Radio transmission Easily generated, omni-directionally travel long distances,

easily penetrate buildings
• Problems Relative low-bandwidth for data communication
• Tightly licensed by governments

• Microwave transmission Widely used for long distance communications

• Give a high S/N ratio relatively inexpensive
Problems
• Don’t pass through building well – LOS Communication
• Weather and frequency dependent

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Some Common wireless mobile radio Systems

• Infrared and millimeter waves Widely used for millimeter waves – 30 GHz
• Unable to pass through solid objects
• Used for indoor Wireless LANs, not for outdoors – 10m range

• Light-wave transmission Unguided optical signal, such as laser

• Connect two LANs in two buildings via laser mounted on the roofs
• Unidirectional, easy to install, don’t require license
Problems
• Unable to penetrate rain or thick fog
• Laser beam can be easily diverted by turbulent air

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Some Common wireless mobile radio Systems

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Capacity of Wireless Channels and Shannon spectral efficiency

Frequency Carriers/Channels
• The information from sender to receiver is carried over a well-defined frequency band This is
called a channel
• Each channel has a fixed frequency bandwidth and capacity (bit-rate)
• Different frequency bands (channels) can be used to transmit information in parallel and
independently Duplexing and multiplexing techniques are required.

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Frequency channel distribution for the 2.4 GHz band.
Capacity of Wireless Channels and Shannon spectral efficiency

• Variants of duplexing: Simplex, half- and full-duplex

• Simplex: Is a one way communication, i.e., one source transmits and the other
only receives E.g., remote control, radio broadcast
• To enable two-way communication, we can use Frequency as in FDD or Time as in TDD
• Full duplex: Transmission in two way and simultaneously Use two different frequency
bands, called FDD
• Half duplex: Two way transmission but one at a time •Use one frequency band but
peers transmit one after the other, called TDD

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Capacity of Wireless Channels and Shannon spectral efficiency
Variants of duplexing: Simplex, half- and full-duplex

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Capacity of Wireless Channels and Shannon spectral efficiency
FDD: Frequency Division Duplex
• In cellular context
• Downlink channel: from BS to MS
• Uplink channel: from MS to BS
• Downlink and uplink channels use different frequency bands
• Guard band (channel spacing) is used to provide sufficient isolation

TDD: Time Division Duplex

• A singe frequency channel is used
• The channel is divided into time slots (Guard band)
• Mobile station and base station transmit on time slots alternately

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Capacity of Wireless Channels and Shannon spectral efficiency

• The Shannon capacity theorem defines the maximum amount of information, or data capacity,
which can be sent over any channel or medium (wireless, coax, twister pair, fiber etc.).

where
C is the channel capacity in bits per second (or maximum rate of data)
B is the bandwidth in Hz available for data transmission
S is the received signal power
N is the total channel noise power across bandwidth B.
What this says is that higher the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio and more the channel bandwidth, the
higher the possible data rate.
• spectral efficiency or bandwidth efficiency, a cellular network's spectral efficiency is equivalent
to the maximum number of bits of data that can be transmitted to a specified number of users
per second while maintaining an acceptable quality of service.
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Modulation and Multiplexing

• Modulation and multiplexing are electronic techniques for

transmitting information efficiently from one place to another.
• Modulation makes the information signal more compatible with the
medium
• Multiplexing allows more than one signal to be transmitted
concurrently over a single medium. Modulation and multiplexing
techniques are basic to electronic communication.

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Modulation
Baseband Transmission
• Before it can be transmitted, the information or intelligence must be
converted to an electronic signal compatible with the medium.
• For example,
• A microphone changes voice signals (sound waves) into an analog voltage of varying
frequency and amplitude and
• A video camera generates an analog signal that represents the light variations along
one scan line of the picture.
• Binary data is generated by a keyboard attached to a computer.
• Regardless of whether the original information or intelligence signals are
analog or digital, they are all referred to as baseband signals.

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Modulation
Baseband Transmission
• In a communication system, baseband information signals can be sent
directly and unmodified over the medium or can be used to modulate
a carrier for transmission over the medium.
• Putting the original voice, video, or digital signals directly into the
medium is referred to as baseband transmission.
• For example,
• In many telephone and intercom systems, it is the voice itself that is placed on
the wires and transmitted over some distance to the receiver.
• In most computer networks, the digital signals are applied directly to coaxial
or twisted-pair cables for transmission to another computer.

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Modulation
Broadband Transmission
• In many instances, baseband signals are incompatible with the medium.
Although it is theoretically possible to transmit voice signals directly by
radio, realistically it is impractical.
• As a result, the baseband information signal, be it audio, video, or data, is
normally used to modulate a high-frequency signal called a carrier.
• The higher- frequency carriers radiate into space more efficiently than the
baseband signals themselves. Such wireless signals consist of both electric
and magnetic fields.
• These electromagnetic signals, which are able to travel through space for
long distances, are also referred to as radio-frequency (RF) waves, or just
radio waves.

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Modulation
Broadband Transmission
• Modulation is the process of having a baseband voice, video, or digital
signal modify another, higher-frequency signal, the carrier.
• The information or intelligence to be sent is said to be impressed upon the
carrier. The carrier is usually a sine wave generated by an oscillator.
• The carrier is fed to a circuit called a modulator along with the baseband
intelligence signal. The intelligence signal changes the carrier in a unique
way.
• The modulated carrier is amplified and sent to the antenna for
transmission. This process is called broadband transmission.

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Modulation
Broadband Transmission
• Consider the common mathematical expression for a sine wave:

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Modulation

Modulation at the transmitter.

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 Modulation and Multiplexing

Modulation

Types of analog
modulation.
(a) Amplitude modulation.
(b) Frequency modulation.

Transmitting binary
data in analog form.
(a) FSK. (b) PSK.

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Demodulation
• At the receiver, the carrier with the intelligence signal is amplified and
then demodulated to extract the original baseband signal. Another
name for the demodulation process is detection.

Recovering the intelligence signal at the receiver

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Multiplexing
The use of modulation also permits another technique, known as multiplexing, to
be used. Multiplexing is the process of allowing two or more signals to share the
same medium or channel. A multiplexer converts the individual baseband signals to
a composite signal.

Multiplexing at the transmitter 32

Modulation and Multiplexing

Multiplexing
• There are three basic types of multiplexing: frequency division, time division, and
code division.
• In frequency-division multiplexing, the intelligence signals modulate subcarriers
on different frequencies that are then added together, and the composite signal
is used to modulate the carrier. In optical networking, wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM) is equivalent to frequency-division multiplexing for optical
signal.
• In time-division multiplexing, the multiple intelligence signals are sequentially
sampled, and a small piece of each is used to modulate the carrier. If the
information signals are sampled fast enough, sufficient details are transmitted
that at the receiving end the signal can be reconstructed with great accuracy.
• In code-division multiplexing, the signals to be transmitted are converted to
digital data that is then uniquely coded with a faster binary code. The signals
modulate a carrier on the same frequency. All use the same communications
channel simultaneously. The unique coding is used at the receiver to select the
desired signal.

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Modulation and Multiplexing

Demultiplexing
At the receiver, the composite signal is recovered at the demodulator, then sent to
a demultiplexer where the individual baseband signals are regenerated.

Demultiplexing at the receiver

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Attenuation and Noise

Attenuation
• Attenuation refers to a loss introduced by a circuit or component.
• Many electronic circuits, sometimes called stages, reduce the amplitude of a
signal rather than increase it.
• If the output signal is lower in amplitude than the input, the circuit has loss, or
attenuation.
• Like gain, attenuation is simply the ratio of the output to the input. The letter A
is used to represent attenuation as well as gain:

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Attenuation and Noise

Attenuation
• Signal attenuation, or degradation, is inevitable no matter what the medium of
transmission.
• Attenuation is proportional to the square of the distance between the
transmitter and receiver.
• Media are also frequency-selective, in that a given medium will act as a low-pass
filter to a transmitted signal, distorting digital pulses in addition to greatly
reducing signal amplitude over long distances.
• Thus considerable signal amplification, in both the transmitter and the receiver,
is required for successful transmission.
• Any medium also slows signal propagation to a speed slower than the speed of
light.

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Attenuation and Noise

Noise
• Noise is mentioned here because it is the bane of all electronic communications.
• Its effect is experienced in the receiver part of any communications system
• While some noise can be filtered out, the general way to minimize noise is to use
components that contribute less noise and to lower their temperatures.
• The measure of noise is usually expressed in terms of the signal-to-noise (S/N)
ratio (SNR), which is the signal power divided by the noise power and can be
stated numerically or in terms of decibels (dB). Obviously, a very high SNR is
preferred for best performance.
• If the signal is weak and the noise is strong, the S/N ratio will be low and
reception will be unreliable. Communication equipment is designed to produce
the highest feasible S/N ratio.

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Attenuation and Noise

External Noise
• External noise comes from sources over which we have little or no control—
industrial, atmospheric, or space.
• Regardless of its source, noise shows up as a random ac voltage and can be seen
on an oscilloscope. The amplitude varies over a wide range, as does the
frequency. One can say that noise in general contains all frequencies, varying
randomly. This is generally known as white noise.
• Atmospheric noise and space noise are a fact of life and simply cannot be
eliminated.
• Some industrial noise can be controlled at the source, but because there are so
many sources of this type of noise, there is no way to eliminate it.
• The key to reliable communication, then, is simply to generate signals at a high
enough power to overcome external noise. In some cases, shielding sensitive
circuits in metallic enclosures can aid in noise control.
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Attenuation and Noise

External Noise
• Industrial Noise: is produced by manufactured equipment, such as automotive
ignition systems, electric motors, and generators. Any electrical equipment that
causes high voltages or currents to be switched produces transients that create
noise.
• Atmospheric Noise: The electrical disturbances that occur naturally in the earth’s
atmosphere are another source of noise. Atmospheric noise is often referred to as
static. Static usually comes from lightning, the electric discharges that occur
between clouds or between the earth and clouds. Atmospheric noise has its
greatest impact on signals at frequencies below 30MHz.
• Extraterrestrial Noise: solar and cosmic, comes from sources in space. One of the
primary sources of extraterrestrial noise is the sun, which radiates a wide range of
signals in a broad noise spectrum. shows up primarily in the 10-MHz to 1.5-GHz
range, but causes the greatest disruptions in the 15- to 150-MHz range.

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Attenuation and Noise

Internal Noise
• Electronic components in a receiver such as resistors, diodes, and transistors are
major sources of internal noise.
• Internal noise, although it is low level, is often great enough to interfere with
weak signals.
• The main sources of internal noise in a receiver are thermal noise, semiconductor
noise, and intermodulation distortion.
• Since the sources of internal noise are well known, there is some design control
over this type of noise.

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Communication Errors and Prevention

• As you might expect, several types of errors can occur during data transmission.
From a simple blip to a massive outage, transmitted data—both analog and
digital—is susceptible to many types of noise and errors.
• Copper-based media have traditionally been plagued by many types of
interference and noise.
• Wireless transmissions of all kinds are also prone to interference and crosstalk.
Even fiber-optic cables can introduce errors into a transmission system, although
the probability of this happening is less than with other types of media.
• Noise is a problem for both analog and digital signals, and the transmission speed
of the data can affect the significance of the noise.

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Communication Errors and Prevention

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Communication Errors and Prevention

• Despite one’s best efforts to control noise, some noises are inevitable. When the
ratio of noise power to signal power becomes such that the noise overwhelms
the signal, errors occur. It is at this point that error-detection techniques become
valuable tools. Here are some types of errors
• Gaussian noise is a relatively continuous type of noise while impulse noise is a
non-continuous (spike) noise and one of the most difficult errors to detect
because it can occur randomly.
• Crosstalk is an unwanted coupling between two different signal paths, while echo
is the reflective feedback of a transmitted signal as the signal moves through a
medium.
• Jitter is the result of small timing irregularities that become magnified during the
transmission of digital signals as the signals are passed
• Attenuation is the continuous loss of a signal’s strength as it travels through a
medium. It is not necessarily a form of error but can indirectly lead to an increase
in errors affecting the transmitted signal.

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Communication Errors and Prevention

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Communication Errors and Prevention

Errors and Error-Prevention Techniques

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Last Slide

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