CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION TO
COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS
 OVERVIEW ON COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS
TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENTS

Figure 1.1 : (a) Basic block diagram for communication (b) example
 Transmitter
Base band Modulation and Transmission
Signal source (Electromagn
converter power
amplification etic Field)

Subsystem
synchronization

 Receiver

Amplification and Base band Base band

demodulation inverter processing

Electromagnetic Synchronization
field system

Figure 1.2 : (a) Basic transmitter block diagram (b) basic receiver.
 Terminology
 Electronic communication : transmission, reception
and processing of information between 2 or more
locations using electronic circuit.
 Information : analog or digital signal that had been
converted to electromagnetic energy
 Transmitter : collection of one or more electronic
devices or circuits. That convert the original source into a
signal that is more suitable for transmission over a given
transmission medium
 Receiver : collection of electronic devices and circuits
that accepts the transmitted signal from the transmission
medium and converts them back to their original form
 Base band converter: to convert the signal source into
base band waveform for the carrier signal before
transmission. Can be either analog or digital system.
 Subsystem synchronization: synchronizing connection
between the TX and RX for recovery processes.
 Transmission medium: provides a means of
transporting signal from the TX to the RX.
 eg : copper wire (signal as electrical current flow), optical fiber
cable (signal in e/magnetic light wave), free space (signal in
e/magnetic radio wave)
 Transmission impairments : any undesired effect on
the signals while traveling from the transmitter to the
receiver, such as noise, attenuation, interference and
other losses caused by the atmosphere or the medium
itself.
 Noise: random, undesired electrical energy that enters
the communication system via the communication media
(i.e. inserted between TX and RX) and interferes with the
transmitted message.
 Attenuation : drop in signal power due to distance travel
by the signal.
 Interference : noise signal that has the same frequency
as the information signal.
 Types of Signals
analog signal : a continuously varying
voltage or current
e.g. sound, video

digital signal : binary pulses

or codes

Figure 1.3 : Examples of signals (a) analog (b) digital.

Analog Signals
 Components of Speech
 Frequency range (of hearing) 20 Hz-20 kHz
 Speech 100Hz-7kHz
 Easily converted into electromagnetic signal for transmission
 Sound frequencies with varying volume converted into
electromagnetic frequencies with varying voltage
 Limit frequency range for voice channel ~ 300-3400Hz
 Digital Signal
 From computer terminals etc.
 Bandwidth depends on data rate
 Electromagnetic Wave

Figure 3 : Electromagnetic wave

E: Electric fields B: Magnetic fields

 ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
 Electromagnetic wave is a signal where its electrical
and magnetic field change at fixed rate.
 Frequency range for communication start roughly from
200kHz until few giga Hertz (GHz).
 Frequency (f)
 no. of times a periodic motion occurs in a given period of time
 Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second
 Period = time for one repetition (T)
 T = 1/ f
 cycle
 one complete alternation of a waveform
 wavelength ()
 distance traveled by an electromagnetic wave during one period
 = cT f = c
c = 3 x 108 ms-1 (speed of light in free space)
 Designation Freq. Range (Hz)  range (m)
ELF 30 – 300 107 – 106
VF 300 – 3 k 106 – 105
VLF 3 k – 30 k 105 – 104
LF 30 k – 300 k 104 – 103
MF 300 k – 3 M 103 – 102
HF 3 M – 30 M 102 – 101
VHF 30 M – 300 M 101 – 100
UHF 300 M – 3 G 100 – 10-1
SHF 3 G – 30 G 10-1 – 10-2
EHF 30 G – 300 G 10-2 – 10-3

Table 1: Frequency range (a) designation (b) applications

Figure 4 : Electromagnetic spectrum
 Extremely Low Frequency (ELF)
 ac power line distribution (50 and 60 Hz)
 low freq telemetry signal
 Voice Frequency (VF)
 human speech (most intelligent sound)
 Very Low Frequency (VLF)
 upper end of human hearing range
 musical instrument
 government and military (eg. submarine)
 Low Frequency (LF)
 marine and aeronautical navigation
 as subcarriers
 Medium Frequency (MF)
 AM radio broadcasting
 marine and aeronautical comm application
 High Frequency (HF)
 Also known as short wave (SW)
 2-way radio communication
 SW radio broadcast  amateur radio and citizen band (CB)
 Very High Frequency (VHF)
 mobile radio
 marine and aeronautical communication
 FM broadcast
 TV
 amateur radio
 Ultra High Frequency (UHF)
* freq > 1GHz is known as microwave
 TV
 land mobile communication
 cellular phone
 military
 certain radar and navigation system
 microwave and satellite radio system
 amateur radio
 Super High Frequency (SHF)
 microwave and satellite radio system
 radar
 specialized form of 2-way radio
 Extremely High Frequency (EHF)
 seldom used in radio communication except in very sophisticated,
expensive and specialized application
 satellite communication
 Radar
* freq > 300 GHz are not referred as radio wave
 Infrared
 refers to electromagnetic radiation generally associated with heat
 anything that produced heat generate infrared signal
eg : light bulb, human body
 astronomy (to detect stars)
 electronic photography
 heat-seeking guidance system (weapon)
 TV remote control
 visible light
 optical communication
 Bandwidth
 Portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum occupied by the signal
 Frequency range over which a
receiver or other electronic circuits
operate.
 Difference between the upper and
lower limit frequency, limits of the
signal, or equipment operation range
 Channel bandwidth
 Range of frequencies required to
transmit the desired information
 i.e. an audio signal (3kHz) being
modulated by a 1000kHz carrier
signal using AM modulation
 TRANSMISSION MEDIUM
 Guided – coaxial cable, twisted pair, fiber optic,
waveguide.
 Unguided – wireless (terrestrial, spacewave, free space,
earth wave).
 Characteristics and quality determined by medium and
signal.
 For guided, the medium is more important.
 For unguided, the bandwidth produced by the antenna is
more important.
 Key concerns are data rate and distance.
 Characteristics of Guided Media

  Frequency Typical Typical Repeater

Range Attenuation Delay Spacing
Twisted pair 0 to 3.5 kHz 0.2 dB/km @ 50 µs/km 2 km
1 kHz

Twisted pairs 0 to 1 MHz 0.7 dB/km @ 5 µs/km 2 km

(multi-pair 1 kHz
cables)
Coaxial cable 0 to 500 MHz 7 dB/km @ 4 µs/km 1 to 9 km
10 MHz
Optical fiber 186 to 370 0.2 to 0.5 5 µs/km 40 km
THz dB/km
 Characteristics of Wireless Propagation
 Signal travels along three routes
 Ground wave
 Follows contour of earth
 Up to 2MHz
 AM radio
 Sky wave
 2 MHz < f < 30 MHz
 Amateur radio, BBC world service, Voice of America
 Signal refracted from ionosphere layer of upper
atmosphere
 Line of sight
 Above 30MHz
 cellular phone
 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENTS
 Signal received may differ from signal transmitted
 Analog - degradation of signal quality
 Digital - bit errors
 Caused by
 Attenuation and attenuation distortion
 Delay distortion
 Noise
 Attenuation
 Signal strength falls off with distance
 Depends on medium
 Received signal strength:
 must be enough to be detected

 must be sufficiently higher than noise to be received without

error
 Attenuation is an increasing function of frequency
 Delay Distortion
 Propagation velocity varies with frequency
 Noise
 Will be discuss later
 TYPES OF ELECTRONIC
COMMUNICATION
 Can be classified in three ways
 Transmission mode (one-way, two-way)
 Analog or digital system
 Baseband or broadband transmission
 Transmission Mode
 One-way (Simplex)
 info travels in 1 direction only
 receive-only, transmit-only
 eg. Radio and TV broadcasting, telemetry system
 Two-way (duplex)
a) half duplex
 both direction, but only one way at a time
 2-way-alternate, either-way, over-and-out
 e.g. police radio

b) Full duplex
 Both directions at the same time
 2-way-simultaneous, both-way
 e.g. telephone
 Analog And Digital System
 Analog system
 energy is transmitted and received in analog form
 both info and carrier are analog signals

 Digital system
 Digital transmission
 a true digital system where digital pulses are transferred
between 2 or more points
 no analog carrier
 original source info may be in digital or analog signal
 if analog signal  convert to digital pulses prior to
transmission and converted back to analog signal at the RX
 require a physical medium between TX-RX
 Digital radio
 transmission of digitally modulated analog carriers between 2
or more points
 modulating signal and demodulated signals are digital pulses
 the digital pulses could originate from a digital transmission
system, from a digital source i.e. computer, or a binary
encoded analog signal
 transmission medium may be physical facility or free space
 Advantages of Digital Transmission
 Digital technology
 Low cost LSI/VLSI technology

 Data integrity
 Longer distances over lower quality lines

 Capacity utilization
 High bandwidth links economical

 High degree of multiplexing easier with digital techniques

 Security & Privacy

 Encryption

 Integration
 Can treat analog and digital data similarly
 Baseband And Broadband Transmission
 Baseband transmission
 putting the original signal directly into the medium
 Baseband: 
Digital signals are used, but it can also be used with analog
technologies.
Frequency division multiplexing is not possible
Baseband is bi-directional transmission
Short distance signal travelling
Entire bandwidth of the cable is consumed by a single signal in a
baseband transmission.
 Eg : (i) Ethernet
 Broadband transmission
 original signal is used to modulate a carrier for transmission
over the medium
 Broadband:
Analog signals are used
Transmission of data is unidirectional
Signal travelling distance is long
Frequency division multiplexing is possible
The signals are sent on multiple frequencies and allow all the
multiple signals are sent simultaneously in broadband
transmission. 
 Eg : (i) Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Cable Television
Networks
Analog Signals Carrying Analog and Digital Data
Digital Signals Carrying Analog and Digital Data
 Encoding Techniques
 Digital data, digital signal
 Analog data, digital signal
 Digital data, analog signal
 Analog data, analog signal
 Digital Data, Digital Signal
 Need to know
 Timing of bits - when they start and end
 Signal levels
 Factors affecting successful interpreting of signals
 Signal to noise ratio
 Data rate
 Bandwidth
 Example
 Nonreturn to Zero-Level (NRZ-L)
 Nonreturn to Zero Inverted (NRZI)
 Bipolar -AMI
 Pseudoternary
 Manchester
 Differential Manchester
 B8ZS
 HDB3
 Digital Data, Analog Signal
 Public telephone system
 300Hz to 3400Hz
 Use modem (modulator
-demodulator)

Example
 Amplitude shift keying (ASK)
 Frequency shift keying (FSK)
 Phase shift keying (PSK)
 Analog Data, Digital Signal

 Digitization
 Conversion of analog data into digital data
 Digital data can then be transmitted using digital encoding such as
NRZ-L
 Digital data can then be converted to analog signal
 Analog to digital conversion done using a codec
 Example
 Pulse code modulation
 Delta modulation
 Analog Data, Analog Signals
 modulate analog signals to the
higher frequency
 Types of analog modulation
 Amplitude
 Frequency
 Phase
 Modulation : process of
changing one or more
properties (amplitude,
frequency, phase) of the
carrier in proportion with the
info signal
 MODULATION
 Why?
 It is extremely difficult to radiate low frequency signals from
an antenna in the form of electromagnetic energy
 it is possible theoretically but impractical realistically

c= f
f , 
 antenna length usually 1/2 or 1/4 of 

  for voice signal (300 - 3000 Hz), require very large

antenna  expensive to construct and consume more pore

(arperture).
 Info signal often occupy the same frequency band, and if
signals from 2 or more sources are transmitted at the same
time, they would interfere with each other
 i.e. all commercial FM station broadcast voice and music

signals that occupy the AF from 300 Hz - 15 kHz

 to avoid interference, each station converts its into to a

different frequency band

 more space at higher frequency  many channels can be

formed to carry many simultaneous communication without

interference
 Modulation Techniques
let v(t) = Vc sin (2ft + )
 general expression for a time varying sine wave of voltage as a high
frequency carrier signal

modulating signal modulation performed

analog AM FM PM
l l l
v(t) = Vc sin (2 . f . t + )
l l l
digital ASK FSK PSK

QAM
 MULTIPLEXING
 Transmission of info from more than one source over the
same transmission medium
 increase the no. of communication channel  more info
transmitted  reduce cost and higher utilization of the
transmission line
 Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)
 Multiple signals share common BW of a single
communication channel
 Useful BW of medium exceeds required bandwidth of
channel
 each signal occupies a separate portion of the BW
 Each signal modulates a different sub-carrier freq
 Sub-carriers are linearly mixed to form a composite
signal that is usually used to modulate a final carrier for
transmission
 carrier frequencies separated so signals do not overlap
(guard bands)
 Channel allocated even if no data
•
 at the RX, the recovering
of the individual signal is
done with a DEMUX
whose main component is
BPF tuned to the individual
sub-carrier freq.
 For analog signal, i.e.
radio broadcast
FDM System
 Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
 Each channel is assigned a time
slot and may transmit for a brief
period using the entire BW of the
medium
 Data rate of medium exceeds
data rate of digital signal to be
transmitted
 signal sources takes times to
transmit
 Time slots do not have to be
evenly distributed amongst
sources
 for both analog and digital signal
TDM System
TDM of Analog and Digital Sources
 Wavelength Division Multiplexing
(WDM)
 Similar of FDM
 coupling light at 2 or more discrete wavelengths,  into
and out of an optical fiber
 Multiple beams of light at different frequency
 Each colour of light () carries separate data channel
 unlike FDM (same time, same transmission path),
different  travels at different speed and did not take the
same path, but enter the fiber at the same time and
same transmission medium
 each arrives at the RX at a slightly different time
 WDM System

Laser optic source

1 1
2 2
Fiber cable To laser
optical
detector
1,  2 …..  n

n n
 Gain
 Ratio output to the input
 Output has greater amplitude than the input
output Vout
AV  
input Vin

FIgure 1.4 Amplifier Gain

 Most amplifiers are power amplifier, the same procedure can be

used to calculate power gain, Ap.
Ap = Pout/Pin
Example 1.1
What is the gain of an amplifier that produces an output of 750 mV for
30 V input?

Example 1.2
The power output of an amplifier is 6 W. The power gain is 80. What is
the input power?

Example 1.3
Three cascade amplifier have power gains of 5, 2, and 17. The input
power is 40 mW. What is the output power?
 Attenuation
 Refers to loss introduced by a circuit
 Output is less than input
Vout
Attenuation A 
Vin
 For cascade circuit, total attenuation is
AT=A1  A2  A3 …..
 Voltage divider network may introduce attenuation

Figure 1.5 Voltage divider introduces attenuation

 Figure 1.6 Total attenuation in cascaded network

 Attenuation can be offset by introducing gain

Figure 1.7 Gain offsets the attenuation

Figure 1.8 Total gain is the product of the individual stage gains and attenuation
Example 1.4
A voltage divider shown in Figure 1.7 has values of R1 = 10k and R2
= 47k.
1. What is the attenuation?
2. What amplifier gain would you need to offset the loss for an
overall gain of 1?
Example 1.5
An amplifier has gain of 45,000, which is too much for the amplification.
With an input voltage of 20 V, what attenuation factor is needed to
keep the output voltage from exceeding 100mV? Let A1= amplifier gain
= 45,000; A2 = attenuation factor; AT = total gain.
 Bit Error Rate
 Another significant measure of system performance in term of noise
is bit error rate (BER)
 Specify the number of bits that are corrupted or destroy as data are
transmitted from TX to the RX
 BER of 10-6 indicate that 1 bit out of 1 million bits is corrupted in the
transmission
 Several factor contribute to BER is
 Bandwidth
 Transmission speed
 Transmission medium
 Environment
 Transmission distance
 Transmitter and receiver performance
 Power Measurement - Decibel
 Decibel (dB) is a log unit that can be used to measure ratios.
 Power ratio in communication is usually expressed in dB.
 Logarithmic nature of dB  large range in power ratios is compressed
dB = 10 log10 (P1/P2)

 Voltage or current ratios can also be expressed in dB

Vout
For votage dB  20 log
Vin
I ou t
For current dB  20 log
I in
Pout
For power dB  10 log
Pin
 Gain and attenuation often expressed in decibels, rather than
absolute value
 Using decibel, total gain or attenuation can be calculated by simply
adding the gains and the attenuation expressed in decibel.
 Beside performing ratio operation, decibel is also used to expressed
power in communication.
 A notation is added after the dB simbol
 dBW, dBm, dB etc.
 For dBm, reference level  1mW
 A larger unit, dBW has reference value of 1W.
 dBm and dBW are decibel units used for expressing power in
communication.
dB to power ratio
 dBm and dBW are often used for power measurement in
communication.
 dB units with respect to some fix reference levels
 For dBm, reference level  1mW
dBm = 10 log10 (P / 1 mW)
 A larger unit, dBW has reference value of 1W.

Power in mW dBm
0.01 -20
0.1 -10
0.5 -3
1 0
2 3
10 10
100 20
1000 30
Example 1.6
A microphone has output value of -50dBm, calculate the actual output
power?
 Example 1.7
For a three-stage system with an input power Pin = -20
dBm and power gains of the three stages are 13 dB, 16 dB,
and -6 dB, determine the output power:

1. in dBm
2. in mW