Noise in Communication System

Dr. Shuvabrata Bandopadhaya

 What is a communication system?
• Communication is the process of transmitting information from one point to another.

• It has three components:

1. Transmitter
2. Receiver
3. Channel (Communication Path)
 What is Noise?
• In a communication system, during the transmission of a signal, or while receiving the
signal, some unwanted signal enters the communication system via communicating
medium, and interferes with the transmitted signal.
• Such a disturbance is called as Noise.
• A noise signal has no pattern and no constant frequency or amplitude.
• It is quite random and unpredictable.

• Measures are usually taken to reduce it,

though it can’t be completely eliminated.

• Most common examples of noise are −

i. Hiss sound in radio receivers
ii. Buzz sound during telephone conversations
 Adverse Effect of Noise
• Noise in a communication system is undesirable or unwanted signals that
get randomly added to the actual information carrying signal.

• The presence of noise in the system causes interference in the signal being
transmitted.

• Practically, the addition of noise over the information carrying signal is an

unavoidable phenomenon.

• Due to the reduction in the quality of signal the receiver experiences

difficulty in demodulating the transmitted signal.

• This eventually reduces system efficiency.

Types of Noise in Communication
System
• Noise in the communication system is mainly classified on the basis of the source
that generates that noise.

• So, on the basis of source noise in the communication channel are of 2 types:
 External Noise
• This type of noise is generated from outside of the communication system.
• It is difficult to eliminate or analyze.

• Various sources of external noises are:

1. Natural Noise: It is caused due to natural phenomena like

a. atmospheric disturbances like lightning, rain etc.,
b. extraterrestrial disturbances like solar or cosmic radiations etc.

2. Man-made/ Industrial Noise:

These are basically the electrical noise that gets produced by the wear and tear of the
circuit, electric motors, high current circuits, florescent lights, switch gears etc.
 Internal Noise
• These type of noise that gets generated by the electronic equipments involved in
the system itself.
• It is an integral part of the system.
• It can be mathematically/ statistically analyzed
• With proper designing of the communication system, the effect of these noise can
be reduced.
• Types of such noises are:
1. Thermal noise
2. Shot noise
3. Partition noise
4. Flicker noise
5. Transit-time noise
Thermal Noise/ Johnson noise
• It is the major source of noise in the communication system

• It is generated in a resistive element due to rapid and random motion of electrons.

• According to kinetic theory of thermodynamics, noise power is proportional to the

absolute temperature.

• The noise power is also proportional to the bandwidth over witch the noise is
measured.

= Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38X10-23 Joule/degree kelvin

Other Noises:
• Shot Noise: Shot noise in a communication channel is the result of random
variation in the appearance of electrons and holes at the output side of the
device.

• Partition Noise: It gets generated when the system is composed of multiple paths,
and during the flow, the current gets divided in these paths. (Transistors offer
more partition noise than pn junction diode)

• Flicker Noise: It is also known as low-frequency noise and it occurs because of the
variation in the carrier density.

• Transit Time Noise: It is also known as high-frequency noise. It arises when the
charge carriers require comparatively more time to travel from one end to
another within the conductor.
Characteristics of Thermal Noise
• Thermal noise also referred as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) that
originates due to the following three terms:
1. Additive
2. White
3. Gaussian

Additive Noise: Received signal voltage is summation of original signal

voltage plus Noise signal voltage
White Noise
• The power spectral density (PSD) of noise is white in nature.

• What is PSD?
PSD of a power signal is a frequency domain function that describes the
distribution of power into frequency components composing that signal.

Unit: Watt/ Hz
• Wiener–Khinchin theorem: It states that power spectral density function and
auto-correlation function of a signal are Fourier transform pair.
PSD in White nature?
• The white color which is composed of all frequencies in the visible
spectrum.
• Similarly, the white noise has uniform power across the whole frequency
band.
• The Power Spectral Density (PSD) of white noise is constant for all
frequencies ranging from −∞ to +∞

Double sided spectrum

• Autocorrelation function of White noise:
It is obtained by taking inverse Fourier transform of its PSD.
It is an unit impulse function

A white noise process has an autocorrelation function of zero at all lags except a
value of unity at lag zero, to indicate that the process is completely uncorrelated.
Effect of filter on white noise: Bandpass Noise
Ex:
Given a white noise of one-sided PSD
0.001µW/ Hz is feed to an ideal low
pass filter of bandwidth 1kHz. Find
the output noise power.

Sol.
•Noise PSD

•Noise Power
Gaussian Noise
• The amplitude values of the noise samples are random.

• Its probability distribution follows a Gaussian distribution.

• A random variable follows Gaussian distribution is represented as

• Here, = Mean, = Variance (Avg. Power)

• PFD for a Gaussian random variable:

 Properties:

1. Value is most-likely (highest

probability) at
2. It shows an even symmetry
around its mean value:
3. Area under the curve is unity
(total probability)

For noise in communication system:

i.e Zero mean

= Avg Noise power

Thermal noise model of a resistor
• Random fluctuation of the charge carriers due to thermal agitation results in
random fluctuation in voltage across the resistor referred as noise voltage.

• The thermal noise of a resistor is modeled as a rms voltage source series

with its resistance.

• Average/ mean value of the noise waveform is zero

• The variance is non-zero, i.e. the signal power is
non-zero

• Available noise power: It is the maximum power

could be delivered to the load. It occurs when
load has same resistance as the noise source.

• The r.m.s. value of noise voltage source,

• Ex 1: An amplifier operating over the frequency range from 18 to 20 MHz has a
10kΩ input resistor. Calculate the rms voltage at the input to the amplifier if the
ambient temperature is 27oC
• Sol.
B = 20-18 = 2MHz T = 273+ 27 =300oK
R = 10kΩ = 1.38X10-23 Joule/degree kelvin

• Ex 2: Calculate the rms noise voltage at the input of a video amplifier using a device
having 300Ω equivalent noise resistance and 400Ω input resistor. The bandwidth of
the amplifier is 7MHz. Consider absolute temperature is 300 oK
• Sol: R = 300 + 400 =700Ω
B = 7MHz, T = 300oK

=9
 Signal to noise power ratio (SNR)

•
Noise Figure
Noise figure (NF) of a circuit/ system is a measure of degradation of signal’s
SNR due to noise added by a circuit/ system when signal is passing through it.

Noise figure (NF) is decibel expression of Noise Factor (F):

Noise Factor: It is the ratio of SNR at the input of the system to the SNR at the
output of the system
= Input Signal Power
= Output Signal Power
= Input Noise Power
= Output Noise Power
= Noise power added by the circuit
NF of a Resistive load
= Power gain of the circuit

•Putting and

𝑅𝑠
𝐹 =1 +
𝑅𝐿
Noise Temperature
• For a thermal noise source, the noise power is proportional to the ambient/
physical temperature.
• But for non-thermal white noise source, temperature is not the driving
parameter.
• However, during noise analysis, available noise power of a component or
amplifier need to be represented in terms of temperature equivalent.
• It is the equivalent temperature at which a resistor connected at the input of
the component (noiseless) produce the same noise as the real component or
amplifier.
• Noise temperature is equivalent temperature but not the real temperature of
the amplifier
• If the available noise power of a non-thermal white noise source is , then noise
temperature is
•Noise power added by the circuit:
•Input Noise Power:

=>
Ex: Determine the receiver’s noise figure and equivalent noise temperature if the
equivalent noise temperature of the receiver is 30Ω and is connected to an antenna
of impedance 50Ω. Assume room temperature is
Sol:
Noise factor:

Noise figure:

Noise temperature:
Cascaded Noise Figure

Cascaded noise factor of n-stage amplifier:

Cascaded noise figure:

Ex: Three amplifiers are connected in cascade. The gains of the amplifiers are
10, 10 and 25 with corresponding noise factors 1.4, 2 and 3.6. Calculate
cascaded gain in dB and noise figure of the cascaded system.

Cascaded gain = 34dB

Noise Figure = 1.836dB

Ex: Calculate Noise figure of the receiver chain shown below.

NF (dB) = 10 * LOG (2.03)

= 3.07

Noise Figure of above receiver chain = 3.07dB

F = 1.58 + (1.26-1)/0.63 + (2-1)/(0.63*100) + (1.58-1)/(0.63*100*0.5)

F = 2.03
 Free space link calculation
Free space path loss is the loss in signal strength of a signal as it travels through free space.
It is used to predict the strength of a RF signal at a particular distance.

Ex: Calculate the free space path loss in dB if the Tx and Rx antennas are separated by 1km.
Operating frequency is 300MHz. The gain of Tx and Rx antennas are 3dB and 5dB respectively.

Ans: 73.98242509dB