Chapter 3

Data and Signals

3.1
 3-4 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

Signals travel through transmission media, which are not

perfect. The imperfection causes signal impairment. This
means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is
not the same as the signal at the end of the medium.
What is sent is not what is received. Three causes of
impairment are attenuation, distortion, and noise.

Topics discussed in this section:

 Attenuation
 Distortion
 Noise

3.2
 Figure 3.25 Causes of impairment

3.3
 Attenuation
 Means loss of energy -> weaker
signal
 When a signal travels through a
medium it loses energy overcoming
the resistance of the medium
 Amplifiers are used to compensate
for this loss of energy by amplifying
the signal.
3.4
 Measurement of
Attenuation
 To show the loss or gain of energy
the unit “decibel” is used.

dB = 10log10P2/P1
P1 - input signal
P2 - output signal

3.5
 Figure 3.26 Attenuation

3.6
 Example 3.26

Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium

and its power is reduced to one-half. This means that P 2
is (1/2)P1. In this case, the attenuation (loss of power)
can be calculated as

A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-half

the power.
3.7
 Example 3.27

A signal travels through an amplifier, and its power is

increased 10 times. This means that P2 = 10P1 . In this
case, the amplification (gain of power) can be calculated
as

3.8
 Example 3.28

One reason that engineers use the decibel to measure the

changes in the strength of a signal is that decibel
numbers can be added (or subtracted) when we are
measuring several points (cascading) instead of just two.
In Figure 3.27 a signal travels from point 1 to point 4. In
this case, the decibel value can be calculated as

3.9
 Figure 3.27 Decibels for Example 3.28

3.10
 Example 3.29

Sometimes the decibel is used to measure signal power

in milliwatts. In this case, it is referred to as dBm and is
calculated as dBm = 10 log10 Pm , where Pm is the power
in milliwatts. Calculate the power of a signal with dB m =
−30.

Solution
We can calculate the power in the signal as

3.11
 Example 3.30

The loss in a cable is usually defined in decibels per

kilometer (dB/km). If the signal at the beginning of a
cable with −0.3 dB/km has a power of 2 mW, what is the
power of the signal at 5 km?
Solution
The loss in the cable in decibels is 5 × (−0.3) = −1.5 dB.
We can calculate the power as

3.12
3.13
 Distortion
 Means that the signal changes its form or
shape
 Distortion occurs in composite signals
 Each frequency component has its own
propagation speed traveling through a
medium.
 The different components therefore arrive
with different delays at the receiver.
 That means that the signals have
different phases at the receiver than they
did at the source.

3.14
 Figure 3.28 Distortion

3.15
3.16
 Noise
 There are different types of noise
 Thermal - random noise of electrons in
the wire creates an extra signal
 Induced - from motors and appliances,
devices act are transmitter antenna
and medium as receiving antenna.
 Crosstalk - same as above but
between two wires.
 Impulse - Spikes that result from
power lines, lighning, etc.

3.17
 Figure 3.29 Noise

3.18
 Signal to Noise Ratio
(SNR)
 To measure the quality of a system
the SNR is often used. It indicates
the strength of the signal wrt the
noise power in the system.
 It is the ratio between two powers.
 It is usually given in dB and
referred to as SNRdB.

3.19
 Example 3.31

The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the

noise is 1 μW; what are the values of SNR and SNRdB ?

Solution
The values of SNR and SNRdB can be calculated as
follows:

3.20
 Example 3.32

The values of SNR and SNRdB for a noiseless channel

are

We can never achieve this ratio in real life; it is an ideal.

3.21
 Figure 3.30 Two cases of SNR: a high SNR and a low SNR

3.22
 3-5 DATA RATE LIMITS

A very important consideration in data communications

is how fast we can send data, in bits per second, over a
channel. Data rate depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)

Topics discussed in this section:

 Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate
 Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity
 Using Both Limits

3.23
 Note

Increasing the levels of a signal

increases the probability of an error
occurring, in other words it reduces the
reliability of the system. Why??

3.24
 Capacity of a System
 The bit rate of a system increases with an
increase in the number of signal levels we
use to denote a symbol.
 A symbol can consist of a single bit or “n”
bits.
 The number of signal levels = 2n.
 As the number of levels goes up, the
spacing between level decreases ->
increasing the probability of an error
occurring in the presence of transmission
impairments.

3.25
 Nyquist Theorem
 Nyquist gives the upper bound for the bit
rate of a transmission system by
calculating the bit rate directly from the
number of bits in a symbol (or signal
levels) and the bandwidth of the system
(assuming 2 symbols/per cycle and first
harmonic).
 Nyquist theorem states that for a
noiseless channel:
C = 2 B log22n
C= capacity in bps
B = bandwidth in Hz
3.26
 Example 3.33

Does the Nyquist theorem bit rate agree with the

intuitive bit rate described in baseband transmission?

Solution
They match when we have only two levels. We said, in
baseband transmission, the bit rate is 2 times the
bandwidth if we use only the first harmonic in the worst
case. However, the Nyquist formula is more general than
what we derived intuitively; it can be applied to baseband
transmission and modulation. Also, it can be applied
when we have two or more levels of signals.
3.27
 Example 3.34

Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000

Hz transmitting a signal with two signal levels. The
maximum bit rate can be calculated as

3.28
 Example 3.35

Consider the same noiseless channel transmitting a

signal with four signal levels (for each level, we send 2
bits). The maximum bit rate can be calculated as

3.29
 Example 3.36

We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with

a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How many signal levels do we
need?
Solution
We can use the Nyquist formula as shown:

Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either

increase the number of levels or reduce the bit rate. If we
have 128 levels, the bit rate is 280 kbps. If we have 64
levels, the bit rate is 240 kbps.
3.30
 Shannon’s Theorem
 Shannon’s theorem gives the
capacity of a system in the
presence of noise.

C = B log2(1 + SNR)

3.31
 Example 3.37

Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value

of the signal-to-noise ratio is almost zero. In other
words, the noise is so strong that the signal is faint. For
this channel the capacity C is calculated as

This means that the capacity of this channel is zero

regardless of the bandwidth. In other words, we cannot
receive any data through this channel.

3.32
 Example 3.38

We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a

regular telephone line. A telephone line normally has a
bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is usually
3162. For this channel the capacity is calculated as

This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line
is 34.860 kbps. If we want to send data faster than this,
we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or
improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
3.33
 Example 3.39

The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels.

Assume that SNRdB = 36 and the channel bandwidth is 2
MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be calculated
as

3.34
 Example 3.40

For practical purposes, when the SNR is very high, we

can assume that SNR + 1 is almost the same as SNR. In
these cases, the theoretical channel capacity can be
simplified to

For example, we can calculate the theoretical capacity of

the previous example as

3.35
 Example 3.41

We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR

for this channel is 63. What are the appropriate bit rate
and signal level?

Solution
First, we use the Shannon formula to find the upper
limit.

3.36
 Example 3.41 (continued)

The Shannon formula gives us 6 Mbps, the upper limit.

For better performance we choose something lower, 4
Mbps, for example. Then we use the Nyquist formula to
find the number of signal levels.

3.37
 Note

The Shannon capacity gives us the

upper limit; the Nyquist formula tells us
how many signal levels we need.

3.38
 Example 3.43

If the telephone company improves the quality of the line

and increases the bandwidth to 8 kHz, we can send
112,000 bps by using the same technology as mentioned
in Example 3.42.

3.39
 Example 3.44

A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an

average of 12,000 frames per minute with each frame
carrying an average of 10,000 bits. What is the
throughput of this network?

Solution
We can calculate the throughput as

The throughput is almost one-fifth of the bandwidth in

this case.
3.40
 Propagation & Transmission
delay
 Propagation speed - speed at which
a bit travels though the medium
from source to destination.
 Transmission speed - the speed at
which all the bits in a message arrive
at the destination. (difference in
arrival time of first and last bit)

3.41
 Propagation and Transmission
Delay
 Propagation Delay = Distance/Propagation
speed

 Transmission Delay = Message size/bandwidth

bps

 Latency = Propagation delay + Transmission

delay + Queueing time + Processing time

3.42
 Example 3.45

What is the propagation time if the distance between the

two points is 12,000 km? Assume the propagation speed
to be 2.4 × 108 m/s in cable.

Solution
We can calculate the propagation time as

The example shows that a bit can go over the Atlantic

Ocean in only 50 ms if there is a direct cable between the
source and the destination.
3.43
 Example 3.46

What are the propagation time and the transmission

time for a 2.5-kbyte message (an e-mail) if the
bandwidth of the network is 1 Gbps? Assume that the
distance between the sender and the receiver is 12,000
km and that light travels at 2.4 × 108 m/s.

Solution
We can calculate the propagation and transmission time
as shown on the next slide:

3.44
 Example 3.46 (continued)

Note that in this case, because the message is short and

the bandwidth is high, the dominant factor is the
propagation time, not the transmission time. The
transmission time can be ignored.

3.45
 Example 3.47

What are the propagation time and the transmission

time for a 5-Mbyte message (an image) if the bandwidth
of the network is 1 Mbps? Assume that the distance
between the sender and the receiver is 12,000 km and
that light travels at 2.4 × 108 m/s.

Solution
We can calculate the propagation and transmission
times as shown on the next slide.

3.46
 Example 3.47 (continued)

Note that in this case, because the message is very long

and the bandwidth is not very high, the dominant factor
is the transmission time, not the propagation time. The
propagation time can be ignored.

3.47
 Figure 3.31 Filling the link with bits for case 1

3.48
 Example 3.48

We can think about the link between two points as a

pipe. The cross section of the pipe represents the
bandwidth, and the length of the pipe represents the
delay. We can say the volume of the pipe defines the
bandwidth-delay product, as shown in Figure 3.33.

3.49
 Figure 3.32 Filling the link with bits in case 2

3.50
 Note

The bandwidth-delay product defines

the number of bits that can fill the link.

3.51
 Figure 3.33 Concept of bandwidth-delay product

3.52