CHAPTER ONE

Analysis and Transmission of Signals

 OUTLINES:
 Introduction
 Communication System
 Components of Communication System
 Modes & Types of Communication Systems
 Analog & digital Communication.
 Analysis of deterministic signals in frequency domain
 Signal transmission in baseband
 Signal distortion in transmission
 Frequency allocation
 EM wave propagation
Brain Storming!

• Communication?

• Barriers to Human communication?

• Long distance communication during the oldest/ancient time?

Introduction
 Communication is the process of exchanging information.
People communicate to convey their thoughts, ideas, and
feelings to others.
 The process of communication is inherent to all human life
and includes verbal, nonverbal (body language), print, and
electronic processes.
 Two of the main barriers to human communication are
language and distance. Language barriers arise between
persons of different cultures or nationalities.
 Communicating over long distances is another problem.
Communication between early human beings was limited to
face-to-face encounters.
 Long-distance communication was first accomplished by
sending simple signals (drumbeats, horn blasts, and smoke
signals..)
 For many years, long-distance communication was limited to
the sending of verbal or written messages by human runner,
horseback, ship, and later trains.
 Human communication took a dramatic leap forward in the
late 19th century when electricity was discovered and its many
applications were explored.
 The telegraph was invented in 1844 and the telephone in 1876.
Radio was discovered in 1887 and demonstrated in 1895.
 Well-known forms of electronic communication, such as the
telephone, radio, TV, and the Internet, have increased our ability
to share information.
Figure 1-1 Milestones in the history of electronic communication.
What is a communication system?
 Communication systems are designed to transmit information.
 It is the process of conveying/transferring information from
source to destination/receiver to transmitter at a distance.
 There are three essential parts of any communication system:
1.Transmitter
2.Channel
3.Receiver
Figure 1-2: A general model of all communication systems.
The communication process

In most fundamental sense, communication involves implicitly

the transmission of information from one point to another
through a succession of processes, as described here:
1. The generation of a message signal: voice, music, picture, or
computer data.

2. The description of that message signal with a certain measure

of precision, by a set of symbols: electrical, aural, or visual.
3. The encoding of these symbols in a form that is suitable for
transmission over a physical medium of interest.
4. The transmission of the encoded symbols to the desired
destination.
5. The decoding and reproduction of the original symbols.

6. The re-creation of the original message signal, with a

definable degradation in quality; the degradation is caused by
imperfections in the system.
 The process of communication begins when a human being
generates some kind of message, data, or other intelligence that
must be received by others.
 A message may also be generated by a computer or electronic
current.
 In electronic communication systems, the message is referred
to as information, or an intelligence signal. 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.
Transmitter
The first step in sending a message is to convert it into
electronic form suitable for transmission.
 For voice messages, a microphone is used to translate the
sound into an electronic audio signal.
 For TV, a camera converts the light information in the scene to
a video signal.
 In computer systems, the message is typed on a keyboard and
converted to binary codes that can be stored in memory or
transmitted serially.
 Transducers convert physical characteristics (temperature,
pressure, light intensity, etc.) into electrical signals.
 The transmitter itself is a collection of electronic components
and circuits designed to convert the electrical signal to a signal
suitable for transmission over a given communication medium.
 Transmitters are made up of oscillators, amplifiers, tuned
circuits and filters, modulators, frequency mixers, frequency
synthesizers, and other circuits.
The original intelligence signal usually modulates a higher-
frequency carrier sine wave generated by the transmitter, and
the combination is raised in amplitude by power amplifiers,
resulting in a signal that is compatible with the selected
transmission medium.
 The transmitter is the electronic unit that accepts the
information signal to be transmitted and converts it into RF
signal capable of being transmitted over long distances.
 The transmitter processes the input signal to produce a
transmitted signal suited to the characteristics of the
transmission channel.
 Signal processing for transmission almost always
involves modulation and may also include coding.
Every transmitter has three basic requirements.
1. It must generate a carrier signal of the direct frequency.
2. It must provide some sort of modulation.
3. It must proved sufficient power amplification to insure that the
signal level is high enough to carry to the desired distance.
Communication Channel
 The electrical medium that bridges the distance from source to
destination.
 Is the medium by which the electronic signal is sent from one
place to another.
 In other words, it is the path in which signals travel from
transmitter to receiver.
 Many different types of media are used in communication
systems, including wire conductors, fiber-optic cable, and free
space.
 Very general classification of channels is:
1. Wireline: In its simplest form, the medium may simply be a
pair of wires that carry the signal from one end to another.
 The line/wire may be
1. Twisted pair cable,
2. Coaxial cable
3. Fiber-optic cables.
a). Twisted-pair cable: Pair of copper wires constitutes a single
communication link. Most common medium.
• Twists minimize the effects of electromagnetic interference

Example of application:
-Telephone network
-local-area network (LAN).
b). Coaxial cables: are preferred over a pair of wires, because they
provide greater bandwidth, lower losses & much lower crosstalk.

b) Coaxial cable
• Example of application:
-used to carry cable TV signals
-Long distance telephone transmission
Fiber-optic cables are logical extension of coaxial cables, which
allow high operating frequency, provide greater band width,
immune to crosstalk and electromagnetic interference. They carry
the message on a light wave.

c) Optical fiber
• Example of application: widely used to carry long-distance calls
and all Internet communications.
2. Wireless or radio: wireless, radio is the broad general term
applied to any form of wireless communication from one point to
another.
• It requires no physical wires between transmitter and receiver to
carry the signal, and the signal is sent through free space or air in
the form of electromagnetic wave.
• Radio makes use of the electromagnetic spectrum. Intelligence
signals are converted to electric and magnetic fields that
propagate nearly instantaneously through space over long
distances.
Receiver
 Is a collection of electronic components and circuits that
accepts the transmitted message from the channel and converts
it back to a form understandable by humans.

 Operates on the output signal from the channel in preparation

for delivery to the transducer at the destination.
 Receivers contain amplifiers, oscillators, mixers, tuned
circuits and filters, and a demodulator or detector that recovers
the original intelligence signal from the modulated carrier.
 Receiver operations include amplification to compensate for
transmission loss), and demodulation and decoding to reverse
the signal-processing performed at the transmitter. Filtering is
another important function at the receiver.

Transceiver
 Most electronic communication is two-way, and so both parties
must have both a transmitter and a receiver.
 As a result, most communication equipment incorporates
circuits that both send and receive. These units are commonly
referred to as transceivers.
 All the transmitter and receiver circuits are packaged within a
single housing and usually share some common circuits such
as the power supply.
 Telephones, handheld radios, cellular telephones, and
computer modems are examples of transceivers.
Modes of communication
There are two basic modes of communication.
1. Broadcasting communication
 Involves the use of a single powerful transmitter and
numerous receivers that are relatively inexpensive to build.
 Information-bearing signals flow only in one direction.
 Example: Radio, television etc.
2. Point-to-point communication
 The communication process takes place over a link between a
single transmitter and a receiver.
 There is usually a bidirectional flow of information-bearing
signals, which requires the use of a transmitter and receiver at
each end of the link.
 Example: Telephone, the link between the Earth station and a
robot navigating the surface of a distant planet etc..
Types of Communication Systems
 Communication system can be simplex, half-duplex or full-
duplex.
1. Simplex communication: one way communication
Example: (Radio & TV broadcasting, transmission to a
remotely controlled drone.
2. Half-duplex communication: two-way but not simultaneous
• The form of two-way communication in which only one party
transmits at a time.
• The communication is two-way, but the direction alternates;
that means the communicating parties take turns transmitting
and receiving.
Example: Most radio transmissions, such as those used in the
military, fire, police, aircraft, marine, and other services etc.

Half duplex (one way at a time)

3. Full-duplex communication: two-way and simultaneous
Example: Telephone system: people communicating with one
another over the telephone can talk and listen simultaneously.

Full duplex (simultaneous, two-way)

 Communication system can be Analog or Digital.
1. Analog communication
An analog information source produces messages which are
defined on a continuum. E.g.: Microphone
An Analog waveform is a function that has a continuous range
of values.

An analog communication system transfers information from

an analog source to the sink.
2. Digital communication: A digital information source
produces a finite set of possible messages. E.g. Typewriter
A digital waveform is defined as a function of time that can
have a discrete set of amplitude values.

A digital communication system transfers information from

a digital source to the intended receiver (also called the sink).
Comparison of analog and digital communication systems
Analog communication system
Advantages
Smaller bandwidth.
Synchronization problem is relatively easier.
Disadvantages
Expensive analog Components.
No privacy.
Cannot merge data from different sources.
No error correction Capability.
Digital communication system
Advantages
Inexpensive digital Circuits.
Privacy preserved (data encryption).
Can merge different data(voice, video and data) & transmit
over a common digital transmission System.
Error correction by coding
Disadvantages
Larger bandwidth
Synchronization problem is relatively difficult
Analysis of deterministic signals in frequency domain
 A signal is a function representing a physical quantity or
variable, and typically it contains information about the behavior
or nature of the phenomenon.
• Signals in engineering systems are typically described with five
different mathematical classifications:
1. Deterministic or random
2. Energy or power
3. Periodic or aperiodic
4. Complex or real
5. Continuous time or discrete time
 Deterministic signal: is a signal which can be defined exactly by
a mathematical formula.
 In other words, if there is no uncertainty with respect to its value
at any instant of time then the type of signal is deterministic.
• Electrical communication signals are time-varying quantities such
as voltage or current.
• Although a signal physically exists in the time domain, we can
also represent it in the frequency domain where we view the
signal as consisting of sinusoidal components at various
frequencies.
• The analysis of signals and linear systems in the frequency
domain is based on representation of signals in terms of the
frequency variable.
• This frequency-domain description is called the spectrum. This
is done through employing Fourier series and Fourier
transforms.
• Fourier series is applied to periodic signals whereas the
Fourier transform can be applied to periodic and non-periodic
signals.
• Frequency-domain representations are very useful in the study
of communication systems.
 Frequency domain is plot of the amplitude with respect to frequency.
• Consider an input signal X(t) to LTI system

Figure: Input output relations of LTI system

• Here the output is obtained by the convolutional integral.

• Where, X(t)=input signal, h(t)=impulse response and y(t)=output signal.

Fourier Series:
Given a signal 𝑥(𝑡) defined over the interval ( 𝑡0, 𝑡0 + 𝑇0) with the
definition 𝜔0 = 2𝜋f0 = 2𝜋/T0, we define the complex exponential
Fourier series as:
• The Fourier transform (or Fourier integral) of x(t) is X(f):

• X(f) is in general a complex function. Its magnitude |X(f)| and

phase of X(f) represent the amplitude and phase of various
frequency components in x(t). The function X(f) is sometimes
referred to as the spectrum† of the signal x(t).
• To denote that X(f) is the Fourier transform of x(t), the
following notation is frequently employed.
Signal transmission in base band
• A signal transmission system is the electrical channel between
an information source and destination.

• Baseband is a signal that has a near-zero frequency range i.e. a

spectral magnitude that is non-zero only for frequencies in the
vicinity of the origin and negligible elsewhere.

• Baseband transmission is a communication without modulation

i.e. transmission without shift of frequencies to the signal.
• Because the baseband signals have sizable power at low
frequency, they can not be transmitted over a radio link but are
suitable for transmission over a pair of wires, coaxial cables
and optical fibers.
• Local telephone communication, short-haul pulse code
modulation (PCM) b/n two exchanges, and long distance PCM
over optical fibers use baseband communication.
• Baseband transmission systems transfer digital signals in the
form of a train of pulses.
• Signals transferred in baseband systems does not move from
their original frequency bands.
• Baseband communication requires a low-pass channel
• Digital baseband transmission transfers digital bit stream over
baseband channel. It is also called line coding. Techniques are:
 Unipolar signaling-the voltage is always positive or negative
(like a dc current).
 Bipolar signaling-the 1’s and 0’s vary from a plus voltage to a
minus voltage (like an ac current).
• In general, bipolar signaling experiences fewer errors than
unipolar signaling because the signals are more distinct.
•NRZ-L: In Non return to zero level coding binary bit 0 is
represented by negative voltage and bit 1 is represented by
positive voltage.
•NRZ-I: In non return to zero-inverse, the signal is inverted if a
1 is encountered.
•BIPHASE Manchester: In this method transition at the middle
of the bit is used for both synchronization and for bit
representation.
•A negative to positive transition represents bits 0 and positive
to negative transition represents bit 1.
• Differential Manchester: In this method transition at the
middle of the bit is used for synchronization.
• But, the presence or absence of an additional transition at the
beginning of the interval is used to identify the bit. A transition
means binary 0 and no transition means binary 1.It requires to
transition to represent bit 0 and one transition for bit 1.
Signal distortion in transmission
• 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.
• Attenuation means a loss of energy. When a signal, simple or
composite, travels through a medium, it loses some of its energy in
overcoming the resistance of the medium.
• That is why a wire carrying electric signals gets warm, if not hot,
after a while. Some of the electrical energy in the signal is
converted to heat. The signal attenuation increases with length of
the channel.
• To compensate for this loss, amplifiers are used to amplify the
signal.
Noise is another cause of impairment. it is the general term
applied to any phenomenon that degrades or interferes with the
transmitted information.
 It is the bane of all electronic communications.
 Its effect is experienced in the receiver part of any
communications system.
• Several types of noise, such as thermal noise, induced noise,
crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the signal.
• Thermal noise is the random motion of electrons in a wire, which
creates an extra signal not originally sent by the transmitter.
• Induced noise comes from sources such as motors. Crosstalk is
the effect of one wire on the other.
 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).
 A very high SNR is preferred for best performance.
Figure: Noise in transmission
• Distortion means that the signal changes its form or shape.
• Distortion can occur in a composite signal made of different
frequencies. Each signal component has its own propagation
speed through a medium and, therefore, its own delay in
arriving at the final destination.
• Differences in delay may create a difference in phase if the
delay is not exactly the same as the period duration.
Distortionless transmission
•The output is undistorted if it differs from the input only by a
multiplying constant and a finite time delay.
•Analytically, we have distortionless transmission if
Where, K and td are constants.
• The properties of a distortionless system are easily found by
examining the output spectrum.
• Now by the definition of transfer function, Y(f)=H(f)X(f).
Here,
• In words, a system giving distortionless transmission must have
constant amplitude response and negative linear phase shift.
i.e.
Types of Distortion
• Linear distortion and non-linear distortion
Linear Distortion: includes any amplitude or delay distortion
associated with a linear transmission system. Described in terms
of the transfer function of a linear system.
• Amplitude distortion is easily described in the frequency
domain; it means simply that the output frequency components
are not in a correct proportion.
• Since this is caused by |H(f)| not being constant with frequency,
amplitude distortion is sometimes called frequency distortion.
• The most common forms of amplitude distortion are excess
attenuation or enhancement of extreme high or low frequencies
in the signal spectrum.
• Amplitude distortion: occurs when |H(f)| ≠ |K|
• Delay distortion: occurs when
• Linear distortion-both amplitude and delay-is theoretically
curable through the use of equalization networks.

here,
Figure. Channel with equalizer for linear distortion.
Nonlinear distortion: occurs when the system includes
nonlinear elements. Non linear distortion results from systems
where the output signal is not exactly proportional to the input
signal and harmonics or intermodulation products are generated.
• The nonlinearity precludes the existence of a transfer function.
A system having nonlinear elements cannot be described by a
transfer function.
• Instead, the instantaneous values of input and output are related
by a curve or function commonly called the transfer
characteristic.
• Although nonlinear distortion has no perfect cure, it can be
minimized by careful design.
• The basic idea is to make sure that the signal does not exceed the
linear operating range of the channel's transfer characteristic.
• Ironically, one strategy along this line utilizes two nonlinear
signal processors, a compressor at the input and an expander at
the output is used for this purpose.

Figure: Companding system

• Companding is the joint use of compressing and expanding is
and is of particular value in telephone systems.
• It is a technique of achieving non-uniform quantization..
• It is a word formed by the combination of words compression
and expanding. Companding is done in order to improve SNR
of weak signals.
• Besides reducing non-linear distortion companding tends to
compensate for the signal level difference between loud and
soft talkers.
• The companding model consists of a compressor, a uniform
quantizer and an expander.
• Initially at the transmitting end the signal is compressed and
further at the receiving end the compressed signal is expanded
in order to have the original signal.
• The compressor unit amplifies the low value or weak signal in
order to increase the signal level of the applied input signal.
• While if the input signal is a high level signal or strong signal
then compressor attenuates that signal before providing it to the
uniform quantizer.
• This is done in order to have an appropriate signal level as the
input to the uniform quantizer.
• We know a high amplitude signal needs more bandwidth and
also is more likely to distort.
• Similarly, some drawbacks are associated with low amplitude
signal and thus there exist need for such a unit.
• The expander performs the reverse of the process executed by
the compressor.
• This unit when receives a low value signal then it attenuates it.
While if a strong signal is achieved then the expander amplifies
it.
Frequency allocation
• Is assignment of available frequencies in the radio spectrum to
specific stations and for specific purposes, to give maximum
utilization of frequencies with minimum interference between
stations.
• The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) defines
frequency allocation as being of “a given frequency band for the
purpose of its use by one or more terrestrial or space radio
communication services or the radio astronomy service under
specified conditions”.
Spectrum Management
• Combination of administrative and technical procedures
necessary to ensure the efficient operation of radio
communication services without causing harmful interference.
• The goal of national spectrum management is to facilitate the
use of the radio frequency spectrum in the national interest and
to ensure that adequate spectrum is provided for all users: public
and private, big and small, in both the short and long term.
Electromagnetic bands with typical applications
Radio spectrum
• The radio spectrum is the part of electromagnetic spectrum with
frequencies from 30 Hz to 300 GHz. Electromagnetic waves in
this frequency range, called radio waves, are widely used in
modern technology, particularly in telecommunication.
• To prevent interference between different users, the generation
and transmission of radio waves is strictly regulated by national
laws, coordinated by an international body, ITU.
• Bandwidth is the portion, frequency range occupied by a
signal.
• More specifically it is the difference between the upper and
lower frequency limits of the signal.
• For instance the bandwidth of the voice signal which ranges
from 300 Hz to 3000 Hz is difference between the upper
frequency F2 and lower frequency F1.
• Therefore the bandwidth is:
Bandwidth( BW)= F2-F1 =3000 - 300 = 2700 Hz
A few popular frequency bands
Electromagnetic wave propagation
• Propagation-tendency of EM wave to travel from one place to
another place.
• During propagation, when a signal hits the obstacle, there are
three possible effects that that would happen to the signal based
the surface on which the signal impinges. They are:
EM wave Propagation Modes
1. Ground wave propagation
• It is the dominant mode of propagation for frequencies below
2MHz.
• Here, the EM wave tends to follow the contour of the Earth.
That is, diffraction of the wave causes it to propagate along the
surface of the Earth.
• This propagation is used for AM broadcasting, where the local
coverage follows the Earth’s contour, and the signal propagates
over the visual horizon.
• The question is often asked: What is the lowest radio frequency
that can be used? The answer is that the value of the lowest
useful frequency depends on how long you want to make the
antenna. For efficient radiation, the antenna needs to be longer
than 1/10 of a wavelength.
2. Sky-wave propagation
• It is the dominant mode of propagation in the 2 to 30 MHz
frequency range. Here, long distance coverage is obtained by
reflecting the wave at the ionosphere and at the Earth’s
boundaries.
• Actually, in the ionosphere the waves are refracted (bent)
gradually in an inverted U shaped because the index of refraction
varies with altitude as the ionization density changes.
3. LOS propagation
• This is the dominant mode for frequencies above 30 MHz.
• Here, the electromagnetic wave propagates in a straight line.
Propagation models
• Since all propagation mechanisms have different effects on the
propagating radio waves propagation models are needed. What
amount of signal is received is the basic question that should be
analyzed.
Methods for estimation of Received signals
• Two ways to predict the amount of received signal after
propagation at the receiver side.
a). Emperical method
It involves the use of objective, quantitative observation in a
systematically controlled replicable situation, in order to test or
refine a theory.
b). Propagation model
It is a mathematical formulation for the characterization of
radio wave propagation as a function of frequency, distance and
other conditions.
Advantages of propagation models
 Using propagation models it is easy to design, simulate and
plan the wireless systems.
 Propagation models reflect the properties of the propagation
channel.
 Since the wireless channel characteristics are dynamic in
nature one single model cannot be defined for estimating the
wireless systems.
 Modelling a radio channel decides the coverage area,
modulation schemes to be used to optimize communication
parameters.
Types of propagation models
• Different models have been developed to meet the needs of
realizing the propagation behavior in different fading conditions.
1. Small Scale Fading models
• When the user moves over a small distance, the instantaneous
received signal strength fluctuates rapidly gives rise to small
scale fading.
• Small scale fading models are used to predict the average
received power at the receiver when the receiver moves over a
short range.
2. Large Scale Fading models
• When the user moves over a large distance, the average received
signal strength gradually decreases. This is called large scale
fading.
• Large scale fading Models are used to predict the average
received power at the receiver when the distance between the
transmitter and receiver increases.
 THANK
U!!!!!!