Elements of Communication Systems

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Communication
System
motion.marufu@telone.co.zw
History of Communication Systems

• Down through the ages, people have devised numerous methods for
communicating their thoughts and needs to others. In primitive days, when human
beings lived in small groups distributed over a relatively small geographical area,
communication within the group took place through speech, gestures, and
graphical symbols.

• As these groups became larger and civilizations spread over large geographical
areas, it was necessary to develop methods of long distance communication. Early
attempts at long distance communication included such things as smoke signals,
light beams, carrier pigeons, and letters transported by a variety of means.
• With the beginning of the industrial revolution, the need for fast and accurate
History of communication
Cont’d

• Communication systems employing electrical signals to convey information from one place to another
over a pair of wires provided an early solution to the problem of fast and accurate means of long distance
communication. The field of electrical communication engineering received tremendous attention during
and after World War II.
• Significant developments during this era includes radar and microwave systems, transistor and
miniaturized integrated circuits, communication satellites, and lasers. Today, electrical communication
systems span the entire world carrying voice, text, pictures, and a variety of other information.
• During the post-war era there was also a vast growth in the automation and computer industries.
This growth made it necessary for computers and other machines to communicate not only with
people but also with other machines. In many cases the information to be exchanged between
people and machines, and between machines is digital or numerical in contrast to the
predominantly analog information exchanged in personal communications. Irrespective of the
nature of information transmitted, and the actual method of transmission, we can use the
following model to describe a communication system.
Model of an electrical communication System

• Fig 1.1 Model of an electronic communication system


History of Communication Cont’d

• Figure 1.1 shows the basic functional blocks of a communication system. The overall
purpose of this system is to transfer information from one point in space and time,
called the source, to another point, the user destination. As a rule, the message produced
by a source is not electrical. Hence an input transducer is required for converting the
message to a time-varying electrical quantity called a message signal. At the destination
point, another transducer converts the electrical waveform to the appropriate message.
• The information source and the destination point are usually separated in space. The
channel provides the electrical connection between the information source and the user.
The channel can have many different forms such as a microwave radio link over free
space, a pair of wires, or an optical fiber. Regardless of its type, the channel degrades
the transmitted signal in a number of ways. The degradation is a result of signal
distortion due to imperfect response of the channel and due to undesirable electrical
signals (noise) and interference.
History of Communication Cont’d
• Noise and signal distortion are two basic problems of electrical
communication. The transmitter and the receiver in a
communication system are carefully designed to avoid signal
distortion and minimize the effects of noise at the receiver so that
a faithful reproduction of the message emitted by the source is
possible.
Transmitter
• The transmitter couples the input message signal to the channel. While it may sometimes be
possible to couple the input transducer directly to the channel, it is often necessary to process
and modify the input signal for efficient transmission over the channel. Signal processing
operations performed by the transmitter include amplification, filtering, and modulation. The
most important of these operations is modulation-a process designed to match the properties of
the transmitted signal to the channel through the use of a carrier wave.
• Modulation is the systematic variation of some attribute of a carrier waveform such as the
amplitude, phase, or frequency in accordance with a function of the message signal.
• Two basic types of modulation: the continuous carrier wave (CW) modulation and the pulse
modulation. In continuous wave (CW) carrier modulation the carrier waveform is continuous
(usually a sinusoidal waveform), and a parameter of the waveform is changed in proportion to
the message signal. This results in Amplitude, frequency and Phase modulation.
Transmitter

Fig 1.2 - Block diagram of a transmitter


Reasons for Modulation
Modulation is used in communication systems for:
• matching signal characteristics to channel characteristics
• for reducing noise and interference
• for simultaneously transmitting several signals over a single channel
(multiplexing)
• and for overcoming some equipment limitations.
The success of a communication system depends to a large extent on modulation.
Information source

• Information sources can be classified into two categories based on the nature of their outputs: analog
information sources and discrete information sources.
• Analog information sources, such as a microphone actuated by speech, or a TV camera scanning a
scene, emit one or more continuous amplitude signals (or functions of time). The output of discrete
information sources such -as a teletype or the numerical output of a computer consists of a sequence of
discrete symbols or letters.
• An analog information source can be transformed into a discrete information source through the
process of sampling and quantizing.
• An essential feature of any source that generates information is that its output is described in
probabilistic terms, i.e., the output of a source is not deterministic. Otherwise, there would be no need
to transmit the message.
• A transducer is usually required to convert the output of a source into an electrical signal that is
suitable for transmission. For example, a microphone serves as the transducer that converts an acoustic
speech signal into an electrical signal, and a video camera that converts an image into an electrical
signal. At the destination, a similar transducer is required to convert the electrical signals that are
received into a form that is suitable for the user, e.g., acoustic signals and images.
Receiver
• The main function of the receiver is to extract the input message signal from the
degraded version of the transmitted signal coming from the channel.
• The receiver performs this function through the process of demodulation, the
reverse of the transmitter's modulation process. Because of the presence of noise
and other signal degradations, the receiver cannot recover the message signal
perfectly.
• In addition to demodulation, the receiver usually provides amplification and
filtering.
Receiver

Fig 1.3 - Block diagram of a Receiver system


Communication channel
• The communication channel is the physical medium that is used to send the signal from the
transmitter to the receiver. In wireless transmission, the channel is usually the atmosphere (free
space). On the other hand, telephone channels usually employ a variety of physical media,
including wirelines, fiber optic cables, and wireless (microwave radio). Whatever the physical
medium for signal transmission, the essential feature is that the transmitted signal is corrupted
in a random manner by a variety of possible mechanisms. The most common form of signal
degradation comes in the form of additive noise, which is generated at the front end of the
receiver, where signal amplification is performed. This noise is often called thermal noise. In
wireless transmission, additional additive disturbances are man-made noise and atmospheric
noise picked up by a receiving antenna. Automobile ignition noise is an example of man-made
noise, and electrical lightning discharges from thunderstorms is an example of atmospheric
noise. Interference from other users of the channel is another form of additive noise that often
arises in both wireless and wireline communication systems.
Communication channel Cont’d
• In some radio communication channels, such as the ionospheric channel that is
used for long-range, short-wave radio transmission, another form of signal
degradation is multipath propagation. Such signal distortion is characterized as a
non-additive signal disturbance that manifests itself as time variations in the signal
amplitude, usually called fading.
Noise
• Introduction
• Information signals travel over communication channel can be distorted due to
different reasons. Mixing unwanted signals with the wanted signals may be one
reason for such change.
Noise
• Noise can be described as "any unwanted signal that tends to impede the proper
reception of the wanted signal in a communication system“ or Noise is the general
term applied to any phenomenon that degrades or interferes with the transmitted
information. Noise is an electronic signal that is a mixture of many random
frequencies at many amplitudes that gets added to a radio or information signal as
it is transmitted from one place to another or as it is processed. Noise is a mixture
of sinusoidal signals with different frequencies and aptitudes. Information
Transmission is affected by noise if any frequency component of the noise signal
is fallen in to the pass band (frequency spectrum) of the information signal.
Effect of Noise
• The transmitter of an communication system generates an very strong wanted signal with a very
low noise signal level, hence the Tx output has a very high SNR
As the signal travels over a communication channel the noise signal strength increases
while decreasing the wanted signal strength. Therefore , SNR value gradually decreases along
the communication channel. Whatever the communication system, decreasing SNR ( Increasing
noise ) affects the communication in different ways. Example include:
01 Distort the wanted signal
02 SNR decreases along the medium
03 The receiver cannot reproduce the original information
04 Limits the distance of communication with a given transmit power
05 Produce bit errors in digital system
06 Sometimes wipe out the wanted signal
07 If high noise power is received communication equipment may be burnt.
Effect of Noise
• Note:- Noise from environment can often be dramatically reduced by twisting,
shielding, grounding and minimizing wire length.
• Effect of noise on analogue signals
Since the wanted signal and noise signals in an analogue communication system is
in analogue form noise on an analogue communication system cannot be removed.
In addition signal amplifying devices are placed to improve the wanted signal, but
also the unwanted noise signal are improved. Therefore noise accumulate along
the transmission medium of an analogue system.
• But effect of noise on digital communication system can be minimized by
introducing Pulse Regenerators (also known as Regenerative Repeaters) at regular
intervals. But some noise effect cannot be fully eliminated example : Lightning.
Noise Sources
• Categorizing noises

Noise can be divided in different ways


• Natural or man-made noise
• Internal or External Noise
Natural or man-made noise
• Noise may arise from different sources and they can be categorize as either man
made or natural. By nature noise can be divided into
• White noise and Impulsive noise
• White Noise
• If noise is spread throughout the whole electromagnetic frequency spectrum and
noise aptitudes are equal at all the frequencies such a noise is known as a "White
Noise".
• Examples:
• Thermal noise, Solar noise
• Theoretically white noise has an infinite bandwidth
How noise affects a system

Fig1.6 Illustration of how noise affects a system


External Noise
• External noises, i.e. noise whose sources are external. External noise may be
classified into the following three types:
• Static or Atmospheric noises
• Extra-terrestrial noises
• Man-made noises or industrial noises.
• Internal noise in communication, i.e. noises which get, generated within the
receiver or communication system. Internal noise may be put into the following
four categories.
• Thermal noise or white noise or Johnson noise
• Shot noise.
• Transit time noise
• Miscellaneous internal noise.
External Noise Cont’d
• External noise cannot be reduced except by changing the location of the receiver
or the entire system. Internal noise on the other hand can be easily evaluated
mathematically and can be reduced to a great extent by proper design. As already
said, because of the fact that internal noise can be reduced to a great extent, study
of noise characteristics is a very important part of the communication engineering.
Types of external noise cont’d

• Atmospheric Noise
• Atmospheric noise or static is caused by lighting discharges in thunderstorms and other natural
electrical disturbances occurring in the atmosphere. These electrical impulses are random in
nature. Hence the energy is spread over the complete frequency spectrum used for radio
communication.
Atmospheric noise accordingly consists of spurious radio signals with components spread over
a wide frequency range. These spurious radio waves constituting the noise get propagated over
the earth in the same fashion as the desired radio waves of the same frequency. Accordingly at a
given receiving point, the receiving antenna picks up not only the signal but also the static from
all the thunderstorms, local or remote.
The field strength of atmospheric noise varies approximately inversely with the frequency. Thus
large atmospheric noise is generated in low and medium frequency (broadcast) bands while
very little noise is generated in the VHF and UHF bands. Further VHF and UHF components of
noise are limited to the line-of-sight (less than about 80 Km) propagation. For these two-
reasons, the atmospheric noise becomes less severe at Frequencies exceeding about 30 MHz.
Extraterrestrial Noise
There are numerous types of extra-terrestrial noise or space noises depending on their sources.
However, these may be put into following two subgroups: Solar noise ,Cosmic noise
• Solar Noise
This is the electrical noise emanating from the sun. Under quite conditions, there is a steady
radiation of noise from the sun. This results because sun is a large body at a very high temperature
(exceeding 6000°C on the surface), and radiates electrical energy in the form of noise over a very
wide frequency spectrum including the spectrum used for radio communication. The intensity
produced by the sun varies with time. In fact, the sun has a repeating 11-Year noise cycle. During
the peak of the cycle, the sun produces some amount of noise that causes tremendous radio signal
interference, making many frequencies unusable for communications. During other years. the noise
is at a minimum level.
Cosmic noise

• Also called Galactic noise. Distant stars are also suns and have high
temperatures. These stars, therefore, radiate noise in the same way as
our sun. The noise received from these distant stars is thermal noise (or
black body noise) and is distributing almost uniformly over the entire
sky. We also receive noise from the centre of our own galaxy (The
Milky Way) from other distant galaxies and from other virtual point
sources such as quasars and pulsars . It has a maximum
value at about 20 MHz and is negligible above 500MHz.
Man-Made Noise (Industrial Noise)
• By man-made noise or industrial- noise is meant the electrical noise
produced by such sources as automobiles and aircraft ignition,
electrical motors and switch gears, leakage from high voltage lines,
fluorescent lights, and numerous other heavy electrical machines. Such
noises are produced by the arc discharge taking place during operation
of these machines. Such man-made noise is most intensive in industrial
and densely populated areas. Man-made noise in such areas far exceeds
all other sources of noise in the frequency range extending from about 1
MHz to 600 MHz
Expressing noise level

• Noise level in a communication system can be expressed by

• Signal to Noise Ratio (S/N or SNR)


• Noise factor (F)
• Noise Figure (NF
• Noise temperature (Tn)
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
• The ratio of signal power to the noise power is SNR. It gives the relative strength of a wanted
signal and noise in a communication system.
• Mathematically SNR = where S is Signal power and N is Noise power.
• SNR can also be expressed in decibels (dB) as ;
• SNR(dB) = 10 log { }
Q. If the Input signal power is 55µW and input noise power is 5.5 nW, calculate SNR at the input
of the communication system as a ratio in dB
Q. Calculate the maximum noise power allowed at the input of a communication receiver in order
to maintain 40 dB SNR at the input for an input signal power of 20 pW
Q. The internal noise produced by an amplifier with 20 dB gain is negligible. If the noise voltage
at the input of amplifier is 5mV and output signal voltage is 50 V, calculate the SNR in dB.
Noise factor (F) and Noise figure(NF)

• Nose factor is the ratio of input S/N power to output S/N power or ration of S/N
power at the input to S/N power at the output.

• Mathematically it is expressed as:


• Noise Factor (F) =
• Noise figure is noise factor converted to decibels (dB). Mathematically it is
defined as:
• Noise Figure (NF)= 10 log dB

Practice Questions
Q. An amplifier has an output signal of 1mV and a noise level of 0.514 mV.
Determine the signal to noise ratio (SNR)
Q. An amplifier has an output signal of 1 watt and the input noise is 0.01 watt.
When the output signal is 10 watts and the output noise power is 0.3 Watts calculate
the amplifier’s noise figure.
Q. An amplifier with a noise ratio of 4 dB has an input SNR of 20dB. Calculate the
output signal noise as,
• A ratio
• dB
Noise Temperature.
• Most of the noise produced in a device is thermal noise. which is directly
proportional to temperature. Therefore another way to express the noise in an
amplifier or receiver is in terms of noise temperature . Noise temperature is
expressed in kelvins. Remember that the Kelvin temperature scale is related to the
Celsius scale by the relationship = + 273. The relationship between noise
temperature and Noise factor is given by:

• = 290(F-1).
INTERNAL NOISE IN COMMUNICATION

• Thermal Noise
• Conductors contain a large number of 'free" electrons and "ions" strongly bound by molecular forces. The
ions vibrate randomly about their normal (average) positions, however, this vibration being a function of
the temperature. Continuous collisions between the electrons and the vibrating ions take place. Thus there
is a continuous transfer of energy between the ions and electrons. This is the source of resistance in a
conductor. The movement of free electrons constitutes a current which is purely random in nature and over
a long time averages zero. There is a random motion of the electrons which give rise to noise voltage
called thermal noise.
Thus noise generated in any resistance due to random motion of electrons i5 called thermal noise
or white or Johnson noise.

The analysis of thermal noise is based on the Kinetic theory. It shows that the temperature of particles is a
way of expressing its internal kinetic energy. Thus "Temperature" of a body can be said to be equivalent to
the statistical rms value of the velocity of motion of the particles in the body. At -273°C (or zero degree
Kelvin) the kinetic energy of the particles of a body becomes zero .Thus we can relate the noise power
generated by a resistor to be proportional to its absolute temperature. Noise power is also proportional to
the bandwidth over which it is measured. From the above discussion we can write down.
Thermal/Johnson/Niquist noise
• This type of noise is generated by all resistances (e.g. a resistor, semiconductor,
the resistance of a resonant circuit, i.e. the real part of the impedance, cable etc).
Diagram for deriving thermal noise voltage
Thermal noise voltage
derivation
• The equipartition law of Boltzmann and Maxwell combined with the works of
Johnson and Nyquist states that the thermal noise power generated within a
source for a 1-Hz bandwidth is
• = KT where =Noise power density, K = Boltzmann's constant =1.38 X J/K and T =
absolute temperature in Kelvin (room temperature = 17 or 290K. This at room
temperature = 1.38 x J/K X 290 K = 4 X W/Hz.
• The total noise power is equal to the product of the bandwidth and the noise
density. Therefore, the total noise power present in bandwidth (B) is
• N = KTB where N =Total noise power, KT = Noise power density and B is
bandwidth if Hertz of the device or system.
• The diagram shows the equivalent circuit for an electrical noise source. R is
internal resistance of the noise source and is in series with noise source . For
maximum power transfer R =
Thermal noise voltage formula derivation
• Therefore the noise voltage dropped across R is equal to and
the noise power (N) developed across the load resistor is equal to KTB.
• = = = = (From the diagram R = =

• = 4R = 4RKTB (=kTB)

• =
• Thermal noise is often referred to as ‘white noise’ because it has a uniform
uniform ‘spectral density’.
White noise cont’d
• Where is a 100-kV resistor over the frequency ranbandwidth in hertz, T is
temperature in Kelvin K(°C + 273), R is resistance in ohms, K is Boltzmann
constant and is equal to 1.38 x J/K . From equation (2), we see that the square of
the rms noise voltage is proportional to the absolute temperature of le resistor, the
value of the resistor, and the bandwidth over which it is measured. En is quite
independent of the frequency.
• Questions
Q1. R.F. amplifier is saving an input resistor of 8K and works in the frequency
range of 12 MHz to 15.5 MHz Calculate the rms noise voltage at the input to this
amplifier at an ambient temperature of 17oC?.
Q2. What is the open-circuit noise voltage across ge of direct current to 20 kHz at
room temperature (25°C)?
Q3.What is the open-circuit noise voltage across a 100-kV resistor over the
frequency range of direct current to 20 kHz at room temperature (25°C)?
Flicker noise
• Experimentally provided that an unwanted signal exists in electronic components,
even when the component is kept at 0 Kelvin temperature ( no thermal noise) and
no external voltage is applied ( no shot noise). This noise is known as Flicker
noise.
The origins of flicker noise are somewhat less understood as compared to thermal
noise and shot noise, but predicts that, may be due to imperfection in the crystalline
structure of all materials
• Flicker noise is inversely proportional to the frequency at the signal being
observed. Due to this reason flicker noise is also known as 1/f noise. The 1=f
noise is important from 1 Hz to 1 MHz. Beyond 1 MHz, the thermal noise is more
noticeable.
Flicker noise Cont’d

Fig 1.8 Effect of frequency on


noise
Shot Noise
• The fluctuations in the number of electrons emitted from the source constitute the
shot noise. Shot noise is caused by the random arrival of carriers (electrons and
holes) at the output element of an active device such as a diode, field-effect
transistor (FET), bipolar transistor (BJT) or tube. Shot noise is randomly varying
and is superimposed on top of any signal present. Shot noise, when amplified,
sounds like a shower of pellets falling on a tin roof. Shot noise is proportional to
the charge of an electron (1.6 x ), direct current, and system bandwidth. Also, shot
noise is additive with thermal noise.
Transit-time noise
• Any modification to a stream of carriers as they pass from the input to the output
of a device (such as from the emitter to the collector of a transistor) produces an
irregular random variation categorized as transit noise.
• When the time it takes a carrier to propagate through a device is an appreciable
part of the time of one cycle of the signal, the noise becomes noticeable.
Transit- time noise in transistors is determined by ion mobility, the bias voltages,
and the actual transistor construction. Carriers traveling from the emitter to the
collector suffer from emitter delay times, base transit-time delays, and collector
recombination and propagation delay times. At high frequencies and if transit
delays are excessive, the device may add more noise than amplification to the
signal.
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)
Two theoretical formulas were developed to calculate the data rate: one by
Nyquist for a noiseless channel. another by Shannon for a noisy channel.
Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate

• For a noiseless channel, the Nyquist bit rate formula defines the theoretical maximum bit
rate
BitRate = 2 x bandwidth x L
• In this formula, bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel, L is the number of signal
levels used to represent data, and Bit Rate is the bit rate in bits per second.
• According to the formula, we might think that, given a specific bandwidth, we can have
any bit rate we want by increasing the number of signa11eve1s. Although the idea is
theoretically correct, practically there is a limit. When we increase the number of signal
levels, we impose a burden on the receiver. If the number of levels in a signal is just 2,
the receiver can easily distinguish between a 0 and a 1. If the level of a signal is 64, the
receiver must be very sophisticated to distinguish between 64 different levels. In other
words, increasing the levels of a signal reduces the reliability of the system.
Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity

• In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel; the channel is always noisy. In


1944, Claude Shannon introduced a formula, called the Shannon capacity, to
determine the theoretical highest data rate for a noisy channel:

Capacity =bandwidth X (1 +SNR)


In this formula, bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel, SNR is the
signal-to noise ratio, and capacity is the capacity of the channel in bits per
second. Note that in the Shannon formula there is no indication of the
signal level, which means that no matter how many levels we have, we
cannot achieve a data rate higher than the capacity of the channel. In other
words, the formula defines a characteristic of the channel, not the method
of transmission.
Coaxial Cable
• As shown in Figure 1.a coaxial cable consists of an inner (central) conductor of solid or
stranded wire (usually copper) and an outer conductor of metal foil, braid, or a combination of
two, separated by a dielectric insulating material.
• The outer conductor is also enclosed in an insulating sheath, and the whole cable can be
protected by a plastic cover. Coaxial cable is called "coaxial“ because it includes one physical
channel (the copper core) that carries the signal surrounded (after a layer of insulation) by
another concentric physical channel (a metallic foil or braid) , and an outer cover or sheath, all
running along the same axis. The outer channel serves as a shield (or ground) .
• As opposed to twisted-pair cables, coaxial cables provide much better immunity to crosstalk
and interference, offer much larger bandwidths (hundreds of MHz), but yield higher levels of
attenuation. In other words, although coaxial cable has a much higher bandwidth, the signal
weakens rapidly and requires the frequent use of repeaters, roughly every kilometer or so. The
widest use of coaxial cable is for the distribution of television signals in cable TV systems, and
it is also used for local area networks (LANs
Coaxial cable continued

Fig 1.8 - Coaxial cable (a) basic coaxial cable (b) details inside coaxial cable
(c)coaxial photo
Coaxial Cont’d

• Figure 1.10 - Typical attenuation/frequency characteristics of a coaxial cable


Optical Fiber Cables
• Optical fiber is the most modern of the transmission media. It offers a wide
bandwidth, low attenuation, and extremely high immunity to external electrical
interference. The fiber optic links are used as the major media for long-distance
transmission in all developed countries and high-capacity coaxial cable systems
are gradually being replaced by fiber systems.
• An optical fiber has a central core (with a diameter around 8 or 60 μm)of very
pure glass surrounded by an outer layer called cladding of less dense glass. Fiber
is made from glass or plastic. Core guides the fiber and the cladding confines the
fiber in the core. The plastic jacket protects the fiber.
• The core has a higher refractive index that the cladding thus enabling total
internal reflection. A light ray is refracted from the surface between these
materials back to the core and it propagates in the core from end to end.
Advantages of optical fiber
• Enormous potential bandwidth(Large information capacity). Optical fibers have
wider bandwidths than copper wires, which means that more information can be
sent over a single physical line. This property results in a decrease in the number
of physical lines needed for sending a certain amount of information.
• (b) Small size and weight. Optical fibers have very small diameters which are
often no greater than the diameter of a human hair. Hence, even when such fibers
are covered with protective coatings they are far smaller and much lighter than
corresponding copper cables. This is a tremendous boon towards the alleviation of
duct congestion in cities, as well as allowing for an expansion of signal
transmission within mobiles such as aircraft, satellites and even ships.
Advantages of optical fiber
• Electrical isolation. Optical fibers which are fabricated from glass, or sometimes a
plastic polymer, are electrical insulators and therefore, unlike their metallic
counterparts, they do not exhibit earth loop and interface problems. Furthermore,
this property makes optical fiber transmission ideally suited for communication in
electrically hazardous environments as the fibers create no arcing or spark hazard at
abrasions or short circuits.
• Immunity to interference and crosstalk. Optical fibers form a dielectric waveguide
and are therefore free from electromagnetic interference (EMI), radio-frequency
interference (RFI), or switching transients giving electromagnetic pulses (EMPs).
Hence the operation of an optical fiber communication system is unaffected by
transmission through an electrically noisy environment and the fiber cable requires
no shielding from EMI. The fiber cable is also not susceptible to lightning strikes if
used overhead rather than underground. Moreover, it is fairly easy to ensure that
there is no optical interference between fibers and hence, unlike communication
using electrical conductors, crosstalk is negligible, even when many fibers are
Advantages of optical fiber
• Signal security. The light from optical fibers does not radiate significantly and
therefore they provide a high degree of signal security. Unlike the situation with
copper cables, a transmitted optical signal cannot be obtained from a fiber in a
noninvasive manner (i.e. without drawing optical power from the fiber).
Therefore, in theory, any attempt to acquire a message signal transmitted optically
may be detected. This feature is obviously attractive for military, banking and
general data transmission (i.e. computer network) applications.
• Low transmission loss(Long transmission distance). Optical fibers have lower
transmission losses compared to copper wires. This means that data can be sent
over longer distances, thereby reducing the number of intermediate repeaters
needed for these spans. This reduction in equipment and components decreases
system cost and complexity.
Advantages of optical fiber
• Ruggedness and flexibility. Although protective coatings are essential,
optical fibers may be manufactured with very high tensile strengths.
Perhaps surprisingly for a glassy substance, the fibers may also be bent
to quite small radii or twisted without damage. Furthermore, cable
structures have been developed which have proved flexible, compact
and extremely rugged. Taking the size and weight advantage into
account, these optical fiber cables are generally superior in terms of
storage, transportation, handling and installation to corresponding
copper cables, while exhibiting at least comparable strength and
durability.
• System reliability and ease of maintenance. These features primarily
stem from the low-loss property of optical fiber cables which reduces
the requirement for intermediate repeaters or line amplifiers to boost
the transmitted signal strength. Hence with fewer optical repeaters or
amplifiers, system reliability is generally enhanced in comparison with
Advantages of optical fiber
• Potential low cost. The glass which generally provides the optical fiber
transmission medium is made from sand – not a scarce resource. So, in
comparison with copper conductors, optical fibers offer the potential for low-cost
line communication.
• Immunity to electrical interference. An especially important feature of optical
fibers relates to the fact that they consist of dielectric materials, which means they
do not conduct electricity. This makes optical fibers immune to the
electromagnetic interference effects seen in copper wires, such as inductive pickup
from other adjacent signal-carrying wires or coupling of electrical noise into the
line from any type of nearby equipment.
Optical fibre cable

Fig 1.11 - Optic fiber cable (a) basic concept (b) details inside a fiber line (c) sample photography of a
fiber bundle.
Radio Transmission

• Radio encompasses the electromagnetic spectrum in the range of 3 kHz to 300 GHz. Radio
transmission uses an unguided medium, and may possess principal benefits, but at the expense
of some major short comings.The most important advantage of radio transmission over cable
transmission is that it does not require any physical medium. Radio systems are quick to install
and because no digging of cable into the ground is required, the investment costs are much
lower.
• One important factor that restricts the use of radio transmissions is the shortage of frequency
bands. The most suitable frequencies are already occupied and there are many systems with a
growing demand for wider frequency bands.
• Examples of other systems using radio waves are public cellular systems, professional mobile
radio systems, cordless telephones, broadcast radio and TV, satellite communications, and
WLANs.
• The use of radio frequencies is regulated by the ITU-R at the global level and, for example, by
BAZ or POTRAZ To implement a radio system, permission from a national
telecommunications authority is required.
Radio Transmission cont’d
Advantages of Radio
Salient benefits of radio transmission are as follows:
• Radio uniquely allows the realization and deployment of mobile systems with a
multitude of diverse wireless applications and services.
• Radio inherently possesses broadcast, narrowcast, and multicast capabilities.
• Radio networks can be quickly implemented or reconfigured and extra terminals
can be easily introduced or removed.
• Radio systems do not require right-of-way and can be deployed by procuring only
the sites where the antennas are located.
• Signal level can be maintained over much longer distances in radio systems than
in wired systems, as with an increase in the distance, the attenuation in decibels
increases only logarithmically in radio systems but linearly in wired systems.
Radio Transmission cont’d
Disadvantages of Radio
The major drawbacks of radio transmission are as follows:
• The radio spectrum is finite and scarce and, unlike wired media, it is not possible to procure
additional capacity. An operating frequency in a radio band can be reused only in sufficiently-
distant geographical areas or by certain multiple access schemes.
• To maximize its utility, the radio spectrum is mainly regulated by government agencies, as
regulatory bodies apply strict requirements on the emission characteristics of radio
communication equipment, and frequency coordination is generally required when planning
radio systems.
• Interference, which is the energy that appears at the receiver from sources other than its own
transmitter, is a major degradation in radio systems.
• Path characteristics (i.e., attenuation and distortion) tend to vary with time, often in an
unpredictable way. Multipath fading, a significant impairment in radio communications
especially in mobile systems, occurs when the transmitted signal arrives at the receiver via
propagation paths at different delays.
• Signals can be much more easily intercepted in wireless systems than in wired systems; it is
Radio Transmission cont’d
Radio Spectrum
• It is imperative to highlight that spectrum is a very scarce commodity, and
efficient use of any part of spectrum is of paramount importance.
• Radio spectrum refers to the part of the electromagnetic spectrum corresponding
to radio frequencies— i.e., frequencies lower than around 300 GHz (or,
equivalently, wavelengths longer than about 1 mm). Frequency assignments and
technical standards are set internationally by the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU). The Radio communication Sector of ITU
(ITU-R) provides frequency assignments and is concerned with the efficient use of
the radio frequency spectrum.
Frequency bands
Frequency bands
• Some parts of spectrum have been designated as industrial, scientific,
and medical (ISM) bands. There are a dozen ISM bands, such as 2.4–
2.5 GHz and 5.725–5.875 GHz. These bands allow limited power
transmission from various transmitting devices as well as
unintentional radiations, such as microwave ovens, and short-range,
low-power communication systems, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
devices, and cordless phones. The communication equipment
operating in ISM bands must tolerate any interference generated by
other ISM equipment as users have no regulatory protection.
Radio wave propagation
• The energy in a radio frequency (RF) current can radiate off a conductor into
space as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). This is the basis of radio
technology. In radio communications, the signal is transmitted using an antenna
that radiates energy at some carrier frequency and is received by another antenna.
The propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves used in radio channels
are highly dependent on the operating frequency. Under similar conditions of
propagation, the higher-frequency signal attenuates faster than the lower
frequency signal and becomes too weak to be detected at the receiver. An RF
power amplifier is used to amplify the power level of such a transmitted signal, so
that it can travel larger distances with less attenuation. Also, the higher the
operating frequency is, the more directive the antenna beam becomes.
Radio Wave Propagation
• Like light waves, radio signals by nature travel in a straight line, and therefore
propagation beyond line of sight requires a means of deflecting the radio waves.
The available methods are reflection (when the radio signal is bounced off a
surface), refraction (when the radio signal bends due to a change in medium),
diffraction (when the radio signal meets a sharp edge and redirects), and scattering
(when the radio signal spreads out). For any type of radio communications, the
signal disperses with distance. The signal attenuation in free space is inversely
related to the square of the distance that the radio signal must travel as well as the
square of the frequency that the radio signal is operating at.
Radio Wave Propagation
• Depending on the frequency and antenna, the radiated energy can propagate in
either a unidirectional or omnidirectional fashion. In the former case, a properly-
aligned antenna can receive the modulated signal, and in the latter case, any
antenna in the area of coverage can receive the signal. In general, radio
frequencies below 1 GHz or so are more suitable for omnidirectional applications
and above 1 GHz or so are typically tailored for unidirectional applications. Also,
at low and medium frequencies, radio waves can penetrate walls. This is viewed as
an advantage when a signal is required to be received inside a building and is
regarded as a disadvantage when it is required to isolate a communication to just
inside or outside a building to reduce the level of interference.
Radio Wave Propagation
• The range of 300 MHz to 300 GHz is known as microwave radio frequencies. Rain
attenuation, which refers primarily to the absorption of a microwave frequency
signal by atmospheric rain, snow, or ice, is a dominant source of signal
degradation. Rain attenuation is a function of many factors, such as location,
distance, elevation angle, and frequency. Rain attenuation is directly related to
frequency (i.e., the higher the operating frequency, the more severe the rain
attenuation can be).
• Radio waves at different frequencies propagate in different ways. As shown in the
next slide, there are three distinct methods for the transmission of radio signals:
ground-wave propagation, sky-wave propagation, and line-of-sight propagation.
Ground wave propagation
• Ground-wave propagation: It is the dominant mode of propagation for frequencies
below 2 MHz (all bands up to and including the lower part of MF band). In this
frequency range, the Earth and the ionosphere (the layer of atmosphere where
particles exist as ions) act as a waveguide for radio wave propagation. These low-
frequency signals propagate (by diffraction) in all directions around the curved
surface of the Earth for thousands of kilometers. Distance depends on the amount
of power in the signal. Since the ground is not a perfect electrical conductor,
ground waves are attenuated rapidly as they follow the Earth’s surface. The signal
attenuation is a function of time and the frequency band. Also, the atmospheric
noise level is rather high. The channel bandwidths available in these frequency
bands are rather modest and in turn yield rather low transmission speeds. Typical
applications include long-range navigation and maritime communications, radio
beacon, and AM radio broadcasting.
Ground wave propagation

Fig 1.12 Ground wave propagation


Sky wave propagation
• Sky-wave propagation: It is the dominant mode of propagation in the frequency
range of 2 MHz to about 30 MHz or in some cases 60 MHz (the upper part of MF
band, HF band, and the lower part of VHF band). Sky-wave propagation results
when the signal is reflected (bent or refracted) from the ionosphere (ionized layer
of the upper atmosphere). In the HF band, signal multipath and fading can be a
source of degradation. This impairment may be experienced when listening to a
distant radio station at night when the sky-wave propagation is the dominant
mode. The angle of reflection and the loss of signal at an ionospheric reflection
point depend on the frequency, the time of the day, the season, and the sunspot
activity. Ionosphere and troposphere scattering involves large signal propagation
losses and requires a rather large amount of transmit power and relatively large
antennas. The additive noise is a combination of atmospheric noise and thermal
noise. Cosmic noise, which is random noise originating outside the Earth’s
atmosphere, impacts sky-way propagation. The typical transmission range in sky-
wave propagation can be in hundreds of kilometers. Typical applications include,
Sky wave propagation

• Fig 1.13 Sky wave propagation


Line of Sight wave Propagation
• Line-of-sight propagation: From the upper part of the VHF band up to and
including the EHF band, signals must be transmitted in straight lines directly from
antenna to antenna, hence the term line of sight. The transmit and receive
antennas are required to be directional and facing each other. The direct path
connecting the antennas in terrestrial communications can be affected by the
curvature of the Earth. The distance between the transmitter and the receiver is
therefore a function of the heights of the transmit and receive antennas. For this
reason, television stations transmitting off-the air signals or microwave radio relay
systems mount their antennas on high
Line of Sight wave Propagation

• Fig 1.14 Line of Sight wave propagation


Line of Sight wave Propagation
• towers or buildings to reach a broad coverage area. Specifically, for terrestrial
communications, the maximum distance between transmit and receive antennas
for direct LOS radio propagation is about
• D = ( + where and are the heights of the transmit and receive antennas in,
respectively, and D is the maximum distance in kilometers over which
communications between them can take place by direct line-of-sight radio signals.
• Applications include off-the-air (VHF and UHF) TV broadcasting, which are
examples of line-of-sight terrestrial communications, and satellite TV
broadcasting and VSAT networks, which are examples of line-of-sight satellite
communications.
Satellite Transmission
• In satellite communications a microwave repeater is located in a satellite. An
Earth station transmits to the satellite at one frequency band and the satellite
regenerates and transmits the signal back at another frequency band. The
frequencies allocated by ITU for satellite communications are in the frequency
range of 1 to 30 GHz. Figure 4.31 illustrates point-to-point transmission with the
help of a geostationary or geosynchronous satellite using the 6/4-GHz satellite
band.
• The satellites used in the telecommunications network are usually located in a so-
called “geostationary” orbit so that they seem to be in the same location all the
time from the point of view of the Earth station, as shown in Figure 4.31. The
distance of this orbit is around 36,000 km from the equator on the Earth’s surface
and this introduces a long transmission delay that is approximately 250 ms from
the transmitting Earth station to the receiving Earth station. The speaker has to
wait for a response for approximately 0.5 seconds and this disturbs an interactive
Satellite Transmission

Fig 1.15 - Satellite Communication


Satellite Transmission
• However, satellite systems can provide telephone service to areas where no
terrestrial infrastructure for telecommunications exists. To provide wide coverage
and smaller delay in mobile telephone service, many lower orbit satellite
telephone systems have been developed and put into use. They have not been
successful because public land mobile systems (PLMNs), such as GSM and CDMA,
have grown rapidly and taken the major share of mobile telephone business.
• One major application for satellite communications has been broadcast satellite
TV. A TV program from a single satellite may be received in any part of a
continent simultaneously making distribution cost per customer low.
Satellite Transmission

• Satellite systems may also provide an attractive solution for data


communications, for example, for a global hotel chain that needs
a global data service to keep reservation databases synchronized.
TRANSMISSION
IMPAIRMENTS
Attenuation
• All signals degrade when transmitted over a distance through any medium. This is because the amplitude of
the signal decreases as the medium resists the flow of energy. Attenuation is the decrease in signal strength,
measured in decibels (dB) per unit length. Attenuation in copper cables is primarily dependent on the
resistance of the conductors. This causes some of the electrical energy in the signal to be converted to heat
energy as the signal progresses along the cable, resulting in a continuous decrease in the amplitude of the
signal.
• Every channel introduces some transmission attenuation (loss). By increasing the physical distance between
the transmitter and the receiver, the signal power (strength) at the receiver decreases. This loss is due to
overcoming the resistance of the medium. For wired media, attenuation has an exponential dependence on
distance, i.e., the attenuation in dB increases linearly with the distance, whereas for wireless systems the
attenuation in dB increases logarithmically with the distance.
• As an example, suppose for a given distance the loss in a guided medium and an unguided medium are both x
dB. If we increase the distance by a factor of 1000, then the loss in the guided medium is 1000 x dB, whereas
that in the unguided medium is only x + 10log1000¼x + 30dB. Thus, the signal level is more attenuated in wired
systems than in wireless systems. To compensate for transmission loss, amplifiers must be used to enhance the
signal level; however, amplification can then boost other types of degradations, such as noise and interference
Attenuation

Figure 1.16 - Signal


attenuation effects
Distortion
• Due to the non-ideal channel, the transmitted signal changes its form or shape, thus
resulting in signal perturbation. This is known as distortion. Unlike noise and
interference, distortion disappears when the signal is turned off. The distinct types of
distortion are linear distortion, nonlinear distortion, and multipath fading. Two types of
linear distortions are :
• Amplitude distortion
If the amplitude response of the channel is not constant(or almost within 1dB) in the
message band, the result is amplitude distortion.
• Phase/delay distortion
• If the phase response of the channel is not linear (i.e., various frequency components of
the message signal suffer different amounts of delay), the result is then phase (delay)
distortion. Delay distortion is a critical problem in data and video transmission, but the
human ear is surprisingly insensitive to it. Wired telephone channels introduce linear
distortion, which can result in inter-symbol interference. However, equalizers can
Non-linear distortion
• Nonlinear distortion occurs when the relationship between the input signal and
output signal is not linear (i.e., the superposition principle is not held). Practical
amplifiers produce nonlinear distortion if the input amplitude is large. In practice,
the output of the amplifier becomes saturated at some value as the amplitude of
the input signal is increased.
• Nonlinear distortion brings about intermodulation (i.e. the output has new
frequency components that are not present in the spectrum of the input signal but
now lie inside the signal bandwidth). Filtering therefore cannot remove these
unwanted frequency components.
Non-linear distortion Cont’d
• One method to mitigate nonlinear distortion is to employ input signals that have a
constant envelope (i.e., virtually no signal fluctuations). Another one is to keep the
signal amplitude within the linear operating range of the transfer characteristic by
using companding (i.e., a compressor before the nonlinear channel and an
expander right after it).
• Multipath fading is a type of degradation that occurs in radio communications,
and it is considerably more prevalent in mobile radio systems. It occurs when
more than one version of the transmitted signal arrives at the receiver, generally
all with very different delays. Multipath fading can result in very wide fluctuations
in the random amplitude and phase of the received signal and generally yield a
severe amount of inter-symbol interference. The receiver must thus employ a
combination of complex techniques to minimize the impact of multipath fading.
Interference

• Interference refers to energy that appears at the receiver from sources other than
its own transmitter. It can manifest itself in wired cables in the form of crosstalk
and echo, but it is significantly more dominant in radio communications.
• Interference can be generated by other users of the same frequency or by
equipment that inadvertently transmits energy outside its band and into the bands
of adjacent channels or systems.

• There are various ways to practically remove or significantly minimize radio


interference in most cases. They include appropriate filtering with stringent
requirements, appropriately-placed physical barriers, transmit and receive
antennas with high directivity, spatial (geographical) separation between wanted
and interfering sources, and strict requirements set by regulatory bodies on the
emission properties of equipment.
Noise
• Noise refers to unwanted, ever-present, random waves that tend to disturb the
transmission and processing of signals in a communication system, thus yielding a
corrupted version of the transmitted signal. There are several types of noise, such
as:
• thermal noise (due to the random motion of electrons in a conductor),
• shot noise (due to the discrete nature of current flow in electronic devices).
• impulse noise (due to natural sources, such as lightning
• man-made sources, such as high-voltage power lines).
Noise is generally assumed to be added to the signal.
TWO- AND FOUR-WIRE CIRCUITS
• Any use of telephone channels involves two unidirectional paths,
one for transmission and one for reception. The local loop, which
connects a telephone to a local exchange is a two-wire (2W)
circuit that carries the signals in both transmission directions .
2W/4W Circuits

• Figure 1.
2W/4W Circuits
• Subscriber loops are and will remain two-wire circuits, because they are one of the biggest
investments of the fixed telephone network.
• Early telephone connections through the network were two-wire circuits. Longer connections
attenuate the speech signal and amplifiers are needed on the line. In two-wire circuits,
amplification of a signal may cause oscillation or ringing if the output signal of an amplifier
loops back to the input circuit of another transmission direction (Figure 2.6).
• The operating principle of electronics in the network is unidirectional and inside the network
we use two wires for each direction, or four-wire (4W) connections.

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