MCHE0302 Communication

Systems
Introduction to Communication Systems

Dr. Ahmet Remzi Özcan

MCHE0302 Communication Systems - 2021

 Introduction to Communication
Systems

MCHE0302 Communication Systems - 2021

 Multitude of Communications
• Telephone network
• Internet
• Radio and TV broadcast
• Mobile communications
• Wi-Fi
• Satellite and space communications
• Smart power grid, healthcare…

• Analogue communications
– AM, FM
• Digital communications
– Transfer of information in digits
– Dominant technology today
– Broadband, 3G, DAB/DVB
“The fundamental problem of
communication is that of
reproducing at one point
either exactly or approximately a
message selected at another point.”
Shannon, Claude.
A Mathematical Theory Of
Communication. (1948)
 What’s Communications?
• Communication involves the transfer of information from
one point to another.
• Three basic elements
– Transmitter: converts message into a form suitable for
transmission
– Channel: the physical medium, introduces distortion, noise,
interference
– Receiver:
R i reconstruct
t t a recognizable
i bl fform off the
th message

Speech
Music
Pictures
Data
…
 Communication Channel
• The channel is central to operation of a communication
y
system
– Linear (e.g., mobile radio) or nonlinear (e.g., satellite)
– Time invariant (e.g., fiber) or time varying (e.g., mobile radio)
• The information-carrying capacity of a communication
system is proportional to the channel bandwidth
• Pursuit for wider bandwidth
– Copper wire: 1 MHz
– Coaxial cable: 100 MHz
– Microwave: GHz
– Optical fiber: THz
• Uses light as the signal carrier
• Highest capacity among all practical signals
 Noise in Communications
• Unavoidable presence of noise in the channel
– Noise refers to unwanted waves that disturb communications
– Signal is contaminated by noise along the path.
• External noise: interference from nearby channels, human-
made noise, natural noise...
• Internal noise: thermal noise, random emission... in
electronic devices
• Noise is one of the basic factors that set limits on
communications.
i ti
• A widely used metric is the signal-to-noise (power) ratio
(SNR)
signal power
SNR= noise power
p
 Transmitter and Receiver
• The transmitter modifies the message signal into a form
suitable for transmission over the channel
• This modification often involves modulation
– Moving the signal to a high-frequency carrier (up-conversion) and
varying some parameter of the carrier wave
– Analog: AM, FM, PM
– Digital: ASK
ASK, FSK,
FSK PSK (SK: shift keying)
• The receiver recreates the original message by
demodulation
– Recovery is not exact due to noise/distortion
– The resulting degradation is influenced by the type of modulation
• Design of analog communication is conceptually simple
g
• Digital communication is more efficient and reliable; design
g
is more sophisticated
 Objectives of System Design
• Two primary resources in communications
– Transmitted p
power ((should be g
green))
– Channel bandwidth (very expensive in the commercial market)
• In certain scenarios, one resource may be more important
than the other
– Power limited (e.g. deep-space communication)
– Bandwidth limited (e.g.
( telephone circuit))
• Objectives of a communication system design
– The message is delivered both efficiently and reliably
reliably, subject to
certain design constraints: power, bandwidth, and cost.
– Efficiency is usually measured by the amount of messages sent in
unit power, unit time and unit bandwidth.
– Reliability is expressed in terms of SNR or probability of error.
 Analog and Digital Communications

Analog Communication Systems

- information is from an analog source
- the signal waveform changes according to the information
content
- Sensitive to noise

Digital Communication Systems

- information is from a digital source or an analog is digitized before
transmission
- information is carried in form of bit sequence or pattern
- Distorted or noise-corrupted digital signal can be recovered by
digital processing techniques Æ Less sensitive to noise
 Forms of Communications

Simplex Communication
- one way communication, in one direction only

Information IN Information OUT

Transmitter Receiver

A Channel B

Half Duplex Communication

- one way communication at any time, but in both directions
Information IN Information OUT
Transmitter Receiver

Information OUT Information IN

Receiver Channel Transmitter

A B
 Forms of Communications

Full Duplex Communication

- simultaneous two-way communication

Information IN Information OUT

Transmitter Receiver

Information OUT Information IN

Receiver Channel Transmitter

A B
 Information Theory
• In digital communications, is it possible to operate at
zero error rate even though the channel is noisy?
• Poineers: Shannon, Kolmogorov…
– The maximum rate of reliable transmission is
calculated.
– The famous Shannon capacity formula for a channel
with bandwidth W (Hz)
C = W log(1+SNR) bps (bits per second)
Shannon
– Zero error rate is possible as long as actual signaling
rate is less than C.
• Many concepts
M t were fundamental
f d t l and
d paved
d th
the
way for future developments in communication
theory.
– Provides a basis for tradeoff between SNR and
bandwidth, and for comparing different communication
schemes.
Kolmogorov
C. E. Shannon (1916-2001)
 1938 MIT master's thesis: A Symbolic
Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits
 Insight: The binary nature of Boolean
logic was analogous to the ones and
zeros used by digital circuits.
 The thesis became the foundation of
practical digital circuit design.
 The first known use of the term bit to
refer to a “binary digit.”
 Possibly the most important, and also the
most famous, master’s thesis of the
century.
 It was simple, elegant, and important.
C. E. Shannon (Con’t)
 1948: A Mathematical
Theory of Communication
 Bell System Technical Journal,
vol. 27, pp. 379-423, July-
October, 1948.
 September 1949: Book
published. Include a new
section by Warren Weaver that
applied Shannon's theory to  Invent Information Theory:
human communication. Simultaneously founded the
subject, introduced all of the
 Create the architecture and major concepts, and stated and
concepts governing digital proved all the fundamental
communication. theorems.
 Milestones in Communications
• 1837, Morse code used in telegraph
• 1864 Maxwell formulated the eletromagnetic (EM) theory
1864,
• 1887, Hertz demonstrated physical evidence of EM waves
• 1890’s-1900’s
1890 s-1900 s, Marconi & Popov,
Popov long-distance radio
telegraph
– Across Atlantic Ocean
– From Cornwall to Canada

• 1875, Bell invented the telephone

• 1906, radio broadcast
• 1918, Armstrong invented superheterodyne radio receiver
(and FM in 1933)
• 1921, land-mobile communication
 Milestones (2)
• 1928, Nyquist proposed the sampling theorem
• 1947,, microwave relayy system
y
• 1948, information theory
• 1957, era of satellite communication began
• 1966, Kuen Kao pioneered fiber-optical
communications (Nobel Prize Winner)
• 1970’ era off computer
1970’s, t networks
t k bbegan
• 1981, analog cellular system
• 1988 digital cellular system debuted in Europe
1988,
• 2000, 3G network
• The big 3 telecom manufacturers in 2010
 Cellular Mobile Phone Network
• A large area is partitioned into cells
• Frequency reuse to maximize capacity
 Growth of Mobile Communications
• 1G: analog communications
– AMPS
• 2G: digital communications
– GSM
– IS-95
• 3G: CDMA networks
– WCDMA
– CDMA2000
– TD-SCDMA
TD SCDMA
• 4G: data rate up to
1 Gbps (giga bits per second)
– Pre-4G technologies:
WiMax, 3G LTE
 Wi--Fi
Wi
• Wi-Fi connects “local” computers (usually within 100m
g )
range)
 IEEE 802.11 Wi-
Wi-Fi Standard
• 802.11b
– Standard for 2.4GHz ((unlicensed)) ISM band
– 1.6-10 Mbps, 500 ft range

• 802.11a
– Standard for 5GHz band
– 20-70 Mbps, variable range
– Similar to HiperLAN in Europe
• 802.11g
– Standard in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
– Speeds up to 54 Mbps, based on orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM)
• 802.11n
– Data rates up
p to 600 Mbpsp
– Use multi-input multi-output (MIMO)
 Satellite/Space Communication
• Satellite communication
– Cover very large areas
– Optimized for one-way transmission
• Radio (DAB) and movie (SatTV)
broadcasting
– Two-way systems
• The only choice for remote-area and
maritime communications
• Propagation delay (0.25 s) is
uncomfortable in voice
communications
• Space communication
– Missions to Moon, Mars, …
– Long distance, weak signals
– High-gain antennas
– Powerful error-control coding
 Future Wireless Networks
Ubiquitous Communication Among People and Devices
Wireless
Wi l IInternet
t t access
Nth generation Cellular
Ad Hoc Networks
Sensor Networks
Wireless Entertainment
Smart Homes/Grids
Automated Highways
All this and more…
•Hard Delay Constraints
•Hard Energy Constraints
 Communication Networks
• Today’s communications networks are complicated
systems
– A large n
number
mber of users
sers sharing the medi
medium
m
– Hosts: devices that communicate with each other
– Routers: route date through the network
 Concept of Layering
• Partitioned into layers, each doing a relatively simple task
• Protocol stack

Network
Application
Transport
Network
Link
Ph i l
Physical
Physical
TCP/IP protocol
stack (Internet)
OSI Model 2-layer model

Communication Systems mostly deals with the physical layer

layer, but
some techniques (e.g., coding) can also be applied to the network
layer.
Outlook
Communication is enabled by protocols

Application layer Ex.: Skype

Transport layer Ex.: TCP
Network layer Ex.: IP
Data link layer Ex.: Ethernet
Physical layer What this course is about:
Transfer of analog/digital
information over a physical
channel
 Review of Signals & Systems

MCHE0302 Communication Systems - 2021

 Review of Signals & Systems
time domain

Fourier
transform

oscilloscope
Signal analysis

frequency domain

spectrum analyzer
Ex.: frequency-domain view of radio signals
(http://njit2.mrooms.net/mod/page/view.php?id=32810)
 Signal Representation
s(t) = A sin(2π fo t +φo ) or A sin(ωo t +φo )
Time-domain: waveform

A: Amplitude
Time (seconds) f : Frequency (Hz) (ω=2πf)
φ : Phase (radian or degrees)
Period (seconds)
S(f)

Frequency-domain: spectrum

fo Frequency (Hz)
Signal Classification
For first part of this course

• Deterministic vs. random

• Energy vs. Power

• Periodic vs. aperiodic

• Complex vs. real

• Continuous-time vs. discrete-time

 Deterministic & Random Signals

Deterministic signal can be modeled as a completely specified

function of time.

Example
f (t ) = A cos( ω 0 t + θ )

Random signal cannot be completely specified as a function of

time and must be modeled probabilistically.
Energy vs. Power Signals
• Energy of a signal

• is measured in Amperes (A) or Volts (V)

→ is measured in A2s or V2s
→ Assuming that the load has unit resistance, we will measure
in Joules (J)
Examples
, 0 1
a)
0,

1
rectangular waveform

b)

sinc waveform
Examples
c for 0

4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4

for 1: "shrinking" less energy

for 1: "stretching" more energy

d) Voice signal in Figure 2.1

Energy vs. Power Signals

• Any signal with ∞ i.e., with finite energy, is called

an energy signal
Energy vs. Power Signals
• The sine and cosine functions are examples of power
signals

• Power of a signal

1
lim
→

• measured in Watts assuming unit resistance

Energy vs. Power Signals
• A signal with 0 ∞, i.e., finite non-zero power, is a
power signal

• Note that:
– An energy signal is not a power signal:

∞ 0

– A power signal is not an energy signal:

0 ∞
Examples
a cos 2 , ∞ ∞

1
1 2
(See example 2.4)

cosine (period)
Examples
b) Periodic pulse train

period

(See example 2.5)

Periodic vs. Aperiodic Signals
• is periodic if

for some 0 and all integers ∗

• Period:

such that ∗ holds

• Fundamental frequency:
1
Example
cos 2 , ∞ ∞

1
period

with n integer
fundamental frequency
Periodic vs. Aperiodic Signals
• For any periodic signal:

energy of the signal in

one period
Real vs. Complex Signals
• All previous examples are real signals

• Complex signal

cartesian representation

real part imaginary part

Re [ ] Im [ ]

and are real signals

Real vs. Complex Signals

polar representation

phase
magnitude arg( )
or amplitude
| |

and are real signals

Real vs. Complex Signals
• Relationship between the two representations
Example
cos 2 2

cos 2

one full
sin 2 circle
every
1
1

1
2
Real vs. Complex Signals
• Complex conjugate
∗

• See equations (2.17) in textbook for properties

Continuous vs. Discrete-time Signals

continuous-time
ex: radio, light,…

1
0
2 ⋯
discrete-time
ex: sampled signal
0 1 2 3 4 ⋯
Continuous vs. Discrete-time Signals
• A discrete-time signal is often obtained by sampling a
continuous-time signal

continuous-time
signal
Continuous vs. Discrete-time Signals
• A discrete-time signal is often obtained by sampling a
continuous-time signal

Sampling
0 2 = sampling
period
Continuous vs. Discrete-time Signals
• A discrete-time signal is often obtained by sampling a
continuous-time signal

0 0
1 discrete-time
2 2
signal
0 1 2 3

• Sampling is necessary in order to allow for digital signal

processing, e.g., via MATLAB
 References
1. Principles of Communications (7th Edition) , Rodger E. Zeimer,
William H. Tranter, Wiley, 2014
2. Fundementals of Communication Systems (2nd Edition) , John G.
Proakis, Masoud Salehi, Pearson, 2014

MCHE0302 Communication Systems - 2021