Wideband Transmission Media

Coaxial Cable Microwave Radio Frequency Diversity Space Diversity Satellites

Co-axial cable
Radio-grade flexible coaxial cable. A: outer plastic sheath B: copper screen C: inner dielectric insulator D: copper core

Coaxial MUX

Microwave Radio

Freq Diversity
The signal is transferred using several frequency channels or spread over a wide spectrum that is affected by frequencyselective fading. Middle 20th century microwave radio relay lines often used several regular wideband radio channels, and one protection channel for automatic use by any faded channel.

Space Diversity
The signal is transferred over several different propagation paths. In the case of wired transmission, this can be achieved by transmitting via multiple wires. In the case of wireless transmission, it can be achieved by antenna diversity using multiple transmitter antennas (transmit diversity) and/or multiple receiving antennas (diversity reception).

Transmission Impairments
Signal Attenuation Interference Noise Distortion Echoes and Singing

Signal Attenuation
Subjective listening tests have shown that the preferred acoustic to acoustic loss in a telephone connection should be in neighborhood of 8 dB.

Signal Attenuation
A typical local call had only 0.6 dB more loss than ideal. The average analog toll connection had an additional 6.7 dB loss. The standard deviation of loss in toll connections was 4 dB. Trunks within the toll network used amplifiers to offset transmission losses.

Interference
Interference is more structured than noise since it arises as unwanted coupling from just a few signals in the network. Interference if intelligible, is referred to as crosstalk.

Sources of crosstalk
Coupling between wire pairs in cable Inadequate filtering or carrier offsets in older FDM equipment, and the effects of non-linear components on FDM signals.

Forms of Crosstalk
Near-end Crosstalk (NEXT) Far-end Crosstalk (FEXT)

Which form of crosstalk is more troublesome?

Noise
White Noise : easy to analyze, easy to find, arises as thermal noise, truly random, uncorrelated, quantified in terms of average power. Impulse noise: occur from switching transients in older equipment, measured in terms of impulses per second. Impulse noise is usually of less concern to voice quality than background white noise. Impulse noise is a problem in data communication. Quantization Noise

Weighting Curves
Disturbances at some frequencies within the passband of a voice signal are subjectively more annoying than others. Thus, more useful measurements of noise or interference power in a speech network take into account the subjective effects of the noise as well as the power level.

C-message and Psophometric Weighting

Weighting Curves
These curves essentially represent filters that weight the frequency spectrum of noise according to its annoyance effect to a listener. C-message is a north American standard while psophometric weighting is a European (ITU-T) Standard.

Relationships between various noise measurements

Distortion
Due to Internal characteristics of channel, deterministic in nature. Can be compensated or controlled, once known. Some distortions arises from non-linearities (e.g. saturated VF amplifiers) in the network while other are linear in nature. Amplitude and Phase distortion.

Amplitude Distortion
Attenuation of some frequencies in the voice spectrum more than others. Introduced by spectrum limiting filters in FDM eqpt. Loading coils eliminate Amp distortion.

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IL vs f of typical toll connection

Phase Distortion
Delay characteristics of transmission medium. Individual frequency components experience different delays. Delay of Individual Freq. component is referred to as its envelope delay Uniform envelope delay linear phase systems. Any deviation from a linear phase characteristic is referred to as phase distortion. Perceptual effects of phase distortion to a voice signal are small. Thus requires minimal attention.

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Envelope delay and phase response

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In addition to amp and phase distortion, other frequency related distortions are: frequency offsets, jitter, phase hits and signal dropouts.

Echoes & Singing

Transmitted energy coupled to return path. Most common cause impedance mismatch at a 2-to-4-wire hybrid.

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Echoes & Singing

Talker echo 1st reflection Listener echo 2nd reflection Singing repeated coupling to forward path leads to oscillations (if loop gain at a frequency 1).

Echoes & Singing

Talker echo is usually most noticeable and troublesome. The degree of echo annoyance is dependent on magnitude of returning signal and the amount of delay involved.

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Echo Suppressor and Canceller

Power Levels
ITU-T zero-relative level point North American zero-transmission-level point (0-TLP).

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TLP
Transmission Level Point, or TLP, is simply one way of representing gain or loss in a channel in dB.
0 TLP 3 dB loss -16 TLP 3 dB loss -19 TLP -3 TLP

0 TLP, Zero Transmission Level Point Reference Point

0 TLP

-1.5 TLP

+1.5 TLP

-3 TLP

1.5 dB loss

3 dB gain

4.5 dB loss

dBm

0 TLP

-1.5 TLP

+1.5 TLP

-3 TLP

1.5 dB loss -10 dBm0 -10 dBm -10 dBm0 -11.5 dBm

3 dB gain -10 dBm0 -8.5 dBm

4.5 dB loss -10 dBm0 -13 dBm

dBm

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TLP = dBm dBm0

dBm0 means power at 0 TLP. TLP does not describe the (absolute) power present at a point. To know the power present at a given TLP, it is necessary to know the power present at some other TLP in the channel.

Example 1: If a signal is specified as -13 dBm0 at a particular point and -6 dBm is measured at that point, the TLP is TLP = -6 dBm ( - 13 dBm0) = +7 TLP Example 2: If a signal is -13 dBm at the 0 TLP, then at the +7 TLP the signal level in dBm is (+7 TLP) + ( - 13 dBm0) = -6 dBm Example 3: A -13 dBm0 signal measured at -16 TLP is (-16 TLP) + ( - 13 dBm0) = -29 dBm

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TLP
TLP applies to noise levels as well as signal levels. When referred to the 0 TLP, noise is given in dBrnC0.

TLP = dBrnC dBrnC0

Example 4: A 71 dBrnC0 signal measured at -3 TLP is (-3 TLP) + ( 71 dBrnC0) = -68 dBrnC

Example 5 : A 71 dBrnC0 signal measured at +7 TLP is (+7 TLP) + ( 71 dBrnC0) = 78 dBrnC

0/0 TLP means a circuit has zero gain (loss) -16/+7 TLP > Rx/Tx TLP

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Example 1.1 (Text book)

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