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Signal

SECTION A
Review Questions

1. Describe the three characteristics of a sine wave.

2. What is the spectrum of a signal?

3. Contrast an analog signal with a digital signal?

4. A signal has been received that only has value of -1, 0, and 1. Is this an analog or a
digital signal?

5. What is the relationship between period and frequency?

6. What are the units of period?

7. What are the units of frequency?

8. What does the amplitude of a signal measure?

9. What does the frequency of a signal measure?

10. What does the phase of a signal measure?

11. Which type of plot shows the amplitude of a signal at a given time?

12. How can a composite signal be decomposed into its individual frequencies?

13. What is a bit interval, and what is its counterpart in an analog signal?

14. What is bit rate, and what is its counterpart in an analog signal?

15. Name three types of transmission impairment.

16. What does a decibel measure?

17. What is the relationship between propagation speed and propagation time?

18. What is the wavelength of a signal and how is it calculated?

19. What does the Shannon capacity have to do with communications?

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SECTION B
Multiple Choice Questions

20. Before data can be transmitted, they must be transformed to _____________.

a) Periodic signals
b) Electromagnetic signal
c) Aperiodic signal
d) Low-frequency sine waves

21. A periodic signal completes one cycle in 0.001 s. What is the frequency?
a) 1 Hz
b) 100 Hz
c) 1 KHz
d) 1 MHz

22. Which of the following can be determined from a frequency-domain graph of a

signal?
a) Frequency
b) Phase
c) Power
d) All the above

23. Which of the following can be determined from a frequency-domain graph of a

signal?
a) Bandwidth
b) phase
c) Power
d) All the above

24. In a frequency-domain plot, the vertical axis measure the ___________.

a) Peak amplitude
b) Frequency
c) Phase
d) Slope

25. In a frequency-domain plot, the horizontal axis measures the __________.

a) Peak amplitude
b) Frequency
c) Phase
d) Slope

26. In a time-domain plot, the vertical axis is a measure of ___________.

a) Amplitude
b) Frequency
c) Phase
d) Time

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27. In a time-domain plot, the horizontal axis is a measure of __________.

a) Signal amplitude
b) Frequency
c) Phase
d) Time

28. If the bandwidth of a signal is 5 KHz and the lowest frequency is 52 KHz, what is the
highest frequency?
a) 5 KHz
b) 10 KHz
c) 47 KHz
d) 57 KHz

29. What is the bandwidth of a signal that ranges from 40 KHz to 4 MHz?
a) 36 MHz
b) 360 KHz
c) 3.96 MHz
d) 396 KHz

30. When one of the components of a signal has a frequency of zero, the average
amplitude of the signal _________.
a) Is greater than zero
b) Is less than zero
c) Is zero
d) (a) or (b)

31. A periodic signal can always be decomposed into __________.

a) Exactly an odd number of sine waves
b) A set of sine waves
c) A set of sine waves, one of which must have a phase of 00
d) None of the above

32. As frequency increases, the period ____________.

a) Decreases
b) Increases
c) Remains the same
d) Doubles

33. Given two sine waves A and B, if the frequency of A is twice that of B, then the
period of B is ___________ that of A.
a) One-half
b) Twice
c) The same as
d) Indeterminate from

34. A sine wave is ___________.

a) Periodic and continuous
b) Aperiodic and continuous
c) Periodic and discrete

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d) Aperiodic and discrete

35. If the maximum amplitude of a sine wave is 2 V, the minimum amplitude is

_________ V.
a) 2
b) 1
c) -2
d) Between -2 and 2

36. A signal is measured at two different points. The power is P1 at the first point and P2 at
the second point. The dB is 0. This means __________.
a) P2 is zero
b) P2 equals P1
c) P2 is much larger than P1
d) P2 is much smaller than P1

37. ____________ is a type of transmission impairment in which the signal loses strength
due to the resistance of the transmission medium.
a) Attenuation
b) Distortion
c) Noise
d) Decibel

38. ___________ is a type of transmission impairment in which the signal loses strength
due to the different propagation speeds of each frequency that makes up the signal.
a) Attenuation
b) distortion
c) Noise
d) Decibel

39. ___________ is a type of transmission impairment in which an outside source such as

crosstalk corrupts a signal.
a) Attenuation
b) Distortion
c) Noise
d) Decibel

40. The ____________ has unit of meters/second or kilometres/second.

a) Throughput
b) Propagation speed
c) Propagation time
d) (b) or (c)

41. The ____________ is the measurement of how fast data can pass through an entity.
a) Throughput
b) Propagation speed
c) Propagation time
d) (b) or (c)

42. The __________ has units of seconds.

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a) Throughput
b) Propagation speed
c) Propagation time
d) (b) or (c)

43. When propagation speed is multiplied by propagation time, we get the __________.
a) Throughput
b) Wavelength of the signal
c) Distortion factor
d) Distance a signal or bit has traveled.

44. Propagation time is __________ proportional to distance and ___________

proportional to propagation speed.
a) Inversely; directly
b) Directly; inversely
c) Inversely; inversely
d) Directly; directly

45. Wavelength is _____________ proportional to propagation speed and ___________

proportional to period.
a) Inversely; directly
b) Directly; inversely
c) Inversely; inversely
d) Directly; directly

46. The wavelength of a signal depends on the __________.

a) Frequencies of the signal
b) Medium
c) Phase of the signal
d) (a) and (b)

47. The wavelength of green light in air is ____________ the wavelength of green light in
fiber-optic cable.
a) Less than
b) Greater than
c) Equal to
d) None of the above

48. Using the Shannon formula to calculate the data rate for given channel, if C=B, then
__________.
a) The signal is less than the noise
b) The signal is greater than the noise
c) The signal is equal to the noise
d) Not enough information is given to answer the question

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