CHAPTER 1

COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS
Learning Outcomes
 Identify the functionality of communication system blocks.
 Demonstrate practical knowledge of the fundamental principles of
Amplitude Modulation (AM) and Frequency Modulation (FM) systems.
 Compare the performance of angle and amplitude modulations.
 Perform signal analysis in time and frequency domains.
 Evaluate the effect of noise in communication system.
 Determine the bandwidth and the power requirements of Analog
Communication systems (AM/FM).
 Describe current and future communication systems.
 Analyze the methods of transmission using pulse code modulation.
 Design AM/FM modulators/demodulators.
 Perform software simulation and hardware implementation of
analog communication systems.
Topics to Be Covered

 Introduction to communication systems.

 Amplitude modulation.
 Angle modulation.
 Sampling and pulse code modulation.
 Principles of digital data transmission.
 Introduction to information theory.
 Error correcting codes.
Communication System Everywhere

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 Communications
5

 Communications
Transfer of information from one place to another.
Should be efficient, reliable, and secured.
“A communication system is a process of conveying
information from a source to a destination”

 Communication system
Components/subsystems act together to accomplish
information transfer/exchange
“An electronic communication system is transferring information using
an electrical field as a mean of signal”
 Communication System
 Communication systems transport information from one point (transmitter) to
another point (receiver) via physical Channel that propagate electromagnetic wave
 Types of information
- Continuous (often called analog) with an infinite number of possible values

- Discrete (often called digital) variables with a finite set of known possible
values
x(t) x(t) 1
x(t) 1 1

0 T 0 0 0
t t t
•Analog signals •Digital signals •Binary signals
-Value limited to a finite set -Has at most 2 values
-Value varies continuously
-Used to represent bit values
-Bit time T needed to send 1 bit
-Data rate R=1/T bits per second
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7
8
 Communication System Requirements
9

 Rate of information transfer

 The rate of information transfer is defined as the amount of
information that must be communicated from source to destination.
 It determines the physical form and technique used to transmit and
receive information and therefore determines the way system is
designed and constructed

 Purity of signal received

 The received signal must be the same as the transmitted signal
 Communication System Requirements
10

 Simplicity of the system

 Any communication system must be convenient in order to be effective
and efficient and easy to use

 Reliability
 Users must be able to depend on a communication system. It must work
when needed and transmit and receive information without errors or with
an acceptable error.
 Elements of Communication System
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Input
Message Input Transmitter
Transducer

noise Channel

Output Transmission
Message Output medium
Receiver
Transducer
 Elements of Communication System
12
 Input Transducer
To convert the message to a form suitable for the
particular type of communication system.

Eg: Speech waves are converted to voltage

variation by a microphone, voice, music, video (analog), e-mail, file transfer
(digital).

▪ Transmitter
Processes the input signal → to produce a transmitted signal that suited
the characteristic of transmission channel.
e.g.: modulation, coding

Other functions performed:

Amplification, filtering
 Elements of Communication System
13
 Channel (Transmission medium)
A medium that bridges the distance from source to destination.
eg: Atmosphere (free space), coaxial cable, fiber optic, waveguide
Signal undergoes degradation from noise, interference and distortion.

⚫ Transmission systems can be evaluated according to five (5) main criteria:

→ Capacity → Performance
→ Distance → Security Propagation mechanisms
→ Cost which include installation,
A: freespace
A: free space
operation and maintenance C
B:
C:
reflection
B: reflection
diffraction
C: diffraction
A
D: scattering
D: scattering
D

B
Transmitter Receiver

reflection: object is large

compared to wavelength
scattering: object is small
or its surface irregular
 Elements of Communication System
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The two main categories of channel commonly used are:

 Line (conducted media)

◼ The channel is made up metallic cable (such as coaxial cable, twisted
pair, parallel wires, and others) or fibre optic cable.

 Free space or radiated media

◼ This is the medium where the transmission of signal is carried out by
the propagation of electromagnetic wave.
◼ The main applications are in radio broadcasting, microwaves and
satellites transmission systems.
 Elements of Communication System
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• Loses in medium of transmission

• However, each medium introduces losses termed as attenuation,
distortion and adds noise to some degree to the transmitted signal. The
amount of attenuation, distortion, and noise depends on the type of
transmission medium used.

• There is normally no signal processing in the transmission medium, it is

just the medium where the transmitter is connected to the receiver.
 Elements of Communication System
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 Receiver
To extract the desired signal from the output channel and to convert it to
a form suitable for the output transducer.
eg: Demodulation, decoding

Other functions performed:

Amplification, filtering.
⚫ Output Transducer
Converts the electrical signal at its input into a form desired by the
system used.
Speaker, Earphone, Computer , Printer
 Losses in Communication System
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Various unwanted undesirable effect crop up in transmissions

 Attenuation
 Reduces signal strength at the receiver

 Distortion
 Waveform perturbation caused by imperfect response of the system to
the desired signal itself
 Equalizer can be used to reduce the effect

 Interference
 Contamination by extraneous signals from human sources
 Losses in Communication System
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 Noise
 Random and unpredictable electrical signals from internal or external to
the system
 The term SNR (signal to noise ratio) is used to measure performance
(noise) relative to an information analog signal
 The term BER (Bit Error Rate) is used in digital system to measure the
deterioration of the signal
 Analog vs. Digital
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The signal can be analog or digital message:

 Analog
 Continuous Variation

- Assumes the total range of frequencies/time

 All information is transmitted.

 Digital
 Takes samples

- non-continuous stream of on/off pulses

 Translates to 1s and 0s
 Analog Vs Digital
(Advantages and Disadvantages)
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Digital CS Analog CS

Advantages:
⚫ Inexpensive
⚫ Privacy preserved (Data
encrypt.)
⚫ Can merge different data
⚫ Error correction
Disadvantages:
⚫ Expensive
⚫ No privacy preserved
⚫ Cannot merge different data
⚫ No error correction capability

Disadvantages: Advantages:
⚫ Larger bandwidth ⚫ Smaller bandwidth
⚫ Synchronization problem is ⚫ Synchronization problem is
relatively difficult. relatively easier.
 Baseband vrs Modulated Signal
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 Baseband Signal
 Baseband signal is the modulating signal/original information signal
either in a digital or analog form (intelligent/message) in communication
system
Example: voice signal (300Hz – 3400Hz)

 Transmission of original information whether analog or digital, directly

into transmission medium is called baseband transmission.

 Modulated Signal
 Modulated signal is baseband signal which its original frequency is
shifted to higher frequency to facilitate transmission purposes
Block Diagram of Modulation Process
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Baseband MODULATION Modulated

signal PROCESS signal

Carrier
 Baseband Transmission
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 Baseband signal is not suitable for long distance communication because:

 Hardware limitation (e.g.: requires very long antenna)

 Interference with other waves
 Modulation
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 Modulation –

Process of changing baseband signals to facilitate the

transmission medium

 Process of modulation

 Frequency translation such as AM, FM, PM etc

 Sampling and coding such as PAM, PCM etc
 Keying such as ASK, FSK etc
 Modulation
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 Types of modulation :

 Analogue modulations are frequency translation method caused by

changing the appropriate quantity in a carrier signal

 Digital modulation is the result of changing analogue signal into binary

ones by sampling and coding

 Keying modulations are digital signals subsequently modulated by the

frequency modulation by using one or other analogue method
 Amplitude Modulation
• Amplitude of the carrier wave is adjusted to correspond to the
information being sent
• AM Modulation is usually found in radio transmissions

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 Frequency Modulation
• Frequency of the carrier wave is adjusted to represent the information
being transmitted
• FM modulation is found in radio and television transmissions

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Digital Modulation
 Frequency Spectrum
 Most precious resource in communications is “frequency
spectrum”
 The “frequency spectrum” has to be shared by a large
number of users and applications:
 AM Radio, FM Radio, TV, cellular telephony, wireless
local-area-networks, satellite communication

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Frequency Spectrum Example
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designates and
licenses frequency bands in the US.

Application Frequency Band

AM Radio 0.54-1.6 MHz
TV (Channels 2-6) 54-88 MHz
FM Radio 88-108 MHz
TV (Channels 7-13) 174-216 MHz
Cellular mobile 806-901 MHz
radio 30
 Frequency Bands
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3 – 30 kHz VLF (very low freq) Ground wave

30 – 300 kHz LF (low freq) Ground wave
300 – 3000 kHz MF (medium freq) Ground wave/sky wave
3 – 30 MHz HF (high freq) Sky wave (Ionospheric)
30 – 300 MHz VHF (very high freq) Space wave (LOS)
300 – 3000 MHz UHF (ultrahigh freq) Space wave (LOS)
3 – 30 GHz SHF (superhigh freq) LOS/Satellite
30 – 300 GHz EHF (Extremely high freq) LOS/Satellite

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Band Designation

 Radio Communication System
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 It is wireless communication system

 The information is being carried by the electromagnetic waves, which is

propagated in free space

 Electromagnetic waves are waves that travel at the speed of light and
made up of an electrical field and magnetic field at right angles to one
another and to the direction of propagation
 Radio Communication System
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Transmitting Receiving
antenna antenna

Transmitter Receiver

Block diagram of a radio communication system

 Propagation Waves
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 The three waves propagation methods:

 Ground wave propagation
 Sky wave propagation
 Space wave propagation

Space wave propagation

Ionospheric layer
Sky wave
propagation

Earth Receiver
Transmitter
Fig: Radio wave propagation methods
 Satellite Communication
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 Satellite employs LOS radio transmission over very long distance

 It offers broad coverage even across the ocean and can handle bulk of
very long distance telecommunication

Satellite
down-link
uplink
 Historical Development
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Year Events
1844 Telegraph
1876 Telephone
1904 AM Radio
1923 Television
1936 FM Radio
1962 Satellite
1966 Optical links using laser and fiber optics
1972 Cellular Telephone
 Historical Development
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Year Events
1975 First digital telephone switch
1975 Wideband communication system (cable TV etc)
1980 Compact disc is developed by Philip & Sony
1981 FCC adopts rules for commercial cellular telephone
1982 Internet is used to replace ARPANET
1985 Fax machines widely available in offices
1989 First SONET standard optical fiber products released
1990 WWW becomes part of the internet
1990-2000 Digital communication system (ISDN, BISDN, HDTV,
handheld computers, digital cellular etc Global
telecom system
Gain, Attenuation, and Decibels
Most circuits in electronic communication are used to
manipulate signals to produce a desired result. All
signal-processing circuits involve:

➢ Gain

➢ Attenuation

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Gain
Gain means amplification. It is the ratio of a circuit’s
output to it’s input.

Amplifier
Vin → ► → Vout
Input Signal Output Signal

A = gain = Vout ÷ Vin

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Power Gain
Power gain (Ap) = Pout ÷ Pin

Where Pin is the power input and Pout is the power output

Example:

The power output of an amplifier is 6 watts (W). The power

gain is 80. What is the input power?

Ap = Pout / Pin therefore Pin = Pout / Ap

Pin = 6 / 80 = 0.075 W = 75 mW
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Attenuation
Attenuation refers to a loss introduced by a circuit or
component. If the output signal is lower in
amplitude than the input, the circuit has loss or
attenuation.

➢ The letter A is used to represent attenuation

➢ Attenuation A = output/input = Vout/Vin
➢ Circuits that introduce attenuation have a gain that
is less than 1.
➢ With cascaded circuits, the total attenuation is the
product of the individual attenuations.
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Decibels
The decibel is a unit of measure used to express the
gain or loss of in communication system circuit.

NOTE: When gain and attenuation are both

converted into decibels, the overall gain or
attenuation of a circuit can be computed by
adding individual gains or attenuations,
expressed in decibels.

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Decibel Calculations
➢ Voltage Gain or Attenuation
dB = 20 log Vout/Vin

➢ Current Gain or Attenuation

dB = 20 log Iout/Iin

➢ Power Gain or Attenuation

dB = 10 log Pout/Pin

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Decibel Calculation (continued)
Example:
An amplifier has an input of 3 mV and an output of 5 V. What is
the gain in decibels?

dB = 20 log 5/0.003 = 20 log 1666.67 = 20 (3.22) = 64.4 dB

Example:
A filter has a power input of 50 mW and an output of 2 mW. What
is the gain or attenuation?

dB = 10 log (2/50) = 10 log (0.04) = 10 (-1.398) = -13.98 dB

Note: If the decibel figure is positive, that denotes a gain.

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 Power Measurement (dB, dBm)
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 The decibel (dB) is a transmission-measuring unit used to express gain and

losses an electronic devices and circuits

 for describing relationship between signal and noise

 dB → 1 W
 dBm → 1 mW
 example: 100 W = 10 log10 100 = 2dB
= 10 log10 100 = 50 dBm
1mW
 Examples
46

1. Convert the absolute power ratio of 200 to a power gain in dB

Solution:
Power gain, Ap (dB) = 10 log10 [200]
= 10(2.3)
= 23 dB
2. Convert the power gain Ap = 23 dB to an absolute power ratio

Solution
Power gain, Ap (dB) = 10 log10 [Pout/Pin]
2.3 = log10 [Pout/Pin]
[Pout/Pin] = antilog 2.3
= 200
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 Examples
47

3. Convert a power level of 200 mW to dBm

Solution:
dBm = 10 log10 [200mW/1mW]
= 10(2.3)
= 23 dBm

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 Communication System Consideration
(1)
A very important consideration in communication
system 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)
Communication System Consideration
(2)

• The bit rate of a system increases with an increase in the

number of signal levels we use to denote a symbol.
• A symbol can consist of a single bit or “n” bits.
• The number of signal levels = 2n.
• As the number of levels goes up, the spacing between
level decreases -> increasing the probability of an error
occurring in the presence of transmission impairments.
 Nyquist Theorem
• Nyquist gives the upper bound for the bit rate of a transmission system by
calculating the bit rate directly from the number of bits in a symbol (or signal
levels) and the bandwidth of the system
• Nyquist theorem states that for a noiseless channel:

C = 2 B log22n
C= capacity in bps
B = bandwidth in Hz
Example
Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz transmitting a signal
with two signal levels. The maximum bit rate can be calculated as
Example (2)
 Shannon Theorem (1)

In defining information, Shannon identified the

critical relationships among the
elements of a communication system
the power at the source of a signal
the bandwidth or frequency range of an
information channel through which the signal travels
the noise of the channel, such as unpredictable
static on a radio, which will alter the signal by the
time it reaches the last element of the System
the receiver, which must decode the signal.
Shannon Theorem (2)

Shannon’s theorem gives the capacity of a

system in the presence of noise.
Shannon's law is any statement defining the theoretical
maximum rate at which error free digits can be
transmitted over a bandwidth limited channel in the
presence of noise

C = B log2(1 + SNR)
C= capacity in bps
B = bandwidth in Hz
SNR=Signal-to-noise-ratio (Not in dB)
Example (1)
We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a regular telephone line. A
telephone line normally has a bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is
usually 3162. For this channel the capacity is calculated as

This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line is 34.860 kbps. If we want
to send data faster than this, we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or
improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
 Example (2)
The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels. Assume that SNR [dB] = 36 and
the channel bandwidth is 2 MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be
calculated as
Example (3)
For practical purposes, when the SNR is very high, we can assume that SNR + 1 is
almost the same as SNR. In these cases, the theoretical channel capacity can be
simplified to

For example, we can calculate the theoretical capacity of the previous

example as
Example (4)

If the SNR is 20 dB, and the bandwidth available

is 4 kHz, which is appropriate for telephone
communications, then C = 4000 log2(1 + 100) =
4 log2 (101) = 26.63 kbit/s. Note that the value of
100 is appropriate for an SNR of 20 dB.
Example(5)

If it is required to transmit at 50 kbit/s, and a

bandwidth of 1 MHz is used, then the minimum
SNR required is given by
50 = 1000 log2(1+S/N)
so S/N = 𝐴 = 2C/BW − 1 = 0.035 corresponding
to an SNR of -14.5 dB. This shows that it is
possible to transmit using signals which are
actually much weaker than the background
noise level.
 Limitation in a Communication System
60
There are two categories of limitations:
 Technological constraint

 Equipment ability
 Economy and cost factor
 National and international law and agreement as well as standardization
(such as ITU etc)
 Interaction with existing system
 Physical constraint
 Bandwidth
◼ The difference between the upper frequency and lower frequency of the signal
or the equipment operation range
 Noise
◼ Any unwanted electrical energy present in the usable passband of a
communication circuit

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 Communication System Chart
61

Communication
System

Continuous Wave Digital Wave

Amplitude Angle Analogue Pulse Digital Pulse

Modulation Modulation Modulation Modulation
(AM)

Frequency Pulse
Modulation Modulation
(FM) (PM)

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