Data Transmission

Exercises
Prof. Dr. J. Habermann
FH Giessen-Friedberg, University of Applied Sciences

Lecture 1:

1. Classify the following signals into the categories

• energy signals
• power signals
• neither energy nor power signals.

Calculate, if possible, signal energy or signal power

1. x1 (t ) = e −t ⋅ cos(t )
2. x 2 (t ) = sgn(t )
3. x3 (t ) = A ⋅ cos(2πf 1t ) + B ⋅ cos(2πf 2 t )

2. Determine if the following signals are energy or power

signals. Calculate energy or power spectral density and the
signal energy or signal power:

sin(t )
1. x(t ) = sin c(t ) =
t
∞
2. x(t ) = ∑ Λ(t − 2n)
n = −∞

3. White Gaussian noise with zero mean and a power spectral

density of N0/2 is transmitted over a low pass filter with
bandwidth B. Calculate the autocorrelation function of the
output process Y(t).

4. The output process of a LTI system is stationary if the

input process is stationary. Is the opposite also true, i.e.,
can it be assumed that the input process is stationary if the
output process is stationary ?

5. Calculate the power spectral density for the following

processes:

1. X (t ) = A ⋅ cos(2πf 0 t + Θ) , where A is a constant and θ is a

random variable.
θ is uniformly distributed in [0, π/4].
2. X(t) = X + Y, where X and Y are independent . X is
uniformly distributed in [-1,1], and Y is uniformly
distributed in [0, 1].
Oct-10 1
page
6. What is the equivalent noise bandwidth of a bandpass filter
with bandwidth W ?

Oct-10 2
page
Lecture 2:

1. Given are the following functions Ψn(t):

1. Show that the functions are orthonormal.

2. Express the signal x(t) as a weighted linear
combination of the above functions, if

− 1, 0 ≤ t ≤1


x(t ) = + 1, 1< t ≤ 3

− 1, 3<t ≤ 4


Calculate the weighting coefficients.

Oct-10 3
page
2. Given are the four following functions:

1. Determine the dimensionality of the functions

and define a set of basis functions.
2. Give a vector representation of s1, s2, s3, s4.
3. Calculate the minimum distance between any pair
of vectors.

3. Determine a set of orthonormal basis functions for the

following four signals:

Oct-10 4
page
4. The received signal in a binary communication system which
applies antipodal signals, is given by
r (t ) = s (t ) + n(t )

where s(t) is shown in the following figure and n(t) is AWGN

with power spectral density of
N0/2 W/Hz.

1. Sketch the impulse response of the filter which

is matched to s(t).
2. Sketch the output signal of the matched filter
(no noise n(t).
3. Calculate the variance of the noise at the
output of the matched filter for t=3.

5. A matched filter is defined by the transfer function:

1 − e − j 2πfT
H( f ) =
j 2πf

1. Calculate the impulse response h(t).

2. Calculate the signal to which the filter is matched.

6. Sketch the impulse response of the filters which are

matched to the following signals. Calculate and sketch the
output signal of the three matched filters.

Oct-10 5
page
7. The three signals m1(t), m2(t), and m3(t) shall be
transmitted over an AWGN channel. The power spectral density
of the noise is N0/2. Die three signals are given by:

1, 0 ≤ t ≤ T

m1 (t ) = 
0, otherwise


+ 1, 0 ≤ t < T / 2


m2 (t ) = − m3 (t ) = − 1, T / 2 ≤ t ≤ T

0, otherwise


1. Determine the dimensionality of the signal space.

2. Find a basis for the signal space (the basis may also
be found without the Gram-Schmidt-procedure).
3. Sketch the signal space constellation.

Oct-10 6
page
Lecture 3:
1. Given is the signal constellation according to exercise 7
of lecture 2.

1. Calculate and sketch the optimal decision regions Z1,

Z2, and Z3 .
2. Which of the three signal waveforms is most error-
prone, i.e., which of the probabilities Pe(z | mi was
sent), for i =1,2,3 is largest ?

2. In a binary antipodal signalling system the signal

waveforms are given by:

2 At / T , 0 ≤ t < T / 2


s1 (t ) = − s 2 (t ) = 2 A(1 − t / T ), T / 2 ≤ t ≤ T

0, otherwise


The channel is AWGN with Sn(f) = N0/2. The two signals have the
a priori probabilities p1 and
p2 = 1- p1.

1. Determine the structure of the optimal receiver.

2. Calculate the error probability.
3. Optional: Sketch the error probability as a function of
p1, for 0 ≤ p1 ≤ 1.

3. Over an AWGN channel with N0/2 two signal waveforms with

equal a priori probability are transmitted:

 At / T , 0 ≤ t ≤ T

s1 (t ) = 
0, otherwise


 A(1 − t / T ), 0 ≤ t ≤ T

s 2 (t ) = 
0, otherwise


1. Determine the optimal receiver structure.

2. Calculate the average error probability.

4. Given is a detector with input signal

r = ± A + n
where +A and –A occur with equal probability and the noise is
given by a Laplace distribution

Oct-10 7
page
 λ −λ n
p ( n) = ⋅e
2

1. Calculate the average error probability as a function

of A and λ.
2. Calculate the SNR which is necessary to obtain a error
probability o 10-5. Compare with the result of a
Gaussian noise distribution.

5. A Manchester coder maps a binary 1 to a 10 and a binary 0

to a 01. The signal waveforms are given in the following
figure.
Calculate the average error probability if both waveforms are
equally probable.

6. Given is a PAM system with the three signal points -A,

0, +A .
Determine
• the input signal of the detector,
• the optimal threshold value, which minimises the average
error probability,
• the error probability.

7. Given is a biorthogonal signal set with M=8 signal points.

All signal points are equally probable. Determine the union
bound of the error probability as a function of Eb/N0.

8. Given is a M-ary DCS, where M = 2N, and N are the

dimensions of the signal space. The signal vectors define the
corners of a hypercube, which is centred at the origin.
Calculate the average probability of a symbol error as a
function of ES/N0, where Es is the symbol energy and N0/2 is
the noise power density of the AWGN channel. All signal points
are equiprobable.

9. A speech signal is sampled at a rate of 8 kHz. A sample is

PCM encoded with 8 bits per sample. The PCM signal is
transmitted with a M-ary PAM over an AWGN channel. Determine
the bandwidth, if
1. M = 4

Oct-10 8
page
 2. M = 8
3. M = 16

Oct-10 9
page
Lecture 4:
1. Binary data at 9600 bit/s are transmitted using 8-ary PAM
modulation with a system using a raised cosine roll-off filter
characteristic. The system has a frequency response out to 2.4
kHz.

1. What is the symbol rate ?

2. What is the roll-off factor of the filter characteristic
?

2. A voice signal in the range 300 to 3300 Hz is sampled at

8000 samples/s. We may transmit these samples directly as PAM
pulses or we may first convert each sample to a PCM and use
binary (PCM) waveforms for transmission.

1. What is the minimum system bandwidth required for the

detection of PAM with no ISI and with a filter roll-off
characteristic of r = 1 ?
2. Using the same roll-off filter, what is the minimum
bandwidth required for the detection of binary (PCM) PAM
waveforms if the samples are quantized to 8 levels ?
3. Repeat part (2) using 128 quantization levels .

3. An analogue signal is PCM formatted and transmitted using

binary waveforms over a channel that is bandlimited to 100
kHz. Assume that 32 quantization levels are used and that the
overall equivalent transfer function is raised cosine type
with roll-off r = 0.6.

1. Find the maximum bit rate that can be used by this system
without introducing ISI.
2. Find the maximum bandwidth of the original analogue
signal that can be accommodated with these parameters.
3. Repeat parts (1) and (2) for transmission with 8-ary
PAM´waveforms.

4. A transmission channel of length 1000 km is used to

transmit data with the aid of binary PAM. Regenerators are
used at distances of 50 km. Each segment of the channel can be
assumed to be ideal (no linear distortion) in the frequency
range of 0 ≤ f ≤ 1200 Hz. The attenuation is 1 dB/km. The
channel is AWGN.

1. What is the maximal (r=0) bit rate, which can be

transmitted without ISI ?
2. Calculate the Eb/N0 which is necessary to obtain a bit
error probability of 10-7 within the whole system.
3. Calculate the transmitted power of the regenerative
system which is necessary to obtain the Eb/N0 of part (2),
when N0 = 4.1⋅10-21 W/Hz.
Oct-10 10
page
5. A speech telephone channel has a pass band of 300 Hz < f <
3000 Hz.

1. Chose a symbol rate as well as a PAM format in order to

efficiently transmit 9600 bps.
2. Chose the roll-off factor for a raised cosine filter
characteristic. The channel is AWGN.

6. A binary PAM-signal is generated by excitation of a raised

cosine filter with a roll-off factor of
r = 0.5. The resulting signal is then multiplied with a
carrier signal. The data bit rate is 2400 bps.

1. Determine and sketch the spectrum of the modulated binary

PAM signal.
2. Sketch a block diagram of the optimal
demodulator/detector, if the received signal is composed
of the transmitted signal and AWGN.

7. If the additive noise at the input of the receiver is

coloured, the matched filter to the signal does not maximize
SNR any more. In this case a prefilter might be used, which
whitens the coloured noise (prewhitening filter). The matched
filter has then to be adapted to the signal and to the
prewhitening process.

1. Calculate the transfer function of the whitening filter.

2. Calculate the transfer function of the overall matched
filter.
3. Combine these two filters (whitening and overall matched
filter) to a generalized matched filter. Calculate the
transfer function of this filter.
4. Calculate the SNR at the input of the detector.

Oct-10 11
page
Lecture 5:
1. Binary PAM is used to transmit data over a non-equalized
filter channel. If the symbol a = 1 is transmitted, the noise
free output signal of the demodulator is:

0.3, m =1


0.9, m=0
xm = 
0.3, m = −1

0, otherwise


a. Determine the linear zero-forcing equalizer, such that

the output signal of the equalizer is:

1, m = 0

qm = 
0, m = ±1


b. Determine qm for m = ±2 and ±3 by convolving the impulse

response of the equalizer with the impulse response of
the filter characteristics.

2. Transmission of a signal pulse formed by a raised cosine

filter (transmitter and receiver) over a transmission channel
leads to the following sampled (noise free) signal at the
demodulator output:

− 0.5, k = −2


0.1, k = −1

1, k = 0

xk = 
− 0.2, k = 1

0.05, k = 2


0, otherwise

a. Determine the coefficients of a zero-forcing equalizer

with three taps.
b. Calculate the output signal if a single pulse is
transmitted. Calculate the remaining ISI and its time
span in symbols.

Oct-10 12
page
3. Given are the two signal constellations of a 4-PSK and a 8-
PSK. Determine the radius of the two formats such that the
minimum distance between two signal points is identical. What
is the additional power needed for 8-PSK to obtain the same
performance as 4-PSK ?

4. The following figure gives two 8-QAM constellations.

The minimum distance between two signal points is 2A. In the

left figure the minimum distance to the origin is 2A; whereas
in the right figure there are four points with a distance of
7 A , two points with 3 A , and two points with distance A to
the origin.
Determine the average transmitted signal power for the two
constellations, assuming that the signal points are equally
probable. Which constellation is more power efficient ?

5. Given is a 16-QAM signal constellation according to the

following figure. Determine the decision regions.

Oct-10 13
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Oct-10 14
page
6. Given are the two following signal constellations.

a. The minimum distance for 8-QAM is A. Calculate the radius

a and the radius b.
b. The minimum distance for 8-PSK is also A. Determine the
radius r.
c. Calculate the average transmitted power for both
constellations. All signal points are equally probable.
What is the relative power gain of one constellation
against the other ?

7. Given is the phase coherent demodulator for M-ary FSK

signals:

a. The received signal is given by:

Oct-10 15
page
 2ES
r (t ) = cos(2πf c t + Φ), 0≤t ≤T
T
Calculate the output signals of the M correlators for t=T,
if Φ̂ m ≠ Φ m .
b. Show that the minimal frequency separation is ∆f = 1 / T .

Oct-10 16
page
8. Binary on-off keying is defined by the following two
signals:

s0 (t ) = 0, 0 ≤ t ≤ Tb
2 Eb
s1 (t ) = cos(2πf c t ), 0 ≤ t ≤ Tb
Tb

The corresponding signals at the output of an AWGN channel

are:
r0 (t ) = n(t ), 0 ≤ t ≤ Tb
2 Eb
r1 (t ) = cos(2πf c t + ϕ ) + n(t ), 0 ≤ t ≤ Tb
Tb

here n(t) is the additive noise signal and ϕ(t) is the

phase of the carrier signal due to the noise.
a. Sketch the block diagram of the optimal non coherent
receiver.
b. Calculate the probability density function of the two
decision variables at the receiver.

9. Digital information is transmitted over a AWGN channel with

a bandwidth of 100kHz. Determine the maximum data rate which
can be achieved with:

a. 4-PSK
b. 2-FSK (non coherent)
c. 4-FSK (non coherent)

10. Derive the carrier phase estimator based on the ML-

criterion for binary on-off keying.

Oct-10 17
page
Lecture 6:
1. The lowpass equivalents of three signal sets are given in
the following figure.

a. Classify the signals in the sets I to III, i.e., find a

category of known modulation formats to which these sets
may belong. Determine the signal vectors.
b. Determine the average transmitted signal energy for the
three sets.
c. Calculate the average symbol error probability for signal
set I with coherent detection.
d. Determine the symbol error probability with the aid of
the union bound for signal set II, when coherent
detection is applied.
e. Is it possible to use non-coherent detection for signal
set III (explain) ?
f. Which signal set (or sets) can be used if a relation R/W
(bitrate to bandwidth) of at least 2 is desired ?

2. A binary PSK-system is used for data transmission over an

AWGN-channel with noise power density of N0/2 = 10-10 W/Hz. The
energy of the transmitted signal is Eb = A2T/2, where T is the
bit interval and A the signal amplitude. Determine the
amplitude which is necessary to obtain a bit error probability
of 10-6, if the data rate is
a. 10 Kbps
b. 100 Kbps
Oct-10 18
page
 c. 1 Mbps

3. A digital communication system applies QAM to transmit data

over a speech telephone channel with 2400 symbols/second. The
noise is AWGN.
a. Determine Eb/N0, such that the symbol error rate is 10-5 at
4800 bps.
b. Repeat a) with 9600 bps.
c. Repeat a) with 19200 bps.
d. Which conclusions can be drawn from the above results ?

4. Given is the signal constellation from exercise 6/lecture

5.
a. Assign each point of the signal constellation 3 data
bits, such that neighbouring points only differ in one
bit position.
b. Determine the symbol rate, if the desired data rate is 90
Mbps.
c. Compare the SNR of the PSK with the SNR of the QAM if the
symbol error rate is identical.
d. Which signal constellation is more resistant against
phase errors of the carrier signal (explain) ?

Oct-10 19
page
Lectures 7/8:

1. The figure below shows the block diagram of a direct

sequence spread spectrum coder.

Spread spectrum coder

HOLD_I: holds a data bit for
one period of the spreading
sequence.
PPGEN1_I: Generator, which
generates the spreading
sequence.
CMPEQ_I: compares both
signals. If both signals are
equal, the device outputs a 0, otherwise a 1.

The output sequence of the spreader is mapped to a bipolar

sequence with:
0 → 1 , 1 → -1.

A direct sequence CDMA system is built up of 3 transmitters

and the corresponding receivers.

Transmitter 1: Data sequence 0 1

Spreading sequence 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0

Transmitter 2: Data sequence 1 1 0 1

Spreading sequence 1 0 0 1

Transmitter 3: Data sequence 1 0 1 0

Spreading sequence 0 1 0 1

The chip rate of the 3 transmitters is identical and is 1

Mchip/s.

a) Determine the bit rate of each transmitter.

What can be said about the orthogonality of the signals ?
b) Determine the signals at the output of the 3 transmitters.
c) The signal of transmitter 1 will not be delayed in the
channel. The signal of transmitter 2 will be delayed in the
channel by 1 chip and the signal of transmitter 3 will be
delayed by 2 chips. The signals will be added in the
channel; noise has not to be considered.
• Determine the signal at the input of the receiver.
• Calculate R1ges[n] at the correlator output of receiver
1 for n = 6 und 8.
• Compare with the nominal values at the decision time.
• Give an interpretation with respect to the results of
a).
Oct-10 20
page
2. 30 users with the same transmitting power share a
communication channel by CDMA. The data rate of each user is
10kbps; DSSS is used with 2-PSK. Determine the minimum
chiprate such that a bit error rate of approx. 10-5 is
obtained. The additive Gaussian noise of the receiver can be
neglected.

3. A CDMA system is based on DSSS with a processing gain of

1000 and 2-PSK modulation. Calculate the number of users, if
all users transmit the same power and a bit error rate of
approx. 10-5 should be achieved. Recalculate for a processing
gain of 500.

4. A DSSS system is used to resolve the signal components in

a two path mobile radio channel. Determine the minimum
chiprate if the two path have a difference in transmitter to
receiver distance of 300 meter.

5. A DSSS system with a 2-PSK modulation uses a processing

gain of 500. Calculate the margin against a single tone
interference if the desired error rate is 10-5.

Oct-10 21
page
Lecture 9:
Exercise 1. An OFDM-transmitter is composed of a modulator, an
OFDM-coder and a baseband/bandpass conversion.
cos(ωot)
I
binary
data OFDM X
Modulator Coder +
X
Q
-sin(ωot)
• The following binary data sequence

11010 00101 01010 01000 01000 01000

of bit rate 1Mbps is transmitted.

• The modulator uses a QAM according to the following

figure.

• The OFDM-coder uses 3 frequencies with minimal

frequency spacing.

a) Determine OFDM symbol rate and OFDM symbol interval.

b) Sketch the spectrum (absolute values) of the first OFDM-
symbol.
c) OFDM-coding is performed with the IDFT. Calculate the
first time sample of the first OFDM-symbol and all time
samples of the second OFDM-symbol. Sketch the absolute
values of the time samples and mark the boundaries of an
OFDM-symbol.

Oct-10 22
page
Exercise 2. A OFDM receiver according to the following figure
is composed of an OFDM-decoder and a demodulator /detector.

complex time detector binary data

samples of
received OFDM

The demodulator/detector uses the following mapping of a 16-

QAM signal.

A received OFDM-
Symbol is made up
of 4 complex
values. The first
four samples,
corrupted by the
channel, are:

x(0) = 1 - j
x(1) = - 5 - j
x(2) = - 9 + j
x(4) = - 1 + j
* 7

a) The sampling interval between two values x(k) and x(k+1)

ist1µs. Determine the OFDM- symbol rate and the symbol
interval. Determine the bit rate.
b) OFDM-Decoding is performed with the DFT. Calculate the
complex frequency values and sketch the absolute value
of the spectrum for the first OFDM-symbol.

1 N −1
Note: For DFT use: d( n) = ⋅ ∑ x( k ) ⋅ e − j 2 πnk / N
N k =0

c) The demodulator/detector uses optimal decision regions

(AWGN/maximum likelihood).
- Insert the decision thresholds into the above figure.
- Determine the bit sequence at the output of the
receiver.

Oct-10 23
page