CHAPTER 2
MATHEMATICAL
REPRESENTATION OF NOISE
Noise – Introduction
Noise – Unwanted Signals that tend
to disturb the Transmission and
Processing of Signals in
Communication System and over
which we have incomplete control.
Noise is a general term which is used
to describe an unwanted signal which
affects a wanted signal.
These unwanted signals arise from a
variety of sources.
Analog Communication - NOISE
Why study noise?
It sets the lower limit for the
detectable signals.
It sets the upper limit for system
gains.
Develop mathematical models to
take the effects of noise into
account when analyzing electrical
circuits/systems.
Find ways to reduce noise.
Sources of Noise
Sources of noise may be:
◦ External
◦ Internal
Naturally occurring external noise
sources include:
◦ Atmosphere disturbance (e.g. electric
storms, lighting, ionospheric effect etc), so
called ‘Sky Noise’
◦ Cosmic noise which includes noise from
galaxy, solar noise
◦ ‘Hot spot’ due to oxygen and water vapour
resonance in the earth’s atmosphere.
Sources of Noise
Noiseperformance by external
sources is shown below.
Sources of Noise
Internal Noise is an important type of noise that
arises from the SPONTANEOUS FLUCTUATIONS of
Current or Voltage in Electrical Circuits internally.
This
type of noise is the basic limiting factor of
employing more complex Electrical Circuits in
Communication System.
Noise is basically due to the discrete nature of
electrical charges.
Most Common Internal Noises are:
◦ Shot Noise
◦ Thermal Noise
Shot Noise
Shot
Noise arises in Electronic Components like
Diodes and Transistors.
Dueto the discrete nature of Current flow In
these components.
Shot noise is due to the random arrivals of
electron packets at the potential barrier of
forward biased P/N junctions.
It is always associated the a dc current flow in
diodes and BJTs.
It is frequency independent (white noise) well
into the GHz region.
Example: A Photodiode circuit.
Photodiode emits electrons from the cathode
when light falls on it.
The circuit generates a current pulse when an
electron is emitted.
Theelectrons are emitted at Random times, Ʈk
where -∞ < k < ∞ and assume this random
emission have been gone for a long time.
Thusthe Total Current flowing through the
Photodiode may be modeled as the sum of
these Current Pulses.
This
process X(t) is Stationary and is called
SHOT NOISE
Shot noise modeling:
The noise amplitude is represented
by the rms value:
The rms noise current for a diode
current of 1 mA is about 20 pA/Hz1/2.
The amplitude distribution is
Gaussian with = ID and = in .
A parallel current source (in) can be
added to a diode to account for the
shot noise.
Thermal Noise
Thermal Noise is the name given to the
Electrical Noise arising from the Random
motion of electrons in a conductor.
Itis also called Jonson Noise or Nyquist
Noise.
It is directly proportional to absolute
temperature.
Let VTN is the Thermal Noise Voltage
appearing across the two terminals of a
resistor.Let the applied voltage have a
bandwidth (or frequency), ∆f.
Then the Mean Square value of VTN
is given by:
Where
k = Boltzmann’s constant = 1.38 x 10-
23 Joules per oK
T = absolute temperature in oK
R = resistance in ohms
Jonson Noise or Nyquist
Noise
Thermal Noise Modeling:
We can model a noisy resistor using the Thevenin and Norton Equivalent Circuit as shown below:
The number of electrons inside a resistor is very large and their random motions inside the resistors are statistically independent.
The Central Limiting Theorem indicates that thermal Noise is a Gaussian Distribution with Zero mean.
Low Frequency or Flicker
Noise
Active devices, integrated circuit, diodes, transistors etc also
exhibits a low frequency noise, which is frequency dependent
(i.e. non uniform) known as flicker noise .
It is also called ‘one – over – f’ noise or 1/f noise because
of its low-frequency variation.
Its origin is believed to be attributable to contaminants and
defects in the crystal structure in semiconductors, and in
the oxide coating on the cathode of vacuum tube devices
Flicker Noise is found in many natural phenomena such as
nuclear radiation, electron flow through a conductor, or even
in the environment.
The noise power is proportional to the bias current, and,
unlike Thermal and Shot Noise, Flicker Noise decreases with
frequency.
An exact mathematical model does not exist for flicker noise
because it is so device-specific.
However, the inverse proportionality with frequency is
almost exactly 1/f for low frequencies, whereas for frequencies
above a few kilohertz, the noise power is weak but essentially
flat.
Flicker Noise is essentially random, but because its frequency
spectrum is not flat, it is not a white noise.
It is often referred to as pink noise because most of the power
is concentrated at the lower end of the frequency spectrum.
Flicker Noise is more prominent in FETs (smaller the channel
length, greater the Flicker Noise), and in bulky carbon
resistors.
The objection to carbon resistors mentioned earlier for
critical low noise applications is due to their tendency to
produce flicker noise when carrying a direct current.
In this connection, metal film resistors are a better choice for
low frequency, low noise applications.
Flicker noise modeling:
The noise amplitude is represented by
the rms value:
The constant K1 is device dependent and
must be determined experimentally.
The amplitude distribution is non-
Gaussian.
It is often the dominating noise factor in
the low-frequency region.
It can be described in more details with
fractal theory.
White Noise
The Noise Analysis of Communication
System is done on the basis of an
idealized form of noise called WHITE
NOISE.
Its power spectral density is
independent on operating frequency.
White – White light contain equal
amount of all frequencies in visible
spectrum.
White Noise
Power spectral density is given by:
The 1/2 here emphasizes
that the spectrum extends to
both positive and negative
Where frequencies.
k:Boltzmann’s constant=1.38x10-23 joules/K,
Te is the Equivalent noise temperature of the
receiver.
Power Spectral Density of White
Noise
A random process W(t) is called
white noise if it has a flat power
spectral density, i.e., SW(f) is a
constant c for all f.
Ideal Low Pass Filtered White
Noise
Let
◦ w(t) = White Gaussian Noise applied to
the LPF
◦ B = Bandwidth of LPF
◦ n(t) = noise appearing at the output of
LPF
◦ SN(f) = Power Spectral Density of n(t)
◦ RN(Ʈ) = Auto Correlation function of n(t)
Ideal Low Pass filtered White Noise
Noise Parameters
• Signal to Noise ratio
• Noise Figure or Noise
Factor
• Effective Noise
temperature
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
where: PS is the signal power in watts
PN is the noise power in watts
Hartley-Shannon Theorem (also called
Shannon’s Limit) states that the maximum
data rate for a communications channel is
determined by a channel’s bandwidth and
SNR.
A SNR of zero dB means that noise power
equals the signal power.
Noise Figure / Factor (NF or F or
Fn)
Electrical noise is defined as electrical
energy of random amplitude, phase, and
frequency.
Itis present in the output of every radio
receiver.
The noise is generated primarily within the
input stages of the receiver system itself.
Noise generated at the input and amplified
by the receiver's full gain greatly exceeds
the noise generated further along the
receiver chain.
Noise Figure / Factor (NF or F or Fn)
The noise performance of a receiver
is described by a figure of merit
called the noise figure (NF).
Where, G = Antenna Gain
Effective Noise Temperature
The Equivalent noise temperature is defined as
“the temperature at which a noisy resistor has to
be maintained such that, by connecting the
resistor to the input of a noiseless version of the
system, it produces the same available noise
power at the output of the system as that
produced by all the sources of noise in actual
system”. It depends only on system parameters
Where,
T = environmental temperature (Kelvin)
N = noise power (watts)
K = Boltzmann’s constant (1.38 10 -23 J/K)
B = total noise frequency (hertz)
Te = equivalent noise temperature
F = noise factor (unitless)
Narrow band noise
Preprocessing of received signals
Preprocessing done by a Narrowband
Filter
Narrowband Filter – Bandwidth large
enough to pass the modulated signal.
Noise also pass through this filter.
The noise appearing at the output of
this NB filter is called NARROWBAND
NOISE.
Narrow band noise
Fig (a) – spectral components of NB Noise
concentrates about +fc
Fig (b) – shows that a sample function n(t) of
such process appears somewhat similar to a
sinusoidal wave of frequency fc
Narrow band noise
We need a mathematical
representation to analyze the effect of
this NB Noise.
There are 2 specific representation of
NB Noise (depending on the application)
Representation of narrowband noise
in terms
of In phase and Quadrature
Components
Let n(t) is the Narrowband Noise
with Bandwidth 2B centered at fc
We can represent n(t) in canonical
(standard) form as:
We can extract nI(t) (In Phase
Component) and nQ(t) (Quadrature
Component) from n(t).
Extraction of nI(t) and nQ(t) from
n(t)
Each LPF have bandwidth ‘B’
This is known as NARROWBAND NOISE
ANALYSER
Generation of n(t) from nI(t) and
nQ(t)
This
is known as NARROWBAND
NOISE SYNTHESISER
Important properties of nI(t) and
nQ(t)
Power spectral density (PSD) of a
Random process
By definition, the power spectral density SX(t)
and autocorrelation function RX(Ʈ) of an ergodic
random process X(t) form a Fourier transform pair
with Ʈ and f as the variables of interest.
Thepower of an ergodic random process X(t) is
equal to the total area under the graph of power
spectral density.
Thepower spectral density is that characteristic of a
random process which is easy to measure and which
is used in communication engineering to
characterize noise.
Gaussian Process
Any random process X(t) is said to be Gaussian
process ,if every linear functional of X(t) is a
Gaussian random variable.
Any random variable Y is said to be a Gaussian
random variable if its PDF has the form,
Where,
A plot of this PDF i.e. Gaussian distribution of
random variable is ,
