LECTURE-1: INTRODUCTION TO

COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
SALMAN GHAFOOR
 Introduction
➢Three typical
communication
systems:

➢A wire-line telephone-
cellular phone
connection,

➢A TV broadcasting
system

➢A wireless computer
network
 Introduction

➢The most efficient and effective way to learn about

communication is by studying the major functional blocks
common to practically all communication systems

➢It is important to acquire the basic knowledge needed to design

and analyze new systems that are never encountered in a
textbook
Typical Communication System
Model
 System Model
➢Typical communication system model

➢The source originates a message, such as a human voice, a

television picture, an e-mail message, or data
 System Model
➢If the data is nonelectric (e.g., human voice, e-mail text,
television video), it must be converted by an input transducer
into an electric waveform referred to as the baseband signal or
message signal

➢Transducers: physical devices such as a microphone, a computer

keyboard or a camera

➢The transmitter modifies the baseband signal for efficient

transmission

➢The transmitter may consist of one or more subsystems: an A/D

converter, an encoder, and a modulator
 System Model
➢The receiver may consist of a demodulator, a decoder, and a D/A
converter

➢The channel is a medium of choice that can convey the electric

signals at the transmitter output over a distance

➢A typical channel can be a pair of twisted copper wires

(telephone and DSL), coaxial cable (television and internet), an
optical fiber or a wireless radio link

➢The receiver reprocesses the signal received from the channel by

reversing the signal modifications made at the transmitter and
removing the distortions made by the channel

➢The receiver output is fed to the output transducer, which

converts the electric signal to its original form-the message
Channel Impairments
 Channel Impairments
➢ A channel is a physical medium that behaves partly like a filter that
generally attenuates the signal and distorts the transmitted waveforms

➢ The signal attenuation increases with the length of the channel, varying
from a few percent for short distances to orders of magnitude in
interplanetary communications

➢ Signal waveforms are distorted because of physical phenomena such as

frequency-dependent gains, multipath effects and Doppler shift

➢ For example, a frequency-selective channel causes different amounts of

attenuation and phase shift to different frequency components of the
signal
 Channel Impairments
-Linear Distortion
0.9 Acosw1t
Acosw1t

Channel
0.75Acosw2t
Acosw2t

➢If the Channel response is frequency dependent, the shape of

the Output waveform would be different from input waveform
shape
 Channel Impairments
➢These types of distortions called linear distortion can be partly
corrected at the receiver by an equalizer with gain and phase
characteristics complementary to those of the channel

➢Channels may also cause nonlinear distortion through attenuation

that varies with the signal amplitude

➢Such distortions can also be partly corrected by a complementary

equalizer at the receiver

➢Channel distortions, if known, can also be pre-compensated by

transmitters by applying channel-dependent predistortions
 Channel Impairments
➢In a practical environment, signals passing through
communication channels not only experience channel distortions
but also are corrupted along the path by undesirable
interferences and disturbances lumped under the broad term
noise

➢These interfering signals are random and are unpredictable from

sources both external and internal

➢External noise sources include interference signals transmitted on

nearby channels, human-made noise generated by faulty contact
switches of electrical equipment, automobile ignition radiation,
noise from lightning, microwave ovens and cellphone emissions
 Channel Impairments
➢With proper care in system design, external noise can be
minimized or even eliminated in some cases

➢Internal noise results from thermal motion of charged particles in

conductors, random emission and diffusion or recombination of
charged carriers in electronic devices

➢Proper care can reduce the effect of internal noise but can never
eliminate it

➢Noise is one of the underlying factors that limit the rate of

telecommunications
 Channel Impairments
➢Thus, in practical communication systems, the channel distorts
the signal and noise accumulates along the path

➢Worse yet, the signal strength decreases while the signal to noise
ratio reduces

➢Amplification of the received signal to make up for the

attenuation is to no avail because the noise will be amplified by
the same proportion, and the quality remains, at best, unchanged

➢These are the key challenges that we must face in designing

modem communication systems.
ANALOG AND DIGITAL MESSAGES
 Analog and Digital Signals
➢A signal whose amplitude can take on any value in a continuous
range is an analog signal

➢This means that an analog signal amplitude can take on an infinite

number of values

➢A digital signal, on the other hand, is one whose amplitude can take
on only a finite number of values

➢Signals associated with a digital computer are digital because they

take on only two values (binary signals)

➢A digital message constructed with M symbols is called an M–ary

message
 Analog and Digital Signals

➢(a)-Analog CT, (b)-Digital CT, (c)-Analog DT, (d)-Digital DT

 Analog and Digital Signals
➢A digital communication system is more rugged than an analog
communication system in the sense that it can better withstand
noise and distortion (as long as they are within a limit)

➢Consider a binary case: two symbols are encoded as rectangular

pulses of amplitudes A/2 and -A/2

➢The only decision at the receiver is to select between two

possible pulses received; the fine details of the pulse shape are
not an issue

➢The receiver's decision can be made with reasonable certainty

even if the pulses have suffered modest distortion and noise
 Analog and Digital Signals
a) Transmitted
signal

b) Received
distorted signal
(without noise)

c) Received
distorted signal
(with noise)

d) Regenerated
signal (delayed)
 Analog and Digital Signals
➢For analog systems, signals and noise within the same bandwidth
cannot be separated

➢Repeaters in analog systems are basically filters plus amplifiers

and are not “regenerative”

➢Thus, with increasing distance the signal becomes weaker,

whereas the distortion and the noise accumulate more

➢Amplification is of little help, since it enhances both the signal

and the noise equally

➢The distance over which an analog message can be successfully

received is limited by the first transmitter power
 Analog-to-Digital Conversion
➢Despite the differences between analog and digital signals, a
meeting ground exists between them: conversion of analog signals
to digital signals (A/D conversion)

➢Analog-to-digital (A/D) converter enables digital communication

systems to convey analog source signals such as audio and video

➢A/D conversion can never be 100% accurate

➢Since, however, human perception does not require infinite

accuracy, A\D conversion can effectively capture necessary
information from the analog source for digital signal transmission
 Analog-to-Digital Conversion
➢Two steps take place in A/D conversion: First a continuous time
signal is first sampled into a discrete time signal

➢The sampling theorem states that if the highest frequency in the

signal spectrum is B (in hertz), the signal can be reconstructed
from its discrete samples, taken uniformly at a rate not less than
2B samples per second

➢This means that to preserve the information from a continuous-

time signal, we need transmit only its samples

➢Second step is quantization: each sample is approximated, or

''rounded off," to the nearest quantized level
 Analog-to-Digital Conversion
➢If amplitudes of the message signal m(t) lie in the range (-mp,
mp), the quantizer partitions the signal range into L intervals
 Analog-to-Digital Conversion
➢ Each sample amplitude is approximated by the midpoint of the interval
in which the sample value falls - quantization

➢ Each sample is now represented by one of the L numbers or levels

➢ Hence, after the two steps of sampling and quantizing, the analog-to-
digital (A/D) conversion is completed

➢ We can improve the accuracy of the quantized signal to any desired

level by increasing the number of levels L

➢ For intelligibility of voice signals, for example, L = 8 or 16 is sufficient

➢ For commercial use, L = 32 is a minimum, and for telephone

communication, L = 128 or 256 is commonly used
 Pros & Cons of Digital Communication
➢Relatively inexpensive digital circuitary
➢Noise Immunity
➢Non-accumulative noise (use of repeaters)
➢Error correction
➢Privacy through data encryption

➢Disadvantages:
➢Synchronisation requirements
➢High bandwidth requirements
 SUMMARY
➢Typical Communication System Model

➢Channel Impairments

➢Analog-to-digital conversion