Course 4

Transmission impairments
Channel capacity
Nyquist formulation
Shannon theorem
Transmission impairments
The received signal may differ from the transmitted
one
Analog - degradation of signal quality
Digital - bit errors may occur
Most important impairments:
Attenuation and attenuation distortion
Delay distortion
Noise
Free space loss
Atmospheric absortion
Multipath
Refraction
Attenuation
Signal strength decreases with distance
Depends on the transmission medium
Guided
unguided
Received signal strength:
must be sufficient that the receiver can detect and interpret it
must be sufficiently higher than noise, that
the signal to be received accurately
Solution: repeaters, amplifiers The problem becomes more
complicated in case of more receivers placed at different
distances
higher the transmission frequency, higher the attenuation is
-mainly concerns the analog signals
-much less of a problem with digital signals
Solution: equalizers
Attenuation distortion is much less of a problem with
digital signals, because, the strength of a digital signal
falls off rapidly with frequency. Most of the content is
concentrated near the fundamental frequency, or bit rate,
of the signal
The frequency domain function for a single square
pulse that has the value 1 between -XI2 and Xl2, and
is 0 elsewhere.
Frequency dependency
Attenuation curve for a voice channel
1. without equalization 2. with equalization
Attenuation of typical guided media

Delay distortion
Specific to guided media (wires)
Signal propagation speed depends on the
frequency
Frequency selectivity arises: various frequency
components of the signal will arrive at receiver
with different delays
A kind of Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) occurs
Particularly annoying for digital data
Relationship between phase and frequency.
In a distortionless channel, all frequencies pass
through it at the same speed, resulting in
frequency and phase having a constant linear
relationship with respect to time.
When distortion occurs, the relationship becomes
nonlinear with respect to time, causing some
frequencies of a signal to reach the distant end of a
channel before other frequencies
Delay distortion. The late arriving energy
of one pulse can be misinterpreted as a
new pulse, resulting in the occurrence of a
digital error

Delay distortion versus frequency for a
voice channel
1 without equalization
2. with equalization
Noises
Definition: unwanted signals that are
inserted somewhere between transmission
and reception
Four categories:
Thermal noise two common types of noise
Impulse noise that can affect the quality of circuit
Intermodulation noise
Crosstalk

Thermal noise
generated by the thermal agitation of electrons
Uniformly distributed in frequency generally
modeled as white noise
Cannot be eliminated
Present in all electronic devices and transmission
media
Function of temperature
Particularly significant for satellite communications

The amount of thermal noise in the band of 1Hz

N
0
=kT

N
0
is the power spectral density [Watts/Hz]
K- Bolzmann constant=1,38 .10
-23
J/K
T -temperature in Kelvins degrees (absolute)
The amount of thermal noise in a bandwidth of B Hz
is:

In dBW:

kTB = N
B 10 + T 10 + 6 228
= B 10 + T 10 + k 10 = N
log log , _
log log log
Thermal (white) noise.
Thermal noise is characterized by a near uniform
distribution of energy over the frequency spectrum
Impulse noise
Irregular pulses or spikes formed from the effect of
lightning and electromagnetic machinery disturbances
of relatively high amplitude and short duration
Important source of errors for the digital signals
Example, a sharp spike of energy of 0.01-second duration
would not destroy any voice data, but would wash out about
50 bits of data being transmitted at 4800 bps.

Other types of noises
Intermodulation
Produces components having frequencies f
1
+f
2
and f
1
-
f
2
Caused by non-linearity of the channels transfer
function
Crosstalk
A signal from one line is picked up by another line
Electrical coupling between nearby twisted pairs, or
rarely between coaxial cble lines carying multiple
signals
Crosstalk can also occur when unwanted
signals are picked up by microwave antennas;
although highly directional, microwave energy
does spread during propagation.

Typically, crosstalk is of the same order of
magnitude (or less) as thermal noise.
Far end and near end crosstalk
A special type of crosstalk, referred to as near end
crosstalk and abbreviated as NEXT, represents the
biggest source of noise in twisted-pair cables

Near end crosstalk falls off with frequency
Jitter
Definition: a random distortion of signal durations caused
by the rapid fluctuation of the frequency of the
transmitted signal
May have different meanings, depending on the
application
Examples:
the difference (in periods) between two successive
clock cycles,
the difference (in phase) between the initial phase of
the carrier for two transmitted symbols
Causes:
imperfections of the transmission media
the noise of the electronic devices used
Other noises
Fluctuation noise: caused by the power
supply networks, radio stations etc
Oscillation noise: parasite harmonics of 50Hz
Pulse noise: issued from crosstalk (pulses
transmitted in the neighbour lines) or
because of the switches from the telephone
exchange
Other distortions
Frequency deviation of the oscillator from the receiver,
compared to the transmitter
Echoes: at the transitions between 2 wires and 4 wires
Traditionally counteracted by echo suppressors (echo
attenuations >19dB)
Echo eliminators
Short duration cuts of the signal, caused by power
supply back off activation, redundancy mechanisms in
case of failure
They are defined as a decrease of at least 6dB of the
signal level, for a duration ranging from 3 to 300 ms
Effect of noise on a digital signal
Multipath
Appears in terrestrial, fixed microwave and in
mobile communications
Due to the existent obstacles the signal can
be reflected, so that multiple copies of the
same signal, with varying delays might be
received.
In extreme cases, the receiver may capture
only the reflected signal an not the direct one
Reinforcement and/or cancellation of the
multipath signals


Multipath propagation
Three important propagation mechanisms
R Reflection D Difraction S Scattering
Multipath effects
Multiple copies of a signal may arrive at different
phases
If phases add destructively, the signal level
relative to noise declines, making detection more
difficult
Intersymbol interference (ISI)
One or more delayed copies of a pulse may arrive
at the same time as the primary pulse for a
subsequent bit
Tropospheric radio wave propagation factors that influence
satellite links include :
gaseous absorption,
cloud attenuation,
Melting layer attenuation,
rain attenuation,
rain and ice depolarization
tropospheric scintillation.

EMW interactions with atmosphere particles depend on
frequency and are significant above 10GHz
Gaseous absorption and cloud attenuation determine the
clear-sky performance of the system. Clouds are present
for a large fraction of an average year, and gaseous
absorption varies with the temperature and relative
humidity
At specific frequencies appear resonance phenomena
and attenuations became important
- Resonance absorption with water vapors at about
22.235GHz;
- With oxygen molecules between 56.5GHz i
65.2GHz;
- Other resonance absorptions above 100GHz.

Rain attenuation and to some extent melting layer
attenuation determine the availability of the
system. Typical rain time is on the order of 5 to 10
percent of an average year.
At frequencies above 10 GHz, rain has been recognized
as the most fundamental obstacle in the earth-space
path.


Rain causes:
attenuation
phase difference
depolarization of radio waves.

Rain attenuation and atmospheric propagation
effects are not significant at L-, S- and C-bands.

At high elevation angles the communications
between satellites and terminals at L- and S-
bands is very reliable.

The troposphere can produce significant signal
impairments at the Ku-, Ka- and V-band
frequencies, especially at lower elevation
angles, thus limiting system availability and
performance.
Fading effects
Fast fading
Slow fading
Flat
Selective
Fading channel model:
Additive Gaussian noise
Rayleigh
Rician
Error Compensation Mechanisms
Forward error correction
Adaptive equalization
Diversity techniques
Forward Error Correction
Transmitter adds error-correcting code to data
block
Code is a function of the data bits
Receiver calculates error-correcting code from
incoming data bits
If calculated code matches incoming code, no error
occurred
If error-correcting codes dont match, receiver attempts
to determine bits in error and correct
Adaptive Equalization
Can be applied to transmissions that carry analog
or digital information
Analog voice or video
Digital data, digitized voice or video
Used to combat intersymbol interference
Involves gathering dispersed symbol energy back
into its original time interval
Techniques
Lumped analog circuits
Sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms
Diversity Techniques
Diversity is based on the fact that individual
channels experience independent fading events
Space diversity techniques involving physical
transmission path
Frequency diversity techniques where the signal
is spread out over a larger frequency bandwidth or
carried on multiple frequency carriers
Time diversity techniques aimed at spreading
the data out over time
Example The satellite (space) diversity where the best
satellites, i.e., satellites with LOS conditions, are always
selected and combined (for only one satellite with LOS, it is
simply selection combining) even in a time-varying
propagation environment due to mobile terminals
Channel capacity
Definition: the rate at which data can be transmitted
over a given communication path, under given
conditions
Four important concepts in defining capacity
Data rate
In bits per second
Rate at which data can be transmitted
Bandwidth
In Hertz
Constrained by transmitter (regulations) and medium Noise
Noise
Bit Error Rate (BER)
Nyquist formulation
For noise-free channels (1924):
Channel Capacity

C = 2 B log
2
M

B is the bandwidth
M is the number of signalling levels

Example 1: What is the capacity of a telephone
line modem that uses 8 signalling levels?
Shannon theorem
*Shannon,C.E., Communication in the presence of noise, Proceedings
of the IRE,Volume 37, Issue 1, Jan. 1949 Page(s):10 - 21
Shannon theorem
The widely used form is:


SNR is absolute value, not
expressed in dB!
For high values of SNR
expressed in [dB]
|
.
|

\
|
+ =
N
S
1 log B C
2
N
S
3
B
C =
Shannons formula expresses the theoretical
maximum rate that can be achieved referred to as the
error free capacity.
In practice much lower rates are achieved. One reason is
that only white noise is considered (not impulse noise,
nor attenuation)
Shannon proved that if the actual information rate
on a channel is less than the error-free capacity,
then it is theoretically possible to use a suitable signal
code to achieve error-free transmission through the
channel.
Shannon decoded: Give me enough bandwidth, or
enough power and we can shake the world !
Example 2 Consider a voice channel being used, via
modem, to transmit digital data. Assume a bandwidth of
3100 Hz. A typical value of S/N for a voice-grade line is 30
dB, or a ratio of 1000:l. Which is the information capacity
of the channel?
Example 3 which relates the Nyquist formula to the
Shannon formula
Lets consider a signal with a spectrum between 3 MHz
and 4 MHz and a SNR=24 dB. Which is the channel
capacity?
Supposing that this is achieved how many signals levels
are needed?



The ratio of C/B is efficiency of a
digital transmission, which is the bps
per hertz that is achieved

The ratio of signal energy per bit
to noise-power density per hertz
E
b
/N
0
is more convenient for determining digital data rates
and error rates.
Consider a signal, digital or analog, that contains binary
digital data transmitted at a certain bit rate R. Recalling
that 1 watt = 1 joules/1 s, the energy per bit in a signal is
given by E
b
= ST
b
, where
-S is the signal power
-T
b
is the time required to send one bit.
The data rate R is just R = l/T
b
. Thus
The ratio E
b
IN
o
is important because the bit error rate for
digital data is a (decreasing) function of this ratio.

Given E
b
IN
o
needed to achieve a desired error-the
parameters in the preceding formula may be selected.

Note that as the bit rate R increases, the transmitted signal
power, relative to noise, must increase to maintain the
required E
b
IN
o
.

The advantage of E
b
/N
0
comparative to S/N is that the latter
depends on the bandwidth
T log 10 R log 10 dBW 6 , 228 ) dBW ( S ) dB (
N
E
0
b
+ =
Example 4
Suppose a signal encoding technique requires a ratio
E
b
/N
o
= 8.4 dB for a bit error rate of 10
-4
(probability
of one bit error out of 10000).
If the effective noise temperature is 290K (room
temperature) and the data rate is 2400 bps, what
received signal level is required to overcome the
signal noise?
Relation between spectral efficiency C/B
and E
b
/N
0
Noise N
0
is the power density in Watts/Hertz.
Noise in a B bandwidth is
So N
0
=N/B
The Shannon relation can be rewritten
Considering R=C it is obtained a useful formula


Example 5 Calculate the minimum E
b
/N
0
to achieve
a spectral efficiency of 6 bps/Hz
R N
S
=
N
E
0 0
b
B N = N
0
1 2 =
N
S
B C
_
/
) _ (
/
1 2
C
B
=
N
E
B C
0
b