1. Introduction to Electronic Communication
The goal of communication is to transfer information from one place to another.
This is done by sending the information as electromagnetic energy through vacuum,
air, wire, or strands of glass and plastic fiber.
Modern communication systems use a wide range and variety of electronic
equipment to meet the needs of users: hand held radios, satellite dish antennas,
commercial radio and television stations, radars ete.
All communication systems have at least two end points. At one end there is source
of signals (voice or computer data), circuitry for converting the signal source into a
signal that is compatible with the rest of the system, (wire, air, or light carrying
fiber). After the transmitted signal passes through this link, it is received by the
far end, converted into a signal format as needed, and finally passed to the user.
1.1. The Importance of Communications
The importance of communication can be seen in different facets in our daily lives.
lm The telephones in our hands
m The radios and televisions in our living room
m™ The computer terminals with access to the internet in our offices & homes
and ete
Communication provides senses for ships on the high seas, aircraft in flight, and
rockets and satellites in space. Communication keeps weather forecaster informed
of conditions measured by multitude of sensors.
1.2. Elements of Communication System
Communication involves implicitly the transmission of information from one point to
another through succession of processes:
@ Generation of message signal: voice, music, computer data, picture
© Description of that message signal with certain measure of precision, by set
of symbols: electrical, aural, visual
@ Encoding of the symbols in a form that is suitable for transmission over
physical medium
@ Transmission of the encoded symbols to the desired destination
@ Decoding and reproduction of the original symbols
© Recreation of the original message signal, with definable degradation in
quality due to the imperfections in the systemThere are three basic elements in every communication system: transmitter,
channel, and receiver, as shown in figure 1. The transmitter is located at some
point in space, the receiver is located at some other point, and the channel is the
physical medium that connects them.
1, Transmitter: it converts the message signal from the source of information into
a form suitable for transmission over the channel
2. Channel: it distorts the signal due to some imperfections. Noise and interfering
signals also added to the transmitted signal
3. Receiver: it reconstructs the received corrupted signal due to channel
imperfections, and noise and interference into a recognizable form of the original
message signal for the user.
Communication System
Source of . L ‘User of
Figure 1: Elements of Communication system
The transducer which is not shown in figure 1 is used first. As a rule, the message
produced by the source is not electrical in nature. Accordingly, an input transducer
is used to convert the message generated by the source into a time-varying
electrical signal called the message signal. By using another transducer at the
receiver, the original message is recreated at the user destination.
Basically there are two modes of communication
“+ Broadcasting: it involves the use of powerful signal transmitter and
numerous receivers that ore relatively inexpensive to build, Information
bearing signals flow in only in one direction. Eg. radio and television
communication+ Point-to-Point communication: communication process takes place over a
link between a single transmitter and receiver. In this case, there is usually
«a bidirectioncl flow of information-bearing signals, which requires the use of
@ transmitter and receiver at each end of the link. Eg Telephone
communication
Communication resources: The two primary communication resources
in communication systems are: transmitted power and channel bandwidth. A
general system design objective is to use these two resources as efficiently as
possible. One resource can be considered as more important than the other. So
we can have power limited and band limited communication channels. E.g,
telephone circuit is « typicel band limited channel and space communication link
or satellite channel is typically power limited channel.
Sources of information: In telecommunications we have dominantly
four important sources of information: Speech, Music, Pictures, Computer data.
Modulation Process: The purpose of a communication system is to
deliver a message signal from an information source in recognizable form to a
user destination, with the source and user being physically separated from each
other. To do this, the transmitter modifies the message signal into a form
suitable for transmission over the channel. This modification is achieved by
mecns of c process known as modulation. I+ involves varying some parameters of
a corrier wave (amplitude, frequency or phase) in accordance with the message
signal. The receiver re-creates the original message signal from a degraded
version of the transmitted signal after propagation through the channel. This
re-creation is accomplished by using « process known as demedulation. It isa
reverse of the modulation process used in the transmitter.NEED for modulatior
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Reducdion dh rnaje. tmpowy pissinThe modulation process can be classified as
1, Continuous-Wave (CW) Modulation: a sinusoidal wave is used as the carrier.
When the amplitude of the carrier is varied in accordance with the message
signal, we call it amplitude modulation (AM), and when the angle of the
carrier is varied, we call it angle modulation. The angle modulation may be
further subdivided into frequency modulation (FM) and phase modulation
(PM),in which the instantaneous frequency and phase of the carrier,
respectively ,are varied in accordance with the message signal
2. Pulse-Modulation: The carrier consists of a periodic sequence of
rectangular pulses. Pulse-modulation can itself be of an analog or digital
type. In analog pulse modulation, the amplitude, duration, or position of a
pulse is varied in accordance with sample values of the message signal. In
such a case, we speak of pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) pulse-duration
modulation (PDM), and pulse-position modulation (PPM). The standard digital
form of pulse modulation is known as pulse-code modulation (PCM) that has
no CW counterpart.
1.3. Communication Channels
Depending on the mode of transmission, communication channels can be
distinguished as guided propagation and free propagation. Guided communication
includes: telephone channels, coaxial cables, and optical fibers whereas free
propagation includes wireless broadcast channels, mobile radio channels, and
satellite channels.
1.4. Analog and Digital Communication
Asa student of communication you may be aware of these two terms analog and
digital communication.
1. Analog: The electrical message signal which is continuously varying with
time. For example Speech, video and variation in temperature with time.
2. Digital: The electrical message signal which has finite number of discrete
levels. Text and Data are example of digital communication.‘Advantages Disadvantages
“Analog Communication = Smaller bandwidth
‘System * Synchronization problem
is relatively easier
Expensive analog
components
No privacy
Cannot merge data
from different
sources
No error correction
capability
Digital Communication + Inexpensive digital
System circuits
+ Privacy preserved/data
encryption/
© Canmerge different
data/voice, video and
data/ é&transmit over a
common digital
transmission system
* Error correction by
coding
Larger bandwidth
Synchronizetion
problem is
relatively difficult
Energy and Power Signals
In electrical systems, a signal may represent a voltage or a current. Consider a
voltage v(t) developed across a resistor R, producing a current i(t). The
instantaneous power dissipated in this resistor is defined by
_ or
PEER
Or, equivalently,
P= Ri?
(1.2)
(2:3)In both cases, the instantaneous power P is proportional to the squared amplitude
of the signal. Furthermore, for a resistor R equal tot-ohm, we see that Eqs(1.2)and
(1.3) take on the same mathematical form. Accordingly, in signal analysis it is
customary to work with o 1-ohm resistor, so that, regardless of whether a given
signal 9(+) represents voltage or a current. For this reason |g(t)|* is generally
referred to as the normalized power of g(t). when |however, no confusion results
from so doing we shall often follow the generally accepted practice of dropping
the word “normalized” and refer instead simply "power". We may express the
instantaneous power associated with the signal as
P=(|g0F° (4)
Based on this convention, we define the total energy of a signal g(t) os
E= Jim f Ig(e)|? dt
Tae)
=| wore as)
And its average power as
aes 7 2
Palins | eco a as)
We say that the signal g(t) is cn energy signal if and only if the total energy of
the sigral satisfies the condition
O