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EE322
Analog & Digital Communication

Dr. Imran Javed

(Lecture 2)

Department of Electrical Engineering,

UET Lahore
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Communication Channels
• Wireline channels
• Fiber-optic channels
• Wireless electromagnetic channels
– Ground waves propagation
– Skywave propagation
– Free space propagation
• Underwater Acoustic Channels
• Storage Channels
• Mathematical Formulation of Communication Channels

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Wireline channels
• The telephone network uses wirelines for transmission of voice
signals and data
– Twisted-pair copper wire has a bandwidth of around several
Kilohertz (KHz)
– Coaxial cable has a bandwidth of around several Megahertz
(MHz)
– Optical fiber has a bandwidth of around several Gigahertz
(GHz)
• Signals transmitted through such channels are distorted in both
amplitude and phase (due to non-uniform impedance across the
medium), and are also corrupted by additive noise
• Twisted-pair wireline channels are also prone to crosstalk
interference from physically adjacent channels
• Channel distortion can be cancelled out by Channel Equalizer
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Fiber-optic channels
• Optical fiber offers a channel bandwidth that is several
orders of magnitude larger than coaxial cable
• It causes low signal attenuation
• Gives high-quality signal generation and signal detection
• Used in domestic telecommunication, and across the
ocean communication (e.g., transatlantic and transpacific)
• Provides a wide array of telecommunication services,
including voice, video, data, and facsimile
• The carrier in fiber-optic system is a light source, either a
Light-Emitting Diode (LED) or a Laser
• Information is transmitted by varying (modulating) the
intensity of the light source according to the message
signal
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Fiber-optic channels (cont’d)

• The light propagates through the fiber as a light wave and is
amplified periodically along the transmission path to
compensate for signal attenuation
• In the case of digital transmission, signal is periodically
detected and regenerated by repeaters along the transmission
path
• At the receiver, the light intensity is detected by a photodiode,
whose output is an electrical signal that varies in direct
proportion to the power of the light impinging on the
photodiode
• Fiber-optic channels are replacing nearly all wireline channels
in the telephone network

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Wireless electromagnetic channels

• Antenna radiates the EM energy into the atmosphere.
• For efficient transmission/reception of electromagnetic energy
by antenna, the antenna length must be at-least half the
wavelength
• For example, a radio station transmitting in a frequency band,
say, at 1 MHz ( λ= c/f = 300 m) requires an antenna of at least
150 meters
• Higher the frequency, shorter is the wavelength, therefore, size
of antenna can be reduced.
• By modulation, the signal is translated onto a higher-frequency
carrier, that reduces the antenna length.
• Using a carrier of 1 GHz, antenna size shall be ( L=λ/2= c/2f =
0.15 m)
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Radio wave propagation

• Radio wave propagation is defined as the behavior of
radio waves as they propagate from one point to other
point in the atmosphere.

• This depends on the frequency and can be classified as:-

– Ground waves propagation
– Sky-wave propagation
– Free space propagation

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Ground wave propagation

• These are used for transmission along the area between surface
of the earth and ionosphere
• The earth and the ionosphere act as a waveguide for
electromagnetic wave propagation
• The received signal is the sum of the waves that are reflected by
the earth’s surface, hills and other objects
• These waves propagate over earth’s surface in low and medium
frequency range
• Applications
– Aeronautical navigation
– Communication from earth to submarines as these waves
penetrate to a significant depth into the seawater
– AM radio, earth exploration, and buried object detection
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Skywave propagation
• This helps in communication at long distances, and useful in the
transcontinental transmission of the waves
• These waves are the reflected or refracted waves from
ionosphere back to the earth
• Medium and high frequencies are reflected to earth
• Ionosphere consists of several layers of charged particles at an
altitude ranging from 30 to 250 miles above the surface of the
earth
• A common problem with electromagnetic wave propagation via
sky wave is signal multipath and fading
• Applications
– Mobile communications
– TV broadcast and FM radio
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Free space propagation

• Frequencies above 30 MHz (VHF band and higher) propagate
through the ionosphere with relatively little loss
• This makes satellite and terrestrial communications possible
• The dominant mode of electromagnetic propagation is LOS
propagation, i.e., the transmitter and receiver antennas must be
in direct LOS with relatively little or no obstruction
• In terrestrial microwave systems, Earth-based transmitters and
receivers are used to relay information with a LOS path
– TV stations in the VHF/UHF bands mount their antennas on
high towers to achieve a broad coverage area
– Microwave (0.3 GHz-30 GHz) relay systems used for
telephone and video transmission at frequencies above 1 GHz
have antennas mounted on tall towers or on top of tall
buildings
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Free space propagation (cont’d)

• Above 10 GHz, atmospheric conditions play a major role in
signal propagation
• Above 10 GHz, heavy rain introduces extremely high
propagation losses and results in service outages (i.e., a
breakdown in communication), for example,:-
– A propagation loss of approximately 0.3 dB/km at 10 GHz
– A loss of approximately 2 dB/km at 30 GHz
– A loss of approximately 5 dB/km at 100 GHz
• At frequencies above the millimeter wave band (30 GHz -300
GHz), we have the infrared and visible light regions of EM
spectrum, which can be used to provide LOS optical
communication in free space

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Underwater Acoustic Channels

• Electromagnetic waves do not propagate over long distances
underwater, except at extremely low frequencies
• The attenuation of electromagnetic waves in water can be
expressed in terms of skin depth, which is the distance at which
a signal is attenuated by 1/e
• For seawater, the skin depth is 𝛿 = 250/√𝑓
• In contrast, acoustic signals propagate in water over distances
of tens and even hundreds of kilometers
• A shallow-water acoustic channel is characterized as a multipath
channel due to signal reflections from the surface and the bottom
of the sea, which causes fading
• In addition, there is frequency-dependent attenuation, which is
approximately proportional to the square of the signal frequency
• Applications
– Ocean exploration activities transmit and relay the data via a
satellite to a data collection center
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Storage Channels
• The process of storing data on a magnetic tape (cassettes), magnetic
disk (Hard disks, floppy disks), or optical disk (CD/DVD) is
equivalent to transmitting a signal over a telephone or radio channel
• The readback process and the signal processing used to recover the
stored information is equivalent to the functions performed by a
telephone receiver or radio receiver to recover the original
information
• Additive noise generated by electronic components and interference
from adjacent tracks is generally present as well in the readback
signal of a storage system
• Channel coding and modulation are essential components of a well-
designed digital magnetic or optical storage system
• In the readback process, the signal is demodulated, and the added
redundancy introduced by the channel encoder is used to correct
errors in the readback signal
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Mathematical models for communication channels

• Additive Noise Channel

• Linear Time Invariant (LTI) Channel
• Linear Time Variant (LTV) Channel

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Additive Noise Channel

Where n(t) is modeled

as AWGN

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Linear Time Invariant (LTI) Channel

‘h(t)’ called the ‘impulse response’ converts an input

signal g(t) to an output signal y(t)

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LTI System (cont’d)

• A system is Linear Time-invariant if it obeys two
properties
1. Linearity Property: Principle of superposition
holds e.g.,

2. Time-Invariance Property: System’s properties do

not change with time e.g.,
If the output of 𝑔 𝑡 is y(t) then the output to
𝑔 𝑡 − 𝑡0 should be y 𝑡 − 𝑡0

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LTI System (cont’d)

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LTI System (cont’d)

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LTI Channel (cont’d)

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Linear Time-Variant (LTV) Channel

• Channel impulse response is not constant and varies over time (for
example, time delay, attenuation and number of multipaths may
be a function of time)
– Mobile transmitter or receiver
– Mobile scattering objects in the channel

h(τ;t)= The response of the system at time ‘t’ due to an impulse

applied at time t-τ (i.e., the impulse having a delay τ)
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LTV Channel (cont’d)

For L(t) multipath components
𝐿(𝑡)

ℎ 𝜏; 𝑡 = ෍ 𝑎𝑘 𝑡 𝛿 𝜏 − 𝜏𝑘 𝑡 L(t): number of time-varying multi-paths,

𝑎𝑘 𝑡 : time-varying channel gain (or
𝑘=1
attenuation) of 𝑘 𝑡ℎ path,
𝐿(𝑡) 𝜏𝑘 𝑡 : time-varying phase delay of 𝑘 𝑡ℎ
path,
r 𝑡 = ෍ 𝑎𝑘 𝑡 𝑠 𝑡 − 𝜏𝑘 𝑡 + 𝑛(𝑡)
𝑘=1

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Reading

• Chapter-1 John G. Proakis

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