Data and Signals

3.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 ANALOG AND DIGITAL
3.2

Data can be analog or digital. The term analog data refers to information that is continuous; digital data refers to

information that has discrete states. Analog data take on continuous values. Digital data take on discrete values.

For Transmission, data must be transformed to electromagnetic signals.

Periodic and Non Periodic Signals:

• Periodic Signals completes a pattern within a measurable time frame (period/cycle).
• Non-periodic Signal changes without exhibiting a pattern/cycle.

In data communications, we commonly use periodic analog signals and non-periodic digital signals.
 PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS
3.3

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or composite. A simple periodic analog signal, a sine wave, cannot be decomposed into

simpler signals. A composite periodic analog signal is composed of multiple sine waves.

Sine Wave:
• The Most fundamental form of a periodic analogue wave.
• A simple oscillating curve.

Wave Length:
• Wavelength is the distance a simple signal can travel in one period.
 PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS
3.4

Time & Frequency Domain:

• A Sine wave is comprehensively defined by :
1. Amplitude
2. Frequency
3. Phase
• Time Domain Plot shows the change in amplitude with respect to time
• Frequency Domain Plot shows change in amplitude with respect to Frequency.
 PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS
3.5

Composite Signals:
• A Composite signal is a combination of simple sine waves with different frequencies, amplitudes and Phases.
• In data communication we need to send a composite signal not a single sine wave (buzzer sound is ok for simple sine wave)
• If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a series of signals with discrete frequencies;
• If the composite signal is non-periodic, the decomposition gives a combination of sine waves with continuous frequencies.

A periodic composite signal with frequency f. This type of

signal is not typical of those found in data communications.

We can consider it to be three alarm systems, each with a

different frequency. The analysis of this signal can give us a

good understanding of how to decompose signals.

 A Composite Signal in Time and Frequency domain
3.6

Example:
The frequency domain is more compact and useful when we are dealing with more than one sine wave. For example, Figure shows three

sine waves, each with different amplitude and frequency. All can be represented by three spikes in the frequency domain.
 A Non-Periodic Composite Signal
3.7

Figure shows a non-periodic composite signal. It can be the signal created by a microphone or a telephone set when a word or two is

pronounced. In this case, the composite signal cannot be periodic, because that implies that we are repeating the same word or words

with exactly the same tone.

• In time Domain there are infinite number of Sin waves combined

• Frequency decomposition results into a continuous curve which has infinite number of frequencies between the bandwidth of 0 to

4KHZ.
 Bandwidth
3.8

The bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference between the highest and the lowest frequencies contained in that signal.

Periodic Signal

Non-Periodic Signal
 Amplitude, Frequency and Phase
3.9

• Peak Amplitude is the absolute value or the highest intensity of a signal.

• As we know Frequency and period are the inverse of each other.

Frequency is the rate of change with respect to time
 T=1/f

• Phase describes the position of waveform relative to time

 Phase measured in Degrees or Radians
 Phase shift of 360 degrees means a complete period which is 2ℼ Radian
 Convert 90 degrees to radians (2ℼ/360)

Question: What if signal does not change at all?

 What is changing?
3.10

Is it Phase , frequency or

amplitude?
 Examples: 1,2,3,and 4
3.11

Q1:The power we use at home has a frequency of 60 Hz.

Q2:The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency in kilohertz?

Q3: A sine wave is offset 1/6 cycle with respect to time 0. What is its phase in degrees and radians?

Q4: A periodic signal has a bandwidth of 20 Hz. The highest frequency is 60 Hz. What is the lowest frequency?

Draw the spectrum if the signal contains all frequencies of the same amplitude.
 Answers:
3.12

Ans 1: Frequency and period are the inverse of each other.

−3
Ans 2: First we change 100 ms to seconds, and then we calculate the frequency from the period (1 Hz = 10 kHz).

Ans 3: We know that 1 complete cycle is 360°. Therefore, 1/6 cycle is:

Ans 4: Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency, and B the bandwidth. Then
 Example 5
3.13

Q5: A non-periodic composite signal has a bandwidth of 200 kHz, with a middle frequency of 140 kHz and peak

amplitude of 20 V. The two extreme frequencies have an amplitude of 0. Draw the frequency domain of the signal.

Solution

The lowest frequency must be at 40 kHz and the highest at 240 kHz.
 DIGITAL SIGNALS
3.14

In addition to being represented by an analog signal, information can also be represented by a

digital signal. For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and a 0 as zero voltage. A

digital signal can have more than two levels. In this case, we can send more than 1 bit for each

level.

Bit Rate:

Number of Bits sent in 1 Sec.

Bit Length Is similar to wave length, the distance

one bit occupies in transmission media

Two digital signals: one with two signal levels and the other

with four signal levels

3.15
 Digital Signal as a composite of Analog Signal
3.16

A digital signal is a composite analog signal with an infinite bandwidth.

 Bandwidths of two low-pass channels
3.17

Baseband transmission of a digital signal that preserves the shape of the digital signal is possible only if

we have a low-pass channel with an infinite or very wide bandwidth.

 Baseband transmission using a dedicated medium
3.18

Baseband Transmission means sending a digital signal over a channel without changing a

digital signal to analog signal

In Baseband Transmission , the required Bandwidth is propositional to the bit rate, if we

need to send bits faster we need more bandwidth

 Band Pass Channel
3.19

If the available channel is a bandpass channel, we cannot send the digital signal directly to the

channel; we need to convert the digital signal to an analog signal before transmission.
 Example 6
3.20

What is the required bandwidth of a low-pass channel if we need to send 1 Mbps by using baseband

transmission?

Solution

The answer depends on the accuracy desired.

The minimum bandwidth, is B = bit rate /2, or 500 kHz.

 Example: 7,8 & 9
3.21

Q7:A digital signal has eight levels. How many bits are needed per level?

Q8: A digital signal has nine levels. How many bits are needed per level? We calculate the number of bits by using

the formula.

Q9: Assume we need to download text documents at the rate of 100 pages per minute. What is the required bit rate

of the channel?
 Example: 7,8 & 9
3.22

Ans 6:We calculate the number of bits from the formula

Each signal level is represented by 3 bits.

Ans 7: We calculate the number of bits by using the formula. Each signal level is represented by 3.17 bits.

However, this answer is not realistic. The number of bits sent per level needs to be an integer as well as a power of

2. For this example, 4 bits can represent one level.

Ans 8: A page is an average of 24 lines with 80 characters in each line. If we assume that one character requires 8

bits, the bit rate is

Signal Energy Per Bit To Noise 23

Power Ratio
  
• = Signal Energy Per Bit
• If is the time required to send 1 bit then data rate R(bit
rate)=1/. Assume S is the signal power

(dB)= S(dBW) – 10 log (RkT)

 The bit error rate for digital data is a function of this ratio
Example 3 24

   binary shift keying, = 8.4 dB is required for a bit error

For
rate of (one bit error out of every 10,000). If the effective
noise temperature is 290 K and data rate is 2400 bps, what
received signal power is required?
Solution 25
 Example 10
3.26

A digitized voice channel is made by digitizing a 4-kHz bandwidth analog voice signal. We need to

sample the signal at twice the highest frequency (two samples per hertz). We assume that each

sample requires 8 bits. What is the required bit rate?

Solution

The bit rate can be calculated as

 Example 11
3.27

What is the bit rate for high-definition TV (HDTV)?

Solution

HDTV uses digital signals to broadcast high quality video signals. The HDTV screen is normally

a ratio of 16 : 9. There are 1920 by 1080 pixels per screen, and the screen is renewed 30 times per

second. Twenty-four bits represents one color pixel.

The TV stations reduce this rate to 20 to 40 Mbps through compression.

 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT
3.28

Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect. The imperfection causes signal

impairment. This means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is not the same as the

signal at the end of the medium. What is sent is not what is received. Three causes of impairment

are attenuation, distortion, and noise.

Figure 3.26 Attenuation
3.29
 Example 12
3.30

Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium and its power is reduced to one-half.

This means that P2 is (1/2)P1. In this case, the attenuation (loss of power) can be calculated as

A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-half the power.

 Example 13
3.31

A signal travels through an amplifier, and its power is increased 10 times. This means that P2 =

10P1 . In this case, the amplification (gain of power) can be calculated as

 Example 14
3.32

One reason that engineers use the decibel to measure the changes in the strength of a signal is

that decibel numbers can be added (or subtracted) when we are measuring several points

(cascading) instead of just two. In Figure a signal travels from point 1 to point 4. In this case, the

decibel value can be calculated as

 Example 15
3.33

Sometimes the decibel is used to measure signal power in milliwatts. In this case, it is referred to

as dBm and is calculated as dBm = 10 log10 Pm , where Pm is the power in milliwatts. Calculate

the power of a signal with dBm = −30.

Solution

We can calculate the power in the signal as

 Example 16
3.34

The loss in a cable is usually defined in decibels per kilometer (dB/km). If the signal at the

beginning of a cable with −0.3 dB/km has a power of 2 mW, what is the power of the signal at 5

km?

Solution

The loss in the cable in decibels is 5 × (−0.3) = −1.5 dB. We can calculate the power as
Distortion
3.35
Noise
3.36
 Example 17
3.37

The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the noise is 1 μW; what are the values of SNR

and SNRdB ?

Solution

The values of SNR and SNRdB can be calculated as follows:

 Example 18
3.38

The values of SNR and SNRdB for a noiseless channel are

We can never achieve this ratio in real life; it is an ideal.

Two cases of SNR: a high SNR and a low SNR
3.39
 DATA RATE LIMITS
3.40

A very important consideration in data communications is how fast we can send data, in bits per

second, over a channel. Data rate depends on three factors:

Increasing the levels of a signal may

reduce the reliability of the system.

Bandwidth
Level Of Signal
Noise
 3.41

The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit;

The Nyquist formula tells us how many signal levels we need.

 Example 19
3.42

Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000 Hz transmitting a signal with two signal

levels. The maximum bit rate can be calculated as

Consider the same noiseless channel transmitting a signal with four signal levels (for each level,

we send 2 bits). The maximum bit rate can be calculated as

 Example 20
3.43
 

We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How many signal

levels do we need?

Solution

We can use the Nyquist formula as shown:

Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either increase the number of levels or reduce the

bit rate. If we have 128 levels, the bit rate is 280 kbps. If we have 64 levels, the bit rate is 240 kbps.
 Example 21
3.44

Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value of the signal-to-noise ratio is almost zero.

In other words, the noise is so strong that the signal is faint. For this channel the capacity C is

calculated as

This means that the capacity of this channel is zero regardless of the bandwidth. In other words,

we cannot receive any data through this channel.

 Example 22
3.45

We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a regular telephone line. A telephone line

normally has a bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is usually 3162. For this channel the

capacity is calculated as

This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line is 34.860 kbps. If we want to send data

faster than this, we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or improve the signal-to-noise

ratio.
 Example 27
3.46

We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is 63. What are the

appropriate bit rate?

Solution

First, we use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit.

 PERFORMANCE
3.47

One important issue in networking is the performance of the network—how good is it?

BANDWIDTH:

• The first, bandwidth in hertz, refers to the range of frequencies in a composite signal or the range of frequencies that a channel can

pass.
• The second, bandwidth in bits per second, refers to the speed of bit transmission in a channel or link.

THROUGHPUT:
• Actually how fast we can send data through a network

Bandwidth is the potential measurement of a link whereas Throughput is the actual

measurement, how fast we can transfer.

 3.48
LATENCY (Delay):

• How Long it takes for a message to arrive completely at the destination

BANDWIDTH-DELAY Product:
• The bandwidth-delay product defines the number of bits that can fill the link.
 Example 28
3.49

A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an average of 12,000 frames per minute with

each frame carrying an average of 10,000 bits. What is the throughput of this network?

Solution

We can calculate the throughput as

The throughput is almost one-fifth of the bandwidth in this case.

 Example 29
3.50

What is the propagation time if the distance between the two points is 12,000 km? Assume the

propagation speed to be 2.4 × 108 m/s in cable.

Solution

We can calculate the propagation time as

The example shows that a bit can go over the Atlantic Ocean in only 50 ms if there is a direct

cable between the source and the destination.

 Example 30
3.51

What are the propagation time and the transmission time for a 2.5-kbyte message (an e-mail) if

the bandwidth of the network is 1 Gbps? Assume that the distance between the sender and the

receiver is 12,000 km and that light travels at 2.4 × 108 m/s.

Solution

We can calculate the propagation and transmission time as shown on the next slide:
 Example 30 (continued)
3.52

Note that in this case, because the message is short and the bandwidth is high, the dominant

factor is the propagation time, not the transmission time. The transmission time can be ignored.
 Example 31
3.53

What are the propagation time and the transmission time for a 5-Mbyte message (an image) if the

bandwidth of the network is 1 Mbps? Assume that the distance between the sender and the
8
receiver is 12,000 km and that light travels at 2.4 × 10 m/s.

Solution

We can calculate the propagation and transmission times as shown on the next slide.
 Example 31 (continued)
3.54

Note that in this case, because the message is very long and the bandwidth is not very high, the

dominant factor is the transmission time, not the propagation time. The propagation time can be

ignored.
 Example 32
3.55

We can think about the link between two points as a pipe. The cross section of the pipe represents

the bandwidth, and the length of the pipe represents the delay. We can say the volume of the pipe

defines the bandwidth-delay product.

Signal Energy Per Bit To Noise 56

Power Ratio
  
• = Signal Energy Per Bit
• If is the time required to send 1 bit then data rate R(bit
rate)=1/. Assume S is the signal power

(dB)= S(dBW) – 10 log (RkT)

 The bit error rate for digital data is a function of this ratio
Example 3 57

   binary shift keying, = 8.4 dB is required for a bit error

For
rate of (one bit error out of every 10,000). If the effective
noise temperature is 290 K and data rate is 2400 bps, what
received signal power is required?
Solution 58