Lecture 1

TE-7001
DIGITAL COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS

Engr. Ghulam Shabbir

ghulam.shabbir@uettaxila.edu.pk

Course Objectives
This course is designed to prepare students for
engineering work in the industry and for advanced
graduate work in the area of digital communications.
The course covers concepts and useful tools for design
and performance analysis of transmitters and receivers
in the physical layer of a communication system.

Scope of the course

Communication is a process by which information is
exchanged between individuals through a common
system of symbols, signs, or behavior
Communication systems are reliable, economical
and efficient means of communications such as
public switched telephone network (PSTN)
mobile telephone communication (GSM, 3G, ...)
broadcast radio or television
navigation systems, ...
The course is aiming at introducing fundamental
issues in designing a (digital) communication system

Scope of the course ...

Example of a (digital) communication systems:

Cellular wireless communication systems
BS

Base Station (BS)

UE

UE

UE
User Equipment (UE)

Text

Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications,

B.Sklar, Prentice Hall, 2nded, 2001.
First Chapter of the book is available at:
http: //vig.pearsoned.com/samplechapter/0130847887.pdf

References
1. Communication Systems, 3rd or 4th Ed., Simon Haykin,
John Wiley & Sons
2. Communication Systems Engineering, 2nd Edition,
Prentice Hall, 2001.
3. Digital Communications, Fourth Edition, J.G. Proakis,
McGraw Hill, 2000.
4. Analog and Digital Communication Systems, Leaon W.
Couch II, 6thedition, Prentice Hall, 2001.
5. Modern Digital and Analog Communication Systems, B.
P. Lathi, 3rd Ed. Oxford Univ. Press 1998.
6. Lecture slides (ppt, pdf)
7. Laboratory syllabus
8. Set of exercises and formulae
9. Home assignments and solutions

Pre-requisites
Required
Signals and Systems

Recommended
Probability and Stochastic Processes

Grading of Evaluation Components

Assignments, Labs/Field Work, Quizzes

Mid Semester Exam
Course Project, Case Study, Presentation etc.
Final Comprehensive Theory Exam

20 %
20 %
20 %
40 %

Total

100%

Digital communication system

Important features of a DCS:
Transmitter sends a waveform from a finite
set of possible waveforms during a limited
time
Channel
distorts,
attenuates
the
transmitted signal and adds noise to it.
Receiver decides which waveform was
transmitted from the noisy received signal
Probability of erroneous decision is an
important
measure
for
the
system
performance

Digital versus analog

Advantages of digital communications:
Regenerator receiver
Original
pulse

Regenerated
pulse

Propagation distance

Different kinds of digital signal are treated

identically.
Data

Voice

A bit is a bit!
Media

Communication

Communication is a process of conveying messages at

distance.

If the distance involved is beyond direct

communication, then communication engineering
comes into picture.

The branch of engineering which deals

communication
system
is
known
Telecommunication Engineering.

In telecommunication, a physical message, such as

sound, word, picture, etc., is converted into an
electrical message called signal and this electrical
signal is conveyed at a distant place through some
media, where it is reconverted into the physical
message.

with
as

Communication
Main purpose of communication is to
transfer information from a source to a
recipient via a channel or a medium.
Basic block diagram of a communication
system:

Modes of Communication
Broadcasting

It involves the use of a single

transmitter and numerous receivers.

powerful

Here information-bearing signals flow in one

direction

Point-to-point communication

Communication process takes place over a link

between a single transmitter and a receiver.

In this case, there is usually a bidirectional flow

of information-bearing signals, which require the
use of a transmitter and receiver at each end of
the link.

Communication

Thus, a communication system has three basic

components:
(a) Transmitter
(b) Transmission media
(c) Receiver

Electrical Communication System

Physical message

Physical message
Transmitter

Source

Communication
medium

Receiver

Source

Communication Processes
1. The generation of a message signal:
voice, music, picture, or computer data
2. The description of that message signal with a certain
measure of precision, by a set of symbols:
electrical, aural, or visual.
3. The encoding of these symbols in a form that is
suitable for transmission over a physical medium of
interest.
4. The transmission of the encoded symbols to the
desired destination.
5. The decoding and reproduction of the original
symbols.
6. The re-creation of the original message signal, with a
definable degradation in quality; the degradation is
caused by imperfections in the system.

Communication Process
Communication System

Source of
Information

Transmitter

Receiver

Message
Signal

Estimate of
message
Signal

Channel
Transmitted
Signal

Received
Signal

Elements of a Communication system

User of
Information

Digital Communication Process

Source of
Information

Estimate of
message signal

Message Signal

Source
encoder

Source
decoder
Estimate of
Source code
word

Source
code word
Transmitter

User of
information

Channel
encoder

Channel
decoder
Estimate of
channel code
word

Channel
code word

Modulator

Demodulator

Waveform

Channel

Received Signal

Receiver

DCS A Brief Description

Source:
analog or digital
Transmitter:
transducer, amplifier, modulator, oscillator,
power amplifier, antenna
Channel:
cable, optical fiber, free space etc.
Receiver:
antenna, amplifier, demodulator, oscillator,
power amplifier, transducer
Recipient:
person, (loud) speaker, computer

DCS A Brief Description

Types of information
Voice, data, video, music, email etc.
Types of communication systems
Public Switched Telephone Network
(voice, fax, modem)
Satellite systems Radio
TV broadcasting
Cellular phones
Computer networks (LANs, WANs,
WLANs)

Information Representation
Communication system converts information into
electrical electromagnetic/optical signals
appropriate for the transmission medium.

Analog systems convert analog message into signals

that can propagate through the channel.

Digital systems convert bits (digits, symbols) into

signals

Computers naturally
characters/bits

generate

information

as

Most information can be converted into bits

Analog signals converted to bits by sampling and

quantizing (A/D conversion)

Why digital?

Digital techniques need to distinguish between

discrete symbols allowing regeneration versus
amplification

Good processing techniques are available for digital

signals, such as medium.

Data compression (or source coding)

Error Correction (or channel coding) (A/D conversion)

Equalization

Security (encryption, privacy)

Easy to mix signals and data using digital techniques

Digital circuits are more reliable and can be produced

at a low cost.

Why Digital Communication System?

Why Digital Communication System?

Why Digital Communication System?

Why Digital Communication System?

Why Digital Communication System?

Why Digital Communication System?

When an ideal binary digital pulse propagates along

a transmission line, the shape of the waveform is

affected by two basic mechanisms:
1) All transmission lines and circuits have some
nonideal

frequency transfer function of the

medium and there is a distorting effect on the

ideal pulse.
2) Unwanted electrical noise or other interference
further distorts the pulse waveform.

Why Digital Communication System?

Both of these mechanisms cause the pulse shape

to degrade as a function of line length or media

length.
During the time that the transmitted pulse can still
be reliably identified, the pulse is amplified by a
digital amplifier that recovers its original ideal
shape.

Why Digital Communication System?

The pulse is thus reborn or regenerated.

Circuits that perform this function at regular

intervals along a transmission system are called
regenerative repeaters.
Digital circuits are less subject to distortion and
interference than are analog circuits.

Why Digital Communication System?

In

digital

communication

system,

two

state

operation (fully on or fully off) facilitates signal

regeneration and thus prevent noise and other
disturbances from accumulating in transmission.
With digital techniques, extremely low error rates
producing high fidelity is possible through error

detection and correction.

Communication Systems
Information

Transmitter

Channel

Receiver

Source

Information
Destination

Keypad

GSM-style RF

Wireless RF

Speakers Brain

Vocal Tract

Acoustic

IP Packet

SONET Router

Fiber

FM Detector ATM.25 Packet

Ears

Brain

Photo Diode Router POTS

Analog Communications:

Information is encoded in a continuous amplitude,

continuous time signal.
Digital Communications:

Information is encoded into a discrete time sequence

with a quantized alphabet.

Block Diagram of Digital Communication

Basic Signal Processing Functions

1. Formatting and source coding

2. Baseband signaling
3. Band pass signaling
4. Equalization
5. Channel coding
6. Multiplexing and multiple access

7. Spreading
8. Encryption
9. Synchronization

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Upper block
1) Format
2) Source encode
3) Encrypt

4) Channel encode multiplex

5) Pulse modulate
6) Bandpass modulate

7) Frequency spread
8) Multiple access

Denote signal transformation

from source to transmitter

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Lower block
1) Multiple access

2) Frequency despread
3) Demodulate & sample
4) Detect
5) Demultiplex
6) Channel decode

7) Decrypt
8) Source decode
9) Format

Denote signal transformation

From receiver to the sink

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Modulate and demodulate/detect blocks together are

called a modem.

Modem often encompasses several of the signal

processing steps;

When this the case, the modem can be thought as the

brain of the system.

The transmitter and receiver can be thought of as the

muscles of the system

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

For wireless applications, the transmitter consists of a

frequency up-conversion stage to a radio frequency

(RF), a high-power amplifier, and an antenna.

The receiver portion consists of an antenna and a low-

noise amplifier (LNA).

Frequency down-conversion is performed in the front

end of the receiver and/or the demodulator.

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Figure illustrates a kind of reciprocity between the

blocks in the upper transmitter part of the figure and
those in the lower part.

Trans side

The input information at source is converted to binary

digits (bits); the bits are then grouped to form digital
message or message symbols.

Each such symbol (mi , where I = 1, , M) can be

regarded as member of a finite alphabet set containing
M members.

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Thus, for M = 2, the message symbol mi is binary (just a

single bit).

For systems that use channel coding (error coding), a

sequence of message symbols becomes transferred to a

sequence of channel symbols (code symbols), where

each symbol is denoted by ui.

Because a message symbol or a channel symbol can

consist of a single bit or grouping of bits, a sequence
of such symbols is also described as bit stream.

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Only formatting, modulation, demodulation/detection,

and synchronization are essential for a DCS.

Formatting transforms the source information into bits

and up to pulse modulation block, the information

remains in the form of a bit stream.

Modulation is the process by which message symbols or

channel symbols are converted to waveforms that are
compatible with the requirements imposed by the
transmission channel.

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Pulse modulation is an essential step because each

symbol to be transmitted must first be transformed

form a binary representation to a baseband waveform.

The terms baseband refers to a signal whose spectrum

extends from (or near) dc up to some finite value,

usually less than a few megahertz.

The pulse-modulation block usually includes filtering

or minimizing the transmission bandwidth.

When pulse modulation is applied to binary symbols,

the resulting binary waveform is called a pulse-code-

modulation (PCM) waveform called line codes.

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

After pulse modulation, each message symbol or

channel symbol takes the form of a baseband

waveform gi(t), I = 1, , M.

For an application involving RF transmission, the next

step is bandpass modulation; the baseband waveform

gt(t) is frequency translated by a carrier wave to a

frequency si(t), that is much larger than the spectral
contents of gi(t).

As si(t) propagates over the channel, it is impacted by

the channel characteristics, described in terms of the

channels impulse response hc(t).

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Receive Side

At various points along the signal route, additive

random noise distorts the received signal r(t), so that

its reception must be termed as a corrupted version of
the signal si(t) that was launched at the receiver.

The received signal r(t) can be expressed as

r(t) = si(t) * hc(t) + n(t)

I = 1, , M

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

In the reverse direction, the receiver front end and/or

demodulator provides frequency down conversion for

each bandpass waveform r(t).

The demodulator restores r(t) to an optimally shaped

baseband pulse z(t) in preparation for detection.

Several

filters

associate

with

receiver

and

demodulator, filter the baseband pulse to remove

unwanted high frequency terms, and shape the pulse
by the channel.

Signal Flow and Signal Processing Steps in DC

Equalization can be described as the filtering option

that is used in or after the demodulatorn to reverse

any degrading effects on the signal that were caused

by the channel.

Equalization becomes essential whenever the impulse

response of the channel, hc(t), is so poor that the
received signal is badly distorted.

Basic Digital Communication Transformations

Communication Channels
Channel: The medium linking the transmitter and receiver.
It is ALWAYS analog in nature. That is every communication
system is more or less ANALOG.
Channel Types
Wire/line Channels: use a conductive medium to direct
transmitted energy to the receiver:
Copper wire for telephones, xDSL
Fiber optic cable
Aluminum interconnects for ICs
Wireless Channels: Uses an open propagation medium
RF for cell phones
Underwater acoustic ducts for whales

Performance Metrics
Analog Communication Systems

Metric is fidelity: want

SNR typically used as performance metric

Digital Communication Systems

Metrics are data rate (R bps) and probability of bit

error

Symbols already known at the receiver

Without noise/distortion/sync. problem, we will

never make bit errors

Main Points

Transmitters modulate analog messages or bits in

case of a DCS for transmission over a channel.

Receivers recreate signals or bits from received

signal (mitigate channel effects)

Performance metric for analog systems is fidelity,

for digital it is the bit rate and error probability.

Channel Impairments
As a transmitted signal propagates it loses fidelity in a
number of ways. This loss of fidelity makes the received
signal look very different from the transmitted signal.
Additive Noise: Thermal noise, multi-transmitter interference
Noise
Transmitter

Receiver

Multiplicative Noise: Rayleigh Fading

Noise
Transmitter

Receiver

Convolution Noise: time-delay multipath, reverberation (echo)

Transmitter

Noise

Receiver

Objective
Information

Transmitter

Source

Channel

Receiver

Information
Destination

1. How to design
2. Taking into account
3. That will provide a system that is:
Reliable: information received is what was sent
Efficient: Not wasteful of time, power or spectrum
Simple: economical for H/W and S/W and usually Robust

Tradeoffs in Objectives

Spectral Use

Temporal Use

Simple H/W

Simple

Efficient

Power Use

Reliable
Accuracy & Robustness

Simple S/W

Digital Communications
Digital
Information
Source

N Source
Encoder

Channel
Encoder

DAC

The placement of the DAC and ADC is up

to the system requirements. They can be
anywhere between the Information
Sources and Destination and the
Modulator and Demodulator, respectively.
Digital
Information
Destination

Source

Channel

Decoder

Decoder

ADC

Modulator

Channel

DeModulator

Goals in Digital Communication

System Design

Comparative Analysis
of
Analog and Digital Communication

Analog Communication:
Transmitter and Receiver

Digital Communication:
Transmitter

Digital Communication:
Receiver

Digital Signal Nomenclature

Digital Signal Nomenclature