2: A Telecommunication System

A TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Analog Up and Down Conversion via Mixing

Frequency Division Multiplexing
Analog Core
Sampling
Pulse Shape
Synchronization
Equalization
Decisions and Error Measures
Coding and Decoding

the basic components

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2: A Telecommunication System

Analog Up and Down Conversion via Mixing

For upconversion mixer multiplies input waveform with a sinusoid

s(t) = w(t)cos(2fo t)
w(t): message waveform
s(t): transmitted waveform (mixer output)

We want to compute the Fourier transform of the transmitted

waveform s(t) using:
Exponential definition of a cosine (A.2)
cos(x) =

1 jx
(e + ejx )
2

Fourier transform definition (A.15)

Z
w(t)ej2f t dt = F{w(t)}
W (f ) =

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Analog ... Mixing (contd)

S(f ) = F{s(t)} = F{w(t) cos(2f0 t)}




= F w(t) 12 ej2f0 t + ej2f0 t



R
= w(t) 21 ej2f0 t + ej2f0 t ej2f t dt


R
= 21 w(t) ej2(f f0 )t + ej2(f +f0 )t dt
R
R
= 12 w(t)ej2(f f0 )t dt + 12 w(t)ej2(f +f0 )t dt
=

1
2 W (f

f0 ) + 12 W (f + f0 )
uW(f)u
1

2f

(a)

uS(f )u

0.5

2f0 2 f 2f0

f0

f0 1 f

(b)

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Analog ... Mixing (contd)

Bandwidth definition(s):
Absolute
3-dB (or half-power)
Null-to-null (or zero-crossing)
Power bandwidth
uW(f)u

1/2 5 0.707

Half-power
BW

Null-to-null BW
Power BW
Absolute BW

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2: A Telecommunication System

Analog ... Mixing (contd)

Assume transmitted signal arrives unimpaired

For downconversion use mixer with frequency and phase matching
transmitters
d(t) = s(t) cos(2f0 t) = w(t) cos2 (2f0 t)
(A.4)
cos2 (x) = 21 + 12 cos(2x)

d(t) = w(t) 12 + 21 cos(4f0 t) = 21 w(t) + 12 w(t) cos(2(2f0 )t)

Using linearity of Fourier transform (A.31) and previously extracted

result on Fourier transform of mixer output also included in (A.33)
D(f ) = F{d(t)}
= F{ 12 w(t) + 12 w(t) cos(2(2f0 )t)}
=
=

Software Receiver Design

1
1
2 F{w(t)} + 2 F{w(t) cos(2(2f0 )t)}
1
1
1
2 W (f ) + 4 W (f 2f0 ) + 4 W (f + 2f0 )

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Analog ... Mixing (contd)

Passing a signal s(t) through a linear system with transfer function

h(t) results in an output that is the convolution of s(t) and h(t).

The Fourier transform of a convolution is the product of the Fourier

transforms; see (A.39).

We often distinguish among linear systems based on the range of

frequencies they pass or reject, e.g. lowpass, highpass, bandpass,
notch.

The 21 W (f ) portion of D(f ) about zero frequency can be extracted

by filtering d(t) through an ideal filter that has a flat magnitude (and
a linear phase) for low frequencies and (near) zero magnitude for high
frequencies, i.e. an ideal lowpass filter.

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2: A Telecommunication System

Analog ... Mixing (contd)

|W(f)|
-f

0
(a)

|S(f)|

-f0

(b)

f0
Lowpass filter

{s(t) cos(2fot)}

-2f0

0
(c)

2f0

(a) original spectrum of the message

(b) message modulated by the carrier
(c) demodulated signal has original spectrum after ideal lowpass filtering
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2: A Telecommunication System

Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

Compose transmitted FDM signal as sum of message signals with

same bandwidth f using carriers with appropriately separated
frequencies f1 , f2 , f3
w1 (t)cos(2f1 t) + w2 (t)cos(2f2 t) + w3 (t)cos(2f3 t)

Resulting spectrum of sum shows three different upconverted signals

in their assigned frequency bands.
u.(f )u

2f3

2f2

2f1

f1

f2

f3

f3 1 f *

f2 1 f *
f2 2 f

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FDM (contd)

Mixing transmitted/received FDM signal with cosine with frequency

f3 followed by ideal lowpass filtering with a cutoff frequency f
recovers baseband message signal 3.

22f3 2f3 2f2 2f3 2f1

f1 2f3 f2 2f3

f3 2f2 f3 2f1

f3 1f1 f3 1f2

2f3

Time division multiplexing (TDM) is a multiple-user channel capacity

allotment alternative.

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FDM (contd)

Mixing FDM signal with cosine with frequency fI produces

2f3 2 fI

2f3 1 fI

f3 2 fI

f3 1 fI

An ideal BPF passing from f1 fI f (> 0) to f3 fI + f will

extract FDM signal clump nearest DC for further downconversion.

Or an ideal BPF passing from f3 fI f to f3 fI + f will

extract just message signal 3 spectrum nearest DC for further
downconversion.

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Analog Core
Analog downconversion to baseband
Other
Other
FDM
users interference

Message
waveform

Received
signal

Upconversion

Carrier
specification

Received
signal

Bandpass
filter for
FDM user
selection

Downconversion

Lowpass
filter

Carrier
synchronization

For analog downconversion to IF:

lowpass filter becomes a bandpass filter

carrier synchronization becomes carrier specification (when not

adjusted during operation)

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Analog Core (contd)

Wrap digital communication system around analog core:

Message waveform creation takes bits to symbols to signal and

requires coding and pulse shape selection.

Post-sampler in the receiver, with pre-sampler analog downconversion

to IF, we complete digitally the downconversion to baseband for
further DSP.

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Post-sampler Downconversion
Because the output y(kT ) of

equals the output x(kT ) of

downconversion by mixing readily translates across a sampler.

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Sampling to Permit Reconstruction

s[k] = s(t)|t=+kTs

Sampler has (adjustable) settings and Ts to be chosen in receiver

design.
If expect to reconstruct s(t) for t 6= + kTs for any k
need Ts so sampling frequency fs = T1s is twice highest frequency in
s(t)
can then be chosen to maximize signal to noise power in {s[k]}

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Sampling ... Reconstruction (contd)

Typical descending maximum frequency heirarchy

RF > IF > baseband
also corresponds to descending sample frequency needed.

An increasing sample period (among values less than the symbol

period) resulting from decreasing sample frequency typically decreases
error rate and implementation cost.

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2: A Telecommunication System

Pulse Shape

Rectangular pulse shape strictly time-limited, but frequency content

quite broad and requires wide band allocations with FDM.
From (A.21), Fourier transform of T -wide rectangular pulse is sinc(x)
(= sin(x)/x) with x = f T
1

Envelope
1/px
0.5

sinc(x)

0
28

26

24

22

With a pulse shape that is nonzero for only one value of k (e.g. zero)
among all of the symbol times kT will have no intersymbol
interference at T -spaced times for T -spaced pulse sequence.
Sinc shape as time function could have appropriately spaced zero
crossings.

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Pulse Shape (contd)

From Fourier transform of sinc in (A.22) (or duality property of

(A.32) with Fourier transform of rectangular pulse in (A.21)), the
strictly bandlimited nature of the time sinc is revealed.

Sinc pulse shape approximation by truncation requires a large number

of terms.

Seek compromise shape (e.g. raised cosine) between extremes of

rectangular and sinc pulse shapes.

Knowing transmitter pulse shape, what post-sampler filtering at

receiver is best? In what sense?

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2: A Telecommunication System

Synchronization

The frequency and phase of the oscillator in the mixer at the

transmitter and the transmitter symbol clock period and baud-timing
are not what the receiver thinks they are.

The receiver must include methods for adjustment of corresponding

settings at the receiver.

Frame synchronization for decoding need not be performed until after

decisions have been made by the decision device.

Frame synchronization commonly relies on locating a marker

subsequence inserted at a prearranged point in the message sequence.

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2: A Telecommunication System

Equalization

To combat the linear filtering done by a multipath/dispersive channel,

consider a filter that approximates the delayed inverse of the channel.

Hopefully, the equalizer, e.g. designed to approximate a delayed

channel inverse, does not include huge gains at frequencies at which
the equalizer input contains non-trivial noise content.

To combat a narrow in-band interferer, consider a notch filter that

rejects the frequencies of the interferer so as not to remove too much
content from the message.

Equalizer design is a situation-dependent compromise among these

effects.

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Decisions and Error Measures

b: message bits
w: message symbols
m: equalizer output
Q{m}: decision device output
b: decoder output as recovered bits

symbol recovery error: w m

hard decision error: w Q{m}
decision-directed error: Q{m} m

Average squared error (of whichever flavor) is a typical nonnegative

performance measure.
Counting errors in symbols or bits requires knowledge of the correct
values (i.e. training).
Correct decisions mean zero hard decision error and decision-directed
error equal to symbol recovery error.

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2: A Telecommunication System

Coding and Decoding

Channel capacity depends on (i) bandwidth of channel and (ii) power

of noise relative to power of transmitted signal in received signal.

Transmitting redundant information squanders limited channel

capacity.

The redundancy of English text is indicated by the fact that some

characters and character strings are more likely than others.

Source coding assigns symbols to bit subsequences of equal

probability.

Structured redundancy added to the transmitted signal can be used

to detect and sometimes correct bit errors.

Adding an extra bit to each chunk of message bits so the chunk sums
(e.g. using binary arithmetic) to zero can reveal single recovery
errors.

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2: A Telecommunication System

PAM Communication System

Binary
message
sequence b

we{23, 21, 1, 3}
Analog
upconversion
Carrier
specification

P(f)

Coding

Pulse
shaping

Transmitted
signal
Channel

Other FDM
Noise
users
1

Antenna

Analog
received
signal

Analog
conversion
to IF

Digital downconversion
to baseband
Ts
Carrier
Input to the
synchronization
software
receiver

T
Downsampling

Timing
synchronization

Software Receiver Design

Equalizer

Pulse
matched
filter

Q(m)e{23, 21, 1, 3}
Decision

^
b

Decoding

Source and Reconstructed

error coding
message
frame synchronization

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PAM ... System (contd)

Single-user Transmitter:

A source coding that reduces the redundancy of the message.

An error coding that allows detection and/or correction of errors that

may occur during the transmission.

A message sequence of T -spaced symbols drawn from finite alphabet.

Pulse shaping of the message, designed (in part) to conserve

bandwidth.

Analog upconversion to the carrier frequency (within specified

tolerance).

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PAM ... System (contd)

Multi-user Channel and Single-User Receiver Analog Front-End to

Free-Running Sampler:

Channel distortion of transmitted signal.

Summation with other FDM users, channel noise, and other

interferers.

Analog downconversion to intermediate frequency (including

bandpass prefiltering around the desired segment of the FDM
passband and AGC).

A/D impulse sampling with sample period Ts , arbitrary start-time,

and automatic gain control

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PAM ... System (contd)

Single-user Receiver Digital Signal Processing:

Downconversion to baseband (requiring carrier phase and frequency

synchronization).

Lowpass and/or pulse-shape-matched filtering for the suppression of

out-of-band components and in-band broadband channel noise.

Downsampling with timing adjustment to T -spaced symbol estimates.

Equalization filtering to combat intersymbol interference and

narrowband interferers.

Decision device quantizing soft decision outputs of equalizer to

nearest member of the source alphabet, i.e. the hard decision.

Frame synchronization and source and error decoders.

NEXT... We focus on 5 elemental building blocks for composing a digital

PAM telecommunication system.
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