The fundamental purpose of a communications system is the exchange of data between two

parties. Figure 1.2b presents one particular example, which is communication between a
workstation and a server over a public telephone network. Another example is the exchange of
voice signals between two telephones over the same network. The key elements of the model are
as follows: •

Source. This device generates the data to be transmitted; examples are telephones and personal
computers.

Transmitter: Usually, the data generated by a source system are not transmitted directly in the
form in which they were generated. Rather, a transmitter transforms and encodes the information
in such a way as to produce electromagnetic signals that can be transmitted across some sort of
transmission system. For example, a modem takes a digital bit stream from an attached device
such as a personal computer and transforms that bit stream into an analog signal that can be
handled by the telephone network.

• Transmission system: This can be a single transmission line or a complex network connecting
source and destination.

• Receiver: The receiver accepts the signal from the transmission system and converts it into a
form that can be handled by the destination device. For example, a modem will accept an analog
signal coming from a network or transmission line and convert it into a digital bit stream.

• Destination: Takes the incoming data from the receiver.

Transmission Terminology Data transmission occurs between transmitter and receiver over
some transmission medium. Transmission media may be classified as guided or unguided. In
both cases, communication is in the form of electromagnetic waves. With guided media, the
waves are guided along a physical path; examples of guided media are twisted pair, coaxial
cable, and optical fiber. Unguided media, also called wireless, provide a means for transmitting
electromagnetic waves but do not guide them; examples are propagation through air, vacuum,
and seawater. The term direct link is used to refer to the transmission path between two devices
in which signals propagate directly from transmitter to receiver with no intermediate devices,
other than amplifiers or repeaters used to increase signal strength. Note that this term can apply
to both guided and unguided media. A guided transmission medium is point to point if it
provides a direct link between two devices and those are the only two devices sharing the
medium. In a multipoint guided configuration, more than two devices share the same medium.
A transmission may be simplex, half duplex, or full duplex. In simplex transmission, signals are
transmitted in only one direction; one station is transmitter and the other is receiver. In half-
duplex operation, both stations may transmit, but only one at a time. In full-duplex operation,
both stations may transmit simultaneously. In the latter case, the medium is carrying signals in
both directions at the same time. How this can be is explained in due course. We should note that
the definitions just given are the ones in common use in the United States (ANSI definitions).
Elsewhere (ITU-T definitions), the term simplex is used to correspond to half duplex as defined
previously, and duplex is used to correspond to full duplex as just defined.

Frequency, Spectrum, and Bandwidth

we are concerned with electromagnetic signals used as a means to transmit data. At point 3 in
Figure 1.3, a signal is generated by the transmitter and transmitted over a medium. The signal is
a function of time, but it can also be expressed as a function of frequency; that is, the signal
consists of components of different frequencies. It turns out that the frequency domain view of a
signal is more important to an understanding of data transmission than a time domain view. Both
views are introduced here.

Time Domain Concepts Viewed as a function of time, an electromagnetic signal can be either
analog or digital. An analog signal is one in which the signal intensity
varies in a smooth fashion over time. In other words, there are no breaks or discontinuities in the
signal. A digital signal is one in which the signal intensity maintains a constant level for some
period of time and then abruptly changes to another constant level. Figure 3.1 shows an example
of each kind of signal. The continuous signal might represent speech, and the discrete signal
might represent binary 1s and 0s. The simplest sort of signal is a periodic signal, in which the
same signal pattern repeats over time. Figure 3.2 shows an example of a periodic continuous
signal (sine wave) and a periodic discrete signal (square wave). Mathematically, a signal s(t) is
defined to be periodic if and only if

where the constant T is the period of the signal (T is the smallest value that satisfies the
equation). Otherwise, a signal is aperiodic. The sine wave is the fundamental periodic signal. A
general sine wave can be represented by three parameters: peak amplitude (A), frequency (f), and
phase The peak amplitude is the maximum value or strength of the signal over time; typically,
this value is measured in volts. The frequency is the rate [in cycles per second] or Hertz (Hz)] at
which the signal repeats. An equivalent parameter is the period (T) of a signal, which is the
amount of time it takes for one repetition; therefore,

t=1/f
Phase is a measure of the relative position in time within a single period of a signal, as is
illustrated subsequently. More formally, for a periodic signal f(t)

phase is the fractional part t/T

of the period T through which t has advanced relative to an arbitrary origin. The origin is usually
taken as the last previous passage through zero from the negative to the positive direction.
A function with the form of the preceding equation is known as a sinusoid. Figure 3.3 shows the
effect of varying each of the three parameters. In part (a) of the figure, the frequency is 1 Hz;
thus the period is second. Part (b) has the same frequency and phase but a peak amplitude of 0.5.
In part (c) we have which is equivalent to Finally, part (d) shows the effect of a phase shift of
radians, which is 45 degrees 12pie radians = 360° = 1 period 2. T = 0.5. pie/4

Frequency Domain Concepts

In practice, an electromagnetic signal will be made up of many frequencies. For example, , the
signal

is shown in Figure 3.4c. The components of this signal are just sine waves of frequencies f and
3f; parts (a) and (b) of the figure show these individual components.3There are two interesting
points that can be made about this figure:
The second frequency is an integer multiple of the first frequency. When all of the frequency
components of a signal are integer multiples of one frequency, the latter frequency is referred to
as the fundamental frequency.

The spectrum of a signal is the range of frequencies that it contains. For the signal of Figure
3.4c, the spectrum extends from f to 3f. The absolute bandwidth of a signal is the width of the
spectrum. In the case of Figure 3.4c, the bandwidth is 2f. Many signals, such as that of Figure
3.5b, have an infinite bandwidth. However, most of the energy in the signal is contained in a
relatively narrow band of frequencies. This band is referred to as the effective bandwidth, or
just bandwidth.

Relationship between Data Rate and Bandwidth

We have said that effective bandwidth is the band within which most of the signal energy is
concentrated.The meaning of the term most in this context is somewhat arbitrary. The important
issue

here is that, although a given waveform may contain frequencies over a very broad range, as a
practical matter any transmission system (transmitter plus medium plus receiver) will be able to
accommodate only a limited band of frequencies. This, in turn, limits the data rate that can be
carried on the transmission medium