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Data and Signals

Analog and digital data transmission Time and frequency domain Baseband and bandpass transmission Transmission impairments Data rate limits Performance metrics

Forouzan Chapter 3
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Introduction

Information: text, numbers, audio, images, video. 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.

To be transmitted, data must be transformed to electromagnetic signals.

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Introduction
Central questions for this course: How is information represented in digital form? -Where do bits come from? How is digital information processed and transmitted? -What is the best way to send digital information to a remote location? What are the properties and limitations of transmission media? How does one make exchange of digital information reliable and secure?

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Digitizing Information
Text: Unicode and ASCII (see appendix A) In ASCII, 8 bits are used to encode characters that are common in English text (plus a number of control characters). Unicode uses 32 bits to represent a symbol or character used in any language in the world. Numbers: Decimal to binary conversion.

Audio: Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) are used to digitize a speech signal.

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Digitizing Information
Images
To digitize an image, light is projected onto an array of light-sensitive sensors . The most prevalent transducers used in digital cameras are charge-coupled devices (CCD). CCDs were invented in 1969 at Bell Labs by Boyle and Smith (2009 Nobel Prize for Physics).

CCD from a 2.1Megapixel digital camera.

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Digitizing Information
Images The output voltage of each CCD is sampled and A/D converted and then transferred to memory CCDs transduce the intensity of the incident light. This leads to grey scale (B&W) images. To create color images, filters for red, blue, and green light are used. Pixels will indicate only how much red, green, or blue light is present at its location. Video Video signals are created by periodic (in time) capture of images. In addition to the spatial sampling involved in capturing an image, temporal sampling is needed for creating video.

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Analog and Digital Signals

Like the data they represent, signals can be either analog or digital. An analog signal has infinitely many levels of intensity over a period of time. A digital signal, on the other hand can have only a limited number of defined values. Although each value can be any number, it as often as simple as 1 and 0.

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Periodic and Nonperiodic signals

Both analog and digital signals can take one of two forms: periodic or nonperiodic. A periodic signal completes a pattern within a measurable time frame, called a period, and repeats that pattern over subsequent identical periods. A nonperiodic signal changes without exhibiting a pattern or cycle that repeats over time. In data communications, we commonly use periodic analog signals and nonperiodic digital signals.

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Periodic analog signals

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.

A sine wave is the most fundamental form of a periodic analog signal. A sine wave can be represented by three parameters: the peak amplitude, the frequency, and the phase.
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Periodic analog signals

The peak amplitude of a signal is the absolute value of its highest intensity, proportional to the energy it carries.

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Periodic analog signals

Period refers to the amount of time in seconds. A signal needs to complete 1 cycle. Frequency refers to the number of periods in 1 second. Frequency and period are the inverse of each other.

Period is expressed in seconds and frequency is expressed in Hertz (Hz), which is cycles per second.

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Periodic analog signals

Two signals with the same amplitude and phase, but different frequencies.
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Periodic analog signals

Frequency is the rate of change with respect to time. Change in a short span of time means high frequency. Change over a long span of time means low frequency. If a signal does not change at all, its frequency is zero. If a signal changes instantaneously, its frequency is infinite.

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Periodic signals: phase

The term phase describes the position of the waveform relative to time 0. If we think of the wave as something that can be shifted backward or forward along the time axis, phase describes the amount of that shift. It indicates the status of the first cycle. Phase is measured in radians or degrees

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Periodic analog signals

Wavelength is the distance a signal can travel in one period. While the frequency of a signal is independent of the medium, the wavelength depends on both the frequency and the medium. Wavelength = propagation speed x period = propagation speed / frequency

wavelength
c f

c propagation speed f frequency

The propagation speed of EM signals depends on the medium and on the frequency of the signal. eg.. c= 3x108 m/s in vacuum and c 2x108 m/s in data cable.
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Time and frequency domains

The time domain plot shows changes in signal amplitude with respect to time. Frequency domain plot shows the relationship between peak amplitude and frequency.

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Why bother with frequency domain?

In many applications, the frequency content of a signal is very important. For example, in radio communications signals must be limited to occupy only a set of frequencies allocated by the FCC. Hence, understanding and analyzing the spectrum of a signal is crucial from a regulatory perspective. Often, features of a signal are much easier to understand in the frequency domain. The operation of many systems is much easier to understand in the frequency domain. Example: A low-pass filter retains low frequency components of the spectrum and removes highfrequency components.

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Composite signals

A single-frequency sine wave is not useful in data communications; we need to send a composite signal, a signal made of many simple sine waves. If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a series of signals with discrete frequencies. If the composite signal is nonperiodic, the decomposition gives a combination of sine waves with continuous frequencies.

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A Composite periodic signal

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A Composite nonperiodic signal

In time domain representation of this composite signal, there are an infinite number of simple sine frequencies (frequencies are continuous). Although the number of frequencies in human voice is infinite, the range is limited. A voice signal contains a continuous range of frequencies between 0 and 4 KHz.
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Signal Bandwidth
The range of frequencies contained in a composite signal is its bandwidth. It is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies contained in that signal.

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Signal Bandwidth
An example of a nonperiodic composite signal is the signal propagated by an AM or FM radio station. In the United States, each AM radio station is assigned a 10-kHz bandwidth. The total bandwidth dedicated to AM radio ranges from 530 to 1700 kHz. Each FM radio station is assigned a 200-kHz bandwidth. The total bandwidth dedicated to FM radio ranges from 88 to 108 MHz.

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Digital Signals
A digital signal can have two or more levels. In general, if a signal has L levels, each level represents log2L bits.

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Bit rate and bit length

Most digital signals are nonperiodic, and thus frequency and period are not appropriate characteristics. Bit rate and bit length are used to describe digital signals instead. Bit rate is the number of bits sent in 1 second, expresses in bits per sec (bps). The bit length is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium. Bit length = propagation speed x bit duration.

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Bit rate and bit length

Assume we need to download text documents at the rate of 100 pages per minute. A page is an average of 24 lines with 80 characters in each line. If we assume that one character requires 8 bits, what is the required bit rate of the channel?

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

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Digital signal as a composite analog signal

Based on Fourier analysis, a digital signal is a composite analog signal. The bandwidth is infinite. Fourier analysis can be used to decompose a digital signal. If the digital signal is periodic, which is rare in digital communications, the decomposed signal has frequency domain representation with an infinite bandwidth and discrete frequencies. If the digital signal is nonperiodic, the decomposed signal still has an infinite bandwidth, but the frequencies are continuous.

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Digital signal as a composite analog signal

Note that both bandwidths are infinite, but the periodic signal has discrete frequencies while the nonperiodic signal has continuous frequencies.
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Transmission of digital signals

A digital signal, periodic or nonperiodic, is a composite analog signal with frequencies between zero and infinity (infinite bandwidth). We can transmit a digital signal by using one of two different approaches: baseband transmission or bandpass transmission (using modulation). Baseband transmission means sending a digital signal over a channel without changing the digital signal to an analog signal.

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Baseband transmission
Baseband transmission requires that we have a low-pass channel, a channel with a bandwidth that starts from zero. This is the case if we have a dedicated medium with a bandwidth constituting only one channel.

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Baseband transmission
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 over a low pass channel with wide bandwidth

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Bandpass transmission
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.

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Transmission Impairments

Attenuation means a loss of energy

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Decibel

The decibel (dB) measures the relative strengths of two signals or one signal at two different points. The decibel value is negative if the signal is attenuated and positive if the signal is amplified. Relative power gain or attenuation in decibels is given by

PdB
Ohms Law equations to voltage.
P

10 log 10
V2 R

P2 P 1

can be used to transform the power

VdB

20 log 10

V2 V1
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Decibel
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.

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

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Decibel
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 3.27 a signal travels from point 1 to point 4. In this case, the decibel value can be calculated as

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Decibel
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

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Decibel
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

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Distortion
Distortion can occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies. Different frequency component experience different transmission delays.

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Noise
Several types of noise, such as thermal noise, induced noise, crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the signal.

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Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)

Signal to noise ratio is defined as
SNR averagesignal power averagenoise power

SNRdB 10 log 2 SNR

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Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)

The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the noise is 1 W; what are the values of SNR and SNRdB ? Solution The values of SNR and SNRdB can be calculated as follows:

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Data Rate Limits

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: 1. The bandwidth available 2. The level of the signals we use 3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)

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Noiseless channel: Nyquist bit rate

For a noiseless channel, the Nyquist bit rate formula defines the theoretical maximum bit rate Bitrate = 2 x bandwidth x log2L. L is the number of signal levels used to represent data. Increasing the levels of a signal may reduce the reliability of the system.

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Noiseless channel: Nyquist bit rate

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.

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Noisy channel: Shannon capacity

In 1944, Claude Shannon introduced a formula, called the Shannon capacity, to determine the theoretical highest data rate for a noisy channel: Capacity = bandwidth x log2(1 + SNR). Capacity is independent of the number of signal levels used.

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Noisy channel: Shannon capacity

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. The signal-to-noise ratio is often given in decibels. Assume that SNRdB = 36 and the channel bandwidth is 2 MHz. The theoretical channel capacity can be calculated as

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Noisy channel: Shannon capacity

We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR for this channel is 63. What are the appropriate bit rate and signal level? Solution First, we use the Shannon formula to find the upper limit.

The Shannon formula gives us 6 Mbps, the upper limit. For better performance we choose something lower, 4 Mbps, for example. Then we use the Nyquist formula to find the number of signal levels.

The Shannon capacity gives us the upper limit; the Nyquist formula tells us how many signal levels we need.

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Performance
Bandwidth: In networking, we use the term bandwidth in two contexts: 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: It is a measure of how fast we can actually send data through a network.

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Latency
The latency or delay defines how long it takes for an entire message to completely arrive at the destination from the time the first bit is sent out from the source. Latency = propagation time + transmission time + queuing delay + processing delay

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Latency
Propagation time Distance Propagation speed

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.

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Latency
Transmission time Message size Bandwidth

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 :

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.
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Latency
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 receiver is 12,000 km and that light travels at 2.4 108 m/s. Solution We can calculate the propagation and transmission times as shown:

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.

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