Effect of Noise on Analog

Communication Systems

Undergraduate Program
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Outlines
Chapter 4: Transmission Losses and Noise
∙ Transmission Losses in Wired and Wireless channels
∙ Review on Random Processes
∙ Random Processes Basic Concepts
∙ Noise characterization - Gaussian and White Noise Processes;
∙ Noise in the Frequency Domain – PSD & Transmission over LTI Systems

Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems

∙ Effect of Noise on Linear-Modulation Systems
∙ Effect of Noise on Angle Modulation
∙ Threshold Effect on Angle Modulation ;
∙ Pre-emphasis and De-emphasis Filtering

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 26

Effect of Noise

∙ Receiver operates in the presence of noise, interference, attenuation

∙ Hence, some distortions are unavoidable
∙ Some other functions: filtering, suppression of noise and interference
∙ Error detection and correction.

Received
Recovered

Receiver
Demodulator
+ RF RF-IF + Audio
Tuner conversion
Amplifier

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 27

Effect of Noise on a Baseband System
• Baseband systems are used as a benchmark to compare various
modulation systems.
• Noise analysis begins with a baseband system for simplicity.
• Receiver Characteristics
• No carrier demodulation is required.
• The receiver includes an ideal lowpass filter with bandwidth 𝒘.
• Noise Power
• For a AWGN noise input, noise power, 𝑝𝑛 at the receiver output is
determined by the filter characteristics.
𝑤
𝑁𝑜
𝑃𝑛 = න 𝑑𝑓 = 𝑁𝑜 𝑤
−𝑤 2
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR):
∙ Denoting the received power as 𝑃𝑟 ​, the baseband SNR is expressed as:
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑏 = =
𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑁0 𝑤
∙ Where 𝑁𝑜 ​ is the noise power spectral density.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 28

Noise Effect on Linear Modulated signals

∙ For a given m(t), the transmitted signal

𝑆(𝑡) =
𝐴𝑐 𝑚 𝑡 cos2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 ----------- DSB-SC
𝐴𝑐 [1 + 𝑚 𝑡 ]cos2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 -------- AM
𝐴𝑐 𝑚 𝑡 cos2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 ∓ 𝐴𝑐 𝑚ෝ 𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 --------SSB
∙ Received signal:
𝑟(𝑡) = 𝛼s(𝑡) + 𝑛(𝑡)
Where 𝑠(𝑡) is the modulated signal and 𝑛(𝑡) is filtered noise.
∙ Mathematical Representation of passband n(t):
𝑛 𝑡 = 𝐴 𝑡 cos 2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 + 𝜃 𝑡 = 𝐴 𝑡 cos𝜃 𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 − 𝐴(𝑡) 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃 𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛(2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 )
= 𝑛𝑖 𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 − 𝑛𝑞 (𝑡)𝑠𝑖𝑛(2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 )
Where 𝑛𝑖 (𝑡) is the in-phase component and 𝑛𝑞 (𝑡) is the quadrature component.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 29

Cont.…
∙ For DSB-SC transmitted signal:
∙ Coherent demodulation multiplies the received signal with cos(2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡)
𝑟(𝑡)cos(2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡) = 𝛼[𝐴𝑐 𝑚 𝑡 cos2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡 + 𝑛𝑖 (𝑡)cos(2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡 ) − 𝑛𝑞 (𝑡)sin(2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡 )] cos(2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡)

∙ The lowpass filter removes high-frequency noise components but retains baseband
noise.
𝐴𝑐 𝛼𝑚 𝑡 𝑛𝑖 𝑡
𝑚
ෝ 𝑡 = + ;
2 2

𝑆𝑛 𝑓 − 𝑓𝑐 + 𝑆𝑛 𝑓 + 𝑓𝑐 𝑓 <𝑤 𝑁 𝑓 <𝑤
Where 𝑆𝑛𝑖 = 𝑆𝑛𝑞 = ቊ =ቊ 𝑜
0 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒 0 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒

∙ Output SNR (𝑆𝑁𝑅o ) depends on the message bandwidth 𝑊 (assume 𝐴𝑐 𝛼=A)

𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑷𝒐 𝑨𝟐 𝑷𝒎
𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒐 = = =
𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑵𝟎 𝒘 𝟐𝑵𝒐 𝒘
∙ Where 𝑃𝑚 ​ is the message signal power.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 30

Cont.… (Figure of Merit)
∙ The ratio of output SNR and input SNR can be termed as Figure of
Merit.,
∙ It measures the performance of the receiver or the communication system
∙ Figure of merit of a demodulator is
𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑂
𝐹𝑑 =
𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑏

∙ The SNR for DSB-SC received signal is expressed as

𝐴2 𝑃𝑚
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑟
𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒃 = = = 2
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑁0 𝑤 𝑁𝑜 𝑤

which is identical to output SNR and baseband SNR

𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑂
∙ 𝐹𝑑 = 𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑏
=1 , I.e., In DSB-SC AM the demodulator does not provide

any SNR improvement over a simple baseband communication system

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 31

Example 1:

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 32

Example 2:

A DSB-SC system transmits a modulated signal with a

message bandwidth of 𝑊 = 5 𝑘𝐻𝑧 over a channel with
additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). The received power
of the signal is 𝑃𝑟 = 10 𝑚𝑊, and the noise power spectral
𝑁0
density is = 10−12 𝑊/𝐻𝑧.
2
∙ Calculate the baseband SNR at the output of the receiver.
∙ Determine the effect on the SNR if the message bandwidth
increases to 𝑊=10 kHz, keeping all other parameters constant.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 33

Cont.…
∙ For AM transmitted signal:
∙ The output of AM demodulator is nothing but the envelope of the
received signal 𝑟 𝑡 , (the amplitude of the received signal)

𝑚
ෝ 𝑡 = 𝛼𝐴𝑐 1 + 𝑚 𝑡 + 𝑛𝑖 𝑡 2 + 𝑛𝑞 𝑡 2 ≈ 𝐴 + 𝐴𝑚 𝑡 + 𝑛𝑖 𝑡

∙ The SNR for AM received signal is expressed as

𝑨𝟐 [𝟏 + 𝑷𝒎 ]
𝑷𝒓 𝟐
𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒓𝑨𝑴 = =
𝒑𝒏 𝑵𝒐 𝒘
∙ And the Output SNR (𝑆𝑁𝑅o ) of AM demodulator is
𝑷𝒐 𝑨𝟐 𝑷𝒎
𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒐𝑨𝑴 = =
𝑵𝟎 𝒘 𝟐𝑵𝒐 𝒘
∙ Hence 𝐹𝑟 = 𝑝𝑚 /(1 + 𝑃𝑚 )

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 34

Cont.…
𝑝𝑚
∙ Hence 𝐹𝑟 = =𝜂
1+𝑃𝑚
∙  denotes the modulation(power) efficiency

∙ Since 𝜂 < 1, the 𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜 in conventional AM is always

smaller than the SNR of the received signal.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 35

Example 3:

An AM signal with a carrier power of 𝑃𝑐 = 50 𝑚𝑊 and a

modulation index m = 0.8 is transmitted over an AWGN
channel (take 𝑃𝑚𝑛 = 1𝑚𝑊). The receiver has a noise
bandwidth of 𝐵 = 10 𝑘𝐻𝑧, and the noise power spectral
𝑁
density is 0 = 5 × 10−13 𝑊/𝐻𝑧.
2
∙ Calculate the total signal power of the transmitted AM signal.
∙ Compute the output SNR at the demodulator.
∙ Discuss the impact on the SNR if the modulation index is
reduced to modulation index is 0.4.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 36

Cont…

∙ SSB modulated signal :

u (t ) = Ac m(t ) cos(2 f c t )  Ac mˆ (t ) sin( 2 f c t )

∙ Input to the demodulator

r (t ) = Ac m(t ) cos( 2 f c t )  Ac mˆ (t ) sin( 2 f c t ) + n(t )
= Ac m(t ) cos( 2 f c t )  Ac mˆ (t ) sin( 2 f c t ) + nc (t ) cos(2 f c t ) − ns (t ) sin (2 f c t )
=  Ac m(t ) + nc (t )cos( 2 f c t ) +  Ac mˆ (t ) − ns (t )sin (2 f c t )

∙ Assumption : Demodulation with an ideal phase reference.

∙ Hence, the output of the lowpass filter is the in-phase component
(with a coefficient of ½) of the preceding signal.

y (t ) = 1
2
Ac m(t ) + nc (t )

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 37

Cont... (SSB)

∙ Parallel to our discussion of DSB, we have

Ac2
Po = PM
4
1 1 S P0 Ac2 PM
Pn0 = Pnc = Pn   = =
4 4  0
N Pn0 WN 0
 N
Pn =  S n ( f )df = 0  2W = WN 0
− 2

PR = PU = Ac2 PM

S P S
  = R = 
 N  0 SSB N 0W  N  b
∙ The signal-to-noise ratio in an SSB system is equivalent to
that of a DSB system.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 38

Outlines
Chapter 4: Transmission Losses and Noise
∙ Transmission Losses in Wired and Wireless channels
∙ Review on Random Processes
∙ Random Processes Basic Concepts
∙ Noise characterization - Gaussian and White Noise Processes;
∙ Noise in the Frequency Domain – PSD & Transmission over LTI Systems

Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems

∙ Effect of Noise on Linear-Modulation Systems
∙ Effect of Noise on Angle Modulation
∙ Threshold Effect on Angle Modulation ;
∙ Pre-emphasis and De-emphasis Filtering

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 39

Effect of Noise on Angle Modulation
• Impact of Additive Noise:
• Additive noise affects the zero crossings of Frequency Modulated (FM) signals.
• As shown in the figure, the effect differs based on the signal power:
• High Power FM Signal: Minimal impact on zero crossings.
• Low Power FM Signal: Significant changes in zero crossings, degrading signal
quality.
• Comparison with AM Systems:
• Noise affects the amplitude in AM systems, directly reducing SNR.
• In FM systems, noise impacts the frequency deviations, altering phase and timing
(zero crossings).
• Key Observations:
• High-power FM signals are more resilient to noise.
• Low-power FM signals suffer from severe degradation due to increased noise
influence.

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 40

Cont.…

∙ The received angle modulated signal is :

𝐴𝑐 cos 2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 + 𝑘𝑝 𝑚 𝑡 +𝑛 𝑡 −−− −𝑃𝑀

𝑟(𝑡) = 𝐴𝑐 cos(2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 + 𝜃(𝑡) ) + 𝑛(𝑡)) =

𝐴𝑐 cos 2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 + 2𝜋𝑘𝑓 න 𝑚 𝜏 𝑑𝜏 + 𝑛 𝑡 − −𝐹𝑀

∙ The AWGN is passed through a noise limiting filter

whose role is to remove out of band noise.
∙ The bandwidth of the filter is equal to the bandwidth of the
modulated signal.
𝑛𝑞 𝑡
𝑛 𝑡 = 𝑛𝑖2 𝑡 + 𝑛𝑞2 𝑡 cos(2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡 + tan−1 ) = 𝑉𝑛 𝑡 cos(2𝜋f𝑐 𝑡 + 𝜑𝑛 (𝑡))
𝑛𝑖 𝑡

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 41

Cont.…
• Due to the nonlinearity of the demodulator, precise analysis is
complicated.
• Assumption
• The signal power is much higher than noise power (high SNR, 𝑉𝑛 𝑡
≪ 𝐴𝑐 )
• From the phasor diagram of the signal and noise, he received signal can
be approximated as

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 42

Cont.…

❑ The angle demodulator constitutes discriminator

(differentiator) followed by LPF, thus

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 43

Cont.…

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 44

Cont.…

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 45

Cont.…

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Cont.…

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Cont.…

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 48

SNR

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 49

Cont.…

∙ The figure of merits of the receiver (aka Processing gain)

of FM demodulator
3𝛽𝑓2 𝑃𝑟 𝑃𝑚
2.𝑁 𝑤
𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑂 𝑚 𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑥 𝑜 2 𝑃𝑚
𝐹𝑟 = = = 6𝛽𝑓 𝛽𝑓 + 1 .
𝑆𝑁𝑅 𝑟 𝑃𝑟 𝑚 𝑡 2𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝑁𝑜 2 𝛽𝑓 + 1 𝑤

∙ In dB
𝑭𝒓 𝒅𝑩 = 𝑺𝑵𝑹𝟎 𝒅𝑩 − 𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒓 𝒅𝑩

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 50

Pre-emphasis and De-emphasis

• Pre and de-emphasis circuits are used only in FM to improve the

output signal-to-noise ratio.
• improve the fidelity of FM transmission of the audio signal.
• Pre-emphasis is used at transmitter and de-emphasis at receiver.
1. Pre-emphasis
• In FM, the noise has a greater effect on the higher frequencies components.
• This effect can be reduced by increasing the value of 𝛽𝑓 , for higher modulating
frequencies.
• This can be done by increasing the deviation, Δ𝑓 and ‘Δ𝑓 ’ can be increased by
increasing the amplitude of modulating signal at higher frequencies.
• Pre-emphasis circuit : artificially boosts of higher audio modulating frequencies in
accordance with prearranged response curve.
Output (dB)
17

-3
f
2.1KHz 15KHz

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 51

Cont.…
∙ De-emphasis circuit is used at FM receiver.
∙ The artificial boosting of higher modulating frequencies in the process of
pre-emphasis is nullified at receiver.
∙ De-emphasis circuit is a low pass filter shown in Fig. 4

∙ With the output gain 𝐺𝑑 of the pre-

emphasis /de-emphasis network,
the demodulated SNR will improve
as:

𝑺𝑵𝑹𝟎 𝒅𝑩 = 𝑭𝒓 𝒅𝑩 + 𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒓 𝒅𝑩 + 𝑮𝒅 𝒅𝑩

Sem. I, 2024/25 Chapter 5: Effect of Noise on Analog Communication Systems 52

Example:

An FM system, operating at a pre-detection SNR of 14 dB,

requires a post-detection SNR of 30 dB, and has a message
power of 1 watt and bandwidth of 50 kHz. Using Carson’s
rule, estimate what the transmission bandwidth of the
system must be. Suppose this system includes pre-emphasis
and de-emphasis network with 7 dB gain. What transmission
bandwidth is required in this case?

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