ECE 6640

Digital Communications

Dr. Bradley J. Bazuin

Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
 Chapter 5
5. Communications Link Analysis.
1. What the System Link Budget Tells the System
Engineer.
2. The Channel.
3. Received Signal Power and Noise Power.
4. Link Budget Analysis.
5. Noise Figure, Noise Temperature, and System
Temperature.
6. Sample Link Analysis.
7. Satellite Repeaters.
8. System Trade-Offs.

ECE 6640 2
 Sklar’s Communications System

Notes and figures are based on or taken from materials in the course textbook:
ECE 6640 Bernard Sklar, Digital Communications, Fundamentals and Applications, 3
Prentice Hall PTR, Second Edition, 2001.
 What is a Link Budget
• An analysis of the entire communications path
– signal, noise, interference, ISI contributions, etc.
– Include gains and losses
• Link Budget
– An estimate of the input to output system performance.
– Will the message get communicated?
– What trade-offs can be made and what effect will they have?

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 The Channel

• The propagation medium of the communicated signal

– Between the transmitting device and the receiving device (e.g. RF
antennas, cable modems, fiber optic transceivers)

• For RF we think of “Free Space”

– An ideal approximation for near-ground, atmospheric RF
transmissions.
– Non-ideal atmospheric impairments include:
• absorption
• reflection
• diffraction
• scattering.
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 Error-Performance Degradation

• Established in Chapter 3
– Loss of SNR
– Intersymbol interference

• For Digital Communications

Eb S  W  S
      T  W 
N0 N  R  N
– The relationship between SNR and Eb/No
– SNR relates the average signal power and average noise power
– Eb/N0 relates the energy per bit to the noise energy
– Loss: refers to a loss in signal energy
– Noise: refers to an increase in noise or interference energy
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 Sources of Signal Loss and Noise
1. Bandlimiting Loss 12. Atmospheric Loss and Noise
2. Intersymbol Interference (ISI) 13. Space Loss
3. Local Oscillator Phase Noise 14. Adjacent Channel Interference
4. AM/PM Conversion (Amplitude 15. Co-channel Interference
variations) 16. Intermodulation Noise
5. Limiter Loss or Enhancement 17. Galactic or Cosmic, Star and
6. Multiple-carrier Intermodulation Terrestrial Noise
Products (non-linear devices) 18. Feeder Line Loss
7. Modulation Loss (message content 19. Receiver Noise
power) 20. Implementation Loss
8. Antenna Efficiency 21. Imperfect Synchronization
Reference
9. Radome Loss and Noise
10. Pointing Loss See Figure 5.1, p. 246.
11. Polarization Loss

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 Figure 5.1

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 Gains and Losses to be Discussed

• Antenna Efficiency
• Pointing
• Atmospheric Noise
• Space Loss (path loss)
• Receiver

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 Range Equations
• The power density in a sphere
from a “point source” antenna
(surface area of a sphere)
p r  
Pt Pt

4  r 2
area _ of _ sphere
• Receiving power collected by
an antenna (using the effective
area of the receiving antenna
so that p(d) can be collected) • Effective Antenna Area
total power extracted
A er 
Pt  A er incident power flux density
Pr  pr   A er 
4  r 2
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 Antenna Efficiency and Gain

• The ratio of the effective area to the actual area

Ae

Ap

• Antenna Gain
maximum power intensity
G
average power intensity over 4 steradians

– From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steradian

Steradians the SI unit of solid angle. It is used to describe two-
dimensional angular spans in three-dimensional space, analogous to the
way in which the radian describes angles in a plane.
– Note: a sphere has 4 steradians
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 Effective Radiated Power

• The effective radiated power is the product of the

transmitted power and the antenna gain
EIRP  Pt  Gt
– The same EIRP can be achieved in many ways

• In terms of received power using effective radiated power

Aer
Pr  EIRP 
4  r 2

Aer
Pr  Pt  Gt 
4  r 2

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 Antenna Gain in terms of Area

• For antennas with a large area as compared to a signal

wavelength
Note:
4  Aer 2
4  Aer  f
Gr   Gr  2
 2
c2 Aer 
4
• Antenna Reciprocity
– For given antenna and carrier wavelength, the transmitting and
receiving antenna gains are identical.

• The effective area of an isotropic antenna (equal

transmission in all directions)
4  Aer 2 c2
Gr  1   Ae  
ECE 6640 2 4 4  f 2 13
 Antenna Beamwidth

• Since an isotropic antenna is defined as having a gain of 1,

the area ratio of the antenna beam pattern from maximum
to -3dB to the area of the sphere is often an estimate of the
antenna gain.
• For an antenna with a half power beamwidths in two
planes the directivity, D, (and gain) are
4
DG
x  y
• For a /4 beam
4 43
DG   20.37
  
4 4
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 Received Power in EIRP

• For an isotropic receiving antenna, the received power is

A e isotropic
Pr iso  EIRP 
4  r 2

2 EIRP EIRP
Pr iso  EIRP   

42  r 2 4  r 2 Ls


• Where Ls is called the “free-space” or “path” loss
– Note: It is defined based on an isotropic antenna with G=1!


L s  4  r

 
2
 4  r  f
c

2

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 The Friis Transmission Equation

• The received signal power can be defined as

EIRP Pt  G t  G r
Pr  Gr 
Ls 
4  r

2

• There is a family of relationships (pick your application)
Pt  G t  A er
Pr 
4  r 2 Pt  A et  A er Pt  A et  A er
Pr  
P A G
 r
2 2
  2
c  r2
f
Pr  t et 2 r
4  r

ECE 6640 16
 Path Loss Considerations

• Path Loss is defined using an isotopic receiving antenna


L s  4  r

 
2
 4  r  f
c

2

• The received flux density is strictly a function of distance

EIRP
pd  
4  r 2
• For large “effective area” receiving antennas
EIRP  A er
Pr 
4  r 2

ECE 6640 17
 Path Loss Considerations (2)

• The effective area for Gr=1 receiving antennas change

with frequency
G 
Aer  r
2

A er 
 2
 f
  c
2

4 4 4
near-field
Frequency Area Path Loss 1km not valid
3 kHz 7.96E+08 meter^2 -18.02 dB
3 MHz 7.96E+02 meter^2 41.98 dB
3 GHz 7.96E-04 meter^2 101.98 dB


L s  4  r

 
2
 4  r  f
c

2

ECE 6640 18
 Frequency-Wavelength

Frequency c/f=lambda c/f=lambda

3.00E+03Hz 1.00E+05m 62.1mi
3.00E+06Hz 1.00E+02m 109.4yd.
3.00E+09Hz 1.00E-01m 3.9in.

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 Atmospheric Attenuation

• As frequencies increase,
there is energy absorption
based on molecular bonds
that the waveforms pass
through.
• Attenuation peaks can be
identified for H2O and O2.
– Frequencies that are better or
worse for wide range or
longer distance broadcasting
or for short-range, private
communications.

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 Radio Receiver Consideration

• Receivers collect signals, interference, and noise

• Signals-of-Interest (SOI) will require gain and filtering
prior to or as part of the signal processing
• The noise collected by the receiver will be processed along
with the signal but will be limited by filtering
• The electrical components will add their own noise to the
processed signals.

• Therefore, we need to discuss:

– Cascade gain stages
– Cascaded noise effects and component noise figures
ECE 6640
– Bandwidth effects on thermal noise power 21
 RFID Receiver Downconversion
• ISM Band
Downconversion
(902-928 MHz)
– Only mixing and filters
shown
• High-side Los
– Synthesizer provides center
frequency selection
• IF filter sets bandwidth
• LPF for ADC anti-aliasing
• Convert to fs/4 for post-
ADC complex processing
– Fs > 4 x fmax
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 Cascaded Gain

• Multiple the gain (loss) of each stage together

– If gain in dB, add the gains (in dB) and subtract the losses (in dB)

G prede mod dB  G RF dB  G1stMixer dB  G IF1 dB  G 2 ndMixer dB  G IF 2 dB

– If the mixers have loss instead of gain (passive mixers)

G prede mod dB  G RF dB  L1stMixer dB  G IF1 dB  L 2 ndMixer dB  G IF 2 dB

Linear gain is multiplicative

Gain in dB is additive

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 Noise Figure

• The noise figure is a measure of the additional noise that is

added by any circuit element.
– Effective additional input noise …

xt  y t 

Caution,
PSin Noise Figure is
F
SNRin

N in often referred to in
SNRout G  PSin dB instead as a
G  N in  N amp 
linear term

SNRin N in  N amp N amp

F   1
SNRout N in N in
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 Cascaded Noise Figure

• The noise figure is a measure of the additional noise that is

added by any circuit element.
– Effective additional input noise …
xt  y t 

PSin
SNR in N in
F 
SNR out G1  G 2  PSin

G 2  G1  N in  N amp1   N amp 2 
N amp 2
F 

SNRin G2  G1  N in  N amp1   N amp 2

 N in  N amp1 
G1
SNRout G1  G2  N in N in

N amp1 1 N amp 2 1 F 1
ECE 6640
F  1    1  F1  1   F2  1  F1  2 25
N in G1 N in G1 G1
 Quick Example

• Amplifier
xt  y t 
– 20 dB gain
– 10 dB Noise Figure

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 Basic Receiver
Bandpass Bandpass Lowpass
Amplifier
Filter Filter Filter
x c t  x Pr eD t  x M t 
Demod

• RF Filter removes images

• Low Noise Amplifier
Tuning • Mixer to IF
• IF BPF sets the system BW
• Mixer to baseband
cos2  f LO1  t  cos2  f LO2  t 
• Baseband LPF to remove mixing
products

GPr eD dB   GRF  BPF dB   GLNA dB   G1stMixer dB   GBPF dB   G2 ndMixer dB   GLPF dB 

F1stMixer  1 F 1 FBPF  1
FPr eD  FRF  BPF   1stMixer 
GRF  BPF GRF  BPF G Amp GRF  BPF G Amp G1stMixer
F2 ndMixer  1 FLPF  1
 
ECE 6640 GRF  BPF G Amp G1stMixer GBPF GRF  BPF G Amp G1stMixer GBPF G2 ndMixer 27
 Thermal Noise Power

• Modeled as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN)

NoisePower    T  B  N 0  B
– Where N is the noise power
– κ is Boltzmann’s constant
– T is absolute temperature in degrees Kelvin
– B is the bandwidth in Hertz

  228.6 dBW / K  Hz
T0  290K IEEE ref

N 0    T0  1.38e  23  290  4.00e  21

ECE 6640
N 0  204 dBW / Hz  174 dBm / Hz 28
 Thermal Noise Temperature

• Once you have determined the relative noise (dB/Hz)

N 0    T0 N   T

• If the noise temperature is quoted, you now the noise

N0
T0  TN
 

• Satellite and astronomy always use noise temperatures to

describe “objects”.

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 Receiver Operating Characteristics

• Sensitivity – minimum input value

• Dynamic Range – usable signal range
• Selectivity – filter out adjacent noise and interference
• Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI) Rejection
and Image Rejection
• Noise Figure

Building a performance diagram for a software radio

Input to ADC input
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 FM Radio Design Diagram
• FM receiver
• 200 kHz BW
• 12-bit ADC with 10-bit
performance
• Multiple signal environment
• SOI detection threshold
• ROC
– Sensitivity -103 dBm
– Dynamic Range 41 dB
– Gain 63 dB
– NF 10 dB
– Selectivity: based on IF filter
– ACI: filter attenuation at n
channels away (n x 200 kHz)
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 Putting It All Together

• For dedicated communication systems, link budgets are

defined
– System Engineer’s responsibility to guarantee that successful
communication will occur.
– Examples: WiFi access point locations, satellite communications,
FM radio station coverage areas (and transmitting antenna siting),
Cellular Telephone System Base Station Siting, etc.

• If you build it, will it be useful?

– Reliability, design margin, upgrades, component replacement

ECE 6640 32
 Table 5.2 Earth Terminal to Satellite
Link Budget

ECE 6640 33
 Satellite Repeater

ECE 6640 34
 Table 5.3 Link Budget Example

ECE 6640 35