Chapter 2 : Data Communications

Generally, data usable to a person or application are not in a form that can
be transmitted over a network.
To be transmitted, data must be transformed to electromagnetic signals
All form of information – can be represented by electromagnetic signals
Voice, data, image, video etc

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2.1 Analog & Digital
Data can be analog or digital
Analog data
Refers to information that is continuous – sound made by human voice
Take on continuous values
Digital data
Refers to information that has discrete states – data stored in computer memory
(0 and 1)
take discrete values.
Analog signal
have an infinite number of values in a range
Digital signal
Digital signal – have only a limited number of defined values (i.e. 0 or 1)

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2.1 Analog & Digital

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2.2 Periodic & Nonperiodic signal
Periodic signal
The signal completes a pattern within a measurable time frame/period, and
repeats that pattern over subsequent identical periods.
Nonperiodic signal
the signal changes without exhibiting a pattern/cycle that repeats over time
Both analog and digital signals can be periodic or nonperiodic
Refers to information that is continuous – sound made by human voice
In data communications, we commonly used periodic analog signals and
nonperiodic digital signals

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2.2 Periodic & Nonperiodic signal
Periodic analog signals
Periodic analog signals can be classified as
Simple – sine wave (cannot be decomposed into simpler signals)
Composite – composed of multiples sine waves
Sine wave
Sine wave can be represented by 3 parameters – peak amplitude, frequency and
the phase

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2.2 Periodic & Nonperiodic signal
Period and frequency
Period – refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a signals need to complete 1
cycle.
Frequency – refer to the number of periods in 1 s.
1 1
frequency _ f Period _ T
T f

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2.2 Periodic & Nonperiodic signal
Period and frequency

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2.2 Periodic & Nonperiodic signal
Wavelength
Wavelength describes how far the wave can travel in 1 period time.
Depends on the frequency and the medium

propagation _ speed
wavelength propagation _ speed period
frequency

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2.2 Periodic & Nonperiodic signal
Wavelength
Propagation speed of electromagnetic signals depends on the medium and on
the frequency of the signal
The relation between the wavelength and frequency of electromagnetic signals
travel in vacuum
λ: wavelength, f : frequency, c : speed of light 3 x 108 ms-1

c
f

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2.2 Periodic & Non-periodic signal
Time and frequency domains
Time-domain – the waveform is plot in changes of signal amplitude with respect
to time.
Frequency-domain – plot is concerned only with the peak value and frequency.

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2.2 Periodic & Non-periodic signal
Time and frequency domain
The time domain and frequency domain of three sine waves.

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2.2 Periodic & Non-periodic signal
Composite signal
According to fourier analysis, any composite signal is a combination of simple
sine wave with different frequencies, amplitudes and phases.
Can be periodic or nonperiodic
If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a series of signal
with discrete frequencies (integer value i.e. 1, 2, 3, ...).
If the signal is nonperiodic, the decomposition gives a combination of sine
waves with continuous frequencies (real values).

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2.2 Periodic & Non-periodic signal
Periodic Composite signal
The component sinusoids are at frequencies that are multiples of the basic
frequency of periodicity.
harmonics
Fundamental frequency

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2.2 Periodic & Non-periodic signal
Periodic composite signal

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2.2 Periodic & Non-periodic signal
Nonperiodic composite signal

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2.2 Periodic & Non-periodic signal
Bandwidth
The bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference between the highest and
the lowest frequencies contained in that signal.

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2.3 Digital signal

421

In general if a signal has L levels, each level needs log2L bits !

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2.3 Digital signal
Bit Rate
Most digital signals are nonperiodic, and thus period and frequency are not
appropriate characteristics.
For digital signal, in stead of using frequency, bit rate is used.
Bit rate is the number of bits sent in 1s, expressed in bits per second (bps).
Examples

Bit Length
The bit length is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium.

Bit length = propagation speed x bit duration

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2.3 Digital signal
Digital signal as a Composite Analog Signal
Fourier analysis can be used to decompose a digital signal.
If the digital signal is periodic (which is rare in data communications), the
decomposed signal has a frequency domain representation with an infinite
bandwidth and discrete frequencies.

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2.3 Digital signal
Digital signal as a Composite Analog Signal
If the digital signal is nonperiodic, the decompose signal still has an infinite
bandwidth, but the frequencies are continuous.

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2.3 Digital signal
Relationship between bit rate and bandwidth
Consider the case binary data is encoded into digital signal, and to be
transmitted by a transmission medium.
Digital signal contains an infinite bandwidth, but a real transmission medium
has a finite bandwidth which can limit the data rate that can be carried on the
transmission medium.
Limited bandwidth creates distortions of the input signal, which makes the task
of interpreting the received signal more difficult.
The more limited bandwidth, the greater the distortion, and the greater the
potential for error by the receiver.
The higher the bit rate of a signal is, the greater is its bandwidth.
The greater the bandwidth of a transmission system, the higher is the bit rate
that can be transmitted.

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2.3 Digital signal
Relationship between bit rate and bandwidth

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2.3 Digital signal
Relationship between bit rate and bandwidth

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2.3 Digital signal
Transmission of Digital Signals
Digital signals can be transmitted using two different approaches :
Baseband transmission
Broadband transmission (using modulation)
Baseband transmission
Signal is sent over a channel without changing the digital signal to analog signal.
Baseband transmission requires a low-pass channel, a channel with a bandwidth
starts from zero.
We know that digital signal is a composite analog signal with an infinite
bandwidth.
For that, baseband transmission of 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.
In baseband transmission, the required bandwidth is proportional to the bit rate;
if we need to send the bits faster, we need more bandwidth.

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2.3 Digital signal
Broadband transmission (using modulation)
The digital signal is sent over a channel by changing the digital signal to analog
signal (using the modulation process).
Modulation allows the use of bandpass channel – a channel with a bandwidth
that does not start from zero.

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2.3 Digital signal
Modulation of a digital signal for a transmission over a passband channel

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