Antennas & Propagation

Signal Encoding

CSG 250
Spring 2005
Rajmohan Rajaraman

Wireless Networks Spring 2005

Introduction
 An antenna is an electrical conductor or
system of conductors
o Transmission - radiates electromagnetic energy
into space
o Reception - collects electromagnetic energy
from space
 In two-way communication, the same
antenna can be used for transmission and
reception

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Radiation Patterns
 Radiation pattern
o Graphical representation of radiation properties of an
antenna
o Depicted as two-dimensional cross section
 Beam width (or half-power beam width)
o Measure of directivity of antenna
o Angle within which power radiated is at least half of that
in most preferred direction
 Reception pattern
o Receiving antenna’s equivalent to radiation pattern
 Omnidirectional vs. directional antenna

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Types of Antennas
 Isotropic antenna (idealized)
o Radiates power equally in all directions
 Dipole antennas
o Half-wave dipole antenna (or Hertz antenna)
o Quarter-wave vertical antenna (or Marconi antenna)
 Parabolic Reflective Antenna
o Used for terrestrial microwave and satellite applications
o Larger the diameter, the more tightly directional is the
beam

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Antenna Gain
 Antenna gain
o Power output, in a particular direction,
compared to that produced in any direction by
a perfect omnidirectional antenna (isotropic
antenna)
 Expressed in terms of effective area
o Related to physical size and shape of antenna

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Antenna Gain
 Relationship between antenna gain and effective
area

4Ae 4f 2 Ae
G 2 
 c 2

• G = antenna gain
• Ae = effective area
• f = carrier frequency
• c = speed of light (≈ 3 x 108 m/s)
  = carrier wavelength

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Propagation Modes
 Ground-wave propagation
 Sky-wave propagation
 Line-of-sight propagation

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Ground Wave Propagation

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Ground Wave Propagation
 Follows contour of the earth
 Can Propagate considerable distances
 Frequencies up to 2 MHz
 Example
o AM radio

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Sky Wave Propagation

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Sky Wave Propagation
 Signal reflected from ionized layer of atmosphere
back down to earth
 Signal can travel a number of hops, back and
forth between ionosphere and earth’s surface
 Reflection effect caused by refraction
 Examples
o Amateur radio
o CB radio

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Line-of-Sight Propagation

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Line-of-Sight Propagation
 Transmitting and receiving antennas must be
within line of sight
o Satellite communication – signal above 30 MHz not
reflected by ionosphere
o Ground communication – antennas within effective line
of site due to refraction
 Refraction – bending of microwaves by the
atmosphere
o Velocity of electromagnetic wave is a function of the
density of the medium
o When wave changes medium, speed changes
o Wave bends at the boundary between mediums

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Line-of-Sight Equations
 Optical line of sight
d  3.57 h
 Effective, or radio, line of sight
d  3.57 h
• d = distance between antenna and horizon
(km)
• h = antenna height (m)
• K = adjustment factor to account for
refraction, rule of thumb K = 4/3

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Line-of-Sight Equations
 Maximum distance between two antennas
for LOS propagation:


3.57 h1  h2 
• h1 = height of antenna one
• h2 = height of antenna two

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LOS Wireless Transmission
Impairments
 Attenuation and attenuation distortion
 Free space loss
 Noise
 Atmospheric absorption
 Multipath
 Refraction
 Thermal noise

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Attenuation
 Strength of signal falls off with distance over
transmission medium
 Attenuation factors for unguided media:
o Received signal must have sufficient strength so that
circuitry in the receiver can interpret the signal
o Signal must maintain a level sufficiently higher than
noise to be received without error
o Attenuation is greater at higher frequencies, causing
distortion

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Free Space Loss
 Free space loss, ideal isotropic antenna

Pt  4d   4fd 
2 2
 
Pr 2
c 2

• Pt = signal power at transmitting antenna

• Pr = signal power at receiving antenna
  = carrier wavelength
• d = propagation distance between antennas
• c = speed of light (≈ 3 x 108 m/s)
where d and  are in the same units (e.g., meters)

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Free Space Loss
 Free space loss equation can be recast:

Pt  4d 
LdB  10 log  20 log 
Pr   

 20 log    20 log d   21.98 dB

 4fd 
 20 log   20 log f   20 log d   147.56 dB
 c 

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Free Space Loss
 Free space loss accounting for gain of antennas

Pt  4   d   d   cd 
2 2 2 2
   2
Pr Gr Gt  2
Ar At f Ar At
• Gt = gain of transmitting antenna
• Gr = gain of receiving antenna
• At = effective area of transmitting antenna
• Ar = effective area of receiving antenna

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Free Space Loss
 Free space loss accounting for gain of
other antennas can be recast as

LdB  20 log    20 log d   10 log At Ar 

 20 log f   20 log d   10 log At Ar   169.54dB

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Categories of Noise
 Thermal Noise
 Intermodulation noise
 Crosstalk
 Impulse Noise

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Thermal Noise
 Thermal noise due to agitation of electrons
 Present in all electronic devices and
transmission media
 Cannot be eliminated
 Function of temperature
 Particularly significant for satellite
communication

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Thermal Noise
 Amount of thermal noise to be found in a
bandwidth of 1Hz in any device or
conductor is:

N 0  kT  W/Hz 
• N0 = noise power density in watts per 1 Hz of
bandwidth
• k = Boltzmann's constant = 1.3803 x 10-23 J/K
• T = temperature, in kelvins (absolute temperature)

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Thermal Noise
 Noise is assumed to be independent of frequency
 Thermal noise present in a bandwidth of B Hertz
(in watts):
N  kTB
or, in decibel-watts

N  10 log k  10 log T  10 log B

 228.6 dBW  10 log T  10 log B

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Noise Terminology
 Intermodulation noise – occurs if signals with
different frequencies share the same medium
o Interference caused by a signal produced at a
frequency that is the sum or difference of original
frequencies
 Crosstalk – unwanted coupling between signal
paths
 Impulse noise – irregular pulses or noise
spikes
o Short duration and of relatively high amplitude
o Caused by external electromagnetic disturbances, or
faults and flaws in the communications system
o Primary source of error for digital data transmission

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Expression Eb/N0
 Ratio of signal energy per bit to noise power
density per Hertz

Eb S / R S
 
N0 N0 kTR
 The bit error rate for digital data is a function of
Eb/N0
o Given a value for Eb/N0 to achieve a desired error rate,
parameters of this formula can be selected
o As bit rate R increases, transmitted signal power must
increase to maintain required Eb/N0

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Other Impairments
 Atmospheric absorption – water vapor and
oxygen contribute to attenuation
 Multipath – obstacles reflect signals so that
multiple copies with varying delays are
received
 Refraction – bending of radio waves as
they propagate through the atmosphere

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Multipath Propagation
 Reflection - occurs when signal encounters a
surface that is large relative to the wavelength of
the signal
 Diffraction - occurs at the edge of an
impenetrable body that is large compared to
wavelength of radio wave
 Scattering – occurs when incoming signal hits an
object whose size is in the order of the
wavelength of the signal or less

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Effects of Multipath Propagation
 Multiple copies of a signal may arrive at
different phases
o If phases add destructively, the signal level
relative to noise declines, making detection
more difficult
 Intersymbol interference (ISI)
o One or more delayed copies of a pulse may
arrive at the same time as the primary pulse
for a subsequent bit

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Fading
 Time variation of received signal power
caused by changes in the transmission
medium or path(s)
 In a fixed environment:
o Changes in atmospheric conditions
 In a mobile environment:
o Multipath propagation

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Types of Fading
 Fast fading
 Slow fading
 Flat fading
 Selective fading
 Rayleigh fading
 Rician fading

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Error Compensation Mechanisms
 Forward error correction
 Adaptive equalization
 Diversity techniques

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Forward Error Correction
 Transmitter adds error-correcting code to data
block
o Code is a function of the data bits
 Receiver calculates error-correcting code from
incoming data bits
o If calculated code matches incoming code, no error
occurred
o If error-correcting codes don’t match, receiver attempts
to determine bits in error and correct

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Adaptive Equalization
 Can be applied to transmissions that carry analog
or digital information
o Analog voice or video
o Digital data, digitized voice or video
 Used to combat intersymbol interference
 Involves gathering dispersed symbol energy back
into its original time interval
 Techniques
o Lumped analog circuits
o Sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms

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Diversity Techniques
 Space diversity:
o Use multiple nearby antennas and combine received
signals to obtain the desired signal
o Use collocated multiple directional antennas
 Frequency diversity:
o Spreading out signal over a larger frequency bandwidth
o Spread spectrum
 Time diversity:
o Noise often occurs in bursts
o Spreading the data out over time spreads the errors and
hence allows FEC techniques to work well
o TDM
o Interleaving

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Signal Encoding Techniques

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Reasons for Choosing Encoding
Techniques
 Digital data, digital signal
o Equipment less complex and expensive than
digital-to-analog modulation equipment
 Analog data, digital signal
o Permits use of modern digital transmission and
switching equipment

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Reasons for Choosing Encoding
Techniques
 Digital data, analog signal
o Some transmission media will only propagate
analog signals
o E.g., unguided media
 Analog data, analog signal
o Analog data in electrical form can be
transmitted easily and cheaply
o Done with voice transmission over voice-grade
lines

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Signal Encoding Criteria
 What determines how successful a receiver will be
in interpreting an incoming signal?
o Signal-to-noise ratio
o Data rate
o Bandwidth
 An increase in data rate increases bit error rate
 An increase in SNR decreases bit error rate
 An increase in bandwidth allows an increase in
data rate

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Comparing Encoding Schemes
 Signal spectrum
o With lack of high-frequency components, less bandwidth
required
o With no dc component, ac coupling via transformer
possible
o Transfer function of a channel is worse near band edges
 Clocking
o Ease of determining beginning and end of each bit
position

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Comparing Encoding Schemes
 Signal interference and noise immunity
o Performance in the presence of noise
 Cost and complexity
o The higher the signal rate to achieve a given data rate,
the greater the cost

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Digital Data to Analog Signals
 Amplitude-shift keying (ASK)
o Amplitude difference of carrier frequency
 Frequency-shift keying (FSK)
o Frequency difference near carrier frequency
 Phase-shift keying (PSK)
o Phase of carrier signal shifted

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Amplitude-Shift Keying
 One binary digit represented by presence of
carrier, at constant amplitude
 Other binary digit represented by absence of
carrier

 A cos 2f c t  binary 1
s t   

 0 binary 0

• where the carrier signal is Acos(2πfct)

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Amplitude-Shift Keying
 Susceptible to sudden gain changes
 Inefficient modulation technique
 On voice-grade lines, used up to 1200 bps
 Used to transmit digital data over optical
fiber

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Binary Frequency-Shift Keying
(BFSK)
 Two binary digits represented by two different
frequencies near the carrier frequency


 A cos 2f1t  binary 1
s t   

 A cos 2f 2t  binary 0

• where f1 and f2 are offset from carrier frequency fc by equal

but opposite amounts

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Binary Frequency-Shift Keying
(BFSK)
 Less susceptible to error than ASK
 On voice-grade lines, used up to 1200bps
 Used for high-frequency (3 to 30 MHz)
radio transmission
 Can be used at higher frequencies on LANs
that use coaxial cable

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Multiple Frequency-Shift Keying
(MFSK)
 More than two frequencies are used
 More bandwidth efficient but more susceptible to
error

si  t   A cos 2f i t 1 i  M

• f i = f c + (2i – 1 – M)f d
• f c = the carrier frequency
• f d = the difference frequency
• M = number of different signal elements = 2 L

• L = number of bits per signal element

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Multiple Frequency-Shift Keying
(MFSK)
 To match data rate of input bit stream,
each output signal element is held for:
Ts=LT seconds
• where T is the bit period (data rate = 1/T)
 So, one signal element encodes L bits

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Multiple Frequency-Shift Keying
(MFSK)
 Total bandwidth required
2Mfd
 Minimum frequency separation required
2fd=1/Ts
 Therefore, modulator requires a bandwidth
of
Wd=2L/LT=M/Ts

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Multiple Frequency-Shift Keying
(MFSK)

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Phase-Shift Keying (PSK)
 Two-level PSK (BPSK)
o Uses two phases to represent binary digits

 A cos 2f c t 
 binary 1
s t   
 A cos 2f c t   
 binary 0

 A cos 2f c t 
 binary 1

 A cos 2f c t 
 binary 0

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Phase-Shift Keying (PSK)
 Differential PSK (DPSK)
o Phase shift with reference to previous bit
• Binary 0 – signal burst of same phase as previous
signal burst
• Binary 1 – signal burst of opposite phase to previous
signal burst

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Phase-Shift Keying (PSK)
 Four-level PSK (QPSK)
o Each element represents more than one bit

 
A cos 2f c t  
  4
11

 
A cos 2f c t 
3 
 01
s t    

4 
3 
A cos 2f c t   00
  4 
 
A cos 2f c t  
 10
 4
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Phase-Shift Keying (PSK)
 Multilevel PSK
o Using multiple phase angles with each angle having
more than one amplitude, multiple signals elements can
be achieved
R R
D 
L log 2 M
• D = modulation rate, baud
• R = data rate, bps
• M = number of different signal elements = 2L
• L = number of bits per signal element

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Performance
 Bandwidth of modulated signal (BT)
o ASK, PSK BT=(1+r)R
o FSK BT=2DF+(1+r)R

• R = bit rate
• 0 < r < 1; related to how signal is filtered
• DF = f2-fc=fc-f1

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Performance
 Bandwidth of modulated signal (BT)
1 r   1 r 
o MPSK BT    R    R
 L   log 2 M 
 1  r  M 
o MFSK BT    R
 log 2 M 

• L = number of bits encoded per signal element

• M = number of different signal elements

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Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
 QAM is a combination of ASK and PSK
o Two different signals sent simultaneously on
the same carrier frequency

s  t   d1  t  cos 2f c t  d 2  t  sin 2f c t

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Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
Analog Data to Analog Signal
 Modulation of digital signals
o When only analog transmission facilities are
available, digital to analog conversion required
 Modulation of analog signals
o A higher frequency may be needed for effective
transmission
o Modulation permits frequency division
multiplexing

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Mopdulation Techniques
 Amplitude modulation (AM)
 Angle modulation
o Frequency modulation (FM)
o Phase modulation (PM)

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Amplitude Modulation
 Amplitude Modulation

s  t   1 na x t   cos 2f c t

• cos2fct = carrier
• x(t) = input signal
• na = modulation index (< 1)
– Ratio of amplitude of input signal to carrier
o a.k.a double sideband transmitted carrier
(DSBTC)

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Amplitude Modulation
 Transmitted power
 na 2 
Pt  Pc 1  

 2 
• Pt = total transmitted power in s(t)
• Pc = transmitted power in carrier

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Single Sideband (SSB)
 Variant of AM is single sideband (SSB)
o Sends only one sideband
o Eliminates other sideband and carrier
 Advantages
o Only half the bandwidth is required
o Less power is required
 Disadvantages
o Suppressed carrier can’t be used for synchronization
purposes

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Angle Modulation
 Angle modulation

s t   Ac cos 2f c t    t  
 Phase modulation
o Phase is proportional to modulating signal
  t   n p m t 
• np = phase modulation index

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Angle Modulation
 Frequency modulation
o Derivative of the phase is proportional to
modulating signal

 '  t   n f m t 
• nf = frequency modulation index

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Angle Modulation
 Compared to AM, FM and PM result in a
signal whose bandwidth:
o is also centered at fc
o but has a magnitude that is much different

 Thus, FM and PM require greater

bandwidth than AM

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Angle Modulation
 Carson’s rule
BT  2   1 B
where
 n p Am for PM

   F n f Am
 B  2B for FM

 The formula for FM becomes

BT  2F  2 B

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Analog Data to Digital Signal
 Digitization: Often analog data are
converted to digital form
 Once analog data have been converted to
digital signals, the digital data:
o can be transmitted using NRZ-L
o can be encoded as a digital signal using a code
other than NRZ-L
o can be converted to an analog signal, using
previously discussed techniques

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Analog data to digital signal
 Pulse code modulation (PCM)
 Delta modulation (DM)

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Pulse Code Modulation
 Based on the sampling theorem
 Each analog sample is assigned a binary
code
o Analog samples are referred to as pulse
amplitude modulation (PAM) samples
 The digital signal consists of block of n
bits, where each n-bit number is the
amplitude of a PCM pulse

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Pulse Code Modulation
 By quantizing the PAM pulse, original
signal is only approximated
 Leads to quantizing noise
 Signal-to-noise ratio for quantizing noise

SNR dB  20 log 2  1.76 dB  6.02n  1.76 dB

n

 Thus, each additional bit increases SNR by

6 dB, or a factor of 4

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Delta Modulation
 Analog input is approximated by staircase
function
o Moves up or down by one quantization level ()
at each sampling interval
 The bit stream approximates derivative of
analog signal (rather than amplitude)
o 1 is generated if function goes up
o 0 otherwise

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Delta Modulation
Delta Modulation
 Two important parameters
o Size of step assigned to each binary digit ()
o Sampling rate
 Accuracy improved by increasing sampling
rate
o However, this increases the data rate
 Advantage of DM over PCM is the simplicity
of its implementation

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