Data Communication

Lecture 3

Data and Signals

Najia Bensaud
Spring 2023
Digital Signals

• In addition to being represented by an analog signal, information can also be

represented by a digital signal.
• For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and a 0 as zero voltage.
• A digital signal can have more than two levels. In this case, we can send more
than 1 bit for each level.
• We send 1 bit per level in part a of the figure and 2 bits per level in part b of the
figure. In general, if a signal has L levels, each level needs log2L bits.
Two digital signals: one with two signal levels and the other with four signal levels.
Bit Rate and Bit Length

• Most digital signals are nonperiodic, and thus period and frequency are not
appropriate characteristics. Another term-bit rate (instead of frequency) is used to
describe digital signals.
• The bit rate is the number of bits sent in 1s, expressed in bits per second (bps).
• We discussed the concept of the wavelength for an analog signal: the distance one
cycle occupies on the transmission medium.
• We can define something similar for a digital signal: the bit length. The bit length
is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium.
• Bit length =propagation speed x bit duration
Transmission Impairment

• Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect. The
imperfection causes signal impairment. This means that the signal at the
beginning of the medium is not the same as the signal at the end of the medium.
Attenuation

• Attenuation means a loss of energy. When a signal, simple or composite, travels

through a medium, it loses some of its energy in overcoming the resistance of the
medium.
• That is why a wire carrying electric signals gets warm, if not hot, after a while.
Some of the electrical energy in the signal is converted to heat.
• To compensate for this loss, amplifiers are used to amplify the signal.
The effect of attenuation and amplification
Decibel

• To show that a signal has lost or gained strength, engineers use the unit of the
decibel.
• The decibel (dB) measures the relative strengths of two signals or one signal at
two different points.
• Note that the decibel is negative if a signal is attenuated and positive if a signal is
amplified.
Distortion

• Distortion means that the signal changes its form or shape. Distortion can occur in
a composite signal made of different frequencies. Each signal component has its
own propagation speed through a medium and, therefore, its own delay in arriving
at the final destination.
Noise

• Several types of noise, such as thermal noise, induced noise, crosstalk, and
impulse noise, may corrupt the signal.
• Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other. One wire acts as a sending antenna
and the other as the receiving antenna.
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)

• The signal-to-noise ratio is defined as

SNR=average signal power/average noise power
• Because SNR is the ratio of two powers, it is often described in decibel units,
SNR(dB), defined as:
SNR(dB) = l0logl0 SNR
Performance
• Introduce some performance measurement terms: Bandwidth, Throughput,
Latency and Jitter.
Bandwidth

• The term can be used in two different contexts with two different measuring values:
bandwidth in hertz and bandwidth in bits per second.
• Bandwidth in Hertz
• We have discussed this concept. Bandwidth in hertz is the range of frequencies contained in
a composite signal or the range of frequencies a channel can pass. For example, we can say
the bandwidth of a subscriber telephone line is 4 kHz.
• Bandwidth in Bits per Seconds
• The term bandwidth can also refer to the number of bits per second that a channel, a link, or
even a network can transmit. For example, one can say the bandwidth of a Fast Ethernet
network (or the links in this network) is a maximum of 100 Mbps. This means that this
network can send 100 Mbps.
• Relationship between BW (Hz) & BW (bps)
There is an explicit relationship between the bandwidth in hertz and bandwidth in bits
per seconds.
Throughput

• The throughput is a measure of how fast we can actually send data through a
network. Although, at first glance, bandwidth in bits per second and throughput
seem the same, they are different.
• A link may have a bandwidth of B bps, but we can only send T bps through this
link with T always less than B.
• For example, we may have a link with a bandwidth of 1 Mbps, but the devices
connected to the end of the link may handle only 200 kbps. This means that we
cannot send more than 200 kbps through this link.
• Imagine a highway designed to transmit 1000 cars per minute from one point to
another. However, if there is congestion on the road, this figure may be reduced to
100 cars per minute. The bandwidth is 1000 cars per minute; the throughput is 100
cars per minute.
Latency (Delay)

• 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.
• We can say that latency is made of four components: propagation time,
transmission time, queuing time and processing delay.
Latency - Propagation Time

• Propagation time measures the time required for a bit to travel from the source to
the destination.
Latency - Transmission Time

• In data communications we don't send just 1 bit, we send a message. The first bit
may take a time equal to the propagation time to reach its destination; the last bit
also may take the same amount of time. However, there is a time between the first
bit leaving the sender and the last bit arriving at the receiver. The first bit leaves
earlier and arrives earlier; the last bit leaves later and arrives later. The time
required for transmission of a message depends on the size of the message and the
bandwidth of the channel.
Latency - Queuing Time

• The third component in latency is the queuing time, the time needed for each
intermediate or end device to hold the message before it can be processed. The
queuing time is not a fixed factor; it changes with the load imposed on the
network. When there is heavy traffic on the network, the queuing time increases.
An intermediate device, such as a router, queues the arrived messages and
processes them one by one. If there are many messages, each message will have to
wait.
Jitter

• Another performance issue that is related to delay is jitter. We can roughly say
that jitter is a problem if different packets of data encounter different delays and
the application using the data at the receiver site is time-sensitive (audio and video
data, for example). If the delay for the first packet is 20 ms, for the second is 45
ms, and for the third is 40 ms, then the real-time application that uses the packets
endures jitter.
 • Textbook:
• Data Communications and Networking, Fourth Edition

Recommended Readings • by Behrouz A. Forouzan

• Review textbook chapter 3 examples.