Information Sources and Signals

Asst. Prof. Chaiporn Jaikaeo, Ph.D.

chaiporn.j@ku.ac.th
http://www.cpe.ku.ac.th/~cpj
Computer Engineering Department
Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand

Adapted from the notes by Lami Kaya, LKaya@ieee.org

© 2009 Pearson Education Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All rights reserved.
 Analog vs. Digital Data
 Analog data
 Data take on continuous values
 E.g., human voice, your weights, temperature
reading
 Numerical representation: real numbers
 Digital data
 Data take on discrete values
 E.g., number of students in class, text data
 Numerical representation: integers

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 Analog vs. Digital Signals
To be transmitted, data must be
transformed to electromagnetic signals

 Analog signals
 have an infinite number of
values in a range

 Digital signals
 Have a limited number of
values

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Data and Signals

Analog Data Analog Signal

Telephone

Digital Data Analog Signal

Modem

Analog Data Digital Signal

Codec

Digital Data Digital Signal

Digital Transmitter/
Line Coder

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 Periodic Signals
 A periodic signal completes a pattern within a
timeframe, called a period
 A signal x(t) is periodic if and only if

x(t) = x(t+T) - < t < 

value
period

time

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 Sine Waves
 Simplest form of periodic signal
signal strength

period
T = 1/f
peak
amplitude

time

 General form: x(t) = A×sin(2ft + )

phase / phase shift
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 Sine Signal Characteristics
 Frequency ( f ):
 the number of oscillations per unit time (usually
seconds)
 Amplitude ( A ):
 the difference between the maximum and
minimum signal heights
 Phase (  ):
 how far the start of the sine wave is shifted from
a reference time

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 Varying Sine Waves
3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
-1 -1

-2 -2

-3 A = 1, f = 1,  = 0 -3 A = 2, f = 1,  = 0

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
-1 -1

-2 -2

-3 A = 1, f = 2,  = 0 -3 A = 1, f = 1,  = /4

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 Sine Signal Characteristics
 The frequency can be calculated as the
inverse of the time required for one cycle,
which is known as the period
 Examples:
 period T = 1 seconds
 frequency is 1 / T or 1 Hertz
 period T = 0.5 seconds
 frequency is 2 Hertz

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Time and Frequency Units

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 Composite Signals
 Consider the signal
1
x ( t )  sin( 2   t )  sin( 2   3 t )
3

1.5 1.5 1.5

1 1 1

0.5 0.5 0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
+ 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
= 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
-0.5 -0.5 -0.5

-1 -1 -1

-1.5 -1.5 -1.5

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 Composite Signals
 A mathematician named Fourier Joseph Fourier
(1768-1830)
discovered that
 It is possible to decompose a composite signal
into series of sine functions
 Each with different frequency, amplitude, and phase

1.5 1.5 1.5

1 1 1

0.5 0.5 0.5

-0.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 = 0

-0.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 + 0

-0.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

-1 -1 -1

-1.5 -1.5 -1.5

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 Time vs. Frequency Domains
signal level signal level

1 1

0 0
2 4 time 2 4 frequency

-1 -1

Time Domain Representation Frequency Domain Representation

 plots amplitude as a function  plots each sine wave’s peak
of time amplitude against its frequency

 Frequency domain representation is much easier for

analysis
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 Bandwidth of Signal
 Bandwidth of a signal is the difference between
the highest and lowest frequencies of the signal

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 Digital Signals and Signal Levels

Two-level signal Four-level signal

Each level represents 1 bit Each level represents 2 bits

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 Example
 How many different levels are required if we
want each level to represent n bits?

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 Baud and Bit Rate
 Baud  How many times a signal changes
per second
 Bit rate  How many bits can be sent per
time unit (usually per second)
 Bit rate is controlled by baud and number of
signal levels
00 00 00
0 0 0 0
01

1 sec 10 10 10 1 sec
1 1 1 1 1 1
11 11 11

Baud = 10 Baud = 10
Bit rate = 10 bps Bit rate = 20 bps 17
 Baud and Bit Rate
 Relationship between baud, signal levels, and
bit rate is:

 Example:
 What is the bit rate (in bps) of a 16-level signal
transmitted at 20 baud

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 Transmission Latency
 Composed of
 Propagation time
 Transmission time
 Queuing time
 Processing time

Entire
message

propagation
time

transmission
time
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 Transmission Latency
Sender Receiver

First bit leaves

Propagation time
First bit arrives

Data bits
Last bit leaves Transmission time

Last bit arrives

Time Time
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 Fourier Analysis of Digital Signals
 Digital signals consist of infinite set of sine
waves

+ + + +…

 What is the bandwidth?

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 Bandwidth of a Medium
 Most transmission media have bandwidth
limit gain (low-pass channel)
1

freq

...
Transmission medium
0 f0 3f0 5f0 7f0 9f0 f 0 f0 3f0 5f0 f

t t

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 Line Coding
 The process of encoding digital data into
digital signal
 Example: Manchester encoding (used in
Ethernet LAN)

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 Synchronization
 The electronics at both ends of a medium must
have circuitry to measure time precisely
 Easy at low bit rate
 Much more difficult at high bit rate

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 Synchronization
 Good line coding schemes allow receiver to
synchronize its timing to match the sender's
0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1

Bad

Good

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Line Coding Schemes

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 Converting Analog to Digital
 Common technique: Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

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PCM: Sampling and Quantizing

quantizing
(rounding to nearest integer)

Sampling points

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PCM: The Whole Picture

*PAM: Pulse Amplitude Modulation

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 Minimum Sampling Rate
 Nyquist Theorem:

Ex. Find the maximum sampling

interval for recording human voice
(freq. range 300Hz – 3000Hz)

sampling interval

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 Nyquist’s Sampling Theorem

See also: Wagon-wheel effect 31

 Example
 Calculate the minimum bit rate for recoding
human voice, if each sample requires 60
levels of precision
(Human voice has range of 300Hz – 3000Hz)

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 Data Compression
 Data compression refers to a technique
that reduces the number of bits required to
represent data
 Lossy - some information is lost during
compression (e.g, JPG, MP3)
 Lossless - all information is retained in the
compressed version (e.g., PNG, PCM)

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 Summary
 Data and signals
 Signal as series of sine waves
 Fourier analysis
 Bandwidth
 Line coding
 Analog to digital conversion
 PCM
 Data compression

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