NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

NOISE ANALYSIS

Noise in communication systems originates both in the channel and in the communication
equipment. Noise consist of undesired, usually random variations that interfere with the
desired signals and inhibit communications. It cannot be avoided completely, but its effects
can be reduced by various means, such as reducing the signal bandwidth, increasing the
transmitter power, and using low noise amplifiers for weak signals.

CHANNEL CAPACITY (Formula to Calculate Data Rates)

➢ Nyquist Bit Rate: For noiseless channel

Bit Rate = 2 x BW x log 2 L

where, L = number of signal/coding levels used to represent data

Note: According to H. Nyquist, binary digital signals can be propagated through an

ideal noiseless transmission medium at a rate equal to two times the bandwidth of the
medium.

➢ For a Noisy Channel:

Information Capacity –is a measure of how much information can be propagated

through a communication system and is a function of bandwidth and transmission time
(according to R. Hartley of Bell Laboratories).

Shannon Capacity – in 1948, Claude Shannon gave a theoretical expression of how

many bits of information per second can be transmitted without error over a
communication channel with a bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio.

 S
Capacity = BW x log 2 1 + 
 N

 S
Capacity = 3.32 BW x log10 1 + 
 N

Exercises:

1. Calculate the capacity of a standard telephone channel with a signal-to-noise ratio of

32 dB.

2. Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 300 Hz transmitting a signal with

two signal levels. What is the maximum bit rate?

3. Calculate the capacity of a standard 4 kHz telephone channel (300 - 3400 Hz) with a
32 dB signal-to-noise ratio.
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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

4. At the input to the receiver of a standard telephone channel, the noise power is 50 µW
and the signal power is 20 mW. Calculate the Shannon limit for the capacity of the
above channel under these conditions and when the signal power is halved.

5. A system has a bandwidth of 4 kHz and a signal-to-noise ratio of 28 dB at the input of

the receiver. Calculate the capacity of the channel if its bandwidth is doubled while the
transmitted power signal remains constant.

6. A 2 kHz channel has a signal-to-noise ratio of 24 dB. Calculate the maximum capacity
of this channel. Assuming constant transmitting power, calculate the maximum
capacity when the channel bandwidth is halved and reduced to a quarter of the
original value.

7. Data is transmitted using a transmission scheme with eight level per signal element. If
the channel has a bandwidth of 3100 Hz. Calculate the theoretical maximum bit rate
capacity.

8. What is the maximum capacity of a perfectly noiseless channel whose width is 120 Hz
in which the number of data transmitted may be indicated by one of 10 different
amplitude.

9. At the input of the receiver of a standard telephone channel the noise power is 50 μW
and the signal power is 20 mW. Calculate the Shannon limit for the capacity of the
above channel under this condition and when the signal is halved?

10. Determine the signal-to-noise ratio in dB if the data transmission rate is 28.8 kbps and
the bandwidth is 3200 Hz.

11. A phone wire bandwidth is 3100 Hz and 30 dB S/N. Calculate the capacity.

12. For a standard voice band communication channel with a signal to noise ratio of 30 dB
and a bandwidth of 2.7 kHz, determine the information capacity.

13. Assuming that a PSTN has a bandwidth of 3000 Hz and a typical signal-to-noise ratio
of 20 dB, determine the maximum theoretical transmission rate that can be achieved.

14. According to the Shannon-Hartley law, what is the maximum achievable bit-rate for a
computer modem operating over a telephone channel with 3 kHz bandwidth and a
maximum allowed signal power that guarantees only a 30 dB SNR?

15. Take the noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 44 Hz transmitting a signal with three
signal levels. Find the maximum bit rate.

16. Determine the capacity of a standard telephone channel with 32 dB signal-to-noise

ratio.

17. A channel has a bandwidth of 3100 kHz, where the ata is transmitted using a
transmission scheme with six levels per signal element, calculate the theoretical
maximum bit rate capacity.
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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

18. Calculate the maximum capacity of a perfectly noiseless channel whose width is 150
Hz in which the number of data transmitted may be indicated by one of 8 different
amplitudes.

19. A standard telephone channel has a noise power of 60 µW and a signal power of 30
mW at the input of the receiver. Calculate the Shannon limit for the capacity of the
above channel under this condition and when the signal is halved.

20. Calculate for the signal-to-noise ratio in dB with the transmission rate of 29 kbps and
the bandwidth is 3500 Hz.

21. A channel with a bandwidth of 3,400 Hz and 30 dB S/N. Calculate the capacity.

22. For a communication channel with a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 dB and a bandwidth of

2100 Hz, determine the information capacity.

23. A communication channel has a bandwidth of 3000 Hz and a typical SNR of 30 dB,
determine the maximum theoretical transmission rate that can be achieved.

24. What is the maximum achievable bit-rate for a computer modem operating over a
telephone channel with 3.1 kHz bandwidth and a maximum allowed signal power that
guarantees only a 20 dB SNR?

25. We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How
many signal levels do we need?

26. A telephone line normally has a bandwidth of 3,000 Hz assigned for data
communication. The SNR is usually 3, 162. What will be the capacity for this channel?

27. The SNR is often given in dB. Assume that SNR is 36 and the channel bandwidth is 2
MHz. Calculate the theoretical channel capacity.

28. A 10 kHz baseband channel is used by a digital transmission system. Ideal pulses are
sent at the Nyquist rate and the pulses can take 16 levels. What is the bit rate of the
system?

29. What is the maximum reliable bit rate possible over a telephone channel with the
following parameters: BW = 2.4 kHz, SNR = 20 dB.

30. Suppose we wish to transmit at a rate of 64 kbps over a 3 kHz telephone channel.
What is the minimum SNR required to accomplish this?

31. Suppose that a low-pass communications system has a MHz bandwidth. What bit rate
are attainable using 8-level pulses? What is the Shannon capacity of this channel if
the SNR is 20 dB?

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

Noise – any unwanted form of energy tending to interfere with the easy reception and
reproduction of wanted signals.

Distortion – any deviation in the signal caused by the imperfect response of the system to
the desired signals.

Interference – is any contamination by external signals from human sources, other

transmitters, power lines, switching circuits and others.

Effects of Noise

1. Limits the performance of every systems

2. It affects the sensitivity of the system
3. It limits the range of the system for a given transmitter power
4. It forces a reduction in the bandwidth of the system

Two General Classifications of Noise

1. Correlated Noise - noise that is correlated to the signal and cannot be present in a
circuit unless there is an input signal.
2. Uncorrelated Noise - noise that is present regardless of whether there is a signal
present or none.

Types of Correlated Noise

1. Harmonic distortion – occurs when unwanted harmonics of a signal are produced

through non-linear amplification. Harmonics are integer multiples of the original input
signal.

% Total Harmonic Distortion = (Vhigher / Vfundamental) x 100 %

where,

Vhigher = quadratic sum of the RMS voltage of the harmonics above the
fundamental frequency, √v22 + v3 2 + . . . . . + vn2
Vfundamental = rms voltage of the fundamental frequency

2. Intermodulation distortion – occurs when unwanted sum and difference frequencies

are produced when two or more signals are amplified in a non-linear device, such as
large signal amplifier.

Cross-product = mf1 ± nf2

where,

f1 and f2 = fundamental frequency (for f1 > f2)

m and n = positive integer between 1 and ф

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

Types of Uncorrelated Noise

A. External noise – noise that is generated outside the receiver or circuits.

1. Atmospheric/Static noise – noise that come from natural disturbances occurring

in the atmosphere. Often called static electricity. Ex. Lightning charges (> 20
MHz not significant/less severe)

Fa = εnrms(1 kHz) – 20 log FMHz + 65.5

2. Extraterrestrial/Deep space noise – noise from the outer space (severe at 10

MHz – 1.45 GHz). This energy components are absorbed by the earth’s
atmosphere before they can reach the atmosphere.

• Solar noise – generated directly from the sun’s heat due to solar cycle
activities that has an 11-year cycle like sunspot or corona flares.
• Cosmic/Black-body noise – noise created by the stars.

3. Man-made/Industrial noise – the most troublesome form of noise that is usually

produced by mankind (severe at 15 – 160 MHz). Ex. Power lines, fluorescent
lights, electric motors, power generating and switching equipment, spark
producing mechanism etc.

4. Impulse noise – is characterized by high amplitude peaks of short duration in

the total noise spectrum. The spikes are called hits.

B. Internal noise – noise introduced by the receiver itself. It is created by the passive
and active devices found within the receiver.

1. Thermal/Johnson/Brownian/White/Gaussian noise – noise associated due to

the rapid and random movements of electrons, atoms, molecules within a
conductor due to thermal agitation. Noise generated by the resistive
components due to heat.

Pn = kTBW

Pno = kT

where,

Pn = noise powe, watt

Pno = noise power density @ 1 Hz
T = Temperature, Kelvin
k = Boltzman’s constant (1.38 x 10-23 J/K)

so that,
Vn = √4kTBWRL

In = √4kTBWG
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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

Noise Due To Several Sources

Noisy resistor’s in series,

VnT = √4kTBWRTseries InT = √4kTBWGTseries

VnT = √V2 n1 + V2 n2 + . . . . . + V2 nn

Noisy resistor’s in parallel,

VnT = √4kTBWRTparallel InT = √4kTBWGTparallel

InT = √I2 n1 + I2 n2 + . . . . . . + I2 nn

2. Shot noise/Transistor noise – due to shot effect caused by random variations in

the arrival of electrons or holes at the output electrode of an amplifying device
and appearing as a randomly varying noise current superimposed on the
output.

Vacuum tube diode shot noise (Schottky Formula),

In = √2qeIdBW

Semiconductor diode shot noise Current,

In = √2qe(Id + Isat)BW

3. Transit time noise – noise due to the time taken by the electrons to travel from
the emitter to the collector of a transistor. When the time taken is appreciable
part of one cycle, the noise becomes noticeable. Its greatest effect is a higher
frequency particularly in the microwave region. It is otherwise known as “high-
frequency noise”.

4. Flicker noise – noise appearing at frequencies below 1 kHz. It is directly

proportional to emitter current and junction temperature. It is also inversely
proportional to frequency and may be completely negligible at about above 500
Hz. It is sometimes considered as low-frequency noise, excess noise,
modulation noise or pink noise.

5. Partition noise – occurs whenever current has to divide between two or more
electrodes and results to random fluctuations in the process.

6. Burst noise – another low-frequency noise found in transistors. Its name arises
because it appears as a series of burst two or more levels. It is also called pop-
corn noise.

7. Avalanche noise – large noise spikes present in the avalanche current due to
oscillations that result in the avalanching action.

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

8. Resistance noise – due to the base, emitter and collector resistance.

9. Noise in mixers – due to inadequate image frequency rejection.

10. Crosstalk – interference signal from one channel to another.

REACTANCE NOISE EFFECTS

The significant effect of reactive circuits on noise is their limitation on frequency. Pure
reactive circuits does not introduce noise to the circuit. Equivalent bandwidth to be used in
calculations with reactive circuits (LC circuits) is

Δfeq. = (π / 2) BW

SIGNAL TO NOSE RATIO – relative measure of the desired signal power to the output noise
power. Identifies the noise content at a specific point but not useful in relating how much
additional noise is injected to the circuit. The higher the value the better the system is.

S / N = Ps / Pn

S / N = 10 log (Ps / Pn) or S / N= 20 log (Vs / Vn)

NOISE FIGURE/NOISE FACTOR/NOISE RATIO – usually used to specify exactly how noisy
a device is. It is a figure of merit, indicating how much a component, stage, or series of
stages degrades the signal to noise ratio of a system. The noise figure of a totally noiseless
device is 1 or 0 dB. The higher the noise figure the worse the signal to noise ratio at the
output.

NR = input (S/N) / output (S/N)

FdB = 10 log (S/N)I / (S/N)o = 10 log NR

Noise due to several amplifiers in cascade,

Req = R1 + (R2/A12) + (R3/A12A22)

Req = R1 + Req’

Noise Figure in terms of equivalent noise resistance,

F = 1 + (Req’ / Ra )

When two or more amplifiers are cascaded (Friiss’ Formula),

Ftotal = F1 + (F2 – 1) / A1 + (F3 – 1) / A1A2 + . . .+ (Fn – 1) / A1A2….An – 1

FdB = 10 log Ftotal

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

Note:
Noise Ratio or Noise factor = dimensionless
Noise Figure = expressed in decibel

NOISE TEMPERATURE – employed extensively for antennas and low-noise amplifier

especially with microwave receivers and their associated antenna system. It allows easy
calculation of noise power since the equivalent noise temperature (Te) of microwave
antennas and their coupling networks are then simply additive. It is convenient to use since
microwave antenna and receiver manufacturers usually provide Te information for their
equipment.

F = 1 + (Te / To ) or Te = To ( F - 1 )

Equivalent noise temperature referred at the input,

Tetotal = Te1 + Te2 / A1 + Te3 / A1A2 + . . . . + Ten / A1A2 . . . . An-1

where,

F = noise figure, dB
Te = equivalent noise temperature
To = reference temperature, 17oC
= 17oC + 273
= 290 Kelvin

PROBLEMS

1. Calculate the total harmonic distortion if the %2 nd order and %3rd order are 2.5% and
1.25% respectively and fundamental amplitude of 8V.

2. Determine (a) 2nd, 3rd, and 12th harmonics for a 1-kHz repetitive wave, (b) percent
second-order, third-order, and harmonic distortion for a fundamental frequency with an
amplitude of 8 Vrms.

3. For a non-linear amplifier with two input frequencies, 3kHz and 8kHz, determine
a. first three harmonics present in the output for each input frequency.
b. cross-product frequencies produced for values of m and n of 1 and 2.

4. Calculate the spectrum noise density and thermal noise power for a certain
communication system with an IF bandwidth of 10.7 MHz.

5. An amplifier operating over a 5 MHz bandwidth has a 100 Ω input resistance. It is

operating at 27°C, has a voltage gain of 200 and an input signal of 6µV rms. Calculate
the output RMS noise

6. Calculate the thermal noise power in both watts and dB m for the bandwidth of 100 kHz
and temperature of 100o C.

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

7. Determine the bandwidth necessary to produce 8 x 10-17 watts of thermal noise power
at a temperature of 170 C over a 1 MHz bandwidth.

8. A diode noise generator is required to produce 10 µV of noise in a receiver with an

input impedance of 75 Ω, resistive and a noise power bandwidth of 200 KHz. What
must be the current through the diode?

9. Given an AM amplifier which operates at 20o C over a 10 kHz bandwidth has a 220 
input resistor. Find the input noise voltage.

10. Calculate the noise voltage for a 1 k resistor at 17oC tuned by an LC circuit with a
bandwidth of 1 MHz.

11. Calculate the noise voltage at the input of a TV RF amplifier using a device that has a
200  equivalent noise resistance and a 300  input resistance. The bandwidth of the
amplifier is 6 MHz and the temperature is 17oC.

12. Determine the noise current and equivalent noise voltage for a diode with forward bias
of 1 mA over a 100 kHz bandwidth. If the diode is in a circuit with 500 Ω series
resistance, calculate the total output noise voltage at 27oC.*

13. Calculate the noise voltage at the input of an RF simplifier using a device that has a
200  equivalent noise resistance and a 300  input resistor. The bandwidth of the
amplifier is 6 MHz and the temperature is 27oC.

14. Two resistors 5 kΩ and 20 kΩ are at 27oC. Calculate the thermal noise voltage for a
100 kHz bandwidth for their series and parallel combination. (Ans. 2.03 μV ; 0.81 μV)

15. A noise source has two resistors in series at two different temperature: R 1 = 100 Ω at
300 K and R2 = 200 Ω at 127 oC. Find the total noise voltage and noise power
produced at the load RL = 300 Ω, over a bandwidth of 100 kHz. (Ans. 779 nV ; 0.506
fW)

16. An amplifier operating over a frequency range of 455 to 460 kHz has a 200 k input
resistor. What is the rms noise voltage at the input to this amplifier if the ambient
temperature is 17oC.

17. A parallel tuned circuit having a Q of 20 is resonated to a 200 MHz with a 10 pF

capacitor. If this circuit is maintained at 17 oC, what noise voltage will a wideband
voltmeter measure when placed across it?

18. An amplifier has a noise voltage of 4.0 µV and operating over a frequency range
having a maximum frequency at 460 kHz. What is the lowest frequency of operation
does the amplifier have if the input resistor is 200 kΩ and the ambient temperature is
17o C.

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

19. A diode noise generator is required to produce 10 μV of noise in a receiver with an

input impedance of 75 Ω, resistive, and a noise power bandwidth of 200 kHz. What
must the current through the diode be? (Ans. 276 mA)

20. An amplifier has an actual input resistance of 5000 ohms and an equivalent noise
resistance of 1000 ohms referred to the input. What is the total effective input
resistance of the amplifier?

21. Calculate the S/N ratio in dB for a receiver output of 4 volts signal and 0.48 volts
noise.

22. Determine the equivalent noise temperature for a noise figure of 10 dB.

23. Determine the overall noise factor and noise figure for the three cascaded amplifiers
with the following parameters: A1 = 3 dB; A2 = 13 dB; A3 = 10 dB; NF1 = 10 dB; NF2 =
6 dB ; NF3 = 10 dB. (Ans. 11.725; 10.7 dB )

24. Determine the noise figure for an amplifier with an input to signal noise ratio of 30 dB
and output signal to noise ratio of 24 dB.

25. Calculate the input signal-to-noise ratio for an amplifier with an output signal-to-noise
ratio of 16 dB and a noise figure of 5.4 dB.

26. A receiver connected to an antenna whose resistance is 50 Ω has an equivalent noise

resistance of 30 Ω. Calculate the receiver’s noise figure in decibel and its equivalent
noise temperature.

27. The noise produced by a resistor is to be amplified by a noiseless amplifier having a

voltage gain of 75 and a bandwidth of 100 kHz. A sensitive meter at the output reads
240 µV. Assuming operation at 37o C, calculate the resistors resistance if the
bandwidth is cut to 25 kHz, determine also the expected output meter reading.

28. A voice transmission occupies a channel 30 kHz wide. Suppose a spread spectrum
system is used to increase its bandwidth to 10 MHz. If the signal has a total signal
power of -110 dBm at the receiver input and the system noise temperature referred to
the same point is 300 K. Calculate the signal-to-noise ratio for both systems.

29. Determine the noise current for a vacuum tube diode with a forward bias of 1 mA over
a 100 kHz bandwidth. Determine also the equivalent noise voltage of the diode. (Ans.
5.66 nA rms ; 0.147 μV rms )

30. A transistor amplifier has a measured signal to noise power of 10 dB at its input and 7
dB at its output. Calculate the transistor’s noise figure.

31. Suppose the noise power at the input to a receiver is 1 nW in the bandwidth of
interest. What would be the required signal power for a signal to noise ratio of 2.8775
Np?

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

32. For a three cascaded amplifier stages, each with noise figure of 3 dB and power gains
of 10 dB, determine the total noise figure in decibel. (Ans. 3.24 dB)

33. A microwave antenna (Teq = - 414.4 oF ) is coupled through a network (Teq = 30 K) to a

microwave receiver with Teq = -351.4 oF referred to its input. Calculate the noise
power at its input for a 2 MHz bandwidth. Determine the receiver’s noise figure. (Ans.
3.17 x 10-15 W ; 0.817 dB)

34. A satellite receiving system includes a dish antenna Teq = 35 K connected via a
coupling network Teq = 40 K to a microwave receiver Teq = 52 K referred to its input.
What is the noise power of the receiver’s input over a 1-MHz range? Determine also
the receiver’s noise figure. (1.75 x 10-15 W; 0.716 dB)

35. Calculate the noise power at the input of a microwave receiver with an equivalent
noise temperature of 45 K. It is fed from an antenna with a 35 K equivalent noise
temperature and operates over a 5 MHz bandwidth.

36. An amplifier consists of two stages. Stage one has a gain of 12 dB and a noise figure
of 2 dB. Stage two has a gain of 20 dB and a noise figure of 5 dB. Calculate the noise
figure in decibel, and the equivalent noise temperature for the amplifier.

37. A three-stage amplifier has an input stage with noise ratio 5 and power gain of 50.
Stages 2 and 3 have noise ratio of 10 and power gain of 1000. Calculate the noise
figure for the overall system in decibel.

38. The first stage of a two-stage amplifier has a voltage gain of 10, a 600 Ω input
resistor, a 1600 Ω equivalent noise resistance and a 27 kΩ output resistance. For the
second stage, the values are 25, 81 kΩ, 10 kΩ, and 1 kΩ, MΩ respectively. Calculate
the equivalent input noise resistance of this two-stage amplifier.

39. The RF amplifier of a receiver has an input resistance of 1000 Ω, and an equivalent
shot-noise resistance 0f 200 Ω, a gain of 25, and a load resistance of 125 kΩ,. Given
that the bandwidth is 1 MHz and the temperature is 20 oC. Calculate the equivalent
noise voltage at the input of this amplifier. If the receiver is connected to an antenna
with an impedance of 75 Ω, calculate the noise figure.

40. A three-stage amplifier is to have an overall noise temperature no greater than 70 K.

The overall gain of the amplifier is to be at least 45 dB. The amplifier is to be built by
adding a low noise first stage to an existing two-stage amplifier that has the gains and
noise figures of 20 dB & 15 dB and 3 dB & 6 dB respectively. What is the minimum
gain that the first stage have? Using the gain calculated, what is the maximum noise
figure that the first stage have.

41. A three-stage amplifier system has a 3-dB bandwidth of 200 kHz determined by an LC
circuit at its input, and operates at 22 oC. The first stage has a power gain of 14 dB
and a noise figure of 3 dB. The 2nd and 3rd stages are identical with power gain of 20
dB and noise figure of 8 dB. The output load is 300. The input noise is generated by
a 10 k resistor. Calculate a) the noise voltage and power at the input and the output

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 NOISE ANALYSIS – MODULE 3

of the system assuming ideal noiseless amplifier; b) the over-all noise figure for the
system; c) the actual output noise voltage and power.*

42. A three-stage amplifier has three stages with the following specifications: Stage 1 has
a power gain of 10 and a noise figure of 2. For stages 2 and 3, the values are 25 & 4
and 30 & 5 respectively. Calculate the power gain, noise figure and noise temperature
for the entire amplifier assuming matched condition.

43. The four stages of an amplifier have gains and noise figures of 12 dB, 15 dB, 20 dB &
17 dB and 2 dB, 4 dB, 6 dB & 7 dB respectively. Calculate the overall noise figure in
decibel.

44. The front end of a TV receiver having a bandwidth of 7 MHz and operating at a
temperature of 27 o C consists of an amplifier having a gain of 15 followed by a mixer
whose gain is 20. The amplifier has a 300 Ω input resistance and shot-noise
equivalent resistance of 500 Ω. For the mixer, the values are 2.2 kΩ and 13.5 kΩ
respectively. And the load resistance is 470 kΩ. Calculate the equivalent resistance of
the cascaded amplifier for the TV receiver.

COMPILED BY: DR. CARLOS C. SISON, PECE, ASEAN ENGR., ACPE 12