CT216: Introduction to Communication Systems Winter 2023

Midterm Exam 2
Date : Wednesday 29th March, 2023, from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Total Marks : 50
Notes: : All questions are scored (no optionals).
Do not forget to write your name and student ID below.
Fully circle your selected option in the MCQ section.

Name: Student ID:

Reference:
1 Fill In the Blanks:
Instructions
▷ There are total 16 questions in this section that carry total of 28 marks.
▷ There is no negative marking in this section.

Questions
1. (2 points) Name two reasons why a sinusoidal electromagnetic waveform is used as a carrier waveform
by the modulator (and frequency upconvertor) to transmit the informative messages.

2. (2 points) What are two advantages of a digital communication system compared to an analog commu-
nication system.

1
3. (2 points) Why is a digital communication system called digital when the transmitted signal (typically
a modulated EM wave) is entirely analog in nature?

4. (2 points) How does a digital communication system with a family of modulation and coding schemes
provide the scheme of throughput (data rate) adaptation, and why is this beneficial?

5. (2 points) Briefly describe Incremental Redundancy (IR) Type II Hybrid ARQ (H-ARQ):

6. (2 points) Prove that the dot product of cos(2πfc t) with itself over t ∈ [0, Tsym ] equals Tsym /2 (you
may assume Tsym ∝ fc−1 ).

2
7. (2 points) State the complex-envelope (CE) notation of the transmitted modulated signal s(t) as a
function of the inphase and the quadrature modulating information components si and sq and the
carrier frequency fc . From this CE notation, derive (show the steps of your derivation) the cartesian
coodinate representation (i.e., the inphase/quadrature notation) and the polar coodinate representation
(i.e., the magnitude and representation) of s(t).

8. (1 point) State the two requirements for the inphase and the quadrature signal waveforms gi (t) and
gq (t) so that they can be used at a modulator.

9. (2 points) Suppose a digital communication system sends one bit at a time. The modulator transmits
s0 (t) to send bit X = 0 and it uses s1 (t) to send bit X = 1, where s0 (t) and s1 (t) are the modulated
waveforms shown in Fig. 1. Draw appropriate gi (t) and gq (t) given these two modulated waveforms.
Represent s0 (t) and s1 (t) as vectors in a two-dimensional space whose î and ĵ vectors are gi (t) and gq (t),
respectively.

3
 Figure 1: Two signals for Problem 9.

10. (2 points) Given that the transmitter uses two orthogonal waveforms gi (t) and gq (t) for transmitting the
modulated signal s(t), the noise component at the receiver - regardless of what its exact shape is - can
always be written as n(t) = ni gi (t) + nq gq (t) + u(t), where u(t) is the component of the noise n(t) that
lies in a vector subspace that is orthogonal to the two-dimensional space formed by gi (t) and gq (t), i.e.,
the dot product of u(t) with either gi (t) or gq (t) is zero. Show that u(t) – no matter how powerful or
strong it is – has no effect on the receiver (demodulator) operation.

11. (1 points) Let m¯2n be the power in a normalized version mn (t) of the message signal m(t) – where the
normalization is performed such that the minimum value of mn (t) = −1. Let amod be the modulation
index of the DSB-FC (Conventional) AM. Express the power efficiency ηAM of the conventional AM as
a function of m¯2n and amod .

12. (2 points) Name four blocks that a digital communication system has which an analog communication
system does not have.

4
13. (2 points) Show that the F.T. of a signal that exhibits time-domain symmetry (i.e., it is an even signal
se (t) = se (−t)) is real-valued.

14. (2 points) Prove that if modulo-two sum of two binary error patterns e1 and e2 is a valid binary codeword
c, each error pattern has the same syndrome.

15. (1 points) Why is DSB-SC AM preferred over DSB-FC AM?

16. (1 points) Why is DSB-FC (Conventional) AM preferred over DSB-SC AM?

2 Multiple Choice Questions:

Instructions
▷ This is MCQ Version I of IV.
▷ There are total 15 questions in this section that carry a maximum of 22 marks.

5
 → If the question is answered incorrectly, negative one-fourth of the total marks shown next to each
question will be given.
▷ Circle the correct option. No tick marks or partial circling, etc.
→ If more than one option is circled, zero marks will be given for the question.
▷ Note: Volume V (N ; tc ) of a Hamming Sphere of radius tc is defined as the number of (binary) codewords
of length N bits whose Hamming weight is less than or equal to tc bits.

Questions

1. (1 points) A digital modulation scheme that transmits sm (t) = cos(2πfc t + (2m + 1)π/4) for m = 0, 1, 2
and 3 is called
(a) analog phase modulation scheme
(b) digital quaternary phase modulation scheme
(c) digital quaternary amplitude and phase modulation scheme
(d) analog quaternary amplitude modulation scheme

2. (1 points) For a perfect channel code, the minimum Hamming distance dH

min should be:

(a) can be either even or odd

(b) can be either even or odd depending on the specific channel code
(c) odd
(d) even

3. (1 points) The syndrome vector computed as s = H r using the parity check matrix H uniquely
identifies the error pattern e affecting the received codeword r = c + e. This statement is
(a) true
(b) false

4. (1 points) The syndrome vector computed as s = H r using the parity check matrix H uniquely
identifies the transmitted codeword. This statement is
(a) true
(b) false

5. (1 points) A two-bit repetition code (N ; K = 2) of rate r = 2/N (for N even) is defined as follows.
The encoder takes a pair of bits, and repeats it N/2 times (as an example, a rate r = 2/6 code repeats
an input bit-pair {0; 1} N/2 = 3 times such that encoded bit stream is { 0; 1; 0; 1; 0; 1 }). Compared
to the standard one-bit repetition code (N ′ = N/2; K = 1) of rate r = 1/N ′ = 2/N (that repeats one
bit N ′ = N/2 times, where N is even), the probability of codeword detection error for this two-bit
repetition code of length N bits operating over the BSC(p) remains
(a) undetermined
(b) the same

6
 (c) becomes smaller
(d) becomes larger

6. (2 points) Suppose a modulated transmitted signal is given as s(t) = 2 cos(2000t + π/6) for 0 ≤ t ≤
Tsym , where the symbol duration Tsym = 8 seconds. What are si and sq ?
(a) si =√0.866, sq =
√ 0.5
(b) si = 2, sq = 2
(c) si = 3.46, sq = 2
(d) si = 1.73, sq = 1

7. (2 points) Suppose a CN of degree dc = 3 at an LDPC decoder receives the messages from the two con-
nected VNs (the message from a VN contains the probability that the respective VN equals 1) that are
0.9 and 0.1. What message should the CN send to the third VN connected to it?
(a) 0.5
(b) 0.09
(c) 0.91
(d) 0.82

8. (2 points) Suppose a VN of degree dv = 3 at an LDPC decoder receives the messages from the two
connected CNs that are 0.9 and 0.1. What message should the VN send to the third CN?
(a) 0.82
(b) 0.5
(c) 0.91
(d) 0.09

9. (2 points) What is the probability of codeword decoding error for the minimum Hamming distance
decoder operating at the output of the BSC(p) when the transmitter sends a rate r = 1/5 code
that maps bits X = 0 to a codeword {1, 1, 0, 0, 1} and bit X = 1 to another codeword {1, 0, 1, 1, 1}?

(a) 1 − p5 − 5p4 (1 − p)
(b) 1 − (1 − p)5 − 5p(1 − p)4
5  
X 5
(c) (1 − p)u p5−u
u=2
u
5  
X 5 u
(d) p (1 − p)5−u
u=3
u

10. (1 points) A transmitted conventional DSB-FC AM signal is given as s(t) = 5 cos(2πfc t)+m(t) cos(2πfc t).
Suppose m(t) = 3.5 sin(20πt) is the message signal. What are the values of modulation indices amod
and the power efficiency ηAM ?
(a) amod = 0.7; ηAM = 0.2
(b) amod = 1.75; ηAM = 0.6

7
 (c) amod = 0.35; ηAM = 0.25
(d) amod = 0.5; ηAM = 0.333

11. (1 points) What is the maximum possible number of unique syndrome vectors that the decoder of a
(N ; K) binary linear code with rate K/N can encounter?
(a) 2N
(b) 2N −K
(c) 2N −2K
(d) 2K

12. (3 points) The V (N ; tc ) is related to the rate r = K/N of the channel code with error correction
capability of tc bits as
log2 (V (N ; tc )
(a) r ≤
N
log2 (V (N ; tc )
(b) r ≤ 1 −
N
log2 (V (N ; tc )
(c) r ≥
N
log2 (V (N ; tc )
(d) r ≤ 1 +
N

13. (1 points) Linear algebraic representation of the modulation (transmitter) and demodulation (receiver)
allows us to think of them as
(a) demodulator implements synthesis followed by analysis, the modulator performs analysis followed
by synthesis
(b) modulator performs analysis operation, the demodulator performs synthesis operation
(c) modulator implements synthesis followed by analysis, the demodulator performs analysis followed
by synthesis
(d) modulator performs synthesis operation, the demodulator performs analysis operation

14. (1 points) A message m(t) = 2 sin(2000πt) is used in a Conventional AM (DSB-FC) system which has
a modulation index amod = 0.71. What is the power efficiency ηAM ?
(a) 1/4
(b) 1/6
(c) 1/3
(d) 1/5

15. (2 points) The Hamming (N = 7, K = 4, r = 4/7) code is a perfect code because

(a) 2N = 2K × V (N, tc ) for this Hamming code
(b) 2N ̸= 2K × V (N, tc ) for this Hamming code
(c) 2N ̸= 2K /V (N, tc ) for this Hamming code
(d) 2N = 2K /V (N, tc ) for this Hamming code