Wireless Coding and Modulation

By: Dr Shree Om
oms@ub.ac.bw
Overview
• Frequency, Wavelength, Amplitude and Phase
• Decibels
• Modulation
• Channel Capacity
• Hamming Distance
• Multiple Access Methods
• Spread Spectrum
• Doppler Effect
• Doppler Spread
• Coherence
• Duplexing
Frequency, Wavelength, Amplitude and Phase
• Signal waveforms are the fundamental carriers of all types of data
that we send over a communication system.
• In the simplest form, a wave is mathematically represented by a sine
wave, A sin(2πft + θ), where A = Amplitude, f= frequency, θ = phase,
and t is the current time, which allows us to obtain the value of the
wave at any time using this formula. The period, T, of the wave is
obtained as T = 1/f.
• The period, T, of the wave is obtained as T = 1/f.
Frequency,
Wavelength,
Amplitude and Phase
• Amplitude is the height of the wave, measured
from 0 to maximum value either up or down
• Sine wave is cyclic
• One complete patter is called a cycle.

• Frequency is measure in cycles/sec or Hertz

• Phase is the amount of shift from a given
reference point.
2D Representation of Phase and Amplitude
• The phase can be represented on a 2D graph.
• A sine wave can be decomposed into its sine and cosine parts.
• For example, a sine wave with a phase of 45°, can be written as the
summation of two parts:

• The first part is called the In-phase component I, and the second
part, the Quadrature component Q.
• In this case we have

• I and Q are then plotted in a 2D graph as shown in figure

Wavelength

• The distance occupied by one cycle is called the wavelength of the wave and is
represented by 2.
• This is the distance between two points of corresponding phase in two
consecutive cycles, as shown in fig.
• All electromagnetic waves, irrespective of their frequencies, travel at the speed
of light, which is a universal constant of 300 m/µs.
• Given that it takes T sec for the wave to complete a cycle (T is called the period
of the wave) and that T = 1/f, we have
Wavelengths of popular electromagnetic
frequencies.
Time and Frequency Domains

• Every wave can be represented in both time

and frequency domains.
• The transformation of a wave from time
domain to frequency domain is called Fourier
transform and from frequency domain to time
domain is called Fourier transform and from
frequency domain to time domain is called
inverse Fourier transformation
Electromagnetic Spectrum

• Wireless communications use the airwaves, which are basically electromagnetic waves that can propagate through the air or even in
a vacuum.
• Any electricity or current flow will generate these electromagnetic waves.
• TV, power supply, remote control, microwave oven, wireless router, etc.,

• The transformation of a wave from time domain to frequency domain is called Fourier transform and from frequency domain to
time domain is called Fourier transform and from frequency domain to time domain is called inverse Fourier transformation
• The spectrum is all of the ‘usable’ frequency ranges.
• It is a natural resource and like most natural resources, it is limited.
• Spectrum use is therefore highly regulated by government authorities, such as the FCC in the US or ACMA in Australia.
• A large portion of the spectrum is reserved for the government.
• The rest of spectrum is licensed to network operators.
• Part of the spectrum is license-exempt e.g., the spectrum used by WiFi.
Examples of license-exempt spectrum and
their use
Spectrum allocation for different services.
Decibels

• When waves travel, they lose power – Attenuation

• What would be a practical unit to measure power attenuation that is universal in all wireless communication
systems?
• Power loss for electromagnetic waves can be many orders of magnitude.
• Because the power loss can be many orders of magnitude, the attenuation is measured in logarithmic units.
• After the inventor Graham Bell, power attenuation was originally measured as Bel, where Bel = log10(Pin/Pout) with
Pin representing the transmitted powered and Pout the attenuated power.
• Bel was found to be too large for most practical systems.
• Later, a new quantity called decibel, written as dB, was introduced to measure power loss, where
Decibels
• The concept of decibel is also used to measure the absolute signal power, i.e., decibel can be used
to measure the strength of a transmitted or received signal.
• In that case, it is a measure of power in reference to 1 mW and the unit is dBm. In other words,
dBm is obtained as:
• dBm = 10log10(power in milliwatt)
• Noise - produced at the receiver due to the movement of electrons in the electronic circuits
• Because decibel (dB) is basically a method to measure a ratio, it is also used to measure the SNR
in wireless communications.
Coding Terminology
• Symbol is the smallest element of a signal with a given amplitude, frequency, and phase that can
be detected.

• Baud rate refers to the number of symbols that can be transmitted per second

• Data rate, measured in bits per second, is the number of bits that can be transmitted per second.
Modulation
• Amplitude
shift keying
• Frequency
Shift Keying
• Phase Shift
Keying
Modulation - PSK
Modulation - QAM
• Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
Modulation - QAM
• We can increase the bit rates by going for higher QAMs.
Channel Capacity – Nyquist Theorem
• Capacity of a channel basically refers to the maximum data rate or the
number of bits that can be reliably transmitted over the channel.
• Two basic theorems – Nyquist and Shannon
• Nyquist defines channel capacity under noiseless environment.

• where B is the channel bandwidth (in Hz) and M is the number of signal
levels.
Channel Capacity – Nyquist’s Theorem
• Capacity of a channel basically refers to the maximum data rate or the
number of bits that can be reliably transmitted over the channel.
• Two basic theorems – Nyquist and Shannon
• Nyquist defines channel capacity under noiseless environment.

• where B is the channel bandwidth (in Hz) and M is the number of signal
levels.
Channel Capacity – Shannon’s Theorem
• Reality – Channel’s are noisy.
• The noise puts an upper limit on the number of bits we can transmit
reliably.
• This upper limit is called Shannon’s capacity and is obtained as:

• where B is the bandwidth of the channel, S is the received signal strength in

Watt and N is the noise power in Watt.
Channel Capacity – Shannon’s Theorem
• Reality – Channel’s are noisy.
• The noise puts an upper limit on the number of bits we can transmit
reliably.
• This upper limit is called Shannon’s capacity and is obtained as:

• where B is the bandwidth of the channel, S is the received signal strength in

Watt and N is the noise power in Watt.
Hamming Distance and Error Correction
• Using appropriate algorithms, data errors can be detected and even
corrected.
• Hamming distance is a fundamental concept used by these error
detecting and correcting algorithms.
• It is defined as the number of bits in which two equal-length
sequences disagree.
• This can be easily obtained by applying the XOR operator between
the two sequences.
Hamming Distance and Error Correction -
Example
• Data is usually coded and the codeword, which is
longer than the data, is sent for error detection and
correction purposes
• Table shows the codewords for the data bits where 2-
bit words are transmitted as 5-bit words.
• Assume that the receiver has received 00100
• Now let us look at the hamming distance between the received
sequence and each of the valid codewords.
• Distance (00100,00000) = 1 Distance (00100,00111) = 2
• Distance (00100,11001) = 4 Distance (00100,11110) = 3
• Clear that most likely 00000 was sent
Hamming Distance and Error Correction
• Assume that the received sequence was 01010.
• Now we have, Distance (01010,00000) = 2 = Distance (01010,11110).
• There are two codewords at equal distance from the received sequence. In
this case, error is detected but cannot be corrected.
• Three-bit errors will not even be detected.
Multiple Access Methods
• When a given frequency band has to be shared by many devices,
there have to be some rules to be followed, so all can enjoy
interference-free communication.
• These rules constitute medium access control (MAC).
• 3 Key MAC methods:
• time division multiple access (TDMA),
• frequency division multiple access (FDMA), or
• code division multiple access (CDMA).
Time division multiple access (TDMA)
Frequency division multiple access (FDMA)
Code division multiple access (FDMA)
Spread Spectrum
• Techniques that spread an original narrow bandwidth signal over a
much wider bandwidth.
• Purpose: improving security by making the signal harder to detect
with a narrowband receiver, increasing resistance to interference,
noise, and jamming, and to achieve CDMA.
• Two common spread spectrum techniques used: Frequency hopping
and direct sequence
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
• Both the transmitter and the receiver use a specific random
sequence to switch frequency within the band at every small
interval
Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum
• Idea, as shown in Fig., is to expand a ‘0’ or ‘1’ by long series of 0’s and l’s by applying a secret
code to them. Then the resulting codeword is transmitted in place of a ‘0’ or ‘1’ in the data bit
sequence.
• Example - 10-bit spreading code is used to create the codewords by applying the operation XOR
to the data bits. In this case, 10 bits are actually transmitted over the channel to transmit a
single data bit.
Doppler Shift
• Doppler effect – if the transmitter or receiver or both are mobile, the frequency of the received signal changes
or shifts.
• Named after Christian Andreas Doppler
• If transmitter is moving towards the receiver, then the receiver will receive higher frequency. If the transmitter
is moving away, the effect is opposite. Shown in figure
• This shift in frequency is a function of the relative velocity between the transmitter and the receiver as well as
the transmitter frequency or wavelength
• Doppler shift = velocity/Wavelength = v/λ= vf/c Hz
Doppler Spread
• Mobile object experiences Doppler shifts in both positive and negative directions caused by
receiving of signal reflected from other objects (see fig).
• Received frequency is spread equally on both sides of the original frequency.
• Doppler Spread= 2 × Doppler shift = 2vf/c =2v/λ
Coherence Time
• Time interval during which the channel does not change.
• Important in optimizing many communication parameters.
• During packet transmissions, usually there are some preamble signals used to probe the channel.
• Statistics from the probe used to optimize the transmission parameters for the rest of the bits in
the packet.
• Packet size has to be optimized so that it can complete within the channel coherence time,
otherwise part of the packet will experience a different channel.
• For long packets, multiple probes must be inserted within the packet to obtain the most up-to-
date channel information
• Doppler spread is a frequency domain measure that influences the coherence time in a reciprocal
relationship as follows:
• Coherence time =1/Doppler spread =λ/2v
Duplexing
• How can resource be allocated between the transmitter and the receiver so that they both can
exchange information with each other, i.e., both can transmit and receive?
• Two ways – see fig.
• One way is to allocate different frequencies for different directions. In this case both can talk at the same time,
achieving full-duplex communications. Frequency Division Duplexing
• The other method is to use the same frequency for both directions, but only one entity can talk at a given time. Time
Division Duplexing
Wikipedia Links
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_(waves)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_phase
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_domain
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_domain
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplitude-shift_keying
Wikipedia Links
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-shift_keying
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-shift_keying
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-shift_keying
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_phase-shift_keying
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_coding
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrature_amplitude_modulation
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon%E2%80%93Hartley_theorem
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_capacity
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamming_distance
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_access_method
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_division_multiple_access
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-division_multiple_access
Wikipedia Links
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_spectrum
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-sequence_spread_spectrum
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-sequence_spread_spectrum
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency-hopping_spread_spectrum
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_effect
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplex_(telecommunications)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-division_duplex
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_division_duplex
Homework 1
• What is wavelength of a signal at 60 GHz?
• How many Watts of power is 30dBm?
• A telephone line is known to have a loss of 20 dB. The input signal power is measured at 1 Watt, and the output signal
noise level is measured at 1 mW. Using this information, calculate the output signal to noise ratio in dB.
• What is the maximum data rate that can be supported on a 10 MHz noise-less channel if the channel uses eight-level
digital signals?
• What signal to noise ratio (in dB) is required to achieve 10 Mbps through a 5 MHz channel?
• Compute the average Doppler frequency shift at 36 km/hr using 3 GHz band? Doppler spread is twice the Doppler shift.
What is the channel coherence time?