ECE337

Telecommunication Fundamentals

Instructor
Prof. Samy El-Hennawey
Mohamed.elhennawey@miuegypt.edu.eg

Assistant
Eng. Mayada Osama
eng.mayada2012@gmail.com
Course Specifications
A- Basic Information
Course Title: Telecommunication Fundamentals
Course Code: GEE337

Program on which the course is given: B.Sc. in Electronics &

Communications Engineering

Department offering the course: Electronics and Communications

Engineering
Department teaching the course: Electronics and Communications
Engineering
Academic year/Level: 3rd /6th
Date of specification approval: 20/9/2017
Credit Hours: 3 Lectures: 3 hrs / week
Tutorial/ Practical: 1.5 hrs/week Total: 4.5 hrs / week
Course Prerequisite: GEE 330 Signals and Systems
Course coordinator: Prof. Samy El-Hennawey
B- Professional Information

1. Overall aims of course

 Understand the fundamentals of telecommunication.

 Understand the idea of how a communication system works.
 Understand the function of each entity of a communications system.
 Know the communication channels and their properties and
applications
 Analyze electric signals in time and frequency domains.
 Understand the basic principles of signal transmission, multiplexing
and multiple access techniques.
 Provide knowledge and understanding of performance evaluation of
analog to digital conversion.
2.Intended learning outcomes of course
(ILOs)
a- Knowledge and understanding
b- Intellectual skills
c- Professional and practical skills
d- General and transferable skills

Note: Details will be posted on E-Learning

(MOODLE)
3. Course Contents (by weeks)
1. Course Objectives and Outlines: Signal Transmission Fundamentals
2. Transmission Impairments (Att. & Dist.)
3. Transmission Impairments (Noise)
4. Communication System Fundamentals
5. Transmission Media
6. Correlation and spectral density, for power and energy signals
7. Correlation and spectral density, for power and energy signals
8. Analog to digital conversion
9. Analog to digital conversion (cont.)
10. Analog to digital conversion (cont.)
11. Analog to digital conversion (cont.)
12. Multiplexing Techniques
4-Teaching and learning methods

a) Lectures: Data show and white board.

b) Tutorial problems
c) Assignments, and homework
5. Assessment
 Midterm: 40%
 Exam: 25%
 Quizzes 10%
 Tutorials: (preparation, performance, assignments) 5%

 Final: 55%
 Exam: 35
 Quizzes: 10%
 Tutorials (preparation, performance, assignments) 5%
 Participation 5%

 Attendance: 5%
6- References
1. Course notes: Instructor notes: offered on data show and white
board
Insufficient for studying
2. Textbook: Simon Haykin, " Communication Systems“, Fourth
Edition, John Willey &Sons Inc, 2000
3. Supplementary Reference, B. P. Lathi , “Modern Digital and
Analog Communication Systems”, International Edition, Oxford
University Press, 2010
4. Supplementary Reference, Behrouz A. Forouzan, “Data
Communications and Networking” Mc Graw Hill, Fourth Edition
2007

.
 Importance
Importance of
of this
this
course
course
Communication Engineering Courses
 Signal Analysis and Processing
 Telecommunication
Fundamentals
Communicatio Communicatio Communicatio
n Eng. Theory n Systems n Networks
( Theories about (The science of (The science of how
how a signal is how a transmitted signals are
transmitted and communication routed to the desired
received at link is designed destinations)
minimum errors) and
implemented) - Computer comm. NW
Analo Digita Analo Digita
g l g l
-Comm Comm
Analog comms. - Sys.
Sys.
Mobile comm. sys.
. comms. .
- Digital - Optical comm. sys.
- Information Theory - Satellite comm. sys.
- Cryptography
 Telecommunications
 Tele (Far) - Communications
 Telecommunications means communicating over

a long distance.
 Early telecommunications
 smoke signals and drums

 visual telegraphy (or semaphore in 1792)

 Telegraph and telephone

 Telegraph

 Telephone

 Radio and television

 Telephony
 Voice and Data
History
History of
of Communication
Communication Systems
Systems
 Analog Communication Systems
 1839 - Telegraph

 1876 - Bell Telephone

 1920 - Radio Broadcast

 1936 - TV Broadcast

 Digital Communication Systems

 1960’s - Digital communications

 1965 - First commercial satellite Systems

 1990 - First Digital Mobile System

 Networked Communication Systems

 1970 - First Internet node (Darpa-net, Aloha-net)

 1980 - Development of TCP/IP

 1993 - Invention of Web

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 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Communication Systems

 What is communication?
 Transportation of information from one point to another

 Every communication system has three essential elements

 transmitter,

 medium/channel

 receiver.
 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Communication Systems
 There are two basic modes of communication: point-to-
point and broadcast.
 In point-to-point communication mode, communication
takes place over a link between a single transmitter and
a receiver.
 Telephony is an example of such a mode of
communication.
 In the broadcast mode, there are a large number of
receivers corresponding to a single transmitter.
 Radio and television are examples of broadcast mode of
communication.
 Transmission Terminology

Transmitted signal Received signal

The goal of communication engineering theories is to transmit

signal from a transmitter to a receiver with an acceptable
quality (with min error rate)
With two essential challenges:
 Maximize number of users (maximize system utilization or

efficiency)
 Maximize transmission speed (maximize transmission rate)

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 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Elements of a Communication System

Information sources:
 Voice, music, images, video, and data (called message)

Input Transducer:
 An electrical transducer may be defined as a device that converts some

physical variable (pressure, displacement, force, temperature, etc.) into

corresponding variations in the electrical signal at its output.
 The message produced by a source must be converted by a transducer

to a form suitable for the particular type of communication system (called

baseband signal).
 Example: speech waves are converted by a microphone to voltage

variation.
 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Elements of a Communication System

Signal:
 Information converted in electrical form and suitable

for transmission is called a signal.

 Signals can be either analog or digital.

 Analog signals are continuous variations of voltage

or current.
 Digital signals are those which can take only

discrete stepwise values. Binary system that is

extensively used in digital electronics employs just
two levels of a signal.
 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Elements of a Communication System

Transmitter:
 A transmitter processes the input message signal so as to make it

suitable for transmission through a channel and subsequent reception.

 Signal processing for transmission almost always involves modulation

and may also include coding. In addition to modulation, other functions

performed by the transmitter are amplification, filtering and coupling
the modulated signal to the channel.
 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Elements of a Communication System

Channel:
 The channel can have different forms: The atmosphere (or free space),

coaxial cable, fiber optic, waveguide, etc.

 The signal undergoes some amount of degradation from noise,

interference and distortion

 Propagating signals degrade over distance

 Repeaters can strengthen signal and reduce noise

Noise, Interference and Jamming:

 They refers to the unwanted (undesired) signals that tend to disturb the

transmission and processing of message signals in a communication

system.
 The source generating them may be located inside or outside the system.
 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Elements of a Communication System

Receiver:
 The receiver’s function is to extract the desired signal from the received

signal at the channel output and to convert it to a form suitable for the
output transducer.
 Other functions performed by the receiver: amplification (the received

signal may be extremely weak), demodulation and filtering.

Output Transducer:
 Converts the electric signal at its input into the form desired by the

system user.
Example: Loudspeaker, personal computer (PC), tape recorders.
 Signal Transmission Fundamentals

Basic expressions used in communication engineering

Attenuation:
 The loss of strength of a signal while propagating through a medium is

known as attenuation. It will be discussed in detail later

Amplification:
 It is the process of increasing the amplitude (and consequently the

strength) of a signal using an electronic circuit called the amplifier.

 Amplification is necessary to compensate for the attenuation of the signal

in communication systems.
 Signal Transmission Fundamentals
Basic expressions used in communication system
Range:
 It is the largest distance between a source and a destination up to which

the message can be detected by the receiver.

Transmitter Receiver
Source (Tx) (Rx) Destination
Transmission
medium
range
Repeater:
 A repeater is a combination of a receiver and a transmitter.
 A repeater, picks up the signal from the transmitter, amplifies and

retransmits it to the receiver sometimes with a change in carrier frequency.

 Repeaters are used to extend the range of a communication system.
 Repeaters are used to extend the range

Transmitter Repeater Receiver

Source (Tx) (Rx/Tx) (Rx) Destination
Transmission Transmission
medium medium
 Analog
Analog Communications
Communications systems
systems
• The base-band signal to be processed at the
transmitter is analog
– E.g., microphone: the voltage v(t) at the output
of the mic is proportional to the sound pressure
Mic (Sensor)

Sound
Analog Communication
System Speaker

0.2

0.2
0.15

0.15
0.1

0.1
0.05

0.05
0

0
-0.05

-0.05
-0.1

-0.1
-0.15
1.35 1.355 1.36 1.365 1.37 1.375

-0.15
1.35 1.355 1.36 1.365 1.37 1.375

Speech
24 Speech
 Digital
Digital Communications
Communications Systems
Systems
• The base-band signal to be processed at the
transmitter is digital
– For analog sources, we should use:
• Analog-to-digital conversion: ADC
• Digital-to-analog conversion: DAC

Sound 0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

010001010 010001010
0
0.2

-0.05
0.15

-0.1
0.1

-0.15
0.05 1.35 1.355 1.36 1.365 1.37 1.375

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15
1.35 1.355 1.36 1.365 1.37 1.375

ADC DAC Speaker

Digital Communication
System

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