Digital Communication

Lecture 1
 COURSE Scope
• Course material

• Course textbook:
• “Digital communications: Fundamentals and
Applications” by Bernard Sklar,Prentice Hall, 2001,
ISBN: 0-13-084788-7
• Lecture Notes and slides

• Additional recommended books:

• “Communication systems engineering”, by John G.
Proakis and Masoud Salehi, Prentice Hall, 2002, 2nd
edition, ISBN: 0-13- 095007-6
• “Introduction to digital communications”, by Michael B.
Pursley, Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2005, International
edition, ISBN: 0-13- 123392-0
• ”Digital communications”, by Ian A. Glover and Peter M.
Grant, Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2004, 2nd edition, ISBN: 0-
13-089399-4

Lecture 2
 • Introduction to DCS
• Communications is a process by which information is
exchanged between individuals through a common system
of symbols, signs, or behaviour
“It is about communication between people; the
rest is technology”

• Communication systems are reliable, economical and

efficient means of communications
• Public switched telephone network (PSTN), mobile telephone
communication (GSM, 3G, 4G...), broadcast radio or television,
navigation systems, ...
• The course is aiming at introducing fundamental issues
required for understanding and designing a (digital)
communication system

Lecture 3
Scope of the course ...
• Example of a (digital) communication system:
Cellular wireless communication systems (WLAN, WSN…)
BS

Base Station (BS)

UE UE

UE
User Equipment (UE)

Lecture 4
Scope of the course ...
General structure of a communication system
Noise
Transmitted Received Received
Info. Transmitter signal signal Receiver info.
Channel
Source User

Transmitter
Formatter Source Channel Modulator
encoder encoder

Receiver
Formatter Source Channel Demodulator
decoder decoder

Lecture 5
 Scope of the course …

• Learning fundamental issues in designing a digital

communication system (DCS):
• Utilized techniques
• Formatting and source coding
• Modulation (Baseband and bandpass signaling)
• Channel coding
• Equalization
• Synchronization
• ....
• Design goals
• Trade-off between various parameters

Lecture 6
 Today, we are going to talk about:
• What are the features of a digital communication
system?
• Why “digital” instead of “analog”?
• What do we need to know before taking off
toward designing a DCS?
• Classification of signals
• Random processes
• Autocorrelation
• Power and energy spectral densities
• Noise in communication systems
• Signal transmission through linear systems
• Bandwidth of a signal

Lecture 7
Digital communication system
• Important features of a DCS:
• The transmitter sends a waveform from a finite set
of possible waveforms during a limited time

• The channel distorts, attenuates the

transmitted signal and adds noise to it.

• The receiver decides which waveform

was transmitted given the noisy received
signal

• The probability of an erroneous decision

is an important measure for the system
performance
Lecture 8
 Digital versus analog
• Advantages of digital communications:
• Regenerator receiver

Original Regenerated
pulse pulse

Propagation distance

• Different kinds of digital signal are treated

identically.
Voice
Data A bit is a bit!
Media

Lecture 9
 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature

Textual Message: information comprised of a sequence

of characters.
Binary Digit (Bit): the fundamental information unit for
all digital systems.
Symbol (mi where i=1,2,…M): for transmission of the bit
stream; groups of k bits are combined to form new
symbol from a finite set of M such symbols; M=2k.
Digital Waveform: voltage or current waveform
representing a digital symbol.
Data Rate: Symbol transmission is associated with a
symbol duration T. Data rate R=k/T [bps].
Baud Rate: number of symbols transmitted per second
[baud].
Nomenclature Examples
Messages, Characters, and Symbols
 Typical Digital Communications System

From Other Sources

Information Bits Source Bits Channel Bits

T
Source Encryption Channel Frequency Multiple
Format Interleaving Multiplexing Modulation X
Encoding Encoding Spreading Access
RF
PA
si
Digital (t)
Input C
mi H
A
Bit Digital N
Synchronization
Stream Waveform N
E
Digital L
Output
mˆ i sˆi
(t)
R
Source Channel Frequency Multipl
Format Decryption Deinterleaving Demultiplexing X
Decoding Decoding Demodulation Despreading e
RF
Access
IF
Information Sink Source Bits Channel Bits
Optional
Essential To Other Destinations
Classification of signals
• Deterministic and random signals
• Deterministic signal: No uncertainty with respect to
the signal value at any time.

• Random signal: Some degree of uncertainty in

signal values before it actually occurs.
• Thermal noise in electronic circuits due to the random
movement of electrons
• Reflection of radio waves from different layers of
ionosphere
• Interference

Lecture 1
Classification of signals …
• Periodic and non-periodic signals

A periodic signal A non-periodic signal

• Analog and discrete signals

A discrete signal

Analog signals
Lecture 1
 Classification of signals ..
• Energy and power signals
• A signal is an energy signal if, and only if, it has nonzero
but finite energy for all time:

• A signal is a power signal if, and only if, it has finite but
nonzero power for all time:

• General rule: Periodic and random signals are power signals.

Signals that are both deterministic and non-periodic are energy
signals.

Lecture 1
The performance of a communication system
depends on the received signal energy; higher
energy signals are detected more reliably (with
fewer errors) than are lower energy signals—the
received energy does the work
On the other hand, power is the rate at which
energy is delivered.
The power determines the voltages that must be
applied to a transmitter and the intensities of the
electromagnetic fields that one must contend with in
radio systems (i.e., fields in waveguides that
connect the transmitter to the antenna, and fields
around the radiating elements of the antenna).
An energy signal has finite energy but zero average
power, whereas a power signal has finite average
power but infinite energy.
A waveform in a system may be constrained in
either its power or energy values.

As a general rule, periodic signals and random

signals are classified as power signals, while signals
that are both deterministic and nonperiodic are
classified as energy signals
Spectral density

The spectral density of a signal characterizes the

distribution of the signal’s energy or power in the
frequency domain.

This concept is particularly important when

considering filtering in communication systems. We
need to be able to evaluate the signal and noise at
the filter output.

The energy spectral density (ESD) or the power

spectral density (PSD) is used in the evaluation
Spectral density
• Energy signals:

• Energy spectral density (ESD):

• Power signals:

• Power spectral density (PSD):

• Random process:
• Power spectral density (PSD):

Lecture 2
Energy spectral density describes the signal energy
per unit bandwidth measured in joules/hertz
Autocorrelation
Correlation is a matching process; autocorrelation refers to
the matching of a signal with a delayed version of itself.
The autocorrelation function of a real-valued
energy signal x(t) is defined as

The autocorrelation function Rx() provides a measure of

how closely the signal matches a copy of itself as the copy
is shifted units in time.
This variable plays the role of a scanning or searching
parameter.
Autocorrelation

Rx() is not a function of time; it is only a function of

the time difference between the waveform and its
shifted copy
Autocorrelation
• Autocorrelation of an energy signal

• Autocorrelation of a power signal

• For a periodic signal:

• Autocorrelation of a random signal

• For a WSS process:

Lecture 2
RANDOM SIGNALS
• The main objective of a communication system is
the transfer of information over a channel.
• All useful message signals appear random; that
is, the receiver does not know, a priori, which of
the possible message waveforms will be
transmitted.
• Also, the noise that accompanies the message
signals is due to random electrical signals.
• Therefore, we need to be able to form efficient
descriptions of random signals
Random process
• A random process is a collection of time functions, or
signals, corresponding to various outcomes of a random
experiment. For each outcome, there exists a deterministic
function, which is called a sample function or a realization.

Random
variables
Real number

Sample functions
or realizations
(deterministic
function)
time (t)

Lecture 2
Random process …
• Strictly stationary: If none of the statistics of the random process are
affected by a shift in the time origin.

• Wide sense stationary (WSS): If the mean and autocorrelation functions do

not change with a shift in the origin time.

• Cyclostationary: If the mean and autocorrelation functions are periodic in

time.

• Ergodic process: A random process is ergodic in mean and autocorrelation,

if

and

, respectively.

Lecture 2
Noise in communication systems
• Thermal noise is described by a zero-mean Gaussian random
process, n(t).
• Its PSD is flat, hence, it is called white noise.

[w/Hz]

Power spectral
density

Autocorrelation
function
Probability density function

Lecture 2
 Signal transmission through linear systems

Input Output
Linear system
• Deterministic signals:
• Random signals:

• Ideal distortion less transmission:

All the frequency components of the signal not only arrive
with an identical time delay, but also are amplified or
attenuated equally.

Lecture 2
Signal transmission … - cont’d
• Ideal filters:

Non-causal!
Low-pass

Band-pass High-pass

• Realizable filters:
RC filters Butterworth filter

Lecture 3
Bandwidth of signal
• Baseband versus bandpass:

Baseband Bandpass
signal signal
Local oscillator

• Bandwidth dilemma:
• Bandlimited signals are not realizable!
• Realizable signals have infinite bandwidth!

Lecture 3
 Bandwidth of signal …
• Different definition of bandwidth:
a) Half-power bandwidth a) Fractional power containment bandwidth
b) Noise equivalent bandwidth b) Bounded power spectral density
c) Null-to-null bandwidth c) Absolute bandwidth

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)5
Lecture 3