Data Communications &

Computer Networks

Chapter 3

Data Transmission

Fall 2008

Agenda

• Terminology and basic concepts

• Analog and Digital Data Transmission
• Transmission impairments
• Channel capacity
• Home Exercises

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 Terminology and basic
concepts

1. Terminology (1)
• Transmitter
• Receiver
• Medium
—Guided medium
• e.g. twisted pair, optical fiber
—Unguided medium
• e.g. air, water, vacuum

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 Terminology (2)
• Direct link
—No intermediate devices
• Point-to-point
—Direct link
—Only 2 devices share link
• Multi-point
—More than two devices share the link

Terminology (3)
• Simplex
—One direction

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 Time-Domain Concepts
• Analog signal
—Varies in a smooth way over time
• Digital signal
—Maintains a constant level then changes to another
constant level
• Periodic signal
—Pattern of signal is repeated over time
• Aperiodic signal
—Pattern of signal is not repeated over time

Analogue & Digital Signals

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 Periodic
Signals

Sine Wave

Square Wave

Sine Wave characteristics

• Peak Amplitude (A)
—maximum strength of signal
—volts
• Frequency (f)
—Rate of change of signal
—Hertz (Hz) or cycles per second
—Period = time for one repetition (T)
—T = 1/f
• Phase (φ)
—Relative position in time

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 Varying Sine Waves
s(t) = A sin(2πft +φ)

Wavelength
• Distance occupied by one cycle
• Distance between two points of corresponding
phase in two consecutive cycles
• λ=wavelength
• Assuming signal velocity v
— λ = v·T
— λ·f = v
— c =2,98*108 m/s (approximately 3*108 m/s) speed
of light in free space

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 Frequency Domain Concepts
• Signal usually made up of many frequencies
• Components are sine waves
• Can be shown (Fourier analysis) that any signal
is made up of component sine waves
• Can plot frequency domain functions

Addition of
Frequency
Components
(T=1/f) sin(2πft)

(1/3) sin(2π(3f)t)

(4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)]

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 Spectrum & Bandwidth
• Spectrum
—range of frequencies contained in signal
• Bandwidth (BW)
—Narrow band of frequencies containing most of the
signal energy
—Absolute bandwidth: Width of the spectrum
—Effective bandwidth (or bandwidth): energy of
signal contained in a narrow band of frequencies
(usually expressed as the –3 dB points)
• DC Component
—Component of zero frequency

Frequency Signal spectrum

Domain
Representations
Absolute
bandwidth=
Fundamental frequency (f) 3f-1f=2f

(4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)]

This signal has an infinite

bandwidth.
Its effective bandwidth is
limited in a relatively narrow band
of frequencies where the most
energy of the signal is contained

s(t)=1, -X/2<t<X/2

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 Signal with DC Component
Time Domain

s(t) = 1 + (4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)]

Frequency Domain

Bandwidth

Square
wave
Square wave
(4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)+(1/5)sin(2π(5f)t)]
signal consists
of an infinite
number of odd
harmonics

(4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)+(1/5)sin(2π(5f)t) +(1/7)sin(2π(7f)t)]]

Σ
(4/π) [sin(2πkft)]/k
for odd values of k

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 Data Rate and Bandwidth (1)
• Any transmission system has a limited band of
frequencies
• This limits the data rate that can be carried

Data Rate and Bandwidth (2)

• Suppose a digital transmission system is capable
of transmitting signals with a BW of 4MHz. Let
us attempt to transmit a square wave signal
(i.e. a sequence of alternating 0s and 1s. What
is the achievable data rate?

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 Data Rate and Bandwidth (3)
Case 1:
Assume that the
square wave is
approximated to
this signal.
(4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)+(1/5)sin(2π(5f)t)]

BW=fupper – flower = 5f – f =4f

If f=1MHz, then the BW=4MHz.

Since T=1/f then signal period is 1/1MHz=1µs
Since one bit occurs every 0.5T then Data rate=1/0.5T=2Mbps

So, for this particular example, for a BW of 4MHz, the Data Rate
achieved is 2Mbps

Data Rate and Bandwidth (4)

Case 2:
Assume that the
square wave is
approximated to
this signal.
(4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)+(1/5)sin(2π(5f)t)]

BW=fupper – flower = 5f – f =4f

If f=2MHz, then the BW=8MHz.

Since T=1/f then signal period is 1/2MHz=0.5µs
Since one bit occurs every 0.5T then Data rate=1/0.25T=4Mbps

So, for this particular example, for a BW of 8MHz, the Data Rate
achieved is 4Mbps

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 Data Rate and Bandwidth (5)
Case 3:
Assume that the
square wave is
approximated to
this signal.
(4/π) [sin(2πft)+(1/3)sin(2π(3f)t)]

BW=fupper – flower = 3f – f =2f

If f=2MHz, then the BW=4MHz.

Since T=1/f then signal period is 1/2MHz=0.5µs
Since one bit occurs every 0.5T then Data rate=1/0.25T=4Mbps

So, for this particular example, for a BW of 4MHz, the Data Rate
achieved is 4Mbps

Data Rate and Bandwidth (6)

• Conclusions
—In general, any digital waveform has infinite BW
—If a digital waveform is transmitted over any medium,
the transmission system will limit the BW that can be
transmitted
—For any given medium, the greater the BW
transmitted, the greater the cost
—Limiting the BW creates distortions, which makes the
task of interpreting the received signal more difficult
—The more limited the BW, the greater the distortion,
and the greater the potential for error by the receiver

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 Analog and Digital Data
Transmission

2. Analog and Digital Data

Transmission
• Data
—Entities that convey information
• Signals
—Electric or electromagnetic representations of data
—Signaling is the physical propagation of the signal
along a suitable medium
• Transmission
—Communication of data by propagation and
processing of signals

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 Analog and Digital Data
• Analog
—Continuous values within some interval
—e.g. sound, video
• Digital
—Discrete values
—e.g. text, integers

Acoustic Spectrum (Analog)

(log scale)

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 Analog and Digital Signals
• Means by which data are propagated
• Analog signals
—Continuously variable
—Various media
• wire, fiber optic, space
—Speech bandwidth 100Hz to 7kHz
—Telephone bandwidth 300Hz to 3400Hz
—Video bandwidth 4MHz
• Digital signals
—Use two DC components (binary 0 and 1)

Advantages & Disadvantages

of Digital signals
• Advantages
—Cheaper
—Less susceptible to noise

• Disadvantages
—Greater attenuation
• Pulses become rounded and smaller
• Leads to loss of information

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 Attenuation of Digital Signals

Components of Speech
• Frequency range (of hearing) 20Hz-20kHz
—Speech 100Hz-7kHz
• Easily converted into electromagnetic signal for
transmission
• Sound frequencies with varying volume
converted into electromagnetic frequencies with
varying voltage
• Limit frequency range for voice channel
—300-3400Hz

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 Conversion of Voice Input into
Analogue Signal

Binary Digital Data

• From computer terminals etc.
• Two dc components
• Bandwidth depends on data rate

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 Conversion of PC Input to
Digital Signal

Data and Signals

• Usually use digital signals for digital data and
analog signals for analog data
• Can use analog signal to carry digital data
—Modem
• Can use digital signal to carry analog data
—Compact Disc audio

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 Analog Signals Carrying Analog
and Digital Data

Digital Signals Carrying Analog

and Digital Data

Voice

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 Analog Transmission
• Analog signal transmitted without regard to
content
• May be analog or digital data
• Attenuated over distance
• Use amplifiers to boost signal
• However, amplifiers or signal boosters also
amplify noise

Digital Transmission
• Concerned with content
• Integrity endangered by noise, attenuation etc.
• Repeaters are used
—A repeater receives digital signal, recovers the bit
pattern (0 or 1) and retransmits new signal. Thus,
attenuation is overcome
• Noise is not amplified

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 Advantages of Digital
Transmission
• Digital technology
— Low cost large-scale and very-large scale integration technology
• Data integrity
— Longer distances over lower quality lines
• Capacity utilization
— High bandwidth links economical
— High degree of multiplexing easier with digital techniques
• Security & Privacy
— Encryption
• Integration
— Can treat analog and digital data similarly
— Economies of scale and convenience can be achieved by
integrating voice, video and digital data

Transmission Impairments

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 3. Transmission Impairments
• Signal received may differ from signal transmitted

• For Analog signals

— degradation of signal quality

• For Digital signals

— bit errors may occur

• Most significant transmission impairments are

— Attenuation and attenuation distortion
— Delay distortion
— Noise

Attenuation
• Signal strength reduces with distance over any
transmission medium
• Depends on medium
• Received signal strength:
—must be enough to be detected
—must be sufficiently higher than noise to be received
without error
• Attenuation is an increasing function of
frequency, i.e. the higher the frequency, the
more the attenuation attenuation

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 Delay Distortion (DD)
• Only in guided media
• It occurs because the propagation velocity of a
signal through a guided medium varies with
frequency
• Received signal is distorted due to varying
delays experienced at its constituent
frequencies
• DD is particularly critical for digital signals
—some of the signal components of one bit may spill
over into other bit positions, causing intersymbol
interference, which limits the maximum data rate
over a transmission channel

Noise (1)
• Additional signals inserted between transmitter
and receiver
• Noise is the major limiting factor in
communication system performance
• Noise can be divided into 4 main categories
—Thermal
—Intermodulation
—Crosstalk
—Impulse noise

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 Noise (2)
• Thermal
— Due to thermal agitation of electrons in all electronic devices
— Uniformly distributed across the bandwidth
— Also referred to a white noise
• Intermodulation
— Signals that are the sum and difference of original frequencies sharing
the same transmission medium
— Example: mixing of signals at f1 and f2 may produce energy at f1±f2,
which could interfere with an intended signal at (f1+f2) or (f1-f2)
• Crosstalk
— Unwanted coupling between signal paths
— Antennas or wires may pick up other unwanted signals, eg. phone line
• Impulse
— Non continuous, consisting of irregular pulses or noise spikes of short
duration but of high amplitude
— e.g. External electromagnetic interference, such as lightning

Channel capacity

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 4. Channel Capacity
• As we have seen so far, there is a variety of
impairments that distort or corrupt a signal. To what
extent do these impairments limit the maximum
achievable data rate?
• Channel Capacity is the maximum rate at which data
can be transmitted over a communication channel.
• Data rate
—In bits per second (bps)
—Rate at which data can be communicated
• Bandwidth
—In cycles per second, or Hertz
—Constrained by transmitter and medium

Nyquist Bandwidth
• Assume a noise-free channel
• If rate of signal transmission is 2B, then a signal with
frequencies no greater than B is sufficient to carry signal
rate
• or, given bandwidth B, highest signal rate is 2B
• Given a binary signal, the maximum data rate supported
by a channel of bandwidth B Hz is 2B bps
• Maximum data rate, C, can be increased by using M
signal levels
• Nyquist formula: C= 2·B·log2M in bps (bits per
second)
• However, receiver must be able to distinguish one of M
possible signal elements. Noise and other transmission
impairments limit the practical value of M.

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 Shannon Capacity Formula
• Nyquist’s formula indicates that doubling BW, doubles
the data rate in a noise-free channel.
• In practice, noise is always present. So, let us consider
the relationship between data rate, noise and error rate.
• Faster data rate shortens each bit duration so a burst of
noise affects more bits
— So, at a given noise level, the higher the data rate, the higher
the error rate
• Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR or S/N) expressed in decibels
• SNRdB=10 log10 (Signal power/Noise power)
• Max channel Capacity is C=B·log2(1+SNR) in bps
(bits per second)
• This formula is for error-free capacity and assumes
white noise. In practice, data rate is lower than C.

A few things about Decibels (1)

• It is customary to express gains, losses and relative
levels in decibels because
— Signal strength often falls off exponentially, so loss is easily
expressed in terms of the decibel, which is a logarithmic unit
— The net gain or loss in a cascaded transmission path can be
calculated with simple addition and subtraction
• The decibel (dB) is a measure of the ratio between two
signal levels. The decibel gain is given by
GdB=10·log10 (Output power / Input power)
GdB=10·log10 (Pout/Pin)

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 A few things about Decibels (2)
• Gain is expressed in positive dB values (GdB)
• Loss is expressed in negative dB values (LdB)
• E.g. A gain of –3dB means that the power has halved
and this is a loss of power. (Why?)

Power Ratio dB Power Ratio dB

101 10 10-1 -10

102 20 10-2 -20
103 30 10-3 -30
104 40 10-4 -40
105 50 10-5 -50
106 60 10-6 -60

A few things about Decibels (3)

• Note that dB is a measure of relative, not absolute
difference.
• The dB is also used to measure the difference in Voltage

• Since P = V2/R
Where, P=Power dissipated across resistance R
v = Voltage across resistance R
Then GdB = 10 log10 (Pout/Pin)
= 10 log10 [(V2out/R) /(V2in/R)]
= 20 log10 (Vout/Vin)

Similarly LdB = 20 log10 (Vin/Vout)

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 Example on channel capacity
• Suppose that the spectrum of a noise-free
channel is between 3 MHz and 4 MHz and
SNRdB=24 dB.
—What is the maximum achievable data rate?
—How many signal levels are required to achieve this
rate?

Solution of example
• Bandwidth, B=4 MHz – 3 MHz = 1 MHz = 106 Hz.
• SNRdB=24 dB = 10log10(SNR)
• Therefore, SNR=10(24/10) = 102.4 = 251.2

• Using Shannon’s formula, C=B log2(1+SNR),

C=106 log2 (1+251.2) = 7.98 x 106 ~ 8 Mbps

• Based on Nyquist’s formula, C=2B log2M in order to

achieve a data rate of 8MBps in a channel bandwidth of
1MHz, then we need M signal levels, where M is equal
to:
8x106 = 2x106 log2M => 4 = log2M => M=24=16

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 Home Exercises

Exercises (1)
Q1. What is the theoretical maximum channel capacity for
the following PSTN channel of a signal-to-noise ratio
of 13dB? Assume white thermal noise is only present
on the channel.
S(f) in dB

0
-3

300 3400 f (Hz)

Q2. Consider a signal f(t)=3sin(3000πt)+sin(9000πt) injected

through a noisy channel of a signal-to-noise ratio of
20dB. What is the maximum data rate achieved?

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 Exercises (2)
Q3. A modem to be used with a PSTN network uses a modulation
scheme with eight levels per signalling element. Assuming
the same channel bandwidth as in Q1, but a noiseless
channel, find the maximum possible data rate.

Q4. Given a channel with an intended capacity of 20 Mbps, the

bandwidth of the channel is 3 MHz. Assuming white thermal
noise, what signal to noise ratio in decibels is it required to
achieve this capacity?

Q5. Fill in the missing elements in the following table

Decibels 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Losses 0.5 0.1
Gains 2 10

Useful log identities

• logaB=X => aX=B
• logaB = (log10 B)/(log10 a)

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 Required Reading
• Stallings Chapter 3
• Tanenbaum Chapter 2.1

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