37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

I. PROGRAM OUTCOMES:
In pursuance of the above-stated mission, the objectives of the BSIT and ACT are as follows:
1. Apply knowledge of computing, theories, fundamentals, models, mathematics and science
appropriate to the discipline;
2. Analyze a problem, identify and define the need and user requirements appropriate to its solution;
3. Design, implement and evaluate a computer-based system, process, component or program to meet
desired needs;
4. Develop ideas and solutions with creativity and innovation with appropriate considerations to ethics,
cultural, and environment factors;
5. Analyze the local and global impact of technology on individuals, organizations and society;
6. Function effectively as a member or leader of a development team recognizing the different roles
within a team to accomplish a common goal;
7. Assist in the creation of an effective project plan;
8. Recognize the legal, social, ethical and professional issues involved in the utilization of computer
technology and be guided by the adoption of appropriate professional, ethical and legal practices;
9. Recognize the fast-paced demands of industry allowing him or her to formulate personal goals
aligned to organizational goals in order to determine plans of action to improve own performance,
capability and self. Such goals allow the student to self-assess him/himself to determine his
development needs;
10. Ability to effectively communicate and present the designed solutions with a range of audiences both
in oral and in writing;
11. Apply current and appropriate techniques, skills and tools necessary for the IT professions

COURSE TITLE Wireless and Mobile Application

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course presents the fundamentals of wireless digital communication from a signal
processing perspective. There are already a number of textbooks on related topics of wireless
communication and digital communication. Most other textbooks on wireless communication
are targeted toward graduate students in communications, building on the foundations of
graduate courses in random processes and digital communication. Unfortunately,
undergraduate students, graduate students in other areas, and practicing engineers may not
have taken the typical graduate prerequisites for those textbooks. Other textbooks on digital
communication are targeted toward one- or two-semester graduate courses, attempting to
present digital communication in its most general form. This book, however, focuses on a
subset of digital communication known as complex pulse-amplitude modulation, which is used
in most commercial wireless systems. In addition, this book describes in detail important
receiver signal processing algorithms, which are required to implement a wireless
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

communication link. While most concepts are presented for a communication system with a
single transmit and single receive antenna, they are extended at the end of the book to MIMO
communication systems, which are now widely deployed in practice.

For communications engineers, this provides background on receiver algorithms like

channel estimation and synchronization, which are often not explained in detail in other
textbooks. It also provides an accessible introduction to the principles of MIMO communication.
For signal processing engineers, this book explains how to view a communication link through
a signal processing lens. In particular, input-output relationships are built upon principles from
digital signal processing so that the entire system can be represented in terms of discrete-time
signals. Critical background on communication system impairments and their models is
provided, along with an approachable introduction to the principles of wireless channel
modeling. For analog, mixed-signal, and circuit designers, this book provides an introduction
into the mathematical principles of wireless digital communication. The formulations are
simplified from what is found in other textbooks, yet what is presented is immediately practical
and can be used to prototype a wireless communication link.

The increasing demand for mobile and wireless sensing necessitates the use of highly
integrated technology featuring small size, low weight, high performance and low cost: micro-
electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) can meet this need. The wireless and mobile applications
provide a comprehensive overview of radio frequency (RF) MEMS technologies and explores
the use of these technologies over a wide range of application areas.

COURSE OUTCOMES (CMO)

In this course, you should be able to:

1. demonstrate a basic understanding of wireless digital communication;

2. described the fundamentals of digital communication from a signal processing perspective;
3. describes specific receiver algorithms, including synchronization, carrier frequency offset
estimation, channel estimation, and equalization;
4. describe the different types of mobile applications;
5. learn how to build mobile solutions using the people tools development framework.

INTRODUCTION

During the last 100 years, wireless communication has invaded every aspect of our
lives. Wireless communication, though, has existed for much longer than the wire it is replacing.
Speech is a prehistoric example of a wireless system, though it is predated by gestures such as
beating on one’s chest to display authority (still common with gorillas). Sadly, the distance over
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

which speech is effective is limited because of the constraints of human acoustic power and the
natural reduction in power as a function of distance. Early attempts at engineering a wireless
communication system include smoke signals, torch signals, signal flares, and drums. One of
the more successful of these was the heliotrope, which used reflections from the sun in a small
mirror to convey digital signals.

The modern notion of wireless communication relies on the transmission and reception
of electromagnetic waves. The concept was theorized by Maxwell and demonstrated in practice
by Hertz in 1888. Others contributed to the early demonstration of wireless communication,
including Lodge, Bose, and de Moura.

The earliest examples of wireless communication used what is now known as digital
communication. The term digital comes from digitus in Latin, which refers to a finger or toe.
Digital communication is a form of communication that involves conveying information by
selecting one symbol from a set at any given time. For example, by extending just one finger, a
hand can convey one of five symbols. Extending two fingers at a time, a hand can convey one
of 5 × 4 = 20 symbols. Repeating the hand gestures quickly allows multiple symbols to be sent
in succession. This is the essence of digital communication.

Digital communication using electromagnetic waves involves varying the parameters of

continuous-time signals (or analog signals) to send a sequence of binary information, or bits.
The most common kind of wireline communication system in the 1800s was the telegraph,
which used Morse code to send digital messages consisting of letters, numbers, stops, and
spaces across the country, and even the ocean, over wires. A wireless telegraph was patented
by Marconi in 1896, which is generally accepted as the first wireless (electromagnetic) digital
communication system. The first transatlantic wireless Morse code message was sent by
Marconi in 1901. The history of wireless digital communication is as old as wireless itself.

Though interest in wireless telegraphy continued, digital communication gave way to

analog communication as the primary modulation method used in wireless applications until the
1980s. Using analog communication, the parameters of a waveform are varied continuously
based on a continuous-time signal at the input. An early example of analog communication is
the original telephone system, developed in the late 1870s, in which acoustic speech waves
were converted via a microphone to electrical signals that could be amplified and propagated on
a wire. Early examples of wireless analog communication, still in use today, include AM
(amplitude modulation) and FM (frequency modulation) radio, and older broadcast TV
(television). Analog communication has been widely used in wireless communication systems,
but it is now being replaced by digital communication.

The primary reasons that digital communication has now overtaken analog
communication are the prevalence of digital data and advancements in semiconductor
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

technologies. Digital data was not common before the development of computers and computer
networks. Nowadays, everything stored on a computer or exchanged over the Internet is digital,
including e-mail, voice calls, music streaming, videos, and Web browsing among others.
Advances in integrated circuits have led to increasing numbers of transistors in a given amount
of semiconductor area, which has increased the potential of digital signal processing. While not
required for digital communication, leveraging digital signal processing allows for much better
transmitter and receiver algorithms. In wireline telephony, digital communication circuits began
to completely replace analog circuits in the network backbone in the 1960s, in part because of
the noise resilience of digital signals when transmitted over long distances (repeaters are less
sensitive to noise than amplifiers). Similar developments in wireless communication, however,
did not start in earnest until the 1980s. The reason, it seems, is that it was only in the 1980s that
integrated circuit technology had developed to the point where it could be considered for use in
portable wireless devices. About the same time, the compact disc started replacing the tape and
vinyl record.

Digital communication is now a fundamental part of wireless communication. In fact,

almost all current and next-generation wireless communication systems (actually all developing
standards as well) make use of digital communication. Wherever there is currently a wire, there
is a proposal to eliminate that wire via wireless. There are a multitude of commercial, military,
and consumer applications of wireless digital communication.

Lesson 1: Wireless System

Lesson Learning Outcomes

In this lesson, you should be able to:

1. identify and discuss the fundamental operational of wireless communication systems;

2. apply basic techniques to design radio links and basic communication systems;
3. develop abilities to setup experiments and analyze system performance using wireless
systems, hardware and software;
4. discuss basic technical standards related to 2G/3G/4G wireless systems;
5. discuss basic technical standards related to WiFi and sensor networks.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

PRE-ASSESSMENT

Wireless Device Comparison

Instruction: Fill in the following table for three cellular devices manufactured by the three
companies in the table:

Manufacturer Devices #1 Devices #2 Devices #3

Device

What wireless technologies are supported?

(i.e., Wi-Fi, cellular, etc.)?

Which cellular standards are supported?

Which frequency bands are used for

communication?

What is the maximum (claimed) data rate

supported by the device using cellular?

What is the maximum (claimed) data rate

supported by the device using Wi-Fi?

What operating system is employed?

37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

LESSON MAP

Broadcast
Radio &
Television

Cellular
Undwareter
Communication Commnication
Network

Wireless
System
Sattelite WLANs
Sytems and Pans
Wireless
Sensor
Network

This map shows the important factors of Wireless System.

ENGAGE

1. Choose a current cell phone from three of these manufacturers: Nokia, Samsung, Apple,
LG, Huawei, Sony, Blackberry, Motorola, or another of your choosing. Describe the wireless
and cellular technologies and the frequency bands supported by each one.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

2. Name at least three mobile service providers in your country. Which cellular technologies
are currently supported by the networks?

3. Which of those three mobile service providers charge for data and what are the charges for
a typical consumer plan (not business)? Why do you think some providers have stopped
offering unlimited data plans?

EXPLORE

This section reviews common applications of wireless communication and introduces

key terminology that facilitates the discussion of wireless communication in practice. Several
topics are addressed, including broadcast radio and broadcast television, cellular
communication, wireless local area networks, personal area networks, satellite networks, ad hoc
networks, sensor networks, and finally underwater communication. The key concepts and the
connections to digital communication are highlighted along the way.

Broadcast Radio
Broadcasting music was one of the first applications of wireless communication. A
typical broadcast radio or television architecture is illustrated in Figure 1.1. Until recently,
radio was still analog, being transmitted in the usual AM and FM bands and taking advantage of
technology developed in the 1920s and 1940s, respectively. AM radio, the process of radio
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

broadcasting using amplitude modulation, was the dominant method of radio broadcasting
during the first 80 years of the twentieth century. Because of its susceptibility to atmospheric
and electrical interference, AM radio now is mainly used for talk radio and news programming.
In the 1970s, radio broadcasting shifted to FM radio, which uses frequency modulation to
provide high-fidelity sound, especially for music radio and public radio.

In the 1990s, there was a transition of broadcast radio from analog to digital technology. In
1995, the digital audio broadcasting (DAB) standard, also known as Eureka 147, was developed.
DAB is used in Europe and other parts of the world, coexisting in some cases with traditional AM and
FM emissions. It uses a digital modulation technique known as COFDM (coded orthogonal frequency-
division multiplexing) to broadcast multiple digital radio streams. COFDM is a particular form of
OFDM, which is discussed extensively in this book.

The United States uses a different digital method known as HD Radio (a trademarked
name), which was approved by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in 2002 as the
AM and FM digital broadcasting system to transmit digital audio and data along the existing
analog radio signals. HD Radio uses a proprietary transmission technique, which also uses
OFDM but fits in the gaps between existing FM broadcast stations. HD Radio started rolling out
in force in 2007 in the United States. Digital coding and modulation techniques permit compact-
disc-quality stereo signals to be broadcast from either satellites or terrestrial stations. In addition
to audio quality improvement, digital audio broadcasting can provide other advantages:
additional data services, multiple audio sources, and on-demand audio services. Just like
today’s analog AM and FM radio, HD Radio requires no subscription fee. HD Radio receivers
are factory installed in most vehicles at present. Therefore, owners of new cars immediately
have access to the HD Radio audio and data services offered.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

Cellular Communication Networks

Cellular communication uses networks of base stations to provide communication with
mobile subscribers over a large geographic area. The term cell is used to refer to the area
covered by a single base station. The base stations are placed such that the cells overlap, to
provide mobile users with coverage, as shown in Figure 1.2. Clusters of cells share a set of
radio frequencies, which are reused geographically, to make the most use of limited radio
spectrum. Cellular systems support handoff, where a connection is transferred from one base
station to another as a mobile user moves. The base stations are networked together, typically
with a wireline network, with several functional components to provide services such as
roaming and billing. Cellular networks are typically connected to the public switched telephone
network (the network used for making telephone calls) and the Internet.

The first generation of cellular communication devices used analog communication, in

particular FM modulation, for the wireless link between mobile users and the base stations. The
technology for these systems was conceived in the 1960s and deployed in the late 1970s and
early 1980s. The use of analog technology gave little security (it was possible to eavesdrop on a
call with the right radio gear), and limited data rates were supported. Many similar, but not
compatible, first-generation systems were deployed around the same time, including AMPS
(Advanced Mobile Phone System) in the United States, NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony) in
Scandinavia, TACS (Total Access Communication System) in some countries in Europe,
Radiocom 2000 in France, and RTMI (Radio Telefono Mobile Integrato) in Italy. Japan had
several different analog standards. The plurality of standards deployed in different countries
made international roaming difficult.

The second and subsequent generations of cellular standards used digital

communication. Second-generation systems were conceived in the 1980s and deployed in the
1990s. The most common standards were GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications),
IS-95 (Interim Standard 1995, also known as TIA-EIA-95), and the combination IS-54/IS-136
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

(known as Digital AMPS). GSM was developed in a collaboration among several companies in
Europe as an ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) standard. It was
adopted eventually throughout the world and became the first standard to facilitate global
roaming. The IS-95 standard was developed by Qualcomm and used a new (at the time)
multiple access strategy called CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access); therefore, IS-95 was
also known as cdmaOne. IS-95 was deployed in the United States, South Korea, and several
other countries. The IS-54/IS-136 standard was developed to provide a digital upgrade to the
AMPS system and maintain a certain degree of backward compatibility. It was phased out in the
2000s in favor of GSM and third-generation technologies. The major enhancements of second-
generation systems were the inclusion of digital technology, security, text messaging, and data
services (especially in subsequent enhancements).

The third generation (3G) of cellular standards, deployed in the 2000s, was standardized
by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and 3GPP2 (3rd Generation Partnership Project
2). UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) was specified by 3GPP as the 3G
technology based on the GSM standard. It used a similar network infrastructure and a higher-
capacity digital transmission technology. The evolution of cdmaOne led to CDMA2000, which
was standardized by 3GPP2. Notably, both UMTS and CDMA2000 employ CDMA. The major
advance of third-generation standards over the second generation was higher voice capacity
(the ability to support more voice users), broadband Internet access, and high-speed data.

The fourth generation of cellular standards was the object of much development, and
much debate (even over the definition of “fourth generation”). In the end, two systems were
officially designated as fourth-generation cellular systems. One was 3GPP LTE (Long Term
Evolution) Advanced release 10 and beyond. The other was WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability
for Microwave Access), a subset of the IEEE 802.16 m standard. Though WiMAX was deployed
earlier, 3GPP LTE became the de facto 4G standard. A major departure from third-generation
systems, fourth-generation systems were designed from the ground up to provide wireless
Internet access in a large area. 3GPP LTE is an evolution of 3GPP that supports larger-
bandwidth channels and a new physical layer based on OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division
multiple access) where subcarriers can be dynamically assigned to different users. OFDMA is a
multiple-access version of OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing). 3GPP LTE
Advanced adds other new capabilities, including more support for MIMO (multiple input multiple
output) communication enabled by multiple antennas at the base station and handset, and thus
supports higher data rates. WiMAX is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard. Essentially, the
WiMAX Forum (an industry consortium) is specifying a subset of functions for implementation,
and appropriate certification and testing procedures will ensure interoperability. WiMAX also
employs OFDMA, though note that earlier versions used a slightly different access technique
based on OFDM. Fourth-generation systems make more use of multiple antennas via MIMO
communication. The fourth generation of cellular systems promises higher data rates than
previous systems along with network enhancements such as simplified backhaul architectures.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

Research on the fifth generation of cellular standards has begun in 3GPP. At the time of
the writing of this book, various technologies are being considered to further improve throughput
and quality and reduce latency and costs. There is great interest in continuing to push MIMO
communication to its limits. Massive MIMO promises hundreds of antennas at the base station
to support more users simultaneously, and full-dimensional MIMO uses horizontal and vertical
beamforming to support more users. Millimeter wave MIMO systems making use of spectrum
above 30GHz are also being considered for the fifth generation of cellular systems. Research
on all of these topics is ongoing.

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs)

Wireless local area networks are a wireless counterpart to Ethernet networks, whose
initial objective was to deliver data packets from one computer to another. A wireless local area
network is illustrated in Figure 1.3. All WLANs use digital communication. The original objective
of WLANs was simply to implement a local area network; in current deployments WLANs are
seen as a primary means for wireless Internet access. Compared with cellular networks that use
expensive licensed spectrum, WLANs are implemented in unlicensed bands like the ISM
(Industrial, Scientific, and Medical) and U-NII (Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure)
radio bands in the United States. This means they can be installed by anyone with approved
equipment but cannot provide guaranteed service. WLANs are philosophically different from
cellular networks. While both may be used for wireless Internet access, WLANs are primarily an
extension of a wired network and are not designed to provide seamless large-area coverage,
like a cellular network, for example. Most WLANs implement only basic forms of handoff, if any
handoff is implemented at all.

The most widely used WLAN standards are developed within the IEEE 802.11 working
group. IEEE 802 is a group that develops LAN and MAN (metropolitan area network) standards,
focusing on the physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), and radio link protocol (link)
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

layers, considered Layer 1 and Layer 2 in typical networking literature. The IEEE 802.11
working group focuses on WLANs. The Wi-Fi Alliance is an organization for certifying IEEE
802.11 products to guarantee interoperability (often Wi-Fi is used interchangeably with IEEE
802.11, though they are not exactly the same). Different subgroups of IEEE 802.11 are
associated with different letters, such as IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, and IEEE
802.11n.

The original IEEE 802.11 standard supported 0.5Mbps (megabit-per-second) data rates
with a choice of two different physical layer access techniques, either frequency-hopping spread
spectrum or direct-sequence spread spectrum in the 2.4GHz ISM band. IEEE 802.11b provides
data rates of 11bps by using Complementary Code Keying modulation, extending the direct-
sequence spread spectrum mode. IEEE 802.11a and IEEE 802.11g provide data rates of
54Mbps in the 5.8GHz and 2.4GHz bands, respectively, using OFDM modulation.

IEEE 802.11n is a high-throughput extension of IEEE 802.11g and IEEE 802.11a that
uses MIMO communication, combined with OFDM, to provide even higher data rates. MIMO
enables a new class of modulation techniques, some of which can be used to send multiple
data streams in parallel, and others that provide higher. More advanced high-throughput
extensions of IEEE 802.11 were developed as IEEE 802.11ac and IEEE 802.11ad. Two letters
are used since single letters have been exhausted through other extensions of the standard.
IEEE 802.11ac focuses on sub-6GHz solutions, and IEEE 802.11ad focuses on higher-
frequency, in particular the 60GHz millimeter wave unlicensed band, solutions. Compared with
IEEE 802.11n, IEEE 802.11ac supports more advanced MIMO capability (up to eight antennas)
and multiuser MIMO communication, where the access point communicates with several users
at the same time. IEEE 802.11ad is the first WLAN solution at millimeter wave, providing
gigabit-per-second (Gbps) peak throughputs. The next generation of WLAN is currently in
development under the name IEEE 802.11ay; it will support multiuser operation, targeting
100Gbps data rates and an extended transmission distance of 300–500m.

Personal Area Networks (PANs)

Personal area networks (PANs) are digital networks intended for short-range
connectivity, typically on the order of 10m in all directions, especially for wire replacement. An
example of a PAN is illustrated in Figure 1.4. One of the most appropriate applications of a
WPAN (wireless PAN) is to connect devices in the user’s personal space, that is, the devices an
individual carry on or near the person, such as keyboards, headphones, displays, audio/video
players, tablets, or smartphones. According to the standards, a PAN can be viewed as a
“personal communication bubble” around a person. All PANs use digital communication. PANs
have a major architectural difference from WLANs—they expect communication in an ad hoc
fashion. This means that devices can set up ad hoc peer-to-peer networks without the aid of a
central controller (or access point). PANs are also implemented in unlicensed spectrum.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

Most PANs are developed within the IEEE 802.15 working group. The Bluetooth
standard, IEEE 802.15.1a and later extensions, is perhaps the most familiar protocol. It is most
commonly used for wireless headset connections to cell phones, wireless keyboards, and
wireless computer mice. Another PAN standard is IEEE 802.15.4, known as ZigBee, intended
for low-power embedded applications like sensor networks, home monitoring and automation,
and industry controls. IEEE 802.15.3c was a high-data-rate extension of 802.15 to the millimeter
wave unlicensed band (around 57GHz to 64GHz), which was not as successful as WirelessHD,
which was developed by an industry consortium. These systems provide high-bandwidth
connections in excess of 2Gbps for applications such as wireless HDMI (High-Definition
Multimedia Interface) and wireless video display connections. The boundaries between WLAN
and PAN are starting to blur, with IEEE 802.11ad taking over many of the functions offered by
60GHz PAN. It is likely that such developments will continue with IEEE 802.11ay.

Satellite Systems
Satellite systems use space-based transceivers at very high altitudes over the Earth’s
surface to provide coverage over large geographic areas, as illustrated in Figure 1.5. They are
an alternative to terrestrial communication networks, where the infrastructure equipment is
located on the ground. The idea of telecommunication satellites originated from a paper by
Arthur C. Clarke, a science fiction writer, in Wireless World magazine in 1945. That paper
proposed the use of the orbital configuration of a constellation of three satellites in the geo-
stationary Earth orbit (GEO) at 35,800km to provide intercontinental communication services.
Other orbits, namely, LEO (low Earth orbit) between 500km and 1700km and MEO (medium
Earth orbit) between 5000km and 10,000km and over 20,000km, are now employed as well.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

The higher orbit provides more coverage, that is, fewer satellites, but at the cost of larger
propagation delay and free space loss. Until the 1960s, though, satellites were not actually for
telecommunications in practice, but for observation and probes. Project SCORE, launched in
1958, was the world’s first communications satellite, providing a successful test of a space
communication relay system. Since that time, the number of launched communication satellites
has increased: 150 satellites during 1960–1970, 450 satellites during 1970–1980, 650 satellites
during 1980–1990, and 750 satellites during 1990–2000.

Satellites, in the context of telecommunications, act as repeaters to help both point-to-

point and point-to-multipoint transmissions of signals. Traditionally, communication satellites
provide a wide range of applications, including telephony, television broadcasting, radio
broadcasting, and data communication services. Compared to other systems, communication
satellite systems stand out because of their broad coverage, especially their ability to provide
services to geographically isolated regions or difficult terrains. For example, mobile satellite
services would target land mobile users, maritime users, and aeronautical users.

Satellites provide both long-distance (especially intercontinental) point-to-point or trunk

telephony services as well as mobile telephony services. In 1965, Intelsat launched the first
commercial satellite, named Early Bird, to provide intercontinental fixed telephony services.
Communication satellite systems are able to provide worldwide mobile telephone coverage, also
via digital communication technology. The first GEO satellite providing mobile services, Marisat,
was launched into orbit in 1976. Other examples of systems include Iridium, Inmarsat, and
Globalstar. Satellite phones are inherently more expensive because of the high cost of putting a
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

satellite in orbit and their low capacity. Satellite phones are useful in remote areas and for sea-
based communication; their use in populated areas has been eclipsed by cellular networks.

Television accounts for about 75% of the satellite market for communication services.
Early satellite TV systems used analog modulation and required a large receiving dish antenna.
In 1989, TDF 1 was launched as the first television direct broadcasting satellite. Now most
satellite TV programming is delivered via direct broadcast satellites, which use digital
communication technology. Some examples of current communications satellites used for TV
broadcasting applications are Galaxy and EchoStar satellites in the United States, Astra and
Eutelsat Hot Bird in Europe, INSAT in India, and JSAT satellites in Japan.

A recent application of satellite broadcast is high-definition radio. In the last 20 years,

satellite radio has taken off in many areas. The initial applications of satellites in radio were to
provide high-fidelity audio broadcast services to conventional AM or FM broadcast radio
stations. Now they are widely used for transmitting audio signals directly to the users’ radio sets.
In satellite radio systems like SiriusXM, based on Sirius and XM technology, digital
communication is used to multicast digital music to subscribers. Other information may also be
bundled in the satellite radio transmissions such as traffic or weather information.

A final application of satellites is for data communication. Satellite systems provide

various data communication services, including broadcast, multicast, and point-to-point
unidirectional or bidirectional data services. Example services include messaging, paging,
facsimile, data collection from sensor networks, and of course wireless Internet access.
Unidirectional or broadcast data communication services are often provided by VSAT (very
small aperture terminal) networks, using GEO satellites. VSAT networks work well for
centralized networks with a central host and a number of geographically dispersed systems.
Typical examples are small and medium-size businesses with a central office and banking
institutions with branches in different locations. VSAT networks are also used for wireless
Internet access in rural areas.

High-altitude platform (HAP) stations are a hybrid technology that combines the benefits
of terrestrial and satellite communication systems. Examples of HAP are unmanned airships
and manned/unmanned aircraft flying in the stratosphere just above the troposphere, at an
altitude of about 17km or higher. HAP stations may fill the gap between satellite-based
communication systems, which are expensive and put high demands on the subscriber units
because of the large distance to the satellites, and the terrestrial transmitters, which suffer from
limited coverage. They may also be an alternative to cellular systems for telephony and wireless
Internet access in parts of the world that lack cellular infrastructure.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks are characterized by their lack of infrastructure. Whereas users in
cellular networks normally communicate with fixed base stations, users in ad hoc networks
communicate with each other; all users transmit, receive, and relay data. A fantastic use case
for ad hoc networks is by emergency services (police, search and rescue). Disasters, such as
Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Haiti, or the typhoon in the Philippines, destroy the cellular
infrastructure. Collaboration of rescue crews, communication with loved ones, and coordination
of aid delivery are drastically hindered by the devastation. A mobile ad hoc network can
transform a smartphone into both a cell tower and a cell phone. In this way, data can be
transmitted throughout the disaster area. Ad hoc networks are also important in the military
where there is high mobility and an inability to rely on existing fixed infrastructure. The soldiers
of the future will require reliable, easily deployable, decentralized high-speed wireless
communication networks for high-quality video, imagery, voice, and position data to ensure an
information advantage in combat. There are many practical applications of ad hoc networks.

Ad hoc networking capability is a core part of most PANs. With Bluetooth, for example,
devices self-organize into a piconet with one device acting as the master and the other devices
slaved to that master. The master coordinates transmissions among the various devices.
WLANs also support ad hoc capability for communication between devices, and also a more
formal mesh capability in IEEE 802.11s. Cellular networks are starting to support device-to-
device communication where devices can exchange data directly without going through the
base station. This is not a completely self-organized ad hoc operation, though, because the
devices may coordinate key network operations like device discovery through the base station.

A recent application of mobile ad hoc networking is vehicular ad hoc networking

(commonly known as VANETs in the literature). As illustrated in Figure 1.6, VANETs involve
both vehicle-to-vehicle communication and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication and are a
key ingredient in connected and automated vehicles. A difference between VANETs and other
ad hoc networks is in the overlying applications. Safety is a primary application of VANETs. For
example, the dedicated short-range communication protocol allows vehicles to exchange
messages with position and velocity information for applications such as forward collision
warning. Next-generation connected vehicles will exchange even more information. For
example, sharing perceptual data among neighboring vehicles can extend a vehicle’s
perception range beyond its visual line of sight. This data can be fused to create a bird’s eye
view of neighboring traffic, which can assist both automated and human drivers in difficult
driving tasks such as overtaking and lane changing. VANETs, especially at millimeter wave,
continue to be an active area of research.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

Wireless Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network is a form of an ad hoc wireless network, where wirelessly
connected sensors relay information to some selected nodes at appropriate times. Advances in
wireless communication, signal processing, and electronics have enabled the development of
low-cost, low-power, multifunctional sensor nodes that are small in size and capable of sensing,
data processing, and communicating. The most important factor in the design of wireless sensor
networks is the short network lifetime due to finite-capacity batteries.

Energy networks provide another potential application of wireless communication in the

form of sensor networks. The electric power grid is based on hundred-year-old technology
where power is sent into the network and consumption is measured by electric meters, which
are read infrequently. Sensors can be used to enable what is called a smart grid, which
supports features like demand-based pricing and distributed power generation. Many aspects of
the smart grid are enabled through wireless meters. Smart grids can be implemented with a
host of different wireline or wireless technologies. There are many research challenges in smart
grid technology, including control, learning, and system-level issues.

RFID (radio frequency identification) is a special type of communication that is used in

applications such as manufacturing, supply chain management, inventory control, personal
asset tracking, and telemedicine. An RFID system consists of RFID tags, which are given to
products and objects for identification purposes, and RFID readers. Readers broadcast queries
to tags in their radio range for information control, and tags reply with stored identification
information, typically using energy from the broadcast query to power the RFID circuit and
transmitter. Since no active transmission is involved, the power consumption for communication
is very low. RFID may be used in a sensor network as both a sensor and a means of
communication to detect, for example, if the RFID tag (or the object that is tagged) is physically
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

present in a given location. RFID has been standardized by EPCglobal and the ISO
(International Organization for Standardization). The battery-free design of the typical RFID tag
makes its design different from that of conventional communication systems.

Underwater Communication
Underwater communication is another niche application of wireless communication.
Some applications of underwater communication are illustrated in Figure 1.7. The major
difference from other forms of communication discussed in this chapter is that underwater
communication is most often conceived with acoustic propagation versus electromagnetic
waves in radio frequency wireless systems. The high conductivity in seawater, induced by
salinity, causes large attenuation in electromagnetic radiation methods, making electromagnetic
waves incapable of propagating over long distances. Acoustic methods have their own
limitations, mainly a very limited bandwidth. Generally speaking, acoustic methods are used for
low-rate long-distance transmission, whereas electromagnetic methods may be used for high-
rate short-range transmission.

Modern underwater communication systems use digital transmission. From a signal

processing perspective, underwater communication requires the use of sophisticated adaptive
receiver techniques. The reason is that, relatively speaking, the underwater propagation
channel changes and presents many multipaths. Most radio frequency wireless systems are
designed with a kind of block invariance where time variation can be neglected in short
processing intervals.

This assumption may not be appropriate for underwater communication due to the rapid
channel variations. The main applications of underwater communication are found in the
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

military, for example, ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore, and ship-to-sub, though there are commercial
applications in the petroleum industry, such as autonomous underwater vehicles.
Communicating underwater is a growth industry for the United States Navy. Two-way
underwater digital communication between submarines and the AUTEC (Atlantic Undersea
Test and Evaluation Center) range-control station in the Bahamas has been successfully
demonstrated. Sensor networks are also applied underwater for oceanographic data collection,
environment monitoring, explorations, and tactical surveillance. Many of the concepts
developed in this book can be applied to underwater communication systems, with some
modifications to account for variability of the propagation channel.

SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

A signal is a function that describes how a physical or a nonphysical variable change

over time and/or space. Signals are usually acquired by sensors and transformed by a
transducer into an appropriate form to be stored, processed, or transmitted. For example, a
microphone contains a diaphragm to capture the audio signal and a transducer to convert that
signal into a voltage. In a wireless communication system, typical signals are the currents and
the electromagnetic fields used to carry data from a transmitter to a receiver through a wireless
channel. There are many other types of signals besides audio and communications signals:
speech, image, video, medical signals like an electrocardiogram, or financial signals measuring,
for example, the evolution of stock prices. Signal processing is a relatively new engineering
discipline that studies how to manipulate signals to extract information or to change the
characteristics of the signal with a given purpose.

Though signal processing includes digital and analog techniques, DSP dominates most
of the application scenarios. Therefore, an analog signal to be processed is discretized and
quantized before manipulation. For example, the receiver in a wireless communication system
has to apply some processing to the received signal to remove noise, cancel interference, or
eliminate the distortion due to the propagation through the wireless channel; at the transmitter
side, signal processing is used to generate the waveform to be transmitted and maximize the
range or the amount of information per time unit that can be sent. The current trend is to
perform all these operations in digital, placing an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) or a digital-
to-analog converter (DAC) as close as possible to the receive or transmit antenna
respectively. Figure 1.8 shows an example of a basic communication system using a signal
processing approach, making use of analog and digital techniques.
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

Signal processing has many applications in other fields such as:

 Speech and audio, for speaker recognition, text-to-speech conversion, speech
recognition, speech or audio compression, noise cancellation, or room equalization.
 Image and video, for image and video compression, noise reduction, image
enhancement, features extraction, motion compensation, or tracking of objects.
 Medicine, for monitoring and analysis of biosignals.
 Genomics, for interpretation of genomic information.
 Finance, to analyze financial variables mainly for prediction purposes.
 Radar, for detecting targets and estimating their position and velocity.

Signal processing is a discipline at the intersection of signal processing and applied

mathematics. It did not emerge as an independent field of study until the mid-twentieth century.
By that time Norbert Wiener had proposed a random process model for the information source.
He also invented the Wiener filter, which provides a statistical estimate of an unknown process
from an observed noisy process. The landmark paper “A Mathematical Theory of
Communication,” written by Claude Shannon in 1948, established the foundations of
communication theory by analyzing a basic digital communication system from a signal
processing perspective, using Wiener’s idea to model information signals. The sampling
theorem proposed by Harry Nyquist in 1928 and proved by Shannon in 1949 in his paper
“Communication in the Presence of Noise” addressed the problem of sampling and
reconstruction of continuous signals, a milestone in DSP. For subsequent years, however,
analog signal processing continued to dominate signal processing applications, from radar
signal processing to audio engineering. The publication in 1965 by Cooley and Tukey of an
algorithm for the fast implementation of the Fourier transform (now known as FFT) led to the
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

explosion of DSP, making it possible to implement convolution much more efficiently. Speech
coding for telephone transmission was at that time a very active signal processing area, which
started to benefit from adaptive algorithms and contributed to the success of DSP. Since that
time, DSP algorithms have continued to evolve, leading to better performance and the
expansion of the range of applications that benefit from them. Wireless communication is not an
exception; the incredible increase in performance and data rates experienced in recent years in
many communication systems was made possible by the increased complexity of DSP
techniques.

A signal processing approach tackles problems from a system perspective, including

models for the input and output signals at every block in the system. The different blocks
represent the different processing stages, which can be realized with an analog device or a
numerical algorithm implemented in a digital processor, as can be seen in Figure 1.8. There
exists a trade-off between the complexity and the performance of the models used for the
signals and the analog components of the system: more accurate models provide an excellent
tool for the simulation and practical evaluation of the system, but they increase complexity and
simulation time and make the theoretical analysis of the problems difficult. Statistical
characterization of signals using random process theory and probability provides useful models
for the signal carrying the information and also for the noise and the interfering signals that
appear in a wireless communication system.

Signal processing theory also provides mathematical tools to relate the different signals
in a system, using concepts from calculus, linear algebra, and statistics. The fundamental signal
processing results that can be used in the design and analysis of wireless communication
systems. Linear time-invariant systems are used extensively in wireless communication to
model different devices in the system such as filters or equalizers. Many of the features of a
communication system are better understood in the frequency domain, so Fourier analysis is
also a basic tool for wireless engineers. Digital communication systems leverage multirate
theory results as well, since multirate filters lead to efficient implementations of many of the
operations usually performed in a digital transmitter or receiver. Finally, fundamental results in
linear algebra are the basis for many signal processing algorithms used for different tasks at the
receiver such as channel equalization.

A digital signal processing approach to wireless communications, the so-called software-

defined radio (SDR) concept, makes sense for many reasons, such as ease of reconfigurability
(software download) or simultaneous reception of different channels and standards, as shown
in Figure 1.9. Digitizing the communication signal at the output of the receive antenna may not
be feasible, however, because of technical (a very high sampling frequency) or cost (too-high
power consumption at the ADC) reasons. Therefore, a trade-off between analog signal
processing and DSP is usually found in practical communication systems, which usually include
an analog stage to downconvert the signal followed by a digital stage, as illustrated in Figure
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

1.9. Later chapters of this book provide several examples of functional block diagrams
corresponding to current communication systems that make use of this approach.

EXPLAIN

1. Identify mobile service providers charge for data and what are the charges for a typical
consumer plan (not business)? Why do you think some providers have stopped offering
unlimited data plans?
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

2. What is a wireless sensor network?

3. What is the difference between NI Wireless CompactDAQ and NI WSN devices?

EXTEND

1. Which part of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee deals with VLC?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. What is the concept of VLC?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. Explain how VLC could be used in intelligent transportation systems.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

EVALUATE

1. Wireless and Intellectual Property 

The wireless industry has been plagued with lawsuits over intellectual property. Identify
a recent case of interest and describe the parties and their positions. Then describe in at least
half a page your opinion about the role of intellectual property in wireless communications.

TOPIC SUMMARY

o Wireless communication has a large number of applications, which are different from each
other in the propagation environment, transmission range, and underlying technologies.

o Most major wireless communication systems use digital communication. Advantages of

digital over analog include its suitability for use with digital data, robustness to noise, ability
37 Module 1 – Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication

to more easily support multiple data rates and multiple users, and easier implementation of
security.

o Digital signal processing is well matched with digital communication. Digital signal
processing makes use of high-quality reproducible digital components. It also leverages
Moore’s law, which leads to more computation and reduced power consumption and cost.

o This course presents the fundamentals of wireless digital communication as seen through a
signal processing lens. It focuses on complex pulse-amplitude modulation and the most
common challenges faced when implementing a wireless receiver: additive noise,
frequency-selective channels, symbol synchronization, frame synchronization, and carrier
frequency offset synchronization.

POST-ASSESSMENT

Essay: Write short notes on?

1. What is a wireless sensor network?

2. What is IEEE 802.15.4?
3. What is ZigBee?
4. How are IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee related?
5. What communication bands are supported by IEEE 802.15.4 in the United States?
6. What is the bandwidth of the communication channel specified by IEEE 802.15.4? Note: This is
bandwidth in hertz, not the data rate.
7. What is the typical range of an IEEE 802.15.4 device?
8. How long should the battery last in an IEEE 802.15.4 device?
9. How are sensor networks being used to monitor highway bridges?

REFERENCES

Books:

Robert W. Heath (March 2017). Introduction to Wireless Digital Communication: A Signal

Processing Perspective. (o'reilly)