Data and Computer

Communications
Chapter 2
2.1 Data Transmission
 Transmission Terminology
 data transmission occurs between a
transmitter & receiver via some
transmission medium
 guided medium
 eg. twisted pair, coaxial cable, optical fiber
 unguided / wireless medium
 eg. air, water, vacuum
 In both cases, communication is in the form
of electromagnetic waves.
 Transmission Terminology
 direct link- the transmission path between
two devices in which signals propagate
directly from transmitter to receiver
 no intermediate devices
 point-to-point
 A guided transmission medium is point to point
direct link
only 2 devices share link
 multi-point
 more than two devices share the link
 Transmission Terminology
A transmission may be
 simplex
 signals are transmitted in only one direction
• eg. television
 half duplex
 either direction, but only one way at a time
• eg. police radio
 full duplex
 both directions at the same time
• eg. telephone
 Frequency, Spectrum and Bandwidth
 electromagnetic signals used as a means to
transmit data
 Signal is a function of time or frequency
 time domain concepts
 analog signal
• the signal intensity various in a smooth or continuous way
over time
• there are no breaks or discontinuities in the signal
 digital signal
• maintains a constant level then changes to another
constant level
 periodic signal
• pattern repeated over time
 aperiodic signal
• pattern not repeated over time
Analogue & Digital Signals
Periodic
Signals
 Sine Wave
 The sine wave is the fundamental periodic signal
 A general sine wave can be represented by three
parameters:
 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 ()
 relative position in time
Varying Sine Waves
s(t) = A sin(2ft +)
 Wavelength ()
 isdistance occupied by one cycle
 between two points of corresponding
phase in two consecutive cycles
 assuming signal velocity v have  = vT
 or equivalently f = v
 especially when v=c
 c = 3*108 ms-1 (speed of light in free space)
Frequency Domain Concepts
 In practice, an electromagnetic signal will be
made up of many frequencies
 components are sine waves
 Fourier analysis can shown that any signal is
made up of component sine waves
 By adding together enough sinusoidal signals,
each with the appropriate amplitude, frequency,
and phase, any electromagnetic signal can be
constructed.
 Addition of
Frequency
Components
(T=1/f)
 The signal
s(t)= 4/ [sin(2 f t) + 1/3
sin(2 (3f) t)] is made up
of two frequency
components
 Frequency
Domain
Representations

 freq domain func of

Fig 3.4c

 freq domain func of

single square pulse that
has the value 1 between
–X/2 and X/2, and is 0
elsewhere
 Spectrum & Bandwidth
 Spectrum of a signal
 range of frequencies contained in signal
 absolute bandwidth of a signal
 width of spectrum
 effective bandwidth
 often just bandwidth

 narrow band of frequencies containing most energy

 DC Component
 component of zero frequency
 Data Rate and Bandwidth

 any transmission system has a limited band of

frequencies
 Range of FM radio transmission is 88-108 MHZ
 this limits the data rate that can be carried
 square wave have infinite components and
hence bandwidth
 but most energy in first few components
 limited bandwidth increases distortion
 have a direct relationship between data rate &
bandwidth
 Analog and Digital Data
Transmission
 data
 entities that convey meaning , or information.

 signals
 electric or electromagnetic representations of

data
 signaling
 physical propagation of the signal along a

suitable medium
 transmission
 communication of data by propagation and

processing of signals
Acoustic Spectrum (Analog)
 Audio Signals
 freq range 20Hz-20kHz (speech 100Hz-7kHz)
 easily converted into electromagnetic signals
 varying volume converted to varying voltage
 can limit frequency range for voice channel to
300-3400Hz
 Video Signals
 USA - 483 lines per frame, at frames per sec
 have 525 lines but 42 lost during vertical retrace
 525 lines x 30 scans = 15750 lines per sec
 63.5s per line
 11s for retrace, so 52.5 s per video line
 max frequency if line alternates black and white
 horizontal resolution is about 450 lines giving
225 cycles of wave in 52.5 s
 max frequency of 4.2MHz
 Digital Data
 asgenerated by computers etc.
 has two dc components
 bandwidth depends on data rate
Analog Signals
Digital Signals
Advantages & Disadvantages
of Digital Signals
 cheaper
 less susceptible to noise
 but greater attenuation
 digital now preferred choice
 Transmission Impairments
 Withany communications system, signal
received may differ from signal transmitted
due to various transmission impairments.
 Analog signals - degradation of signal quality
 Digital signals - bit errors may be introduced
 most significant impairments are
 attenuation and attenuation distortion
 delay distortion
 noise
 Attenuation
 where signal strength falls off with distance
 depends on medium
 received signal strength must be:
 strong enough to be detected
 sufficiently higher than noise to receive without error
 so increase strength using amplifiers/repeaters
 is also an increasing function of frequency
 so equalize attenuation across band of
frequencies used
 eg. using loading coils or amplifiers
 Delay Distortion
 only occurs in guided media
 propagation velocity of a signal through a
guided medium varies with frequency
 hence various frequency components
arrive at different times
 particularly critical for digital data
 since parts of one bit spill over into others
 causing intersymbol interference
 Noise
 additionalsignals inserted between
transmitter and receiver
 thermal
 due to thermal agitation of electrons
 uniformly distributed
 white noise
 intermodulation
 signals that are the sum and difference of
original frequencies sharing a medium
 Noise
 crosstalk
 a signal from one line is picked up by another
 impulse
 irregular pulses or spikes
• eg. external electromagnetic interference
 short duration
 high amplitude
 a minor annoyance for analog signals
 but a major source of error in digital data
• a noise spike could corrupt many bits
 Channel Capacity
 max possible data rate on comms channel
 is a function of
 data rate - in bits per second
 bandwidth - in cycles per second or Hertz
 noise - on comms link
 error rate - of corrupted bits
 All transmission channels of any practical
interest are of limited bandwidth due to
physical properties
 want most efficient use of capacity
 Nyquist Bandwidth
 consider noise free channels
 if rate of signal transmission is 2B then can carry
signal with frequencies no greater than B
 ie. given bandwidth B, highest signal rate is 2B
 for binary signals, 2B bps needs bandwidth B Hz
 can increase rate by using M signal levels
 Nyquist Formula is: C = 2B log2M
 so increase rate by increasing signals
 at cost of receiver complexity
 limited by noise & other impairments
 Shannon Capacity Formula
 consider relation of data rate, noise & error rate
 faster data rate shortens each bit so bursts of noise
affects more bits
 given noise level, higher rates means higher errors
 Shannon developed formula relating these to
signal to noise ratio (in decibels)
 SNRdb=10 log10 (signal/noise)
 Capacity C=B log2(1+SNR)
 theoretical maximum capacity
 get lower in practise
 Summary
 looked at data transmission issues
 frequency, spectrum & bandwidth
 analog vs digital signals
 transmission impairments