Module 5
Communication Schemes
Course Coordinator – Dr Rohan Pinto
Text Books
1. Basic Electronics
Author: D P Kothari and I J Nagrath
Edition: 2nd Edition
2. Lecture slides on Introduction to Electronics and Communication by
Mr Shrishali Bhat
Shrishalibhat.com
Modern communication system
• Communication means”Exchange of Information”.
• Communication engineering means electrical communication, in
which information is transmitted through electrical signals.
• In this process, the information or message, e.g. spoken words,
photographs, & sounds is first converted into electrical signals and
then transmitted through electrical links.
• Thus, electrical communication is a process by which the
information/message is transmitted from one point to another,
from one person to another, or from place to another in the form of
electrical signals, through some communication link.
Basic Communication System
• There are many types of communication systems, e.g. analog,
digital, radio, and line communication systems.
The main constituents of basic communication system are:
• Information source
• Input transducer
• Transmitter
• Channel or medium
• Receiver
• Output transducer
• Final destination
Information Source and Input Transducer
• The physical form of information is represented by a message that
is originated by an information source.
• For example, a sentence or paragraph spoken by a person is a
message that contains some information.
• The person, in this case, acts as information source.
• If the information produced by the source is not in an electrical
form, it has to be converted into an electrical form using a
transducer. Eg. Microphone.
• The electrical signal produced by transducer is called the
baseband signal. It is also called a message signal, an information
signal
• There are two types of signals: Analog signal and Digital signal.
Transmitter
• Transmitter processes the base band signal received from
transducer prior transmission
• There are two following options for processing signals prior
transmission:
1. The baseband signal, which lies in the low frequency spectrum,
is translated to a higher frequency spectrum (Carrier
communication system).
2. The baseband signal is transmitted without translating it to a
higher frequency spectrum (Baseband communication system).
• The carrier communication system is based on the principle of
translating a low frequency baseband signal to high frequency
spectrum. This process is modulation.
Channel or Medium
• After the required processing, the transmitter section passes the
signal to the transmission medium.
• The signal propagates through the transmission medium and is
received at the other side by the receiver section.
• The transmission medium between the transmitter and the
receiver is called a channel.
• Most of the noise is added to the signal during its transmission
through the channel.
• Depending on physical implementations, channels can be classified into
two groups:
1. Hardwired Channels
• These channels are manmade structure.
• The three possible implementations of the hardware channels are:
Transmission lines, Waveguides, and Optical Fiber Cables (OFC).
• The examples of transmission lines are twisted-pair cables used in
landline telephony and coaxial cables used for cable TV transmission.
• Waveguides are employed as medium to transmit signals at UHF
range.
• Waveguides are hollow, circular, or rectangular metallic structures.
Optical fiber cables are in the form of thin circular pipes.
• Signals are transmitted in the form of light energy in OFCs. E.g.
landline telephony and cable TV network.
2. Softwired Channels:
• These are certain natural resources.
• The natural resources that can be used as softwired channels are:
air or open space and sea water.
• In communication systems that use softwired channels, the signals
propagate through the natural resource and reach the receiver and
there is no physical link between the transmitter and the receiver.
• The most widely used softwired channel is air or open space.
• Signals are transmitted in the form of electromagnetic (em) waves,
called radio waves. Radio waves travel through open space at a
speed equal to that of light (c = 3x108 m/s).
• The transmitter section converts the electrical signal into EM
waves by using a transmitting antenna and is radiated into the
open space.
• At the receiver side, receiving antenna, picks up these radio waves
and convert them into corresponding electrical signals.
• Systems that use radio waves to transmit signals through open
space are called radio communication systems, e.g. radio broad
cast, television transmission, satellite communication, and cellular
mobile communication.
Noise
• Noise is defined as unwanted electrical energy of random and
unpredictable nature.
• Noise is an electrical disturbance, which does not contain any useful
information.
• Noise is a highly undesirable part of a communication system, and has
to be minimized.
• When noise is mixed with transmitted signal, it rides over it &
deteriorates it waveform.
• This results in alteration of original information so that wrong
information is received.
• The designer provides adequate signal strength at the time of
transmission so that a high SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) is available at
the receiver.
Receiver
• The function of the receiver section is to separate the noise from the
received signal, and then recover the original baseband signal by
performing demodulation process.
• A voltage amplifier first amplifies the received signal so that it becomes
strong enough for further processing, and then recovers the original
information.
• The demodulation process removes the high frequency carrier from the
received signal and retrieves the original baseband.
Output Transducer & Final Destination
• The recovered baseband signal is handed over to the final
destination, which uses a transducer to convert this electrical
signal to its original form.
• Prior to handing over the recovered baseband signal to its final
destination, the voltage and power are amplified by the amplifier
stages.
MULTIPLEXING
• It is a process which allows more than one signal to transmit
through a single channel.
• Multiplexing facilitates the simultaneous transmission of multiple
messages over a single transmission channel.
• Multiplexing allows maximum possible utilization of available
bandwidth of the system.
• The use of multiplexing also makes the communication system
economical because more than one signal can be transmitted
through a single channel.
• Multiplexing is possible in communication system only through
modulation.
• The multiple signals are translated to higher frequencies by using
different carrier frequencies, mixed at the transmitter and
transmitted.
• At the receiver, the different signals can be easily separated
because they are at different frequencies, and are delivered to the
next stages of the receiver for further processing.
Types of Communication Systems
Communication systems can be categorized based on their physical
infrastructure and the specifications of the signals they transmit.
1.Communication Systems based on Physical Infrastructure
Two types of communication systems based on the physical
infrastructure.They are Line Communication System and Simplex/duplex
communication
Line Communication System
• There is a physical link, called the hardware channel, between the
transmitter and the receiver in the line communication systems. E.g.:
Landline telephony.
• In a radio communication system, there is no such link and natural
resources, such as space and water are used as softwire channels.
E.g.: Radio broad cast
Simplex/duplex communication
• A communication system can be simplex (one way transmission)
or a duplex (two way transmission.
• Some communication system can be half duplex (two-way
transmission is carried out, but not simultaneously) as well.
• TV communication system is a combination of the radio and
simplex communication system & landline telephony is a
combination of line & duplex communication systems.
2.Communication Systems Based on Signal Specifications
The signal specifications used to decide the type of communication
include:
➢Nature of baseband or informal signal
➢Nature of the transmitted signal
Based on the nature of baseband signal, there are two types of
communication systems:
➢Analog communication systems
➢Digital communication systems
Based on the nature of the transmitted signal
➢Baseband communication system
➢Carrier communication system
A particular communication system can be either an analog
communication system or a digital communication system at a time
➢Analog communication system E.g.: TV transmission
➢Digital communication system E.g: High definition television (HDTV)
Similarly, a particular communication system can be either a baseband
communication system or a carrier communication system.
➢Baseband communication system:E.g: Landline telephony and fax.
➢Carrier communication system:E.g: TV transmission, Radio broadcast &
Cable TV
Modulation
Modulation is the process in which any one of the parameters
(amplitude, frequency or phase) of the high frequency carrier signal
is varied according to the instantaneous values of the low frequency
message signal, keeping other parameters constant.
Types of Modulation
1. Amplitude Modulation (AM)
2. Frequency Modulation (FM)
1.Amplitude Modulation (AM)
➢AM is defined as the modulation technique in which the amplitude
of carrier signal is varied in accordance with the amplitude of
analog modulating signal to be transmitted.
➢The modulating signal is the analog baseband signal which is
random and has low frequency while the carrier signal is always a
sinusoidal wave with high frequency.
➢The variations in the amplitude of carrier signal represent the
information carried.
➢As shown, the amplitude of the carrier signal is varies in
accordance with the modulating signal while the frequency &
phase of the carrier signal remain unchanged.
➢It can be observed that the modulating signal is superimposed on
the carrier signal.
➢The amplitude variations in the peak values of the carrier signal
exactly replicate the modulating signal at different points in time
which is known as an envelope.
2. Frequency Modulation (FM)
➢The frequency modulation is the process of changing the frequency
of the carrier signal in accordance with the instantaneous value of the
modulating signal.
➢Original frequency of carrier signal is called centre or resting
frequency, denoted as fc.
➢The amount by which the frequency of the carrier wave changes or
shifts above or below the resting frequency is termed as frequency
deviation (∆f).
➢The total variation is frequency of FM wave from the lowest to the
highest is termed as carrier saving (CS),
➢i.e. CS= 2 x frequency deviation in centre frequency or CS = 2∆f
➢Modulation index in F.M. is the ratio of frequency deviation to the
modulating frequency,
Comparison between AM and FM
Sl.N Characteristics AM FM
o.
1 Channel Has smaller Has larger bandwidth
bandwidth bandwidth
2 Operating carrier Utilizes lower carrier Utilizes higher carrier
frequency frequency frequency
3 Transmission Lesser transmission Has better
efficiency efficiency transmission efficiency
4 Noise performance AM has poor noise FM has better noise
performance performance
5 Common Channel Due to CCI FM is better due to
Interference (CCI) distortion occurs in capture effect
AM
6 Externally Same tuning is not Responds slightly to
generated noise essential noise pulses
pulses generated by
external sources
7 Area of reception AM covers more FM is limited to
distance than FM distance
Different modes of propagation of
electromagnetic waves.
Radio Wave Propagation
➢In space communication electromagnetic waves of different frequencies
are used to carry information through the physical space acting as the
transmission medium.
➢EM waves with frequencies from about 10 kHz to 300 GHz are classed
as radio waves.
➢On the basis of the mode of propagation, radio waves can be broadly
classified as:
➢ (i) Ground or Surface wave
➢(ii) Space or Tropospheric wave
➢ (iii) Sky wave.
Accordingly, we have three types of propagation:
1.Ground wave propagation:
➢In ground wave propagation, radio waves are guided by the earth
and move along its curved surface from the transmitter to the
receiver.
➢As high frequency waves are strongly absorbed by ground, ground
wave propagation is useful only at low frequencies.
➢Below 500 kHz, ground waves can be used for communication
within distances of about 1500 km from the transmitter.
➢AM radio broadcast in the medium frequency band cover local
areas and take place primarily by the ground wave.
➢The ground waves at higher frequencies employed by frequency
modulation (FM) and television (TV) are increasingly absorbed
and therefore become very weak beyond a distance of several
kilometres from the transmitter.
➢Ground wave transmission is very reliable whatever the
atmospheric conditions be.
2.Space or Tropospheric wave propagation
➢When a radio wave transmitted from an antenna, travelling in a straight
line directly reaches the receiving antenna, it is termed as space or
tropospheric wave.
➢In space wave or line of sight propagation, radio waves move in the
earth's troposphere within about 15 km over the surface of the earth.
The space wave is made up of two components:
▪ A direct or line-of sight wave from the transmitting to the receiving
antenna
▪ The ground-reflected wave traversing from the transmitting antenna to
ground and reflected to the receiving antenna.
➢Television frequencies in the range 100-220 MHz are transmitted
through this mode.
3.Sky wave propagation
➢In this mode of propagation, radio waves transmitted from the
transmitting antenna reach the receiving antenna after reflection
form the ionosphere.
➢Short wave transmission around the globe is possible through sky
wave via successive reflections at the ionosphere and the earth's
surface.
➢The ionized region of the earth's upper atmosphere extending
from about 40 km to the height of a few earth radii above earth, is
referred to as ionosphere.
➢The ionosphere is made up of electrons, and positive and negative
ions in the background of neutral particles of the atmosphere.
➢The propagation of radio wave through the ionosphere is affected
by the electrons and ions in the ionosphere.
Principle of Operation of Mobile Phones
• A cellular/mobile system provides standard telephone operation by full
duplex two-way radio at remote locations.
• It provides a wireless connection to the Public Switched Telephone
Network(PSTN) from any user location within the radio range of the
system.
• The basic concept behind the cellular radio system is that, the system
divides the service area into many small areas known as cells.
• The typical cell covers only several square kilometers and contains its
own receiver and low power transmitter.
• A basic cellular system consists of mobile stations, base stations and a
Mobile Switching Centre(MSC).
• The MSC is also known as Mobile Telephone Switching office(MTSO).
• The MTSO controls the cells and provides the interface between each
cell and the main telephone office.
• Each mobile communicates via radio with one of the base stations
and may be handed off to any other base station through the
duration of the call.
• Each mobile station consists of a transceiver,an antenna and control
circuit.
• The base station consists of several transmitters and receivers which
simultaneously handle full duplex communication.
• The base station serves as a bridge between all mobile users in the
cell and connects the simultaneous mobile calls via telephone lines or
microwave link to the MSC.
• The MSC co-ordinates the activities of all the base stations and
connects the entire cellular system to the PSTN.
• Cellular systems also provide a service known as roaming.
Block diagram of GSM system
Cellular Telephone Unit
The unit consists of 5 major parts
1.Transmitter
2.Receiver
3.Synthesizer
4.Logic Unit
5.Control Unit
1.Transmitter
• It is a low power FM transmitter operating in a frequency range of
825 to 845 MHz.
• There is 66630 KHz transmit channel.
• Transmitter produces a deviation of +/-12Khz.
• The modulated output is translated up to final transmitter frequency
with the help ofmixer,whose second input comes from frequency
synthesizer.
2.Receiver
• The receiver consists of RF amplifier,FM Demodulator and filters.
• An RF amplifier boots the level of received signal.
• If the signal is weak in the present cells then the mobile unit is shifted
to other site where the signal is strong.
3.Frequency Synthesizer
• It is used to generate various signals required for transmitter and
receiver.
4.Logic Unit
• It is a micro-processor controller master control circuit for cellular
radio.
• It basically controls the complete operation of MTSO and mobile unit.
5.Control Unit
• The control unit is a set of speaker,microphone with touch tone
dialling facility.
• It stores the memory like numbers and dialling features.
Twisted pair
Coaxial cable
Optical Fibre Cables (OFC)
Waveguides
