Chapter 3

Data and Signals

3.1
 Note

To be transmitted, data must be

transformed to electromagnetic signals.

3.2
 3-1 ANALOG AND DIGITAL

Data can be analog or digital. The term analog data refers

to information that is continuous; digital data refers to
information that has discrete states. Analog data take on
continuous values. Digital data take on discrete values.

Topics discussed in this section:

Analog and Digital Data
Analog and Digital Signals
Periodic and Nonperiodic Signals

3.3
 Note

Data can be analog or digital.

Analog data are continuous and take
continuous values.
Digital data have discrete states and
take discrete values.

3.4
 Note

Signals can be analog or digital.

Analog signals can have an infinite
number of values in a range; digital
signals can have only a limited
number of values.

3.5
 Figure 3.1 Comparison of analog and digital signals

3.6
 Note

In data communications, we commonly

use periodic analog signals and
nonperiodic digital signals.

3.7
 3-2 PERIODIC ANALOG SIGNALS

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or

composite. A simple periodic analog signal, a sine wave,
cannot be decomposed into simpler signals. A composite
periodic analog signal is composed of multiple sine
waves.

Topics discussed in this section:

Sine Wave
Time and Frequency Domain
Bandwidth

3.8
 Figure 3.2 A sine wave

3.9
 A sine wave

Sine wave can be presented by 3 parameters :

1) Peak amplitude

2) Period & frequency

3) Phase

3.10
 A sine wave (cont..)

1) Peak amplitude

- The peak amplitude is the absolute value of its highest intensity,

proportional to the energy it carries.

- For electric signals, peak amplitude is normally measured in volts.

3.11
 Figure 3.3 Two signals with the same phase and frequency,
but different amplitudes

3.12
 Example 3.1

The voltage of a battery is a constant; this constant value

can be considered a sine wave. For example, the peak
value of an AA battery is normally
1.5 V.

3.13
 A sine wave (cont..)

2) Period & frequency

- Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a signal needs to

complete 1 cycle.

- Frequency refers to the number of periods in 1s.

3.14
 Note

Frequency and period are the inverse of

each other.

3.15
 Figure 3.4 Two signals with the same amplitude and phase,
but different frequencies

3.16
 Table 3.1 Units of period and frequency

3.17
 Example 3.2

The power we use at home has a frequency of 80 Hz.

The period of this sine wave can be determined as
follows:

Solution :

3.18
 Example 3.3

The period of a signal is 200 ms. What is its frequency in

kilohertz?

Solution :

3.19
 Note

Frequency is the rate of change with

respect to time.

Change in a short span of time

means high frequency.

Change over a long span of

time means low frequency.

3.20
 A sine wave (cont..)

2) Phase

- The position of the waveform relative time 0.

- It indicate the status of the first cycle.

- Measured in degreed or radians (1 cycle = 360° = 2π rad)

3.21
 Figure 3.5 Three sine waves with the same amplitude and frequency,
but different phases

3.22
 Example 3.4

A sine wave is offset 1/8 cycle with respect to time 0.

What is its phase in degrees and radians?

Solution :

3.23
 Time and Frequency Domain

1) Time-domain
- A time-domain plot shows changes in signal amplitude with respect to

time.

2) Frequency-domain

- A frequency-domain plot is concerned with only the peak value and the

frequency.
3.24
 Figure 3.6 The time-domain and frequency-domain plots of a sine wave

3.25
 Note

A complete sine wave in the time

domain can be represented by one
single spike in the frequency domain.

3.26
 Figure 3.7 The time and frequency domains of a nonperiodic signal

3.27
 Example 3.5

The frequency domain is more compact and

useful when we are dealing with more than one
sine wave.

3.28
 Figure 3.8 The time domain and frequency domain of three sine waves

3.29
 Bandwidths

-The bandwidth of a composite signal is the difference between the

highest and the lowest frequencies contained in that signal.

Composite signal - Any composite signal is a combination of

simple sine waves with different frequencies, amplitudes, and
phases

3.30
 Figure 3.9 The bandwidth of periodic and nonperiodic composite signals

3.31
 Example 3.10

If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves

with frequencies of 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz, what
is its bandwidth? Draw the spectrum, assuming all
components have a maximum amplitude of 10 V.

3.32
 Example 3.10 (Cont..

Solution
Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency,
and B the bandwidth. Then

The spectrum has only five spikes, at 100, 300, 500, 700,
and 900 Hz

3.33
 Figure 3.10 The bandwidth for Example 3.10

3.34
 Example 3.11

A periodic signal has a bandwidth of 20 Hz. The highest

frequency is 60 Hz. What is the lowest frequency? Draw
the spectrum if the signal contains all frequencies of the
same amplitude.

3.35
 Example 3.11 (Cont..)

Solution
Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency,
and B the bandwidth. Then

The spectrum contains all integer frequencies. We show

this by a series of spikes

3.36
 Figure 3.11 The bandwidth for Example 3.11

3.37
 Example 3.12

A nonperiodic composite signal has a bandwidth of 200

kHz, with a middle frequency of 140 kHz and peak
amplitude of 20 V. The two extreme frequencies have an
amplitude of 0. Draw the frequency domain of the
signal.

3.38
 Example 3.12 (Cont..)

Solution
The lowest frequency must be at 40 kHz and the highest
at 240 kHz. Figure 3.15 shows the frequency domain
and the bandwidth.

3.39
 Figure 3.12 The bandwidth for Example 3.12

3.40
 3-3 DIGITAL SIGNALS
In addition to being represented by an analog signal,
information can also be represented by a digital signal.
For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage
and a 0 as zero voltage. A digital signal can have more
than two levels. In this case, we can send more than 1 bit
for each level.

Topics discussed in this section:

Bit Rate

3.41
 Figure 3.13 Two digital signals: one with two signal levels and the other
with four signal levels

No of bit per level = log2 no of levels

3.42
 Example 3.13

A digital signal has sixteen levels. How many bits are

needed per level?

Solution :

3.43
 Example 3.14

A digital signal has nine levels. How many bits are

needed per level?

Solution :

3.44
 Example 3.14 (Cont..)

Solution :

We calculate the number of bits by using the formula.

Each signal level is represented by 3.17 bits. However,
this answer is not realistic. The number of bits sent per
level needs to be an integer as well as a power of 2. For
this example, 4 bits can represent one level.

3.45
 Bit rate

- The bit rate is the number of bits in 1s, expresses in bits per second

(bps)

3.46
 Example 3.15

Assume we need to download text documents at the rate

of 100 pages per minute. What is the required bit rate of
the channel?
Solution
A page is an average of 24 lines with 80 characters in
each line. If we assume that one character requires 8
bits, the bit rate is

3.47
 Transmission of Digital signals

Baseband Transmission

- Baseband transmission mean sending a digital

signal over a channel without changing the digital
signal to an analog signal.

- Baseband transmission requires that we have a

low-pass channel, a channel with a bandwidth that
start from zero.
3.48
 Figure 3.14 Baseband transmission

3.49
 Figure 3.15 Bandwidths of two low-pass channels

3.50
 Figure 3.16 Baseband transmission using a dedicated medium

3.51
 Note

Baseband transmission of a digital

signal that preserves the shape of the
digital signal is possible only if we have
a low-pass channel with an infinite or
very wide bandwidth.

3.52
 Transmission of Digital signals (Cont..)

Broadband Transmission

- Broadband transmission or modulation means

changing the digital signal to an analog signal for
transmission.

- Modulation allows us to use a bandpass channel, a

channel with a bandwidth that does not start from zero.

- This type of channel is more available than a low-pass

channel.
3.53
 Figure 3.17 Bandwidth of a bandpass channel

3.54
 Note

If the available channel is a bandpass

channel, we cannot send the digital
signal directly to the channel;
we need to convert the digital signal to
an analog signal before transmission.

3.55
 Figure 3.18 Modulation of a digital signal for transmission on a bandpass
channel

3.56
 Example 3.16

The example is the digital cellular telephone. For better

reception, digital cellular phones convert the analog
voice signal to a digital signal. Although the bandwidth
allocated to a company providing digital cellular phone
service is very wide, we still cannot send the digital
signal without conversion. The reason is that we only
have a bandpass channel available between caller and
callee. We need to convert the digitized voice to a
composite analog signal before sending.

3.57
 3-4 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

Signals travel through transmission media, which are not

perfect. The imperfection causes signal impairment. This
means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is
not the same as the signal at the end of the medium.
What is sent is not what is received. Three causes of
impairment are attenuation, distortion, and noise.

Topics discussed in this section:

Attenuation
Distortion
Noise

3.58
 Figure 3.29 Causes of impairment

3.59
 Causes of Impairment

Attenuation

- Attenuation means a loss of energy. When a signal,

simple or composite, travels through a medium, it loses
some of its energy in overcoming the resistance of the
medium

3.60
 Figure 3.20 Attenuation

3.61
 Causes of Impairment (Cont..)

Distortion

- Distortion means that the signal changes its form or

shape.

- Distortion can occur in a composite signal made of

different frequencies.

3.62
 Figure 3.21 Distortion

3.63
 Causes of Impairment (Cont..)

Noise

- Types of noise, such:

- Thermal noise - random motion of electrons in a

wire which creates an extra signal not originally
sent by the transmitter.

- Induced noise - comes from sources such as motors

and appliances. These devices act as a sending
antenna, and the transmission medium acts as the
3.64
receiving antenna.
 Causes of Impairment (Cont..)

Noise

- Crosstalk - the effect of one wire on the other.

One wire acts as a sending antenna and the other
as the receiving antenna.

- Impulse noise - a spike (a sig- nal with high energy

in a very short time) that comes from power lines,
lightning, and so on.

3.65
 Figure 3.22 Noise

3.66
 Causes of Impairment (Cont..)

Noise

- Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) - Ratio of the signal power

to the noise power. Defined as :
SNR = average signal power / average noise power

3.67
 Example 3.17

The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the

noise is 1 uW; what is the value of SNR ?

Solution :

3.68
 Example 3.18

The value of SNR for a noiseless channel :

Solution :

3.69
 3-5 DATA RATE LIMITS

A very important consideration in data communication

is how fast we can send data over a channel. It is
depend on 3 factors :

1)The bandwidth available

2)The level of the signals used
3)The quality of the channel ( the level of noise)

Topics discussed in this section:

Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate
Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity

3.70
 Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate

- For a noiseless channel, the Nyquist Bit Rate formula

defines the theoretical maximum bit rate:

BitRate = 2 x bandwidth x log2 L

Bandwidth = bandwidth of the channel

L= no of signal level

3.71
 Example 3.19

Consider a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 3000

Hz transmitting a signal with two signal levels. The
maximum bit rate can be calculated as

Solution :

3.72
 Example 3.20

Consider the same noiseless channel transmitting a

signal with four signal levels (for each level, we send 2
bits). The maximum bit rate can be calculated as:

Solution :

3.73
 Example 3.21

We need to send 265 kbps over a noiseless channel with

a bandwidth of 20 kHz. How many signal levels do we
need?

Solution

3.74
 Example 3.21 (cont..)

Solution:

We can use the Nyquist formula as shown:

Since this result is not a power of 2, we need to either

increase the number of levels or reduce the bit rate. If we
have 128 levels, the bit rate is 280 kbps. If we have 64
levels, the bit rate is 240 kbps.

3.75
 Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity

- In reality, we cannot have a noiseless channel, the

channel is always noisy
- For a noisy channel, the Shannon Capacity formula
defines the theoretical highest bit rate:

Capacity= bandwidth x log2 (1+SNR)

Capasity = capasity of the channel in bps

Bandwidth = bandwidth of the channel
SNR= signal-to-noise ratio

3.76
 Example 3.22

Consider an extremely noisy channel in which the value

of the signal-to-noise ratio is almost zero. In other
words, the noise is so strong that the signal is faint.

Solution:

3.77
 Example 3.22 (cont…)

Solution:

This means that the capacity of this channel is zero

regardless of the bandwidth. In other words, we cannot
receive any data through this channel.

3.78
 Example 3.23

We can calculate the theoretical highest bit rate of a

regular telephone line. A telephone line normally has a
bandwidth of 3000. The signal-to-noise ratio is usually
3162.

Solution:

3.79
 Example 3.23 (cont…)

Solution:

This means that the highest bit rate for a telephone line
is 34.860 kbps. If we want to send data faster than this,
we can either increase the bandwidth of the line or
improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

3.80
 Example 3.24

We have a channel with a 1-MHz bandwidth. The SNR

for this channel is 63. What are the appropriate bit rate
and signal level?

Solution

3.81
 Example 3.24 (cont…)

Solution

Use the Shannon formula to find the bitrate (upper limit):

For better performance, choose something lower. For

example, 4 Mbps. Then use the Nyquist formula to find the
number of signal levels.

3.82
 Note

The Shannon capacity gives us the

upper limit; the Nyquist formula tells us
how many signal levels we need.

3.83
 3-6 PERFORMANCE

One important issue in networking is the performance of

the network—how good is it?

Topics discussed in this section:

Bandwidth
Throughput
Latency (Delay)

3.84
 Characteristic of network measurement

Bandwidth

- In networking, we use the term bandwidth in two

contexts

- The first, bandwidth in hertz, refers to the range of

frequencies in a composite signal or the range of
frequencies that a channel can pass.

- The second, bandwidth in bits per second, refers to the

speed of bit transmission in a channel or link.
3.85
 Example 3.25

The bandwidth of a subscriber line is 4 kHz for voice or

data. The bandwidth of this line for data transmission
can be up to 56,000 bps using a sophisticated modem to
change the digital signal to analog.

3.86
 Example 3.26

If the telephone company improves the quality of the line

and increases the bandwidth to 8 kHz, we can send
112,000 bps by using a sophisticated modem to change
the digital signal to analog.

3.87
 Characteristic of network measurement (Cont..)

Throughtput

- A link may have a bandwidth of B bps, but we can only send

T bps through link with T always less than B.

- In other word, the bandwidth is a potential measurement of

a link, the throughput is a actual measurement of how fast
we can send data.

3.88
 Characteristic of network measurement (Cont..)

Latency (Delay)

- Latency or delay defines how long it takes for an entire message to

completely arrive at the destination from the time the first bit is sent out

form source.

- Latency is made of 4 components ;

3.89
Latency = propagation time + transmission time + queuing time
 Characteristic of network measurement (Cont..)

- Propagation time – measures the time required for a bit to travel

from the source to the destination

- Transmission time – Time required to transmit a message. It

depends on the size of the message and the bandwidth of the

channel.
- Queuing time – Time needed for each intermediate (such as

router) or end device to hold the message before it can be

3.90 processed.