Receivers (Rx)

A Hypothesis Tester(Digital Comm.)

Or
Estimator(Analog Comm.)

Let the Recd. Symbol be a(t)

1. A digital transmitter can be seen as a device which picks up some symbols out of a
finite set & puts these on the channel. In case of analog transmitter the set is
infinite.
2. In analog communication the set from which a signal can be chosen at Tr &
detected (or estimated) at Rx is infinite.

3. Thus in analog communication, we cant perform Hypothesis testing. Since we

have to compare with infinite possible variables. This is not possible to be done by
any machine(computer).
4. This highlights the importance of Estimation (Analog Rx) and detection (digital
Rx) processes in Communication theory.
5. Testing of binary hypothesis is a central problem in statistics and appears
throughout statistics literature. This is one of the meeting places of statistics and
Information theory. The central theorem of binary hypothesis testing was devised
by Neymann &Pearson(1933). Hypothesis testing has appeared in engineering
literature for problem of detecting Radar pulses.
6. The idea of receiver as a hypothesis tester started from work in the area of
RADAR where we had to find:
a) Whether there is any signal or only noise has been received, and
b) If signal has been received then is it a Friend and Foe; FOF RADAR.
Some other Problems Tackled in Statistics are:

Design of Experiments and Sampling of data, Procedure:- Time domain and

Spatial domain
Prediction and decision making on the basis of above experiments.
Inference making
Testing the goodness of inference.(Confidence level,Confidence Interval)
Hypothesis Testing

ANALOG COMMUNICATION PROBLEM:-

1. Due to noise, the Rx will receive a noisy signal & Rx has to determine a(t) from this
noisy signal.
2. If Rx has to select a(t) from a finite set of distinct WFMs {ai(t), i=1,2,.M} the Rx
would simply test M statistical hypothesis concerning all the possible transmitted
signals.
However, if we select a(t) from an infinite set, then we consider Rx doing estimation.
Thus, the job of Rx is to perform a statistical estimate (t) of the modulating
WFM,a(t).
The optimum Rx in mean square error (MSE) sense is that machine which minimizes
error, , where
= E[a(t)-(t)]2
where E Statistical Expectation

Digital(A number of discrete signal can be

sent. Let say s1,s2,.sn)

Rx

Problem-The aim of the receiver is to

decide or detect which has sent sitting at
receiver.(Decision Process)

Analog- The aim of the receiver is to

reproduce the transmitter WFM(recovery
process) . Here there can be infinite number
of WFMs. Thus theoretically there is infinite
resolution. (not so in digital communication)
Number of WFM sets at a practical
transmitter would be always finite.
Thus in digital communication system it is
decision process and not recovery process
being done at the receiver.