65

Rates and Power

Source Rate: The rate of the source is the number of binary digits (bits)
transmitted per unit time (seconds)
1
R= log M bits=s
T 2
Note: Rates are additive

RT = R1 + R2
MT = M1
M2
M is the number of signals
If the logarithm is to base 2, the unit measure of R is bits/second.
Transmitter Power: This is the average transmitted power per time
1ZT 2 Es
Ps = s ( t ) dt =
T 0 T
Bit Energy: This is the amount of energy available on average for the
transmission of a single bit.
Es P
Eb = = s
log2 M R
Power EÆciency is measured as the bit error rate (BER) versus E =N ,b 0
i.e., BER versus the signal-to-noise ratio. Energy is typically normalized
per bit of transmitted information. The power eÆciency of a communi-
cations systems can be signicantly improved by error control coding.
EE 5520 Digital Communication Systems 66

Bit by Bit Signaling

Basic Sequential System: A basic communication systems uses a
sequence of modulated pulses to generate the transmitter signal:
1
X
s(t) = ai p(t iT )
i= 1

8
< +1; if data bit = 1
ai = :
1; if data bit = 0

Basis Functions:
p(t Z1
'i (t) = pEiT ) ; if 1
p(t iT )p(t jT ) dt = Æij :
b

 build up dimensionality
 decomposes into symbol/symbol transmission.
Message Error Probability:
 q K  q RT
P ["] = 1 1 Q( 2Eb=N0) =1 1 Q( 2Eb=N0)

where K = log2(M ) = RT .
Note: T ! 1, K ! 1 =) P ["] ! 1. The problem is clearly that the
frame error rate (FER) becomes very large for long messages.
EE 5520 Digital Communication Systems 67

Block-Orthogonal Signaling
p T
Transmit one of 2K pulses: si (t) = Es'(t i ); = .
2K
Pair-Wise Error Probability:
q 
Peji!j = Q Es =N0

Union Bound: The union bound in its simplest form says: P (A S B) 

P (A)+ P (B ). Applying this to our problem with M 1 possible incorrect
signals, we obtain:
q
P ["]  (M 1)Q( Es=N0)
Note: M = 2K = 2RT and Es = KEb = RT Eb = T Ps . The exact error
probability is the topic of a homework problem.
!!
Ps
P ["] < 2 e
RT Es =2N0
=2 e
RT T Ps =2N0
= exp T R ln 2
2N0
P ["] decreases exponentially as T grows, if Ps
2N0
> R ln 2, i.e.,
Ps 1
R<
2N0 ln 2
 0:72 NPs
0

T Ps 1 KEb 1
TR < =) K <
2N0 ln 2 2N0 ln 2
Eb
> 2 ln 2  1:39 P ["] !0
N0
Problem: Large T required =) 2RT = 2K becomes enormous
T
=
2RT
! 0 =) W ! 1
The number 2 ln 2 can be tightened by a factor of 2 (see Shannon
Theory), and is due to the fact that we are restricting our system
to orthogonal signals.
EE 5520 Digital Communication Systems 68

Shannon Theory
Channel Capacity: Among the most celebrated results in information
theory is Shannon's formula for the capacity of an AWGN channel:
!
S
C = W log2 1+ bits=s
N

 S is the signal power and given by S =R KEb=T = REb.

 N is the noise power and given by N2 11 jH (f )j2df  N0W .
0

 W is the system bandwidth available.

With these denitions we can rewrite the capacity as:
!
REb
C = W log2 1 +
N0 W
The theorem going with Shannon's formula states that for trans-
mission rates R < C , arbitrarily low error rates can be achieved,
while for R > C , there exists an irreducible error oor.

Spectral EÆciency: The spectral eÆciency of a communication system

is dened as the number of bits transmitted per time normalized per unit
bandwidth, i.e.,  = R=W .
The maximum spectral eÆciency, max = C=W :
!
Eb
max = log2 1 + max
N0

Eb
2 1
max
From this we can nd the
well-known Shannon Bound: N0 max

If we have an innite amount of bandwidth available, i.e., max ! 0, we

obtain the limiting value for Eb=N0:
2max 1
lim
max !0
= ln 2
max
The absolute limit on the signal-to-noise power necessary for reliable com-
munications is therefore
Eb
N0
 ln 2 = 1:59dB
EE 5520 Digital Communication Systems 69

Spectral EÆciency
Spectral eÆciencies achieved by various coded and uncoded transmission
methods using spectrally raised cosine pulses with roll-o factor  = 0:3
(except OC-QPSK and CPM), bit error rate Pb = 10 4, and  = (1 +
 )=T .  for OC-QPSK and CPM is calculated from the 99% bandwidth.

le (0)
i e vab 64-QAM
ch n nd
5 una regio
ou
nB
no
an
η [bits/s/Hz]

Sh

4
(0)
16-QAM
3
16-QAM TCM
(0)
(256) (64) (16) (4) 8-PSK
2 8-PSK TCM
(256) (64) (16) (4) (0)
QPSK (32)
(16)
(4)
1 (2,1,7) QPSK BPSK Continous
(128)
(0)
Phase Modulation
(256)
(64) (16)
(4) (2) (CPM)
(16,384) OC-QPSK
(4,1,14) QPSK
0
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Eb/N0 [dB]

The area marked \Unachievable Region" violates the Shannon bound and
no reliable communications systems exist with parameters in the shaded
area.
EE 5520 Digital Communication Systems 70

A Short History of Power EÆciency

1
Power Efficiency BPSK
Rd [bits/symbol]

0.75 Pioneer:
(2,1,31) cc with
sequential decoding
0.5 (255,123) BCH code with
Turbo algebraic decoding
(2,1,6) cc:
codes Voyager ML decoding
0.25 (4,1,14) CC with Mariner:
ML-decoding (32,6) biorthogonal code
Galileo with optimal decoding
0
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Eb/N0 [dB]

 Early use of coding: A rate 6/32 biorthogonal (Reed-Muller) block code was used
on the Mariner Mars and Viking missions in conjunction with BPSK and soft-
decision maximum-likelihood decoding. This system had a spectral eÆciency of
0.1875 bits/symbol and achieved Pb = 10 5 with an Eb =N0 = 6:4dB.
 In 1967, Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes enabled the eÆcient hard-
decision decoding of an entire class of block codes. The (255,123) BCH code has
Rd  0:5bits/symbol and achieves Pb = 10 with Eb =N0 = 5:7dB.
5

 Sequential decoding could make use of soft-decision decoding and allowed the
decoding of large convolutional codes. It was rst used on the Pioneer 9 mission.
The Pioneer 10 and 11 missions in 1972 and 1973 both used a long constraint
length (2,1,31), nonsystematic convolutional code which achieved Pb = 10 5 with
Eb =N0 = 2:5dB, and Rd = 0:5.

 The Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977 used a short constraint length (2,1,6)
convolutional code in conjunction with a soft-decision Viterbi decoder, achieving
Pb = 10 at Eb =N0 = 4:5dB and a spectral eÆciency of Rd = 0:5 bits/symbol.
5

 The biggest Viterbi decoder built to date found application in the Galileo mission,
where a (4,1,14) convolutional code is used. It achieved Rd = 0:25 and Pb = 10 5

at Eb =N0 = 1:75dB.
 Turbo-codes using iterative decoding have closed the gap to capacity by achieving
Pb = 10 5
at Eb =N0 of 0.7dB with Rd = 0:5.
 Low-density parity check codes have now been operated at Eb =N0 only 0.06dB
away from capacity.