Analog Communication Systems

Unit – IV
Noise in Communication Systems
Part – I
K. Punnam Chandar
 Outline
• Sources of Noise
• Signal to Noise Ratio
• Noise Figure
• Noise Equivalent Bandwidth
• Quadrature Components of Noise
 Sources of Noise
• Definition:
Noise may be defined as any unwanted form of
energy which tends to interfere with proper
reception and reproduction of wanted signal.

e.g. In AM receiver noise may cause hiss in the

loudspeaker output.
 Classification of Noise
• External Noises i.e. noise whose sources are
external to the receiver or communication
system.
I. Atmospheric Noise is caused by lightning
discharge in thunderstorms.
II. Extraterrestrial noises sources are sun and
stars. (electrical noise)
III. Man-made noises arch discharging taking
place during the aircraft ignition, electric motors
etc.,
• Internal Noises, i.e. noises which get generated
within the receiver or communication system.
I. Thermal Noise or white noise is the noise
generated in a resistor or the resistive component due to the
random motion of molecules, atoms & electrons.
II. Shot Noise results from the shot effect present in all
amplifying devices and virtually all active devices.
III. Transit Time Nose this noise is predominant at VHF
range, the time taken by the e- to travel from the emitter to
collector is a transistor is comparable to the time period of
signal.
 Miscellaneous Internal Noise
• Flicker Noise or modulation noise is the one
appearing in transistors operating at low audio frequencies.
• Transistor Thermal noise
• Partition Noise
• Noise in Frequency Mixers
 Signal-to-Noise Ration
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio is calculated for comparison of
noise and signal at the same point to ensure that the
noise is small relative to the signal.
• Definition: SNR is defined as the ratio of signal power
to the noise power at the same point in the system.
Note:- High SNR is desirable.
2
Vs 2
S Ps R  Vs 
= = 2 = 
N Pn V n  Vn 
R
 Noise Figure
• Definition: Noise Figure (F) is defined as the ratio of
the signal-to-noise power supplied to the input terminals of
the system (amplifier or receiver) to the signal-to-noise power
supplied by the system to the output load impedance.
• Noise Figure F may be expressed either as a ratio or in
decibels.
• Noise Figure F of a practical receiver should be as small as
possible.

S at the input
F= N
S at the output
N
 Equivalent Noise Bandwidth
• With the help of noise equivalent bandwidth,
noise power can be specified at the output of
a linear band pass system.
• Definition: Equivalent noise bandwidth may
be defined as the bandwidth of an ideal band
pass system which produces the same noise
power as the actual system does.
 A Linear band pass system.

n(t)
H(w)
• Noise Parameters : white noise of zero mean
and power spectral density N0/2 connected to
the input of an arbitrary low pass filter of
transfer function H(f). The resulting average
output noise power is therefore
+α
 N0  2
Nout =   ∫ H ( f ) df
 2  −α
+α
2
= N0 ∫ H ( f ) df
Eq. 1
0
• Consider next the same source of noise
connected to the input of an ideal low pass
filter of zero frequency response H(0) and
bandwidth B.
• In this case, the average output noise power is
2
N out = N 0 B H ( f ) Eq. 2

• Therefore, equating eq. 1 & 2 we may define the noise

equivalent bandwidth as
α
2
∫ H ( f ) df
0
B= 2
H (0)
 Quadrature Components of Noise
• Noisy Receiver Model

Output Signal
Modulated Signal
s(t) x(t)
Band Pass
Demodulator
Filter

Noise Signal
n(t)

x(t) = s(t) + n(t)

• The band pass filtered noise centered at the
carrier frequency fc may be treated as a
narrow band noise and can be represented in
the canonical form as
n(t ) = nI (t ) cos(2π f c t ) − nQ (t ) sin(2π f c t )

Where nI(t) is the in-phase noise component and

nQ(t) is the quadrature noise component, both
measured with respect to the carrier wave.