Frequency

Communication systems often use atmosphere for

transmission Wireless

Time-varying Electro-Magnetic (EM) Wave

Propagation characteristics of EM wave thru atmosphere
are highly dependent on frequency/wavelength
c
f
(Hz)

f is frequency

is wavelength
c is speed of light = 3 x 108 m/s

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Propagation Modes

Three dominate types of propagation modes

Ground Wave

f < 2 MHz
Diffraction causes wave to propagate along Earth
surface
Propagation beyond visual horizon (e.g. AM broadcast
radio)
Sky-Wave
2 MHz < f < 30 MHz
Refraction/Reflection of Ionosphere (50-250 mile alt.)
Intermittent coverage along Earths surface
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Ground Wave

With sufficient Tx power ground waves can

propagate thousands of miles

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Sky Wave
Note that
only certain
locations on
ground can
receive Tx
signal

International broadcasts (BBC, VOA, etc.) can be

heard half-way around the world with modest Tx
power
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Propagation Modes
Line of Sight = LOS
f > 30 MHz
Signal path must be free from obstructions
Earths curvature will determine LOS distance for
antennas mounted on tall towers
LOS distance = DLOS 2h f (miles) 4.13 hm (km)
hf : antenna height in feet
hm : antenna height in meters
Two antenna towers/heights (Tx and Rx)

DT DLOS1 DLOS 2
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Line of Sight (LOS)

DT DLOS1 DLOS2

Short range for reasonable antenna heights

h1 = 30 m and h2 = 50 m DT = 52 km
or 32 miles !!
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

LOS Propagation

Why use high frequencies which have smaller

propagation distances (LOS)?

High carrier frequencies (fc) support larger bandwidth (BW)

signals which leads to higher data rates

Practical Tx/Rxs can have signal BWs 0.1 fc
Information data rate Rd BW
Antenna size must be at least 10% of for efficient
propagation of EM wave thru atmosphere (~0.5 for RF)
fc = 10 kHz km antenna height = 3000 m !!
Must modulate most baseband signals with high
frequency carrier for wireless transmission to have
reasonable antenna size
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Frequency Allocations
Range

Designation

Propagation

Typical Uses

Ground Wave,
Low Attenuation

Long Range Navigation

& Submarine
Communications

3-30 kHz

Very Low Frequency (VLF)

30-100 kHz

Low Frequency (LF)

300-3000
kHz

Medium Frequency (MF)

3-30 MHz

High Frequency (HF)

Ionospheric
Sky Wave

30-300 MHz

Very High Frequency (VHF)

Nearly LOS

0.3-3 GHz

Ultra-High Frequency (UHF)

LOS

3-30 GHz

Super-High Frequency (SHF)

30-300 GHz

Extremely-High Frequency
(EHF)

LOS,
Atmospheric Atten.
LOS, Severe
Atmospheric Atten.

103-107 GHz

Infrared, Visible Light, UV

LOS

Ground Wave,
Medium
Attenuation
Ground Wave &
Night Sky Wave

Long Range Navigation

& Radio Beacons
Maritime Radio
AM Broadcast Radio
Amateur Radio, Military,
International Broadcast
(BBC)
TV, FM Radio,
Mobile Radio
TV, Cellular Phone, Radar,
GPS, PCS, LOS wave
Satellite, Radar, Military,
Remote Sensing
Radar, Satellite, Military,
Remote Sensing
Optical Communication,
Satellite Imaging

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Information Measure

How is information content measured?

Information sent from digital source from the jth message is
1
1
1

I j log 2

log10 Pj
ln Pj (bits)

log10 (2)
ln(2)
Pj
where Pj is the probability of transmitting the jth message

Information content will, in general, vary from one message

to the next since Pj is usually variable
Bit = unit of information and
Bit = unit of binary data (0,1) but they are not the same
Must use context to determine meaning
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

Information Measure

Since information content varies from message to

message must measure average information
1

H Pj I j Pj log 2

P
j 1
j 1
j

(bits)

- where m is the number of possible source messages

- H is also called the entropy of the source

Rate of Information

H
RI
T

bits/s
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

10

Information Measure
Example: 8 digit (symbol) word with two possible states per
digit (binary). Find the entropy if a) all words equally likely and
b) if half the words have Pj1 = 1/512
a) m = 28 = 256 and since all words equally likely Pj = 1/m = 1/256
1
256 1 log 2 256 8 bits
H mPj log 2

P
256
j

of probability)
b) Note: All Pj = 1 (definition
so 128 Pj1 + 128 Pj2 = 1 Pj2 =
(1/128)(1-128 Pj1) = (1/128)(3/4)= 3/512

1
1
128 Pj 2 log 2
2.25 5.56 7.81 8 !!
H 128 Pj1 log 2

must have equally likely

1 average information
Pjfor
Pj 2 content = # digits

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

11

Channel Capacity

Ideal channel capacity shown by Shannon to be

S

C B log 2 1
N

bits/s

S
where B is channel BW (Hz) and
is linear (watts/watts)
N
signal to noise ratio (not dB) at input to digital receiver

Actual channel data rate Rc < C

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

12

Channel Capacity
C B so more bandwidth means higher data rate
PSD of rectangular pulse train is (sin x / x)2

Symbol Period = Ts = Tb
= Bit Period
Signal BW = Bs 1 / Tb

PSD

f
1 / Ts = FNBW

As Tb data rate Rc since Rc (Tb )-1 , but B

also !!
Increasing signal BW will increase data rate if
everything else remains the same
ECE 4710: Lecture #2

13

Channel Capacity

C is also S/N Higher signal power means

larger channel capacity???

Larger S/N makes it easier to differentiate (detect) multiple

states per digital symbol in presence of noise
higher data rate for same symbol period & bandwidth
Ts1 = Ts2 but R1 = 2R2
00 01 00 10 00 11 00 01

Ts1

vs.

0
1

Ts2

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

14

Digital System Performance

Critical Performance Measures:

Bit Error Rate (BER)

Channel BW = Transmitted Signal BW
Received S/ N Signal Power
Channel Data Rate (Rc)

Desire high data rate with small signal BW, low

signal power, and low BER
Fundamental tradeoff between signal power and BW

Example: Error Coding add coding bits to data stream but keep same data
rate
For same Rc Ts must and BW
But coding will correct errors allowing weaker signal power for same BER

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

15

Error Coding
Errors occur due to corruption of Tx signal by noise
and interference in channel
Reduce errors to improve performance
Two Coding Types

ARQ: Automatic Repeat Request

FEC: Forward Error Correction
ARQ : Add parity bits, Rx detects error, sends
request for retransmission of data
FEC: Add coding bits, Rx detects and corrects for
some (usually not all) of the errors

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

16

Error Coding

ARQ is used often for computer communications (internet)

Not possible with one-way communication
Not good for systems with large transmission delays
Leads to poor data throughput when retransmissions are frequent
FEC is widely used in wireless communication systems
Two major types: Block Codes & Convolutional Codes
Coding Performance: measure improvement in S/N before
and after coding
Lower S/N can achieve same BER for signal with coding compared to

signal without coding Coding Gain

Coding Threshold: coded signal will have worse performance for S/N
below some threshold value!!

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

17

Coding Performance

ECE 4710: Lecture #2

18