Haramaya University

Haramaya Institute of Technology

School of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Communication Systems (ECEg4120)

2/11/2026 1
 0. Course Outline

2/11/2026 2
0.1 Course Objectives
• To introduce students to digital communication systems and
its applications
• To enable students to analyze the BER-SNR performance of
receivers in the presence of noise.
• To enable the student design optimum receivers;
• To study channel equalizers and BER-SNR performance
enhancement and
• To introduce the theory of information and coding.

2/11/2026 3
0.2 Course Description
• At the beginning the course deals with introduction to
digital communication systems.
• The course proceeds with information theory and source
coding.
• In this course revision of digital modulation systems will be
made since this topic is very much essential.
• It further considers the effect of noise in digital modulation
systems.
• The course also covers optimum receiver design and it will
introduce to channel equalization.
• Lastly the course deals with advanced communication
systems.

2/11/2026 4
0.3 Course Contents
1. Introduction to Digital Communications:
• Block diagram of digital communication systems;
• Merits of Digital Communication Systems;
• Examples of Digital Communications.
2. Information Theory and Source Coding :
• What is Information;
• Information Content;
• Types of Source Coding- Lossless and Lossy Source Codes;
• Design of Example Source Codes- Shannon-Fano Code, Huffman
Code.

2/11/2026 5
… Cont’d
3. Digital Modulation Techniques and Their Performance:
• Principle, Constellation, and Signals;
• Electronic Construction;
• Noise (BER-SNR) Performance of Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK),
Phase Shift Keying (PSK), FSK and QAM;
• Optimum receiver design for digital modulation techniques in the
presence of noise, mitigation techniques.
4. Spread Spectrum Communication Systems:
• Introduction,
• Types spread spectrum communication-THSS, FHSS, CSSS;
• Modeling and design of spread spectrum communication
specifically CDMA.

2/11/2026 6
… Cont’d
5. Introduction to MIMO Communication:
• Introduction- principle, advantages;
• Types- Spatial Diversity, Spatial Multiplexing;
• Modeling and design of MIMO Systems.
6. Introduction to Multi-carrier Communications:
• Orthogonal signals;
• Principle and block diagram of MC communications;
• Advantages of MC systems;
• Limitations of MC systems.

2/11/2026 7
0.4 Assessment/Evaluation& Grading System
• Mid Exam (30%),
• Final Examination (50%),
• Project and Assignment (20%)

2/11/2026 8
0.5 Text books and References
[1.] John G. Proakis and Masoud Salehi, Digital
Communications, Mac-Graw Hill, 2018.
[2.] Bernard Sklar and Fredric Harris, Digital
Communications: Fundamentals and Applications, 2020.
[3] Simon Haykin: Communication Systems, 4th Edition
[4] Taub and Schilling: Principles of Communication Systems,
2nd edition
[5] Leon W. Couch: Digital and Analog Communication
Systems (6th Edition)
[6] B.P. Lathi: Modern Digital and Analog Communications
Systems
[7] John G. Proakis: Communication Systems Engineering,
2nd Edition

2/11/2026 9
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Block diagram of digital communication systems;
1.2 Merits of Digital Communication Systems;
1.3 Examples of Digital Communications.
1.4 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature

2/11/2026 10
1.1 Block diagram of digital communication systems

Basic elements of a digital communication system.

2/11/2026 11
… Cont’d
 The figure illustrates a functional block diagram of a typical digital
communication system showing the key components of the
system
 We will briefly review and discuss the functions of these key
elements of the communication system.
 Source Output:
 The output from an information source could be
 Analog signal such as voice or video signal or
 Digital signal
 That is discrete in time and having a finite number of
characters.
 Messages from the source are converted into a sequence of
binary digits.
 Ideally, the source message should be represented by as few
as possible binary digits.
2/11/2026 12
… Cont’d
 Source Encoding:
 The process of efficiently converting source outputs into
a sequence of binary digits, called information sequence.
 The representation of the source output in binary form
should have as little or no redundancy (data compression)
 Channel Encoding:
 Introduce, in a controlled manner, some redundancy in the
binary information sequence.
 The redundancy can be used at the receiver to overcome
the effects of noise and other interferences on the
transmission channel.
 Trivial example: Repeat each binary digit n times

2/11/2026 13
… Cont’d
• Non-trivial example:
• Taking k information bits at a time and mapping each
k-bit sequence into a unique n-bit sequence, called
the codeword
• (n > k) measure of redundancy is the ratio k/n ( or n/k),
called the code rate
• Digital Modulator:
• This is an interface between the channel encoder and
the communication channel
• It maps the coded information sequence into signal
waveforms that can be transmitted over the channel
• Consider the coded sequence is to be transmitted one bit
at a time at some uniform rate R bits/s.
• The modulator may simply map the binary digits as follows
0s0 (t) cos2ft
2/11/2026 1s1(t) cos2ft 14
… Cont’d
 This is an example of binary modulation in which each bit
from the encoder is transmitted separately, called Binary
Phase-Shift Keying – BPSK.
 Alternatively, modulator may transmit b coded information
bits at a time using distinct waveforms
si(t), i= 0,1,2…..M-1, M called M-ary modulation.
 Note here that a new b-bit coded sequence enters the
modulator every b/R seconds.
 If the channel bit rate is fixed at R, the amount of time
available to transmit one of the M waveforms (corresponding
to the b-bit sequence) is b times the time period in a system
that uses binary modulation.

2/11/2026 15
… Cont’d
 Communication Channel:
 Physical medium that is used to send the signal from the
transmitter to the receiver
 Examples include:
 Wireless transmission- the atmosphere or free space
 Wireline, optical fiber, coaxial cables
 Storage channels: Information storage and retrieval devices -
magnetic tapes, compact discs, etc
 Transmitted signals are corrupted, in a random manner, by a
variety of additive noise such as thermal noise, atmospheric
noise, man made noise, etc and also attenuated in amplitude

2/11/2026 16
… Cont’d
 Channels can be modeled in a variety of ways that take into
account the particular properties of the channel.
 Examples are additive noise channel, linear filter channel, etc
 Digital demodulator:
 The demodulator processes the channel-corrupted
transmitted waveforms
 And reduces them to a sequence of numbers (digits) that
represent estimates of the transmitted coded data symbols
( binary or M-ary)
 Channel decoder:
 Attempts to reconstruct the original information sequence
from the knowledge of the code used and the redundancy
contained in the received data estimate.

2/11/2026 17
… Cont’d
 A measure of how accurately the demodulator and decoder
recover the original sequence is the average probability of bit-
error at the output of the decoder for a given power level
(signal-to-noise-ratio)

 The probability of error is in general a function of the code

characteristics, the type of waveforms used, the transmitter
power, the channel characteristics and the method of
demodulation and decoding.
 We will explore most of these factors that affect the
reliability of digital communication.

2/11/2026 18
1.2 Merits of Digital Communication Systems
1. Impact of the Computer: Computers are processors and
sources of data as well as tools for communication.
2. Digital communication offers flexibility and compatibility :
The adoption of a common digital format makes it possible
for a transmission system to handle many different sources
of information in a flexible manner.
3. Improved reliability due to improved theory,
microelectronics and system design.
4. Availability of wide-band channels such as optical fibers,
coaxial cables and geo-stationary satellites.
5. Availability of integrated solid-state electronics technology
makes possible increased system complexity by orders of
magnitude in a cost-effective manner.

2/11/2026 19
1.3 Examples of Digital Communications

Local
Loop Mobile
Switch T1/E1 Facilities
Switching
Transmission Center
Equipment regenerator
A/D Conversion Base
Central Office Station
(Digitization)
Local
Loop SONET
Switch T1/E1 Facilities
M SDH
Transmission U T1/E1 Facilities
Equipment regenerator X
Central Office A/D Conversion
(Digitization)
Local
Loop
Switch T1/E1 Facilities

Transmission
Equipment regenerator
Mobile
Central Office A/D Conversion Switching
(Digitization) Center

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Base

Station
20
2/11/2026
1.4 Basic Digital Communication Nomenclature
• Textual Message: information comprised of a sequence
of characters.
• Binary Digit (Bit): the fundamental information unit for
all digital systems.
• Symbol (mi where i=1,2,…M): for transmission of the bit
stream; groups of k bits are combined to form new symbol
from a finite set of M such symbols; M=2k.
• Digital Waveform: voltage or current waveform
representing a digital symbol.
• Data Rate: Symbol transmission is associated with a
symbol duration T. Data rate R=k/T [bps].
• Baud Rate: number of symbols transmitted per second
[baud].
2/11/2026 21
… Cont’d

2/11/2026 22
… Cont’d
• Messages, Characters, and Symbols

2/11/2026 23
… Cont’d
• Typical Digital Communications System
From Other Sources

Information Bits Source Bits Channel Bits

TX
Source Channel Frequency Multiple
Format Encryption Interleaving Multiplexing Modulation RF
Encoding Encoding Spreading Access
PA

si (t)
Digital
Input C
mi H
A
Bit Digital
Synchronization N
Stream Waveform N
Digital E
Output L
m̂ i
ŝi (t)
RX
Source Channel Frequency Multiple
Format Decryption Deinterleaving Demultiplexing Demodulation RF
Decoding Decoding Despreading Access
IF

Information Sink Source Bits Channel Bits

Optional
Essential To Other Destinations

2/11/2026 24
… Cont’d
• Formatting and Baseband Transmission

2/11/2026 25
2. Information Theory and Source Coding
• What is Information;
• Information Content;
• Types of Source Coding- Lossless and Lossy Source Codes;
• Design of Example Source Codes- Shannon-Fano Code,
• Huffman Code.

2/11/2026 26