Chapter 3
Data and Signals
3.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
Note
To be transmitted, data must be
transformed to electromagnetic signals.
3.2
Analog and Digital Data
Data can be analog or digital.
Analog data are continuous and take
continuous values.
Digital data have discrete states and take
discrete values.
3.3
Analog and Digital Signals
• Signals can be analog or digital.
• Analog signals can have an infinite number
of values in a range.
• Digital signals can have only a limited
number of values.
3.4
Figure 3.1 Comparison of analog and digital signals
3.5
Note
Frequency and period are the inverse of
each other.
3.6
Figure 3.4 Two signals with the same amplitude and phase,
but different frequencies
3.7
Table 3.1 Units of period and frequency
3.8
Example 3.1
The power we use at home has a frequency of 60 Hz.
The period of this sine wave can be determined as
follows:
3.9
Example 3.2
The period of a signal is 100 ms. What is its frequency in
kilohertz?
Solution
First we change 100 ms to seconds, and then we
calculate the frequency from the period (1 Hz = 10 −3
kHz).
3.10
Frequency
• Frequency is the rate of change with respect
to time.
• Change in a short span of time means high
frequency.
• Change over a long span of
time means low frequency.
3.11
Bandwidth and Signal
Frequency
The bandwidth of a composite signal is
the difference between the highest and
the lowest frequencies contained in that
signal.
3.12
Figure 3.12 The bandwidth of periodic and nonperiodic composite signals
3.13
Example 3.6
If a periodic signal is decomposed into five sine waves
with frequencies of 100, 300, 500, 700, and 900 Hz, what
is its bandwidth? Draw the spectrum, assuming all
components have a maximum amplitude of 10 V.
Solution
Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency,
and B the bandwidth. Then
The spectrum has only five spikes, at 100, 300, 500, 700,
and 900 Hz (see Figure 3.13).
3.14
Figure 3.13 The bandwidth for Example 3.6
3.15
Example 3.7
A periodic signal has a bandwidth of 20 Hz. The highest
frequency is 60 Hz. What is the lowest frequency? Draw
the spectrum if the signal contains all frequencies of the
same amplitude.
Solution
Let fh be the highest frequency, fl the lowest frequency,
and B the bandwidth. Then
The spectrum contains all integer frequencies.
3.16
Figure 3.14 The bandwidth for Example 3.7
3.17
Example 3.8
A nonperiodic composite signal has a bandwidth of 200
kHz, with a middle frequency of 140 kHz and peak
amplitude of 20 V. The two extreme frequencies have an
amplitude of 0. Draw the frequency domain of the
signal.
3.18
Solution
The lowest frequency must be at 40 kHz and the
highest at 240 kHz. Figure 3.15 shows the
frequency domain and the bandwidth.
3.19
Figure 3.15 The bandwidth for Example 3.8
3.20
3-3 DIGITAL SIGNALS
In addition to being represented by an analog signal,
information can also be represented by a digital signal.
For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage
and a 0 as zero voltage. A digital signal can have more
than two levels. In this case, we can send more than 1 bit
for each level.
Topics discussed in this section:
Bit Rate
Bit Length
Digital Signal as a Composite Analog Signal
Application Layer
3.21
Figure 3.16 Two digital signals: one with two signal levels and the other
with four signal levels
3.22
Example 3.16
A digital signal has eight levels. How many bits are
needed per level? We calculate the number of bits from
the formula
Each signal level is represented by 3 bits.
3.23
Example 3.18
Assume we need to download text documents at the rate
of 100 pages per sec. What is the required bit rate of the
channel?
3.24
Solution
A page is an average of 24 lines with 80
characters in each line. If we assume that one
character requires 8 bits (ascii), the bit rate is
3.25
Example 3.19
A digitized voice channel, as we will see in Chapter 4, is
made by digitizing a 4-kHz bandwidth analog voice
signal. We need to sample the signal at twice the highest
frequency (two samples per hertz). We assume that each
sample requires 8 bits. What is the required bit rate?
3.26
Solution
The bit rate can be calculated as
3.27
3-4 TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT
Signals travel through transmission media, which are not
perfect. The imperfection causes signal impairment. This
means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is
not the same as the signal at the end of the medium.
What is sent is not what is received. Three causes of
impairment are attenuation, distortion, and noise.
Topics discussed in this section:
Attenuation
Distortion
Noise
3.28
Figure 3.25 Causes of impairment
3.29
Attenuation
Means loss of energy -> weaker signal
When a signal travels through a medium it
loses energy overcoming the resistance of
the medium
Amplifiers are used to compensate for this
loss of energy by amplifying the signal.
3.30
Figure 3.26 Attenuation
3.31
Measurement of Attenuation
To show the loss or gain of energy the unit
“decibel” is used.
dB = 10log10P2/P1
P1 - input signal
P2 - output signal
3.32
Example 3.26
Suppose a signal travels through a transmission medium
and its power is reduced to one-half. This means that P 2
is (1/2)P1. In this case, the attenuation (loss of power)
can be calculated as
A loss of 3 dB (–3 dB) is equivalent to losing one-half
the power.
3.33
Example 3.27
A signal travels through an amplifier, and its power is
increased 10 times. This means that P2 = 10P1 . In this
case, the amplification (gain of power) can be calculated
as
3.34
3.35
Example 3.29
Sometimes the decibel is used to measure signal power
in milliwatts. In this case, it is referred to as dBm and is
calculated as dBm = 10 log10 Pm , where Pm is the power
in milliwatts. Calculate the power of a signal with dB m =
−30.
Solution
We can calculate the power in the signal as
3.36
Distortion
Means that the signal changes its form or shape
Distortion occurs in composite signals
Each frequency component has its own
propagation speed traveling through a medium.
The different components therefore arrive with
different delays at the receiver.
That means that the signals have different phases
at the receiver than they did at the source.
3.37
Figure 3.28 Distortion
3.38
Noise
There are different types of noise
Thermal - random noise of electrons in the wire
creates an extra signal
Induced - from motors and appliances, devices
act are transmitter antenna and medium as
receiving antenna.
Crosstalk - same as above but between two
wires.
Impulse - Spikes that result from power lines,
lighning, etc.
3.39
Figure 3.29 Noise
3.40
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
To measure the quality of a system the SNR
is often used. It indicates the strength of the
signal to the noise power in the system.
It is the ratio between two powers.
It is usually given in dB and referred to as
SNRdB.
3.41
Example 3.31
The power of a signal is 10 mW and the power of the
noise is 1 μW; what are the values of SNR and SNRdB ?
Solution
The values of SNR and SNRdB can be calculated as
follows:
3.42
Example 3.32
The values of SNR and SNRdB for a noiseless channel
are
We can never achieve this ratio in real life; it is an ideal.
3.43
Figure 3.30 Two cases of SNR: a high SNR and a low SNR
3.44
3-5 DATA RATE LIMITS
A very important consideration in data communications
is how fast we can send data, in bits per second, over a
channel. Data rate depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)
3.45
3-6 PERFORMANCE
One important issue in networking is the performance of
the network—how good is it? We discuss quality of
service, an overall measurement of network performance,
in greater detail in Chapter 24. In this section, we
introduce terms that we need for future chapters.
Topics discussed in this section:
Bandwidth - capacity of the system
Throughput - no. of bits that can be
pushed through
Latency (Delay) - delay incurred by a
bit from start to finish
Bandwidth-Delay Product
3.46
Note
In networking, we use the term
bandwidth in two contexts.
The first, bandwidth in hertz, refers to the
range of frequencies in a composite signal
or the range of frequencies that a channel
can pass.
The second, bandwidth in bits per second,
refers to the speed of bit transmission in a
channel or link. Often referred to as
Capacity.
3.47
Example 3.43
If the telephone company improves the quality of the line
and increases the bandwidth to 8 kHz, we can send
112,000 bps
3.48
Throughput
The throughput is a measure of how
fast we can actually send data through
a network.
3.49
Example 3.44
A network with bandwidth of 10 Mbps can pass only an
average of 12,000 frames per minute with each frame
carrying an average of 10,000 bits. What is the
throughput of this network?
3.50
Solution
We can calculate the throughput as
The throughput is almost one-fifth of the bandwidth in
this case.
3.51
• Latency (Delay)
• The latency or delay defines how long it
takes for an entire message to completely
arrive at the destination from the time
the first bit is sent out from the source.
• We can say that latency is made of four
components: propagation time,
transmission time, queuing time and
Latency= propagation
processing delay. time +
transmission time + queuing time +
processing delay
3.52
Propagation & Transmission delay
Propagation Time - measures the time
required for a bit to travel from the source
to the destination.
Transmission Time - the time at which all
the bits in a message arrive at the
destination. (difference in arrival time of
first and last bit)
3.53
Propagation and Transmission Delay
Propagation Delay = Distance/Propagation speed
Transmission Delay = Message size/bandwidth bps
Latency = Propagation delay + Transmission delay +
Queueing time + Processing time
3.54
Example 3.45
What is the propagation time if the distance between the
two points is 12,000 km? Assume the propagation speed
to be 2.4 × 108 m/s in cable.
3.55
Solution
We can calculate the propagation time as
The example shows that a bit can go over the Atlantic
Ocean in only 50 ms if there is a direct cable between the
source and the destination.
3.56
Example 3.46
What are the propagation time and the transmission
time for a 2.5-kbyte message (an e-mail) if the
bandwidth of the network is 1 Gbps? Assume that the
distance between the sender and the receiver is 12,000
km and that light travels at 2.4 × 108 m/s.
Solution
We can calculate the propagation and transmission time
as shown on the next slide:
3.57
Example 3.46 (continued)
Note that in this case, because the message is short and
the bandwidth is high, the dominant factor is the
propagation time, not the transmission time. The
transmission time can be ignored.
3.58
Example 3.47
What are the propagation time and the transmission
time for a 5-Mbyte message (an image) if the bandwidth
of the network is 1 Mbps? Assume that the distance
between the sender and the receiver is 12,000 km and
that light travels at 2.4 × 108 m/s.
Solution
We can calculate the propagation and transmission
times as shown on the next slide.
3.59
Example 3.47 (continued)
Note that in this case, because the message is very long
and the bandwidth is not very high, the dominant factor
is the transmission time, not the propagation time. The
propagation time can be ignored.
3.60
Queuing Time
The third component in latency is the
queuing time, the time needed for each
intermediate or end device to hold the
message before it can be processed
3.61
Figure 3.31 Filling the link with bits for case 1
3.62
Example 3.48
We can think about the link between two points as a
pipe. The cross section of the pipe represents the
bandwidth, and the length of the pipe represents the
delay. We can say the volume of the pipe defines the
bandwidth-delay product, as shown in Figure 3.33.
3.63
Figure 3.32 Filling the link with bits in case 2
3.64
Note
The bandwidth-delay product defines
the number of bits that can fill the link.
3.65