Mobile Communications

WS 2007/2008

Assignment 1
Discussion: 31.10.2007

Exercise 1.1: Modulation

Modulation is needed to press digital data onto the analogue radio transmission medium. a.) Is it possible to transmit a digital signal, e.g. coded as square wave as used inside a computer, using radio transmission without any loss? Give reasons for your answer. b.) Think of a phase diagram and the points representing bit patterns for an advanced PSK scheme (see lecture slides 2.1, page 16). How can a receiver decide which bit pattern was originally sent when a received point lies somewhere in between other points in the diagram? Why is it, thus, difficult to code more and more bits per phase shift? c.) Modulate the ASCII character sequence techniques: MC07 with the following modulation

* Not the codes used in reality, but better for fast signal identification in this exercise

For your solution, assume that each signal is represented by one sinus oscillation. For c.), you can estimate the correct phase/amplitude from the given position in the diagram (or, if you prefer, you can calculate it based on the angle of a virtual lines through the points). For representation of the ASCII characters, refer e.g. to wikipedia.

Mobile Communications
WS 2007/2008

Exercise 1.2: Bandwidth

As told in the lecture, the term bandwidth often is used if data rate is meant. Although both terms have a relation, nevertheless they are different concepts. a.) A digital signaling systems is required to operate at 9.6 kBit/s. If with one signal a 4-bit word is encoded, what is the minimum bandwidth necessary for the radio transmission? b.) When talking about signal strength or the amplification of a signal gained by an antenna, P decibel (dB) is the common measurement unit. It is defined as x = 10 log10 1 , with P2 P1 and P2 being the powers of two signals which should be compared (e.g. sending power and receiving power. Given such a scale, an antenna gain of 3 dB means that the signal strength is doubled by the antenna. Also, the influence of interfering signals is measured in dB. Here, it is talked about signalto-noise ratio (S/N ratio), which defines the power of the own signal in relation to all disturbing signals in the environment which can interfere with the own signal and by this reduce signal quality. The capacity C of a channel with bandwidth B for a given S/N ratio is lower than given in S the simple formula on the lecture slides: C B log2 1 + . N Given now is a channel with bandwidth of 3 MHz. We want to achieve a capacity of 20 MBit/s. What is the required signal-to-noise ratio for achieving this capacity? c.) Given is a base station with a transmit power of 100 mW. The noise level is given with a power of 0.001 mW. For communication, you have the frequency band of 2.4 2.425 GHz available. What is the maximum possible data rate at distances of 10m, 50m, resp. 100m for a device communicating with the base station?

Exercise 1.3: Signal Propagation

The propagation of signals in radio transmission depends on the chosen carrier frequency. a.) Why can waves with very low frequency follow the earths surface? Why are they not used for data transmission in computer networks? b.) Why are only lower frequencies (up to some hundred GHz) regulated and not higher frequencies (in the THz range)? c.) Name several methods for inter-symbol interference (ISI) mitigation. How does ISI depend on the carrier frequency, symbol rate, and movement of sender/receiver? d.) A vehicle travels with a speed of 30 m/s and communicates having a carrier frequency of 1 GHz (i.e. wavelength: 0.3 m). What is the maximum Doppler shift? What is the approximate fade duration?