Sanaa University

Faulty of Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering
Communications Sections

Digital Communications
Baseband demodulation (Detection) :

ISI
E-mail: aosary@yemen.net.ye

Today we are going to talk about:

Another source of error:

Inter-symbol interference (ISI)

Nyquist theorem
The techniques to reduce ISI

Pulse

shaping
Equalization

Digital Communications

Generalized One Dimensional Signals

One Dimensional Signal Constellation

Binary Baseband Orthogonal Signals

Binary Antipodal Signals

Binary orthogonal Signals

Constellation Diagram

Is a method of representing the symbol states of modulated

bandpass signals in terms of their amplitude and phase
In other words, it is a geometric representation of signals
There are three types of binary signals:
Antipodal
Two signals are said to be antipodal if one signal is the
negative of the other s1 (t ) s0 (t )
The signal have equal energy with signal point on the real
line

ON-OFF
Are one dimensional signals either ON or OFF with
signaling points falling
on the real line
5

With OOK, there are just 2 symbol states to map onto the
constellation space
a(t) = 0 (no carrier amplitude, giving a point at the origin)
a(t) = A cos wct (giving a point on the positive horizontal
axis at a distance A from the origin)

Orthogonal
Requires a two dimensional geometric representation since
there are two linearly independent functions s1(t) and s0(t)

3.2.4 Error performance

Error Probability of Binary Signals

Recall:

a1 a0
equation B.18
PB Q
2 0

Where we have replaced a2 by a0.

To minimize PB, we need to maximize:

a1 a0

or

(a1 a0 ) 2

20

We have

(a1 a0 )2

20

Ed
2Ed

N0 / 2 N0

Therefore,

a1 a0 1 (a1 a0 ) 2 1 2 Ed

2
2 0
2
0
2 N0

Ed
2 N0
8

The probability of bit error is given by:

Ed
PB Q
2N0

(3.63)

Ed s1 (t ) s0 (t ) dt
T

s1 (t ) dt s0 (t ) dt 2 s1 (t ) s0 (t )
T

Eb Eb 2 Eb 2 Eb (1 )

The probability of bit error for antipodal signals:

2 Eb
PB Q
N0

The probability of bit error for orthogonal signals:

Eb

PB Q

N
0

The probability of bit error for unipolar signals:

Eb

PB Q

2N
0

10

Bipolar signals require a factor of 2 increase in energy compared

to orthogonal signals
Since 10log102 = 3 dB, we say that bipolar signaling offers a 3 dB
better performance than orthogonal

11

Comparing BER Performance

For Eb / N 0 10dB
PB ,orthogonal 9.2x10 2
PB ,antipodal 7.8x10 4

For the same received signal to noise ratio, antipodal provides lower
bit error rate than orthogonal
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3.1.4 Relation Between SNR (S/N) and Eb/N0

In analog communication the figure of merit used is the average

signal power to average noise power ration or SNR.

In the previous few slides we have used the term Eb/N0 in the bit
error calculations. How are the two related?

Eb can be written as STb and N0 is N/W. So we have:

Eb
STb
S W

N0 N / W N Rb

Thus Eb/N0 can be thought of as normalized SNR.

Makes more sense when we have multi-level signaling.

Reading: Page 117 and 118.

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3.3 Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)

ISI in the detection process due to the
filtering effects of the system
Overall equivalent system transfer function

H ( f ) Ht ( f )H c ( f )H r ( f )

creates echoes and hence time dispersion

causes ISI at sampling time
z k sk nk i si
ik

Digital Communications

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How is ISI created?

There are a variety of reasons

(bandlimited channels, multipath,
fading). The end result is something like
this
1

transmitted

ISI causes detection error

0s may look like 1s and
vice versa

received

15

Inter-symbol interference

xk

Baseband system model

x1 x 2

xk

ht (t )

Channel
hc (t )

Ht ( f )

Hc ( f )

Tx filter

x3

r (t ) Rx. filter
hr (t )

Hr ( f )

t kT

Detector

x k

n(t )

Equivalent model

x1 x 2

Equivalent system

zk

z (t )

h (t )

zk

x3

t kT

H( f )

H ( f ) Ht ( f )H c ( f )H r ( f )
Digital Communications

Detector

n (t )
filtered noise

16

x k

Nyquist bandwidth constraint

Nyquist bandwidth constraint:

The theoretical minimum required system bandwidth to
detect Rs [symbols/s] without ISI is Rs/2 [Hz].
Equivalently, a system with bandwidth W=1/2T=Rs/2
[Hz] can support a maximum transmission rate of
2W=1/T=Rs [symbols/s] without ISI.

Rs
Rs
1

W
2 [symbol/s/Hz]
2T
2
W

Bandwidth efficiency, R/W [bits/s/Hz] :

An important measure in DCs representing data
throughput per hertz of bandwidth.
Showing how efficiently the bandwidth resources are
used by signaling techniques.

Digital Communications

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Ideal Nyquist pulse (filter)

Ideal Nyquist filter

Ideal Nyquist pulse

H( f )

h(t ) sinc(t / T )

1
2T

1
2T

2T T

T 2T

1
2T
Digital Communications

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Output in the frequency domain

In the frequency domain, input is a sinc.

receive
Rb

Rb
Rb/2

transmit

Clearly, the received pulse

is severely bandlimited
compared to its original
shape. How does it look like
in time?
19

Distorted pulse in time=pulse

dispersion

As a result of bandlimiting, we witness

pulse dispersion, i.e. spreading

transmitted

received

Tb
Tb/2

time

20

Ideal Nyquist pulse (filter)

Nyquist pulses (filters)

Nyquist pulses (filters):

Nyquist filter:

Its transfer function in frequency domain is

obtained by convolving a rectangular function with
any real even-symmetric frequency function

Nyquist pulse:

Pulses (filters) which results in no ISI at the

sampling time.

Its shape can be represented by a sinc(t/T)

function multiply by another time function.

Example of Nyquist filters: Raised-Cosine filter

Digital Communications

22

Pulse shaping to reduce ISI

Goals and trade-off in pulse-shaping

Reduce ISI
Efficient bandwidth utilization
Robustness to timing error (small side
lobes)

Digital Communications

23

The raised cosine filter

Raised-Cosine Filter

A Nyquist pulse (No ISI at the sampling time)

for | f | 2W0 W
1

2 | f | W 2W0
H ( f ) cos
for 2W0 W | f | W
W W0
4

for | f | W
0

cos[2 (W W0 )t ]
h(t ) 2W0 (sinc( 2W0t ))
1 [4(W W0 )t ]2
Excess bandwidth: W W0

Roll-off factor r
0 r 1
Digital Communications

W W0
W0
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The Raised cosine filter contd

h(t ) hRC (t )

| H ( f ) || H RC ( f ) |
r 0

r 0.5

0.5

1 3 1
T 4T 2T

r 1

1 3
2T 4T

Rs
Baseband W sSB (1 r )
2

1
T

r 1

0.5

3T 2T T

r 0.5
r 0

2T

Passband W DSB (1 r ) Rs

Digital Communications

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3T

Equalization

ISI due to filtering effect of the

communications channel (e.g. wireless
channels)

Channels behave like band-limited filters

Hc ( f ) Hc ( f ) e

jc ( f )

Non-constant amplitude

Non-linear phase

Amplitude distortion

Phase distortion

Equalization is a technique to remove ISI caused by

the channel
Digital Communications

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Equalization contd
Step 1 waveform to sample transformation

Step 2 decision making

Demodulate & Sample

Detect

z (T )
r (t )

Frequency
down-conversion
For bandpass signals

Received waveform

Receiving
filter

Equalizing
filter

Threshold
comparison

Compensation for
channel induced ISI
Baseband pulse
(possibly distored)

Digital Communications

Baseband pulse

Sample
(test statistic)

27

m i

Equalization contd

Equalization using

MLSE (Maximum likelihood sequence

estimation)
Filtering

Transversal filtering

Decision feedback

Zero-forcing equalizer
Minimum mean square error (MSE) equalizer
Using the past decisions to remove the ISI contributed
by them

Adaptive equalizer
Digital Communications

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Pulse shaping and equalization to

remove ISI
No ISI at the sampling time

H RC ( f ) H t ( f ) H c ( f ) H r ( f ) H e ( f )

Square-Root Raised Cosine (SRRC) filter and Equalizer

H RC ( f ) H t ( f ) H r ( f )
H r ( f ) H t ( f ) H RC ( f ) H SRRC ( f )
1
He ( f )
Hc ( f )

Taking care of ISI

caused by tr. filter

Taking care of ISI

caused by channel

Digital Communications

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