Perspectives in Communication and Fundamental Limits

PERSPECTIVES IN
COMMUNICATIONS AND
FUNDAMENTAL LIMITS
By
Dr. S Pal
Group Director
Communication Systems Group
ISRO Satellite Centre
Bangalore, INDIA
10th October 2000

PERSPECTIVES IN COMMUNICATIONS AND FUNDAMENTAL LIMITS
• For mankind to survive, three things are

essential:
» Energy
» Love
» Communications
Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 2

• COMMUNICATION
– Communication is at the root of the progress of every society.
– Speech is inherent part of human nature & biggest advantage
over others
– It is communication, more than anything else, which has been
responsible for the shrinking of time and distance and with the
development of space technology, time and distance have lost
their conventional meaning, permitting men and women all over
the world to share their experiences, frustrations & successes.
Society is often described as essentially people in
communication.
• Communication word comes from Latin Communico -
meaning share.
• When we study communication, we study people relating to

each other and to their groups, organizations and societies,
influencing each other and being influenced, informing and
being informed. To understand human communication we must
understand how people relate to one another.
• Communication in simple terms is nothing but discriminating
response to a stimulus.
• In natural form, the process of communication exists both
internal and external to every biological organism and also in
matters.
• It exists internally within the atomic structure in the form of
interaction between electrons, protons and neutrons and
externally between matters with their own peculiar absorption
and reflection characteristics.
• In plants it exists through a low speed hormonal

communication where external communication is carried
through transfer of molecules when the fragrance of flower
attracts bees and pollen is physically transferred.
• In case of human being, the development of communication
is undoubtedly of very high degree. Here the human being
collects the information, it compares, synthesizes, analyses,
stores and generates new action items. it is human being's this
tremendous capability / ability to build on previous experience
of their ancestors, storage of knowledge through spoken and
written words which has resulted in the VECTORIAL
development. The large contribution has been made by books
and printed materials.

• HISTORY OF COMMUNICATIONS
– Early historic times, long distance communication

linking whole empire was essentially confined to:
• Military
• Diplomatic
• Governmental agencies but hardly for personal or social
welfare

• Earlier days `Communications’ used to be done using visual or audio

signals or sending messengers. With the advent of Telegraph (1837)
the communication era really started becoming `Telecommunications’
era. In olden days the long distance communications used to be for the
whole empire essentially confined to Military, Diplomatic &
Governmental agencies. It was hardly used for personal or Social
causes. No evidence is available to show that “Humanitarian
Assistance” was any day on the agenda of the olden systems. In the
present scenario with socialistic governments, UN agencies & NGOs
associated with humanitarian causes use the modern day
telecommunication techniques very effectively for humanitarian
assistance and disaster management.
• Today the communication has broken all the limits and besides
the above age old purposes it is equally or more utilized for
personal and social welfare causes.
* LET US HAVE A LOOK INTO THE HISTORY
• Printing press was introduced by William Caxton in

1476.
• New paper started in 1650
• News papers became popular only in 19th century
• 1st regular mail was established.
• In early 19th century with the introduction of railway
and telegraphy (Morse 1837) the communications
improved.

• With Graham Bell (Telephone 1876), Marconi (First wireless

signal across Atlantic 1901) and others the electrical
communication became popular. Today it has increased in
volume and speed by almost 100 million fold.
• Second World War was responsible for the tremendous growth

of electrical communication which is being also termed as
Electronic Communication.
• Arthur Clark gave a concept of Three Space Stations to cover the

Globe.

• After 1948 there is a virtual communication explosion.

DIGITAL OR Capability of digitization has made almost whole
of our past technologically OBSOLETE.
• FIRST TRANSATLANTIC TELEPHONE calls of 36 channels
cable in 1956.
• First artificial satellite was launched in 1957.
• Introduction of space technology in 1964-65, 1st active
experimental communication satellite relayed 1st LIVE picture
between USA & Europe.
• Early Bird (1965) - 240 channels commercial
TRANSATLANTIC Communication.

• Today almost >50,000 VOICE CHANNELS FOR INTER

CONTINENTAL COMMUNICATION and >1000 TV
CHANNELS.
• 20th July 1969 (Moon landing).
• Communication satellites & emergence of V-SAT, DATA

CONNECTING NETWORKS, Computer networking, satellite
based remote sensing & processing, Deep space network &
communication etc.
• HAND HELD PERSONALIZED TELEPHONE

SYSTEM.

• BASIC CONCEPTS OF ELECTRICAL

COMMUNICATIONS
• TWO FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ELECTRICAL

COMMUNICATION ARE:
• FREQUENCY & BANDWIDTH

− Human voice : 4 KHz,
− Music :15 KHz,
− TV : 6 MHz B.W etc.

• TOTAL PROCESS OF ELECTRICAL

COMMUNICATION REQUIRES:
* 1. Choice of adequate bandwidth

* 2. Appropriate method multiplexing signals
* 3. Modulating carrier waves
* 4. The path loss needs to be compensated using
suitable repeaters

• To include versatility for any communication channel to deal

with a complex and wide variety of information such as
data, TV, messages & voice communication, techniques
such as FDMA, TDMA etc., are employed.
• A variety of modulation schemes such as AM, FM, PM,
PCM, MPSK, FSK, MGSK etc., have been evolved to
modulate the carrier.
• Availability and overcrowding of EM spectra, use of higher
frequencies and efficient antennas, LNA'S and power
amplification devices, use of Spread Spectrum techniques to
reduce the difficulties associated with overcrowding of
spectrum.
• When we talk about communications, we must also talk about
the limits of the modern communications.
• FUNDAMENTAL LIMITS OF COMMUNICATION

• FUNDAMENTAL LIMITATIONS IMPOSED ARE:
– Thermal noise of the receiver (e2n = 4KTRB)and also
the background noise
– Limitation due to quantum uncertainty principle.
– Limitations in Space Communications
– For deep space missions speed of electrical signal
imposes another limitation.
– Limitations on antennas
– Limitations due to atmosphere / propagation / rains
etc.
• LIMITATIONS IN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS
• OTHER THAN SPACECRAFT CONSTRAINS IMPOSED:

– Signal Attenuation due to rain
– Peak power limited nature of satellite amplifiers
– Co-channel interference among neighboring beams
– Constrains on ground terminal size and regulatory
constraints
– Nonuniformly distributed traffic
– Orbit overcrowding & co-location

• S/C IMPOSED CONSTRAINTS

– Available RF power and antenna size
– Capacity reduction caused by nonlinearity of S/C - power
amplifiers.
– Frequency Reuse and interference.
• The limitation due to the quantum uncertainty principle
becomes important only when the frequency `υ’ is high,
as to make `Hυ ≥KT’ where `h' is plank's constant (6.626
x 10-34 JS), `K' is Boltzman's constant (1.381 x 10 23 J/Ko
i.e., the quantum energy of the radiation exceeds the
Boltzman energy of an harmonic oscillator at a noise
temperature T. For T = 300 deg.K, the corresponding
frequency beyond which quantum effects completely swamp
the thermal noise is equal to 6 THz.
• The limitation on the signal design for communication

imposed by the extension of quantum uncertainty principle
for a wave train, states that : the product of the time duration
of the wave train (a bit) and the energy spectral spread is
constant ( ∆ E.∆t = h ).
• As the spectrum is finite resource for electromagnetic wave
propagation, one cannot arbitrarily keep on increasing the
information rate for a fixed spectral bandwidth. This fact
coupled with the famous Shannon's Channel capacity limit
theorem which states that information cannot be transmitted
above a rate `C' determined by the bandwidth `B' & S/N and
given by
C = B log2 (1+S/N) bits/sec ......(1)

and this becomes the fundamental limit in the design of

communication system.
(The Shannon's limit is still quite far away)
Here N is the white Gaussian noise which can originate

from thermal, atmospheric and galactic sources.
The lower limit on thermal noise is the well known

Nyquist formula `KTB'. It can be reduced by
decreasing `B' which Unfortunately reduces the
potential communication rate.
From (1) we see that `C' increases much faster with `B'
than `S' or power and reduction in N.
• For `SPACE COMMUNICATION’ that is the

reason satellite capacity is increased by using
multiple beams. The capacity in bits/seconds of
a single power limited communication channel
computed for Guassian noise
• C1 = B log2 {1+P/No B} where `P' is the received

power.
• If S/C power is divided among `N' independent

beams then
• `C' = NB log 2{ 1 + P/NNoB}.
• In other words reusing frequency band N-times has the same

effect on theoretical capacity as increasing the bandwidth of a
single channel by a factor of `N’
Formula for back ground Noise for kT >>hυ

(At microwave frequencies thermal and background noise are
important)
• At optical frequencies it is the quantum effect that sets

the upper limit
• NB=KT watts at 1 micrometer wavelengths, h υ is 50 times as

great as KT at 300oK hυ is important.

• Following are the three important fundamental limits for

antennas:
• (1) ELECTRICALLY SMALL ANTENNAS
• With the miniaturization of components endemic in almost all
parts of electronics today, it is important to recognize the limits
upon size reduction of antenna elements. These are related to the
basic fact that the element's purpose is to couple to a free space
wave and the space wavelength has not yet been miniaturized. Chu
& Harington have shown that any radiating field can be written as a
sum of spherical modes, the antenna of any type is to be enclosed in
a sphere. The radiated power can be calculated from the
propagating modes in the sphere. When the sphere is too small to
allow propagating modes; all modes are then evanescent & the Q
becomes large, as the evanescent modes contribute little real power:
1 +3 K 2r 2
Q= for Kr ≤1
K 3r 3(1+K 2r 2 )
or
1
Qα
K 3r 3
This indeed represent a fundamental limit which has

only been approached but never even equaled.

BW ∞ 1/Q
For an octave bandwidth Q = √ 2 & with no losses, this
requires a minimum antenna length of 0.365λ . Since
most small antennas are loops or dipoles, which do not
use the spherical volume efficiently, an actual octave
antenna is significantly larger and often larger than λ
/2. Actually improving bandwidth for an electrically
small antenna is only possible by totally utilizing the
volume in establishing a TM & TE mode, or by reducing
efficiency. The latter is typified by the ELF SQUID
which can be extremely small in wavelengths yet possess
a sizable bandwidth with very low efficiency.
• (2) SUPER DIRECTIVITY

A useful operational definition of antenna superdirectivity is directivity
higher than that obtained with the same antenna configuration
uniformly excited (constant amplitude and linear phase). Excessive array
superdirectivity inflicts major problems in low radiation resistance (hence
low efficiency), sensitive to excitation & position tolerances and narrow
bandwidth. Superdirectivity applies in principle to arrays of isotropic
elements although, of course actual antenna arrays are composed of
noniotropic elements. The directivity of arrays is increased by exciting
elements using various phase and amplitude distributions. For a 10dB
SLR, 2 wavelength array and 20dB SLR, 2 wavelength long array with
decreasing, number of elements increasing the Q increases. The
approximate relationship between Q and G is log Q = a (G-2)
log Q = a ( G-2 )

TABLE - 1
2λ- Array with SLR = 20 dB
N d/λ G(dB) Q
5 0.5 4.69 1.7
7 0.333 5.18 7.0
9 0.250 6.21 1.2 x 104
13 0.167 8.54 5.5 x 1011

TABLE -2
2λ
- Array with SLR = 10 dB
N d/λ G(dB) Q
5 0.5 4.89 0
7 0.333 5.40 37
9 0.250 6.19 7.6 x 104
11 0.200 6.99 3.5 x 108
13 0.167 7.74 3.3 x 1012
The directivity can be maximized to certain extent by

manipulating d/λ , Q and the side lobe levels.
• (3) HIGH GAIN ANTENNAS:
• Here the fundamental limitations concerns large antennas which

exhibit high gain not due to super directivity but due to large areas
in square wavelengths. Almost all high gain antennas are reflectors
since large arrays are more expensive.
The cost of reflectors usually varies with
D 2.8
The cost is also a function of the manufacturing tolerance ratio `R',
which is the ratio of largest dimension to the one sigma error `ε’
.
R = D/ε
• Usually for low side lobes ε ≤(λ/40)
Typical reflector efficiency varies from 0.4 to 0.8

(0.8 for a shaped high efficiency reflectors).
For a broad band reflector the typical value is 0.5.
ε = (λ/40)
2 2
G =Π R
3200
f / D〈1
1πD 
2 A +1
G=   ∑
2 λ 

 A +exp(4πε/ λ) 2
1
Where A=
(4 f / D )2ln(1+1/(4 f / D) 2
The typical high gains range in between 90-100 dB




• Technology in current use includes

homologous design in which a large reflector
deforms in to a new paraboloid with elevation
angle change so that a feed refocus restores
performance and computer design of light
weight support structure.


EFFECTS BY RAIN ATTENUATION

•
Attenuation of signal
Reduction in CNR (clear sky)
C (clear sky)= P
No N No B
(inthe N th Beam)
No = KT isthereceiver noisespectral density.

R
T = Re ceivertemperature
R
Inthe presenceof rain
No1=

K*T + α− 1T 
 R
 α S 

=

No 1+α− 1TR whereα

〉1Rain attenuatio n


α T 
S 
 
T = Raintemperature≈ 300o K
S
The CNR - clear sky can get degraded by 10 to 15 dB
Depolarization due to rains


• having talked about electrical communication and its

fundamental limits, one can classify the present day
communications under the following category.
• The age old copper line communication

Surface
Ocean
• The Radio Wave communications
HF, VHF Communication
Line of Sight - Microwave Communication
Satellite and Space Communication
Optical Fibre Communication
• THE NEWER VERSIONS OF

COMMUNICATIONS WHICH OF COURSE
DEPEND ON ALL THE ABOVE ARE:
• Computer Communications
• Information highways and superhighways

• Paperless offices, virtual offices, manless factories, etc.

• Space Communications
• Concept of three space stations covering the whole

earth was given by Arthur `C' Clark in 1945
• The 1st satellite was launched in 1957
• The 1st commercial satellite was early bird (1967)
• Now there are thousands of satellites orbiting around

the earth.

• in the foreseeable future new equipments and techniques will

be used in satellite technology which will extend and improve
the possibilities of satellite communications beyond our
present imaginations.
• Greater Transmit power and more complex antennas on

the satellites will make operations possible with a large
number of very small earth stations.
• Efficient signal processors and switching equipment will

enable signal processing to be performed onboard right
down to operations similar to switching in exchanges.
• Direct connections between satellites will shorten the

transmission routes.
• The use of higher frequency bands will enlarge the available

bandwidths and thus the transmission capacity.
• Miniaturization of electronics.
• With the emergence of optical communications the majority of

the existing satellite communication services burden will be
taken over by the optical links and the tasks to be performed by
future satellites will be:
• Tasks for which it will only be essential to use the satellites to

limited basis (Transmission of Telephones and TV to inaccessible
places or thin traffic routes etc).
• Tasks for which it will remain advantageous to

use satellites (New services with different
requirements with respect to BW, partner stations,
transmission times. This could include Data
Collection and Distribution over a large area,
mobile radio services to inaccessible areas, ship,
aircrafts, Mobile communication / PCS).

• FUTURE SATELLITES
• The future Telecommunication spacecrafts will be developed
from transmission in to Information Satellite (INFOSAT). They
will be given many of the properties of terrestrial telephone
exchanges and signal processing equipments and it will be
possible to integrate them directly in to future global networks.
They will thus permit immediate applications of many existing
and future services. Because of their inherent built up
flexibility, these satellites will be able to support and speed up
the initial construction phase of many new services before
their trial on terrestrial networks. These type of satellites will
enable new services to be tried out over a large area before
being launched on to market and optimally adapted to suit the
most appropriate transmission medium.
• Such a system will obviously have Geosynchronous spacecrafts

with some orbiting satellite to take care of North/South pole
regions.
• The INFOSAT Network is to be an integral component of the

planned world-wide broadband telecommunication network.
Therefore it will be necessary for planning of the satellite
network and the terrestrial network to be closely
coordinated. Until now satellites have connected the
terrestrial networks of various countries and organizations.
• In the new setup more emphasis will be given on

standardization of some signal parameters and ground stations
to some limited extent, since signal processing will take place in
the satellite itself.
• The future INFOSATS will be of three types:
National / Regional
International
Relay
• Future technologies will enable the construction of an

INFOSAT network in which the above three will be connected
to each other. The onboard processors will ensure that the
signals to be exchanged between the satellites and the
terrestrial subscribers are combined using TD and SD
multiplexing techniques and distributed in accordance with the
user requirements. Special coding techniques will ensure the
security of transmissions.

• In the area of business communications demand is growing

for broad band communication facilities which can be
applied flexibly using satellites.
• Worldwide Radio paging
• Video conferencing and high resolution TV broadcast trials.
• Mobile radio services can be combined with location

finding services and be used for automatically locating
subscribers.
– Earth observation with special warning mechanism and

environmental protection services in close coordination with
terrestrial sensors.
• By integrating INFOSAT into terrestrial network, it will

be possible to supply all the subscribers of a future global
network with all essential information. This will make the
location of the user quite irrelevant.
• SERVICES TO BE OFFERED BY INFOSAT

• Radio and data distribution services to many users
which are spread over a large area.
• Data collection services for large areas with many data
transmitter stations (multi point-to-point operation :
weather, oil, electricity & water meter reading etc.)
• Telecommunication services for thin routes
• Telecommunication services with ships, airplanes,
space vehicles, etc.
• OPTICAL FIBRE VS SPACE COMMUNICATIONS
• Much is talked about the competition between satellites and

optical fibre technology. A closer examination of the specific
properties of each transmission medium shows that they
could complement each other very well and future world
wide terrestrial networks will need to be complemented by a
satellite network.
• The TV and heavy traffic trunk routes will be taken over by

optical fibre.
• The satellites will serve : thin traffic routes extremely large

distances / inaccessible areas/weather monitoring / disaster
warning / Data collection and distribution etc.


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PERSPECTIVES IN

10th October 2000

• For mankind to survive, three things are

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 2

• When we study communication, we study people relating to

• In plants it exists through a low speed hormonal

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 5

– Early historic times, long distance communication

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 6

• Earlier days `Communications’ used to be done using visual or audio

* LET US HAVE A LOOK INTO THE HISTORY

• Printing press was introduced by William Caxton in

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 8

• With Graham Bell (Telephone 1876), Marconi (First wireless

• Second World War was responsible for the tremendous growth

• Arthur Clark gave a concept of Three Space Stations to cover the

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 9

• After 1948 there is a virtual communication explosion.

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 10

• Today almost >50,000 VOICE CHANNELS FOR INTER

• 20th July 1969 (Moon landing).

• Communication satellites & emergence of V-SAT, DATA

• HAND HELD PERSONALIZED TELEPHONE

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 11

• BASIC CONCEPTS OF ELECTRICAL

• TWO FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ELECTRICAL

• FREQUENCY & BANDWIDTH

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 12

• TOTAL PROCESS OF ELECTRICAL

* 1. Choice of adequate bandwidth

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 13

• To include versatility for any communication channel to deal

• FUNDAMENTAL LIMITS OF COMMUNICATION

• LIMITATIONS IN SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

• OTHER THAN SPACECRAFT CONSTRAINS IMPOSED:

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 16

• S/C IMPOSED CONSTRAINTS

• The limitation on the signal design for communication

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 18

and this becomes the fundamental limit in the design of

(The Shannon's limit is still quite far away)

Here N is the white Gaussian noise which can originate

The lower limit on thermal noise is the well known

• For `SPACE COMMUNICATION’ that is the

• C1 = B log2 {1+P/No B} where `P' is the received

• If S/C power is divided among `N' independent

• In other words reusing frequency band N-times has the same

Formula for back ground Noise for kT >>hυ

• At optical frequencies it is the quantum effect that sets

• NB=KT watts at 1 micrometer wavelengths, h υ is 50 times as

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 21

• Following are the three important fundamental limits for

This indeed represent a fundamental limit which has

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 23

• (2) SUPER DIRECTIVITY

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 25

2λ- Array with SLR = 20 dB

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 26

The directivity can be maximized to certain extent by

• (3) HIGH GAIN ANTENNAS:

• Here the fundamental limitations concerns large antennas which

Typical reflector efficiency varies from 0.4 to 0.8

Dr. S. Pal : Communication Systems Group ISAC. 30