The decibel definition

Warming-up

Decibel is a relative comparison between numbers...

whatever the numbers are!

A(dB) 10 log10

P1 P2
whatever the numbers are!

Absolute comparison in decibel between numbers...

A(dBunity) 10 log10
P A(dBW) 10 log10 1 Watt

P Punity
P 1 milliWatt

A(dBm) 10 log10

dBm = dBW + 30
RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION November 25th, 1999 ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira

The mystic of decibels

Arithmetic operations 3 2= 6

Decibel operations dB + dB Multiplying numbers means adding the numbers in decibels dB

5 dB + 3 dB = 8 dB

4=

2 dB - dB Dividing numbers means subtracting the numbers in decibels dB

9 dB - 6 dB = 3 dB

RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION

November 25th, 1999

ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira

The mystic of decibels

Power absolute linear scale

40 mW 3 dB

Power absolute logarithmic scale

16 dBm 3 dB

Decibel operations
13 dBm + 3 dB = 16 dBm 16 dBm - 3 dB = 13 dBm 16 dBm - 13 dBm = 3 dB

dBm + dB dBm dBm - dB dBm

dBm - dBm dB

20 mW

13 dBm

13 dBm + 16 dBm = 29 dBm

dBm + dBm

794 mW

Undefined!
18 dBm

1 mW

0 dBm
20 mW + 40 mW = 60 mW

RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION

November 25th, 1999

ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira

Struggling against decibels

Power - absolute logarithmic scale

+
- 74 dBm - 86 dBm -(74 dBm + 86 dBm )
- 70 dBm
Linear scale

- 74 dBm 10-74/10 0.000000039 mW

Undefined!

+
- 80 dBm 10-86/10 0.0000000025 mW 0.0000000415 mW - 86 dBm - 90 dBm
Logarithm scale

10 log (0.0000000415) = -73.8 dBm

RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION November 25th, 1999 ERA/LVR/PT Tyrone Vieira