Search

Introduction:

Light is defined as an electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the human (in a
range from about 380 or 400 nm to about 760 or 780 nm). The light sometimes referred to
electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.

Reflection - Light is reflects off the surface like mirror such that angle of incidence is equal to
angle of reflection.

Refraction - Refraction is define as the bending of light as it passes between material of

different optical density

Dispersion - Light is composed of waves of different wavelengths that correspond to different

colors of lights. When light wave pass through a material, these different wavelengths causes
refraction by different amounts according to the wavelengths and which gives rise to different
colors seen through prism or for rainbow.

Diffraction - This is defined as the bending of light waves around obstacles in its path. ex. When
a light wave comes oppose a barrier with a small opening, it acts as a single point source from
where light emerges in all direction.

Interference - When two light waves meets or coincides, it can create either constructive or
destructive interference based on how crest & trough of each wave coincide with other.

Properties of Light:
Four primary properties of light are intensity, frequency or wavelength, polarization, and phase
Light, which exists in tiny "packets" called photos, exhibits properties of both waves and
particles. This property is referred to as the wave particle duality. The speed of light, although
quite fast, is not infinite. The speed of light in a vacuum is expressed as c = 2.99 × 108 m/s.
Light travels in a vacuum in a constant speed, and this speed is considered a universal constant.
It is important to note that speed change for light traveling through no vacuum media such as air
(0.03% slower) or glass (30.0% slower). For most purposes, we may represent light in terms of
magnitude and direction. In a vacuum, light will travel in a straight line in a fixed speed, carrying
energy from one place to another. Two key properties of light interacting with a medium are:

1. It can be deflects upon passing from one medium to another (refraction).

2. It can be bounced off a surface (reflection).

The aspect of light interaction with media other than a vacuum will be addressed, which deal
with geometrical and physical optics, respectively.

Wave Model:
The particle-like model of light describes large-scale effects such as light passing through lenses
or bouncing off mirrors. However, a wave like model should be used to describe fine-scale
effects such as interference and diffraction that occur when light passes through out small
openings or by sharp edges. The propagation of light or electromagnetic energy through or
towards space can be described in terms of a traveling wave motion. The wave moves energy
without moving mass from one place to another place at a speed independent of its intensity or
wavelength. This wave nature of light is the basic of physical optics and describes the interaction
of light with media. Many of these processes required calculus and quantum theory to describe
them rigorously. For this text it is sufficient to provide the resulting equations and models to be
used by the photonics technician in real applications.

amplitude modulation, the sidebands contain the signal. The power in the sidebands is the only
useful power. The power carrier by the side bands is only 33.3% even when there is 100%
modulation. If modulation is 50%, then power carried by the sidebands is 11.1%. Clearly, the
useful power is small. So, the amplitude modulation has low efficiency.

Noisy Reception
Different types of atmospheric and other electrical disturbance are reproduced in amplitude
modulation receivers. This makes the reception noisy.

Small Operating Range

Due to small useful power the messages cannot be transmitted over large distance. So, the
transmitter based on amplitude modulation has small range.

Reproduction is not of High Fidelity

For high fidelity reception, the audio frequencies from 20Hz to 20000Hz must be reproduced.
This requires a bandwidth + 20000Hz i.e., 40000Hz. (Note that both the sidebands must be
reproduced). The bandwidth actually assigned for AM transmission is 20000Hz. This is done to
keep the interference from adjacent broadcasting stations to a minimum. Thus, the highest
modulating frequency is 10000Hz. This is not sufficient to reproduce music properly. Thus, the
reproduction is not of high fidelity.

Applications
Amplitude modulation is utilized in many services such as television, standard broadcasting, aids
to navigation, telemetering, radar, facsimile etc. Although the message content may vary widely
for these, the mechanism of combining the message and the message carrier at the sending
terminal is basically the same.

Amplitude Modulation

When the amplitude of high frequency carrier wave is changed in accordance with
the intensity of the signal, it is called amplitude modulation.

In amplitude modulation, only the amplitude of the carrier wave is changed in accordance with
the intensity of the signal. However, the frequency of the modulated wave remains the same as
the carrier frequency. The Below figure shows the principle of amplitude modulation (a) shows
the audio electrical signal, whereas (b) shows the carrier wave of constant amplitude and (c)
shows the amplitude-modulated wave.
Note that the amplitude of both positive and negative half cycles of carrier wave are changed in
accordance with the signal. For instance, when the signal is increasing in the positive sense, the
amplitude of carrier wave also increases. During negative half cycle of the signal, the amplitude
of carrier decreases. Amplitude modulation is done by an electronic circuit called modulator.

The following points are worth noting in amplitude modulation:

(i) The amplitude of the carrier wave changes according to the intensity of the signal.

(ii) The amplitude variation of the carrier wave is at the signal frequency fs.
(iii) The frequency of the amplitude modulated wave remains the same, i.e., carrier frequency, fc.

In amplitude modulation, the amplitude of the wave is varied duplicating faithfully the
fluctuations of the message. At the receiver these variations are detected or demodulated i.e., the
message is removed from the carrier. (Although the more precise terms are demodulation for the
process and demodulator for the device, the terms detection and detector are widely used.) After
reception and demodulation at the receiver, the carrier is of no further use and is discarded.

Three Sinusoidal Waves in AM Wave

Let the carrier voltage and the modulating voltage be represented by:

where ec and em represent instantaneous voltages of carrier wave and modulating wave
respectively, Ec and Em represent the amplitudes of carrier wave and modulating wave
respectively, wc and wm represent angular velocities at carrier frequency vc and modulating
frequency vm respectively.

The amplitude Ec of the carrier wave is varied in accordance with the modulating
wave. For the modulated wave, e = E sin wct

Here E is the amplitude of the modulated wave.

Now, e = (Ec + em) sin wct

= (Ec + Em sin wmt) sin wct

= Ec sin wct + Em sin wmt sin wct

(Because 2sinA sinB = cos (B-A) - cos (B+A))

It is clear from the above equation that the AM wave may be regarded as a
combination of three sinusoidal waves, one having amplitude Ec and the other two
having amplitudes

Side Band Frequencies

Corresponding to wc, (wc + wm) and (wc - wm), there are three frequencies nc, nc + nm, and nc - nm.
Clearly, the frequency of the unmodulated carrier wave is not changed. However, two new
frequencies (nc + nm) and (nc - nm) are produced. These are known as side-band frequencies. nc +
nm is called the upper side band frequency (USB). nc - nm is called the lower side-band frequency
(LSB). The two side-band lie on either side of the carrier frequency at equal frequency interval
nm. So, band width is 2nm.

VVVV

Elements of a Communication System

Elements of a communication system

The above figure depicts the elements of a communication system. There are three essential parts
of any communication system, the transmitter, transmission channel, and receiver. Each parts
plays a particular role in signal transmission, as follows:

The transmitter processes the input signal to produce a suitable transmitted signal suited to the
characteristics of the transmission channel.

Signal processing for transmissions almost always involves modulation and may also include
coding.

The transmission channel is the electrical medium that bridges the distance from source to
destination. It may be a pair of wires, a coaxial cable, or a radio wave or laser beam. Every
channel introduces some amount of transmission loss or attenuation. So, the signal power
progressively decreases with increasing distance.
The receiver operates on the output signal from the channel in preparation for delivery to the
transducer at the destination. Receiver operations include amplification to compensate for
transmission loss. These also include demodulation and decoding to reverse the signal procession
performed at the transmitter. Filtering is another important function at the receiver.

The figure represents one-way or simplex (SX) transmission. Two way communication of course
requires a transmitter and receiver at each end. A full-duplex (FDX) system has a channel that
allows simultaneous transmission in both directions. A half-duplex (HDX) system allows
transmission in either direction but not at the same time.

Digital and Analog Communication Systems

The advantages associate with digital communication systems include

(i) A common format for encoding different kinds of message signals (e.g., speech signal, video
signal, computer data, etc.) for the purpose of transmission.

(ii) An improved security of message.

(iii) Increased immunity to noise and external interference.

(iv) Flexibility in configuring digital communication systems.

Disadvantages
The disadvantages associate with digital communication systems include

(i) Increased transmission

(ii) Increased system complexity

Although digital communication is becoming increasingly attractive for practical

use, it is a fact that analog communication systems are still in existence. Most of
the broadcasting systems and a large part of telephone networks in use today are
analog in nature.

There are numerous ways of classifying signals depending on the requirement of study. A signal
is usually described by a function of one or more independent variable. The value of the signal
may be real or complex. We would consider the signal to be a function of a signal independent
variable i.e. time t. Analog signals or continuous-time signals are defined for every value of time
and they take on continuous values in a given time interval.

Mathematically these signals can be described by function of a continuous variable.

For example, the signals.
s1 (t) = cos (500 pt)

are analog or continuous-time signals.

Most of the naturally occurring signals are also analog in nature. Speech,
electrocardiogram(ECG), electroencephalogram(EEG) signals are some of the
examples of naturally occurring analog signals.

Sine wave; example of an analog signal

An analog signal is best fitted illustrated by a sine wave as shown in above figure.
Notice that the sine wave is continuous. The value of the analog signal at any given
instant can be anywhere within the range of the signal's extremes.

Digital signals or Discrete-time signals are defined at

discrete values of time.
These time instants need not be equidistant. In practice, however, for mathematical convenience
these time intervals are taken to be equispaced. The signal x(tn) = exp (-|tn|), where n = 0 ± 1, ±
2, ...............is an example of a discreate - time signal.