Program : B.

Tech
Subject Name: Analog Communication
Subject Code: EC-403
Semester: 4th
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Unit -5

Noise: Classification of noise , sources of noise, Noise figure and Noise temperature , Noise bandwidth, Noise
figure measurement , Noise in analog modulation , Figure of merit for various AM and FM , effect of noise on AM
and FM receivers.

Classification of noise and its sources

Noise may be put into following two categories: External noises i.e. noise whose sources are external and Internal
noise i.e. whose noise sources are generated internally by the circuit or the communication system. External noises
i.e. noise whose sources are external. Internal noise on the other hand can be easily evaluated mathematically and
can be reduced to a great extent by proper design

External noise may be classified into the following three types:

1. Atmospheric noises :

Atmospheric Noise Atmospheric noise or static is caused by lighting discharges in thunderstorms and other natural
electrical disturbances occurring in the atmosphere. These electrical impulses are random in nature. Hence the
energy is spread over the complete frequency spectrum used for radio communication. Atmospheric noise
accordingly consists of spurious radio signals with components spread over a wide frequency range. These spurious
radio waves constituting the noise get propagated over the earth in the same fashion as the desired radio waves of
the same frequency. Accordingly at a given receiving point, the receiving antenna picks up not only the signal but
also the static from all the thunderstorms, local or remote. The field strength of atmospheric noise varies
approximately inversely with the frequency. Thus large atmospheric noise is generated in low and medium
frequency (broadcast) bands while very little noise is generated in the VHF and UHF bands. Further VHF and UHF
components of noise are limited to the line-of sight (less than about 80 Km) propagation. For these two-reasons, the
atmospheric noise becomes less severe at Frequencies exceeding about 30 MHz.

2. Extraterrestrial noises:

There are numerous types of extraterrestrial noise or space noises depending on their sources. However, these may
be put into following two subgroups.

(a) Solar noise : This is the electrical noise emanating from the sun. Under quite conditions, there is a steady
radiation of noise from the sun. This results because sun is a large body at a very high temperature (exceeding
6000°C on the surface), and radiates electrical energy in the form of noise over a very wide frequency spectrum
including the spectrum used for radio communication. The intensity produced by the sun varies with time. In fact,
the sun has a repeating 11-Year noise cycle. During the peak of the cycle, the sun produces some amount of noise
that causes tremendous radio signal interference, making many frequencies unusable for communications. During
other years. the noise is at a minimum level

(b)Cosmic noise :Distant stars are also suns and have high temperatures. These stars, therefore, radiate noise in the
same way as our sun. The noise received from these distant stars is thermal noise (or black body noise) and is
distributing almost uniformly over the entire sky. We also receive noise from the center of our own galaxy (The Milky
Way) from other distant galaxies and from other virtual point sources such as quasars and pulsars.

3. Man-made noises or industrial noises :

By man-made noise or industrial- noise is meant the electrical noise produced by such sources as automobiles and
aircraft ignition, electrical motors and switch gears, leakage from high voltage lines, fluorescent lights, and numerous
other heavy electrical machines. Such noises are produced by the arc discharge taking place during operation of
these machines. Such man-made noise is most intensive in industrial and densely populated areas. Man-made noise
in such areas far exceeds all other sources of noise in the frequency range extending from about 1 MHz to 600 MHz

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Internal noise may be put into the following five categories.

1. Thermal noise or white noise or Johnson noise :

Conductors contain a large number of 'free" electrons and "ions" strongly bound by molecular forces. The ions
vibrate randomly about their normal (average) positions, however, this vibration being a function of the
temperature. Continuous collisions between the electrons and the vibrating ions take place. Thus there is a
continuous transfer of energy between the ions and electrons. This is the source of resistance in a conductor. The
movement of free electrons constitutes a current which is purely random in nature and over a long time averages
zero. There is a random motion of the electrons which give rise to noise voltage called thermal noise.

2. Shot noise :

Intermediation noise is produced when there is some non linearity in the transmitter, receiver, or intervening
transmission system. Normally, these components behave as linear systems; that is, the output is equal to the input,
times a constant. In a nonlinear system, the output is a more complex function of the input. Such non linearity can
be caused by component malfunction or the use of excessive signal strength. It is under these circumstances that the
sum and difference terms occur.

3. Flicker noise:

Flicker noise is a type of electronic noise with a 1/f, or pink power density spectrum. It is therefore often referred to
as 1/f noise or pink noise, though these terms have wider definitions. It occurs in almost all electronic devices, and
can show up with a variety of other effects, such as impurities in a conductive channel, generation and
recombination noise in a transistor due to base current, and so on. 1/f noise in current or voltage is always related to
a direct current because it is a resistance fluctuation, which is transformed to voltage or current fluctuations via
Ohm's law.

4. Transit Time noise :

Transit time is the duration of time that it takes for a current carrier such as a hole or current to move from the input
to the output. The devices themselves are very tiny, so the distances involved are minimal. Yet the time it takes for
the current carriers to move even a short distance is finite. At low frequencies this time is negligible. But when the
frequency of operation is high and the signal being processed is the magnitude as the transit time, then problem can
occur. The transit time shows up as a kind of random noise within the device, and this is directly proportional to the
frequency of operation.

5. Avalanche noise:

Avalanche noise is the noise produced when a junction diode is operated at the onset of avalanche breakdown, a
semiconductor junction phenomenon in which carriers in a high voltage gradient develop sufficient energy to
dislodge additional carriers through physical impact, creating ragged current flows.

Noise Figure and noise Factor

Noise figure (NF) and noise factor (F) are measures of degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), caused by
components in a signal chain. It is a number by which the performance of an amplifier or a radio receiver can be
specified, with lower values indicating better performance.

The noise factor is defined as the ratio of the output noise power of a device to the portion thereof attributable
to thermal noise in the input termination at standard noise temperature T0 (usually 290 K). The noise factor is thus
the ratio of actual output noise to that which would remain if the device itself did not introduce noise, or the ratio of
input SNR to output SNR.

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The noise figure is simply the noise factor expressed in decibels (dB). The noise figure is the difference
in decibels dB et een the noise output of the a tual re ei er to the noise output of an ideal re ei er ith the
same overall gain and bandwidth when the receivers are connected to matched sources at the standard noise
temperature T0 (usually 290 K).

The noise factor F of a system is defined as :

F= SNRi / SNRo,

Where SNRi and SNRo are the input and output signal-to-noise ratios respectively. The SNR quantities are power
ratios.

The noise figure NF is defined as the noise factor in dB:

Noise Figure (NF)= 10 Log10 (F)=10log10 (SNRi / SNRo ) = SNRi ,dB- SNRo,dB

This makes the noise figure a useful figure of merit for terrestrial systems, where the antenna effective temperature
is usually near the standard 290 K. In this case, one receiver with a noise figure, say 2 dB better than another, will
have an output signal to noise ratio that is about 2 dB better than the other. However, in the case of satellite
communications systems, where the receiver antenna is pointed out into cold space, the antenna effective
temperature is often colder than 290 K. In these cases a 2 dB improvement in receiver noise figure will result in more
than a 2 dB improvement in the output signal to noise ratio. For this reason, the related figure of effective noise
temperature is therefore often used instead of the noise figure for characterizing satellite-communication receivers
and low-noise amplifiers. In heterodyne systems, output noise power includes spurious contributions from image-
frequency transformation, but the portion attributable to thermal noise in the input termination at standard noise
temperature includes only that which appears in the output via the principal frequency transformation of
the system and excludes that which appears via the image frequency transformation.

Noise Temperature

Noise temperature is one way of expressing the level of available noise power introduced by a component or
source. The power spectral density of the noise is expressed in terms of the temperature (in kelvins) :
PN/B=KbT

where:

 PN is the noise power (in W, watts)

 B is the total bandwidth (Hz, hertz) over which that noise power is measured
 Kb is the Boltzmann constant (1.381×10−23 J/K, joules per kelvin)
 T is the noise temperature (K, kelvin)
Thus the noise temperature is proportional to the power spectral density of the noise .That is the power that
would be absorbed from the component or source by a matched load. Noise temperature is generally a function of
frequency, unlike that of an ideal resistor which is simply equal to the actual temperature of the resistor at all
frequencies.

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Noise Figure measurement

Noise temperature is one way of expressing the level of available noise power introduced by a component or
source. The power spectral density of the noise is expressed in terms of the temperature (in kelvins) :
PN/B=KbT

where:

 PN is the noise power (in W, watts)

 B is the total bandwidth (Hz, hertz) over which that noise power is measured
 Kb is the Boltzmann constant (1.381×10−23 J/K, joules per kelvin)
 T is the noise temperature (K, kelvin)
Thus the noise temperature is proportional to the power spectral density of the noise .That is the power that
would be absorbed from the component or source by a matched load. Noise temperature is generally a function of
frequency, unlike that of an ideal resistor which is simply equal to the actual temperature of the resistor at all
frequencies.
Figure of Merit f or AM and FM System
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is the ratio of the signal power to noise power. The higher the value of SNR, the greater
will be the quality of the received output. Signal-to-Noise Ratio at different points can be calculated using the
following formulas.

Input SNR = (SNR)I=(Average power of modulating signal) / (Average power of noise at input)
Output SNR= (SNR)O=(Average power of demodulated signal / (Average power of noise at output)
Channel SNR = (SNR)C=(Average power of modulated signal )/ Average power of noise in message bandwidth)

The ratio of output SNR and input SNR can be termed as Figure of Merit. It is denoted by Y. It describes the
performance of a device.
Y=(SNR)O/(SNR)I

Figure of merit of AM or FM receiver is

Y=(SNR)O/(SNR)C

It is so because for a receiver, the channel is the input.

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