University of Hertfordshire

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences

Department of Electronic, Communications & Electrical Engineering
OCSNM1/RMCSM1 Data Communication and Network Principles, MELE0025
Tutorial sheet on A6 - 9
D. Lauder, December 2004
1

(a)

Explain briefly the advantages that a CRC check offers compared to parity or 20%
LRC. Outline the principle of CRC generation and checking.

(b)

The following message 0110 1010 is to be sent with a 4 bit CRC. If the generator 40%
polynomial is x4+x2+1 calculate the CRC bits

(c)

In the following received frame 1100 0110 0110, the 8 bits on the left are the 40%
message bits and the 4 bits on the right are a 4 bit CRC. If the generator
polynomial is x4+x3+1 calculate the remainder and hence determine whether the
frame contains an error.

(a)

The following binary data stream is to be transmitted using FSK on a voice-band

modem:
0101100
Sketch the waveform of the resulting modulated carrier if a logic '1' is
20%
represented by a higher frequency than a logic '0'.

(b)

Sketch the frequency spectrum of the signal in 4(a) above for a bit rate of 1200
bits/sec and 'mark' and 'space' frequencies of 2400 Hz and 1200 Hz respectively
(Bell 202 standard). Explain briefly the limiting factors for using FSK at higher
bit rates than 1200 bits/sec over a half duplex PSTN link.

30%

(c)

Sketch a possible 16 QAM constellation and explain the significance of the axes
in terms of a pair of carriers in phase quadrature. If 16-QAM is used in a voice
band modem at 2400 baud, find the bit rate.
30%

(d)

Find the number of points in a QAM constellation that would be required for a
2400 baud modem operating at:
(i) 14,400 bits/sec
(ii) 28,800 bits/sec
What is the limiting factor for a further increase in the number of points in a 20%
QAM constellation for use in a voice band modem?

(a)

Explain briefly with the aid of a block diagram five functions that are performed 50%
at a telephone exchange to interface a 2 wire analogue PSTN line to a serial PCM
data stream. Your answer should include all relevant frequencies, bit rates, etc.

(b)

Explain briefly 'quantisation errors' in the context of a PCM CODEC. What

implications do these errors have for modem design?

(c)

Explain briefly with the aid of a diagram 'companding' in the context of PCM 30%
speech transmission. Your answer should include an explanation of the
advantages of companded PCM rather than linear PCM.

20%

(a)

Describe briefly with the aid of a diagram, how a 56k modem is used on the PSTN,
explaining how this configuration differs from V34 and lower speed modems.
25%

(b)

State Shannon's formula and calculate the theoretical limit of channel capacity for a
PSTN link with a bandwidth of 300 Hz - 3.4 kHz and a S/N ratio of 38 dB. Explain
briefly why the maximum bit rate for a practical modem is less than the rate
calculated above.
35%

(c)

Explain briefly how 56k modems such as V90 operate and how it is possible to
achieve speeds that are significantly faster than the channel capacity derived in
section 4(b) above. Your answer should include an explanation of why the modem
needs to synchronise to the 8 kHz PCM sampling clock at the telephone exchange. 40%

(c)

Outline the principle of the 2B1Q line code which may be used on a basic rate
ISDN line, stating what advantages 2B1Q offers compared to the AMI or HDB3 20%
formats. Your answer should include a sketch of a typical 2B1Q waveform.

(a)

Explain briefly the facilities offered by ADSL/VDSL (Asymmetric Digital 15%

Subscriber Line/Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line). List some possible
applications.

(b)

Explain briefly five characteristics of existing copper telephony pairs that affect 30%
transmission of ISDN and ADSL/VDSL signals.

(c)

Explain briefly with the aid of a diagram the principle of a Discrete Multi Tone 30%
(DMT) modulator.

(d)

Explain briefly the training sequence used by Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) 25%
modulation in an ADSL/VDSL network and what advantages DMT offers
compared to other modulation techniques such as CAP/QAM.

Describe briefly with the aid of diagrams the network architecture (including
Customer Premises Equipment), the typical range of frequencies used and the
type of modulation normally used for each of the following methods of high speed
local data access:
(a)

ADSL and VDSL

40%

(b)

Data modems on a cable television network

30%