Telecommunication and Teleinformatics Notes

Telecommunication and Teleinformatics

Historical View and Basic Definitions

  • Teleinformatics: A field covering computer science (hardware and software) used for information creation, processing, uploading, presentation, and securing. Also includes telecommunication tools and related technologies.

  • Telecommunication (Legal Definition): According to Polish law (2004), it's a set of cooperating IT devices and software that ensures sending, receiving, storing, and processing data through telecommunication networks using terminal equipment appropriate for the network type.

  • Telecommunication (Process): Transmission of information involving:

    • A thought model in the sender's mind.

    • Description of the model using contractual symbols (auditory, visual, numerical).

    • Coding for transmission.

    • Transmission.

    • Decoding and reproduction of information.

    • Reconstruction of the model to be close to the original, or processing, saving, or analysis.

Historical Timeline

  • 450 BCE: Greeks of Alexandria devised optical coding of alphabet letters using torches as a telegraph.

  • 1794: Claude Chappe demonstrated a semaphore telegraph with moving arms.

    • The first route was 220 km from Paris to Lille, divided into 20 substations.

    • Within 50 years, the system expanded to ~5,000km across major French cities, with an average transmission time of a few minutes.

  • 1800: Alessandro Volta discovered the battery, marking the beginning of electrical engineering and the development of telecommunication, electronics, and IT.

    • Telecommunication involves transmitting multimedia data in analog or digital signals via the electromagnetic field.

  • 1837: Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, using a combination of dots and dashes to send specific alphabet letters or numbers.

  • May 24, 1844: The first telegraph line connected Washington and Baltimore (60 km). Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought?", marking the beginning of telegraphy and telecommunication.

  • 1876: Graham Bell patented the first phone using an electromagnetic microphone. On March 10, 1876, he sent the historic sentence, "Watson, please come here."

  • 1864: Maxwell developed the electromagnetic theory of light, predicting the existence of radio waves.

  • 1887: H. Hertz experimentally discovered radio waves.

  • 1895: The first radio transmission of information (Morse Code).

  • 1906: Spoken text and music were broadcasted, marking the beginning of electronics and radio. Quantitative and qualitative development was then limited by circuit switching and wired network infrastructure.

Commutation

  • Commutation (switching) is the technique of connecting subscribers in telecommunication, involving variable and periodic connections for information transmission.

  • Manual Commutation Process:

    • Subscriber sends a call signal to the control panel (using an inductor or by picking up the handset).

    • The telephone operator receives the call signal and accepts the connection with the desired subscriber.

    • The operator verifies the subscriber's availability and sends a call signal by activating the telephone bell.

    • The operator connects the calling subscriber with the desired subscriber using a connecting cord.

    • After the conversation, one subscriber signals the end of the call.

    • The operator disconnects the subscribers, registering the call and its duration for billing.

  • Modern subscriber connection is similar but done automatically.

  • 1897: A.B. Strowger (an undertaker) invented a rotary selector (automatic switch) to prevent unfair telephone operators from giving information to competitors, leading to automatic telephone exchanges.

Further Developments

  • 1913: Automatic cross-processing using cross selectors in control panels (channel switching).

  • 1924: The first television picture (cross mark from 3 m), by John Baird.

  • 1935: The first public television broadcasts (England).

  • 1927: Cable undersea Europe-America's first intercontinental conversation.

  • 1935: The first working radar (GB).

  • 1936: Konrad Zuse patented a mechanical computer working in zero-one arithmetic, including the idea of floating-point operations.

  • 1938: Digital technique a/c. Digital PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) link for digitizing analog signals.

  • 1941: K. Zuse finishes work on the first programmable computer built on electric relays.

  • 1943: England. Alan Turing, a tube decrypting computer - Colossus with 19,000 electron tubes, was not programmable

  • 1944: America, Harward Mark I computer, consisting of 800,000 electromechanical elements

  • 1944: America. Johann von Neuman proposes to store a computer program in his memory - program memory

Definitions of Telecommunication

  • Derived from Greek terms "tele" (distant) and "communicare" (sharing with someone).

  • Definitions:

    • The field of knowledge, scientific, technical and economic activities related to the transmission of information at a distance, using signals - usually electrical.

    • The process of sending information between two or more system users (human or machine, or both), one- or two-way.

Signals in Telecommunication

  • Information is provided in the form of signals, most commonly electrical signals.

  • Sounds (e.g., human voice) are composed of elementary harmonics, representable as mathematical functions (sine or cosine).
    f(t)=A[sin](2[pi]ft+[phi])f(t) = A[sin](2[pi]ft + [phi])

  • Human speech ranges from several dozen Hz to several kHz; human hearing ranges from about 16 Hz to about 20 kHz.

  • Microphones convert sound waves to electrical signals, representing the sound.

  • Loudspeakers and headphones convert electrical signals into speech sounds.

Image Information

  • Images (static and moving) are more complex forms of information.

  • The eye's limited ability to distinguish small details allows images to be divided into points with sub-distinction dimensions.

  • Image sensors analyze images into components, and data about brightness and color is provided for each point.

  • Devices like kinescopes, LCDs, or plasma matrices reproduce images.

  • Moving images (cinema) are created by rapidly changing subsequent images (above 16 times per second), leveraging the eye's inertia.

  • Television combines the analysis of single images with rapid repetition to transmit moving images remotely.

  • High speed of analysis and synthesis is required where approximately 13,015,625 points need to be generated within 1 second using 625 lines and 833 points per line with an aspect ratio of 3: 4.
    625×833×25=13,015,625625 \times 833 \times 25 = 13,015,625

  • Transmitting TV signals (multimedia) requires better transmission path parameters than voice signals.

Digital Data

  • Digital data (measurement, control, computer) can be simplified using a base-2 counting system.

  • Binary digits "0" and "1" can be represented by two states of an electrical signal parameter (current, voltage, etc.).

Signal Classification

  • Basic classifications include:

    • Analog (continuous).

    • Discrete (impulse).

    • Digital.

    • Deterministic.

    • Random.

  • Sampling theory states that signals with finite spectrums can be represented by collecting and transmitting samples periodically with appropriate frequency.

Signal Description

  • Signals are described by:

    • Duration (time interval ).

    • Instantaneous value (in appropriate units).

    • Waveform function (of one or more variables).

    • Specific properties (amplitude, frequency, periodicity, energy, power, etc.).

Model of a Telecommunication System

  • Key components:

    • Transmitter (terminal device).

    • Transmission channel (transmission medium).

    • Receiver (terminal device).

  • Sometimes, humans are excluded, and machines communicate directly.

  • Telecommunication focuses on the layout of characters transformed into waveforms and electrical signals, not the information content itself.

Telecommunication Types

  • Based on transmission type:

    • Communication (two-way between points).

    • Broadcasting (one-way from one point to many).

    • Aggregate (unidirectional transfer from many points to one).

  • Based on message type:

    • Telephony (voice).

    • Broadcasting (sound, speech, music).

    • Telegraphy (handwriting characters).

    • Symilography (static images).

    • Television (moving pictures).

    • Telemetry (measurement data).

    • Signaling (contractual signs).

    • Telemechanics (control pulses).

    • Teledication (digital data).

  • Based on operations performed:

    • Message processing techniques (electrical or optical signal).

    • Teletransmission (signal transmission).

    • Telecommuting (connection setup and removal).

Telecommunication Environments

  • Based on the environment in which signals carry information:

    • Track communication (Torowa): uses concentrated signals within wires, waveguides, or directional antennas.

    • Non-track communication (Beztorową): uses electromagnetic waves propagating with low energy concentrations (radio waves).

Telecommunications Tracks

  • Telecommunications tracks are passive systems that allow electromagnetic wave propagation in a defined space, with energy concentrated in a cylinder.

    • Wired tracks (symmetrical and coaxial).

    • Waveguide tracks.

    • Fiber optic tracks.

    • Radio tracks.

Information Capacity

  • Telecommunication paths often have transmission capabilities exceeding single-signal needs, considering:

    • Signal frequency band.

    • Signal duration.

    • Signal-to-interference power ratio.

  • Information capacity refers to the transmission capabilities of a telecommunications track.

Multiplication Techniques

  • Multi-frequency multiplication: Divides the frequency band to allow simultaneous transmission of multiple signals.

  • Time multiplication: Allocates time slots for various signals in the communication path after converting a continuous information signal into a discrete one, per sampling theorem.

    • Time multiplication is commonly used in digital teletransmission systems.

  • Power gradation: Divides signal dynamics to allow multiple signals, used only in special cases due to technical issues.

Telecommunication Channel and Connection

  • Telecommunication channel: Technical means enabling the transmission of telecommunications signals from point A to point B, potentially running through different telecommunications tracks.

  • Telecommunication connection: Technical means enabling the two-way transmission of telecommunications signals between points A and B.

Telecommunication Systems

  • Formally divided based on signal form:

    • Analog.

    • Digital.

  • Analog systems: Use continuous signals (usually sinusoidal) where amplitude, frequency, or phase changes with the information signal.

  • Discrete signals: (telegraph, data transmission). Continuous signals can be converted into discrete pulse signal without any loss of information using sampling theorem.

  • Impulse signals use pulse modulation like PAM, PDM, PPM, or PFM.

    • PAM(Pulse Amplitude Modulation)

    • PDM(Pulse Duration Modulation)

    • PPM(Pulse Phase Modulation)

    • PFM(Pulse Frequency Modulation)

  • Digital systems: Convert discrete signals into digital form (binary numbers), integrating messages and telecommunication systems with switching systems. A/C and C/A conversions are made once at the sender and receiver.

OSI Model and ISDN

  • OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model: A seven-layer hierarchical architecture that standardizes telecommunication network architecture by defining input-output parameters at each interface.

  • ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network): Fully implements the idea of integrating telecommunication systems through digitization and standardization.

ISDN Concepts:

  • Application of digital teletransmission systems

  • Implementation of functional control-based digital, commutative systems

  • Connection of independent telecommunications of various telecommunication services into one integrated network

  • Unification of user's physical access to the network and standardization of connection control procedures

  • Standardization and orderly development of intelligent telecommunications services.

Benefits of ISDN

  • Eliminates disadvantages of separate telecommunications networks, by:

    • Reducing construction costs through standardization.

    • Increasing network efficiency by better use of common elements.

    • Increasing user availability.

    • Increasing production efficiency and sales of terminal equipment.

Intelligent Network (IN)

  • Digital switching and teletransmission enable new services beyond "classic" services.

  • Intelligent Network (IN) : Modern network architecture characterized by susceptibility to new services.

Key Feature of IN

  • Additional services implemented in one place in the network using INAP (Intelligent Network Application Protocol), standardized by ETSI in 1990.

Convergence in Telecommunications

  • Convergence of telecommunications, IT, and audiovisual sectors.

  • Telecommunications dominated by fiber optics and digital commutation.

  • IT controlled by computers and networks.

  • Audiovisual media (multimedia broadcast).

  • This convergence results in the field of ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

Areas of Convergence

  • Convergence of the network, including the merger and penetration of technologies and services in computer- based networks, in which data transmission and public networks of telecommunications origin predominated .

  • Convergence of services, including the provision of similar or the same electronic subscriber services in various telecommunications systems, built using different types of networks and technologies .

External resources

  • Historyczne podstawy teorii informacji 6/9 - Historia telegrafów optycznych https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoz2R9cHaZE

  • Historyczne podstawy teorii informacji 8/9 - Bateria i elektromagnetyzm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npPgtf1QIw8

  • Historyczne podstawy teorii informacji 9/9 - Alfabet Morse'a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sifm5X9ILQE