Fundamentals of digital transmission systems: Practical view of PCM, PDH, SDH, OTN, and DWDM

Digital transmission systems are the backbone of modern communication networks, enabling the exchange of information across various media, such as copper wires, optical fibers, radio waves, and satellites. These systems use digital signals to encode, transmit, and decode data, such as voice, video, text, and images. Digital transmission systems have many advantages over analog systems, such as higher capacity, better quality, lower cost, and more flexibility. The book is also important for communication engineers and operators who are involved in the planning, design, installation, operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of digital transmission systems and networks. The book covers the most common and widely used standards and technologies in digital transmission, such as PCM, PDH, SDH, OTN, WDM, ADSL, GPON, and radio waves. The book also provides the latest information on the evolution and trends of digital transmission, such as liquid OTN, fiber-optic transmission systems, and digital transmission networks. The book helps communication engineers and operators to understand the principles, advantages, limitations, and challenges of digital transmission systems and to apply them to their specific needs and scenarios. The book is organized into eight chapters, each covering a major topic in digital transmission systems. Chapter 1 introduces the importance, motivations, and overview of digital transmission systems, and provides a conclusion and some questions for review. Chapter 2 explains the fundamentals of pulse code modulation (PCM), which is the most common technique for converting analog signals into digital signals. It also describes the structure and signaling of the 2 Mbit/s (E1) frame, which is the basic unit of transmission in many digital systems. Chapter 3 discusses the plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH), which is a legacy standard for multiplexing and transporting digital signals over copper wires or optical fibers. It also covers the frame structure, synchronization, signaling, error detection and correction, network architecture, and limitations of PDH. Chapter 4 introduces the synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH), which is a more advanced and widely adopted standard for multiplexing and transporting digital signals over optical fibers. It also covers the general and specific frame structures, multiplexing hierarchy, network and management, network protections, and synchronization of SDH. Chapter 5 presents optical fiber technology, which is the main medium for transmitting digital signals over long distances and at high speeds. It also covers the technical overview, physics of light, and design and protection of fiber optic cables. Chapter 6 explores the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, which is a technique for increasing the capacity and efficiency of optical fiber networks by using multiple wavelengths of light. It also covers the WDM and optical fiber structure, active and passive optical components, optical amplification, noise calculation, fiber-optic transmission systems, and fiber-optic networks. Chapter 7 describes the optical transport network (OTN), which is a standard for multiplexing and transporting various types of digital signals over optical fibers using a common format. It also covers the OTN fundamentals, multiplexing overview, frame structure, evolution to liquid OTN, and important topics in OTN. Chapter 8 reviews the ADSL modems, GPON fundamentals, and radio waves propagations, which are some of the technologies and phenomena that are related to digital transmission systems.