DIGITAL TV BROADCASTING

EFREN T. PINEDA, PECE!

WHAT IS MODULATION?!
Modulation is the process of varying one
or more properties of periodic waveform,
called the carrier signal , with a
modulating signal w/c typically contains
information to be transmitted.!
This is done in a similar fashion to a
musician modulating a tone (a periodic
waveform) from a musical instrument by
varying its volume, timing and pitch.!
The three key parameters of a periodic
waveform are its amplitude ("volume"), its
phase ("timing") and its frequency
("pitch")!

ANALOG MODULATION
METHODS!
Amplitude modulation (AM) (here
the amplitude of the carrier
signal is varied in accordance
to the instantaneous amplitude
of the modulating signal)!
!

ANALOG MODULATION
METHODS!
!
Double-sideband modulation (DSB)!

Double-sideband modulation with

carrier (DSB-WC) (used on the AM radio
broadcasting band)!

ANALOG MODULATION
METHODS!
Double-sideband suppressed-carrier
transmission (DSB-SC)!

ANALOG MODULATION
METHODS!
!
Single-sideband modulation (SSB, or SSBAM)!
SSB with carrier (SSB-WC)!
SSB suppressed carrier modulation (SSB-SC)!

Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB, or

VSB-AM)!
is a sideband that has been only partly cut off
or suppressed. Television broadcasts (in analog
video formats) use this method if the video is
transmitted in AM, due to the large bandwidth
used. It may also be used in digital
transmission, such as the ATSC standardized 8VSB.!

ANALOG MODULATION
METHODS!
Angle modulation, which is approximately
constant envelope!
Frequency modulation (FM) (here the frequency
of the carrier signal is varied in accordance
to the instantaneous amplitude of the
modulating signal)!
Phase modulation (PM) (here the phase shift of
the carrier signal is varied in accordance to
the instantaneous amplitude of the modulating
signal)!

DIGITAL MODULATION
METHODS!
Phase Shift Keying(PSK)- Phase of
carrier wave was varied w/respect to
digital streams or signal.!
Frequency Shift Keying(FSK) - Frequency
of carrier wave was varied!
Amplitude Shift Keying(ASK) - Amplitude
of carrier was changed!
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation(QAM) Combination of PSK & ASK!

!PHASE SHIFT KEYING!

BINARY PSK(BPSK) - Uses two phases
which are separated by 180 degrees!

PHASE SHIFT KEYING!

QUADRATURE PSK(QPSK)- Uses four phases
which are 90 degrees apart!
Can encode 2 bits per symbol!
Sometimes known as 4-QAM!
!

PHASE SHIFT KEYING!

Timing diagram for QPSK. The binary data stream is

shown beneath the time axis. The two signal components
with their bit assignments are shown the top and the
total, combined signal at the bottom. Note the abrupt
changes in phase at some of the bit-period boundaries.!

FREQUENCY SHIFT KEYING!

BINARY FSK(BFSK)- Uses two discrete
frequencies to transmit binary(0 s &
1 s)information!

AMPLITUDE SHIFT KEYING!

Is a form of digital modulation w/c uses
the presence of a carrier wave to
indicate binary 1 and it s absence to
indicate binary 0 .!

QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE
MODULATION!
Is a modulation scheme w/c conveys data by
changing the amplitudes of two
quadrature(90out of phase) carrier waves!
This modulation is commonly used in
digital terrestial television!
Usually represented by a constellation
diagram!
!

QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE
MODULATION!
16-QAM uses 4 bits per symbol!

QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE
MODULATION!
64-QAM uses 16 bits per symbol!

DIGITAL TV STANDARD
MODULATIONS!
8 VSB(ATSC - American) is a 8 level
!
vestigial sideband modulation methods
!by U.S. and Canada. It is capable of
!transmitting 3 bits(23=8) at a time.!
8 VSB uses single carrier and suppressed a
part of the sidebands for efficient power
transmission!
Method used was similar to the technique
for amplitude modulation on analog system.!

DIGITAL TV STANDARD
MODULATIONS!
COFDM(Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing) is a modulation used by
Japan(ISDB) and Europe(DVB) for Digital
terrestial TV.!
It is a frequency-division multiplexing
scheme utilized as a digital multi-carrier
modulation method.!
A large number of closely-spaced orthogonal
sub-carriers are used to carry data.!
Each sub-carrier is modulated with a
conventional modulation scheme (such as
quadrature amplitude modulation or phase
shift keying)at a low symbol rate.!

DIGITAL TV STANDARD
MODULATIONS!
COFDM Key Features:!
Orthogonality(the O of COFDM)!
The Addition of Guard Interval!
The Use of Error Coding( C of
COFDM),interleaving and
channel-state information!

COFDM FEATURES!
COFDM Spectrum!
Orthogonal means that even the transmitted
subcarriers(or OFDM symbols) overlap each other
but won t interfere with one another.!

COFDM FEATURES!
Guard interval(GI) insertion in COFDM is used to
avoid inter-symbol interference cause by multipath
reflection in a terrestial radio channel.!

COFDM FEATURES!
!
In COFDM, the beginning of each symbol is preceded by
a guard interval. As long as the echoes fall within
this interval, they will not affect the receiver's
ability to safely decode the actual data, as data is
only interpreted outside the guard interval.!
Longer guard periods allow more distant echoes to be
tolerated. However, longer guard intervals reduce the
channel efficiency. For example, in ISDB-T, four
guard intervals are available (given as fractions of
a symbol period):!

1/32 ; 1/16 ; 1/8 ; 1/4 !

Guard interval insertion in COFDM will make the
signal more immune to multipath than the 8VSB of US.
8VSB is a single carrier modulation w/c is impossible
for guard interval insertion.!

COFDM FEATURES!
!

forward error correction (FEC) is a system of error

control for data transmission, whereby the sender
adds redundant data to its messages, also known as an
error correction code. This allows the receiver to
detect and correct errors (within some bound) without
the need to ask the sender for additional
data.Convolutional coding is the error correction
used in digital tv.!
Convolutional code is a type of error-correcting code
in which (a) each m-bit information symbol (each mbit string) to be encoded is transformed into an nbit symbol, where m/n is the code rate (n m). Code
rate usually used are:!

1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6 & 7/8!

COFDM FEATURES!
!

Interleaving is used in digital data transmission

technology to protect the transmission against burst
errors.These errors overwrite a lot of bits in a row!
if a burst error occurs, too many errors can be made
in one code word, and that codeword cannot be
correctly decoded. To reduce the effect of such burst
errors, the bits of a number of codewords are
interleaved before being transmitted. !
This way, a burst error affects only a correctable
number of bits in each codeword, and the decoder can
decode the codewords correctly.!
This method is popular because it is a less complex
and cheaper way to handle burst errors than directly
increasing the power of the error correction scheme.!

COFDM FEATURES!
!

Frequency Interleaving is used in digital data

transmission to protect the transmission against flat
fading bit errors. Subcarriers in COFDM usually
suffers from frequency selective fading.!
Time Interleaving was also incorporated in digital
data transmission in order to protect the bit streams
from transient short-duration burst noise such as
impulse noise.!
Samples of impulse noises are: starting a motor
vehicle, noise from vacuum cleaners, hair dryers,
other motorized appliances and sources of electrical
arcing.!

COFDM FEATURES!
!

Pilot Carriers with fixed positions in COFDM are used

to automatic frequency control(AFC) in the receiver,
it locks the transmitted frequency.!
This fixed pilot carriers are usually cosinusoidal
signals and are thus located on the real axis at
fixed amplitude positions.!
Pilots with variable position are used as measuring
signal for channel estimation and channel correction
at the receiving end.!
This Pilot Carriers generally used for
synchronization of transmitter and receiver for COFDM
system.!

MODULATION ERROR RATIO!

is a measure used to quantify the
performance of a digital radio transmitter
or receiver in a communications system
using digital modulation (such as QAM)!
A parameter to measures the phase shift
error of rf signal in a digital
transmission!
It is also a measure how fuzzy will be a
symbol point in a constellation diagram.!
Expressed in dB!

MODULATION ERROR RATIO!

Vector Representation!

MODULATION ERROR RATIO!

MER(dB) = 10log (Ave. symbol power)/(Ave.
!
error power)!

MODULATION ERROR RATIO!

Valid MER Measurement Range!
QPSK : Lower Threshold - 7 to 10 dB!

Upper Threshold - 40 to 45 dB!

16QAM : Lower Threshold - 15 to 18 dB!

Upper Threshold - 40 to 45 dB!

64QAM : Lower Threshold - 22 to 24 dB!

Upper Threshold - 40 to 45 dB!

Good Engineering practice suggest keeping received

MER in an operational system in atleast 3 to 6 dB
or more above lower threshold.!
Outside the range between lower and upper
threshold, the MER measurements is likely to be
unreliable.!

DIGITAL TV STANDARD
COMPARISON!

QUESTION AND ANSWER!