University of Asia Pacific

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Course Title: Telecommunication Engineering Sessional
Course Code: EEE 438
Experiment No. : - 01
Name of the Experiment: Study of Amplitude Modulation with MATLAB code.
Amplitude Modulation
Modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the
carrier signal (high frequency signal), with a modulating signal that typically contains information
to be transmitted. In telecommunications, modulation is the process of conveying a message signal,
for example a digital bit stream or an analog audio signal, inside another signal that can be
physically transmitted. Modulation of a sine waveform transforms a baseband message signal into
a pass-band signal. The aims of modulation in telecommunication system are:
Fulfil the bandwidth requirement
Reduce the antenna length
Mainly, modulation is of two types: analog modulation and digital modulation. The aim of analog
modulation is to transfer an analog baseband (or low-pass) signal, for example an audio signal or
TV signal, over an analog bandpass channel at a different frequency, for example over a limited
radio frequency band or a cable TV network channel. In analog modulation, the modulation is
applied continuously in response to the analog information signal. Common analog modulation
techniques are:

Amplitude modulation (AM) (the amplitude of the carrier signal is varied in accordance to
the instantaneous amplitude of the modulating signal)
o Double-sideband modulation (DSB)
Double-sideband modulation with carrier (DSB-WC) (used on the AM radio
broadcasting band)
Double-sideband suppressed-carrier transmission (DSB-SC)
o Single-sideband modulation (SSB, or SSB-AM)
SSB with carrier (SSB-WC)
SSB suppressed carrier modulation (SSB-SC)
o Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB, or VSB-AM)
o Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)

In amplitude modulation, the amplitude or "strength" of the carrier oscillations is varied. For
example, in AM radio communication, a continuous wave radio-frequency signal (a sinusoidal
carrier wave) has its amplitude modulated by an audio waveform before transmission. The audio
waveform modifies the amplitude of the carrier wave and determines the envelope of the
waveform. In the frequency domain, amplitude modulation produces a signal with power

concentrated at the carrier frequency and two adjacent sidebands. Each sideband is equal in
bandwidth to that of the modulating signal, and is a mirror image of the other. Standard AM is thus
sometimes called "double-sideband amplitude modulation" (DSB-AM) to distinguish it from more
sophisticated modulation methods also based on AM.
One disadvantage of all amplitude modulation techniques is that the receiver amplifies and detects
noise and electromagnetic interference in equal proportion to the signal. Increasing the received
signal to noise ratio, say, by a factor of 10 (a 10 decibel improvement), thus would require
increasing the transmitter power by a factor of 10. Another disadvantage of AM is that it is
inefficient in power usage; at least two-thirds of the power is concentrated in the carrier signal.
The carrier signal contains none of the original information being transmitted (voice, data, etc.).
Double sideband (DSB) is one of the easiest modulation techniques to understand, so it is a good
starting point for the study of modulation. Amplitude modulation (AM) is similar to DSB but has
the advantage of permitting a simpler demodulator, the envelope detector, providing a frequency
and phase reference to extract the modulation from the sidebands. AM is used for broadcast radio,
aviation radio, citizens band (CB) radio, and short-wave broadcasting. A message signal x(t) can
be DSB modulated onto a carrier with a simple multiplication. The modulated carrier y(t) can be
represented by
( ) = ( ). cos(2
)
Where, fc is the carrier frequency. The Fourier transform Y(f) of the modulator output is related to
the Fourier transform X(f) of the message signal by
1
( ) = ( ( ) + ( + ))
2
For a real x(t), |X(f)| is symmetric about f=0 and |X(f-fc)| is symmetric about f=fc. The signal
content that lies in the frequency domain below is the lower sideband. The signal content that lies
in the frequency domain above is the upper sideband. This is the origin of the term double
sideband.

If a DC component is added to the message signal before multiplication with a carrier, then the
modulation scheme is known DSB-WC. The purpose of the DC component is to permit the
modulated carrier to be demodulated at the receiver by a means other than synchronous detection.
The output of the modulator can be written:
( )=
+ ( ) . cos(2
)
Where, Ac is carrier amplitude. The AM modulation index is a measure based on the ratio of the
modulation excursions of the RF signal to the level of the unmodulated carrier. It is thus defined
as:

Where
and are the modulation amplitude and carrier amplitude, respectively; the modulation
amplitude is the peak (+ve or -ve) change in the RF amplitude from its unmodulated value.
Modulation index is normally expressed as a percentage. Increasing the modulating signal beyond
that point, known as over-modulation, causes a standard AM modulator (see below) to fail, as the
negative excursions of the wave envelope cannot become less than zero, resulting in distortion
("clipping") of the received modulation. Transmitters typically incorporate a limiter circuit to
avoid over-modulation, and/or a compressor circuit (especially for voice communications) in order
to still approach 100% modulation for maximum intelligibility above the noise.

In radio communications, single-sideband modulation (SSB) or single-sideband suppressedcarrier (SSB-SC) is a refinement of amplitude modulation that more efficiently uses transmitter
power and bandwidth. Amplitude modulation produces an output signal that has twice the
bandwidth of the original baseband signal. Single-sideband modulation avoids this bandwidth
doubling, and the power wasted on a carrier, at the cost of increased device complexity and more
difficult tuning at the receiver. Single-sideband has the mathematical form of quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM) in the special case where one of the baseband waveforms is derived from the
other, instead of being independent messages:
( )=
Where, m(t) is the message signal,

( ). cos(2

( ). sin(2

( ) is its Hilbert transform and fc is the carrier frequency.

Lab Works
Perform the DSB-SC and DSB-WC operation using following M-code.
clear all; close all; clc;
% Amplitude, Frequency and Phase Shift for Modulating Signal
A1 = 2; f1 = 10; p1 = 0;
% Amplitude, Frequency and Phase Shift for Carrier Signal
A2 = 4; f2 = 50; p2 = 0;
% Sample Rate - This will define the resolution
fs = 1000;
% Time Line. Longer the signal, better will be the fft
t = 0: inv(fs) : 8*inv(f1);
% Generate the message signal

s1 = A1*cos(2*pi*f1*t + p1);
% Generate the Carrier wave
s2 = A2*cos(2*pi*f2*t + p2);
% Plot the message signal
figure(1);
subplot(211),plot(t,s1);
xlabel('Time (sec)');ylabel('Amplitude');
title(['Message Signal with frequency = ',num2str(f1),' Hz']);
grid on;
subplot(212),plot(t,s2);
xlabel('Time (sec)');ylabel('Amplitude');
title(['Carrier Signal with frequency = ',num2str(f2),' Hz']);
grid on;
% Amplitude Modulation with Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier (DSB-SC)
s3 = s1.*s2;
% Generate the Envelope
s3_01 = A1*A2*(cos(2*pi*f1*t));
s3_02 = -A1*A2*(cos(2*pi*f1*t));
% Amplitude Modulation with Large Carrier
% Double Sideband with Carrier (DSB - WC)
s4 = (A2 + s1).*cos(2*pi*f2*t);
% Generate the Envelope
s4_01 = A2 + s1;
s4_02 = -A2 - s1;
% frequency content of the two Modulations
% Number of FFT points. N should be greater than Carrier Frequency
N = 2^nextpow2(length(t));
f = fs * (-N/2 : N/2) / N;
% Find FFT
s3_f = (2/N)*abs(fftshift(fft(s3,N)));
s4_f = (2/N)*abs(fftshift(fft(s4,N)));
% Plot the two Modulations
% Plot the DSB-SC Signal
figure(2);
subplot(211);
plot(t,s3);
hold on;
plot(t,s3_01,'r');
hold on;
plot(t,s3_02,'g');
xlabel('Time (sec)');ylabel('Amplitude');
title('Double Sideband with Suppressed Carrier');
grid on;
subplot(212);
plot(f(1:1000),s3_f(1:1000));
xlabel('Frequency (Hz)');ylabel('| Amplitude |');
title('Spectral Anaalysis (Single Sided PSD)');
grid on;
% Plot the DSB-WC Signal
figure(3);
subplot(211);
plot(t,s4);
hold on;
plot(t,s4_01,'r');
hold on;
plot(t,s4_02,'g');
xlabel('Time (sec)');ylabel('Amplitude');
title('Double Sideband with Large Carrier');
grid on;
subplot(212);
plot(f(1:1000),s4_f(1:1000));
xlabel('Frequency (Hz)');ylabel('| Amplitude |');
title('Spectral Anaalysis (Single Sided PSD)');

grid on;

Perform SSB operation with the following M-code:

clear all; close all; clc;
N = 1024; fs = 1000;
ts = 1/fs;
fc = 200; %Carrier frequency !! Limit fc<800 to avoid freqdomain aliasing
fm = 20; Am = 1;
t=0:ts:4*inv(fm);
m = Am*cos(2*pi*fm*t); %Message
mh = Am*cos((2*pi*fm*t)-pi/2); %Hilbert transform of the message signal
sbu = m.*2.*cos(2*pi*fc*t) - mh.*2.*sin(2*pi*fc*t); %Expression for USB SSB
sbl = m.*2.*cos(2*pi*fc*t) + mh.*2.*sin(2*pi*fc*t); %Expression for LSB SSB
SBU = 2/N*abs(fftshift(fft(sbu,N))); %Fourier Transform of USB SSB
SBL = 2/N*abs(fftshift(fft(sbl,N))); %Fourier Transform of LSB SSB
freq = fs * (-N/2 : N/2) / N;
figure(1)
subplot(221),plot(t,sbu,'r');%Time Domain Plot of USB SSB
title('Time Domain Representation === USB');
xlabel('Time'); ylabel('Modulated Signal');
subplot(222),plot(t,sbl,'b');%Time Domain Plot of LSB SSB
title('Time Domain Representation === LSB');
xlabel('Time'); ylabel('Modulated Signal');
subplot(223),plot(freq(1:1000),SBU(1:1000))
title('Frequency Domain Representation');
xlabel('Frequency(Hz)'); ylabel('Spectral Magnitude');
legend('USB');
subplot(224),plot(freq(1:1000),SBL(1:1000)); %Frequency domain plot
title('Frequency Domain Representation');
xlabel('Frequency(Hz)'); ylabel('Spectral Magnitude');
legend('LSB');
figure(2)
plot(freq(1:1000),SBU(1:1000),freq(1:1000),SBL(1:1000));
title('Frequency Domain Representation');
xlabel('Frequency(Hz)'); ylabel('Spectral Magnitude');
legend('USB','LSB');

Home Assignment:
For the given message and carrier signals in above experiment, find out modulation index for both
DSC-SC and DSC-WC using the equation mentioned in introduction. Also find out the power of
the modulated signal for both DSB and SSB and show the comparison between these two
techniques.