Digital modulation

Can be considered as
varying certain
characteristics of the
carrier signal;
according to the
modulating signal
which is the signal to
be transmitted
x(t)=Acos(wct+)

Demodulation and Detection

Demodulation
Process of removing carrier signal

Detection
Process of symbol decision
Coherent detection:
receiver uses the carrier phase to detect signal
match within threshold to make decision
Non-coherent detection:
doesnt explode phase to detect signal
less complex receiver, but worse performance

Metrics for Modulation

Power Efficiency:
is a measure of how much signal power should be increased to achieve a particular
BER for a given modulation scheme

Bandwidth Efficiency:
Trade off between data rate and bandwidth
Ability to accommodate data within a limited Bandwidth

Error Performance.

Considerations in choice of
modulation technique

High spectral efficiency

High power efficiency
Robust to multipath effects
Low cost and ease of implementation
Low out of band radiation due to the lobed
nature of modulation

Handling Data
Binary Modulation

M-ary Modulation

The stream of bits

modulated as it comes so
we have two signals one
for each of the two cases
(0,1) as
ASK, PSK, FSK

the stream of bits is

divided into symbols of m
bits per symbol To form a
set of M symbol where
m=log2 (M) then
modulating the data
We have M signals one for
each symbol

Amplitude Shift Keying

The amplitude of the
carrier is varied
according with the
binary source it can be
told OOK
s(t)=A(1+m(t))cos(wct)
Since the carrier conveys
no information we can
eliminate it: DSB-SC
s(t)=A(m(t))cos(wct)

Double and Vestigial side band

When sending the signal with
DSB We have two 'sidebands',
each a mirror image of the other
one of these sidebands is
redundant and can be removed
without loss of information, this
will save 50% of BW: SSD.
In practice the SSB signal is of
lower quality than the DSB,
so,the signal is subject to a
partial SSB operation.
This 'economizes' on bandwidth
without removing the sideband
completely : VSD.

ASK detection

Amplitude Shift Keying

Band width

the ASK bandwidth is BT=2B Where B is the

base band bandwidth

Advantages :
ease of implementation

Disadvantage:
signal is transmitted at different amplitudes so
it is power inefficient

Frequency Shift Keying

The two binary
characters 0/1 are
represented by two
different frequencies
slightly offset from
the carrier frequency
s1(t)=Acos((wc+ w)t)
s0(t)=Acos((wc- w)t)

Frequency Shift Keying

Modulation index m=f/B Where B is the base band

bandwidth while the FSK bandwidth is BT=2B(1+m)

Advantages :
1.

signal is transmitted at constant amplitude

so it is power efficient scheme
2. more immune to noise than ASK

Disadvantage:
requires more analog bandwidth than ASK

FSK detector

ASK & FSK

ASK in frequency domain

FSK in frequency domain

Phase Shift Keying

The two binary
characters 0/1 are
represented by two
different phases
namely 180 and 0
respectively
sj(t)=Acos(wct+ j)

Phase Shift Keying

Advantages :
1. Simple to implement
2. signal is transmitted at constant amplitude so
it is power efficient scheme
3. Very robust, used in sat. communications

Disadvantage:
inefficient use of bandwidth

PSK detector

Comparison of binary modulation techniques

DSB_ASK and PSK
have the same band
width which is smaller
than that of FSK
PSK has 3 dB error
performance
advantage over both
ASK and FSK for both
detection methods

Binary modulation techniques

Band width

ASK

PSK

Power

BER

2R

BAD

BAD

2R

GOOD

BETTER

2R+f

GOOD

GOOD

FSK

Binary modulation techniques

Good error performance due to simple
implementation
Bandwidth inefficient specially at high bit
rates
Power inefficient
So we have to introduce some complexity
to the system to enhance its characteristics

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

It is clear that the bandwidth depends on the bit rate,

so if we could reduce the bit rate to one half for
example, we will obtain half the bandwidth.
The stream of bits is divided into two streams:
1.
2.

Odd (Q) : takes the odd bits, every even bit takes the same as
the previous odd bit, so we have Ro=Rb/2
Even (I): takes the even bits, every odd bit takes the same as
the next even bit, so we have Re=Rb/2

Then applying PSK to both I and Q streams with

cosine and sine carriers respectively
The orthogonality between sine and cosine results in
no interference and the overall bandwidth will be
half that of binary PSK

QPSK and OQPSK

Offset QPSK
In QPSK in order to concentrate the power in the
main lobe the signal pass to a non-linear amplifier
that amplifies the main lobe and minimize the side
lobes
The difference in I, Q alignment results in phase
changes of the carrier signal (0, 90, 180)
The 180 phase change results in fluctuations in the
envelope of the signal and go to zero, resetting the
nonlinear amplifier and side lobes are restored.
The 180 phase change can be eliminated by
shifting the odd stream by one bit duration

QPSK
Constellation diagram for QPSK

Quadratic coefficients for 4-PSK

OQPSK
OQPSK has the same
Power spectral density
as QPSK
The advantage of
OQPSK results from
reducing the out of
band emission as
possible in practical
applications

M-ary Modulation
When we group stream of bits in 2 bits at a
time we have reduced the bandwidth to one
half.
If we could classify the stream into M
symbols each of m=log2M we could save
more bandwidth.
We have M-ary(ASK, PSK and FSK)

Serial to parallel conversion

M-ary FSK
Each of the M symbols is represented by a
separate frequency equally spaced
frequencies selected from a set of equal
energy waveforms
sn(t)=Acos(wnt) , 0<t<T , n=1,2,,M
Bandwidth BT=M/T

M-ary PSK
M symbols are expressed as the set of
equally spaced phase angles
sn(t)=Acos(wct+n) , 0<t<T , n=1,2,,M
Where n=2(n-1)/M
This can be rewritten in the quadrature form as :
sn(t)=A[pncos(wct)+Qnsin(wct)]
Where pn=cos n , Qn=sin n

M-ary PSK
Constellation diagram

M-ary PSK modulator

M-ary PSK demodulator

Spectra of M-ary PSK

The bandwidth
decreases as M
increase

Error performance for M-ary

(FSK and PSK)

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

The principal of Quadrature
modulation can be generalized
to include amplitude as well as
phase modulation
S(f)=A2T{sin()/ }
where =(f-fc)/T
Combining 8 different angles
and 3 amplitudes of signal
provides 16 different signals
each can be represented by 4
bits

QAM modulator & demodulator

Comparison between QAM, M-ary PSK

Continuous Phase Modulation

The advantage of OQPSK results from eliminating
the largest phase change (180) associated with
QPSK.
If we could produce continuous phase changes at
symbol transition we expect further suppression of
the out of band emission.
Minimum Shift Keying is a continuous phase
frequency shift keying in which continuous phase
is maintained at symbol transition using minimum
difference in signaling frequencies

Waveform of MSK
s(t)=Acos(wct+(t)), wc=(wo+w1)/2
(t)=wt/2+ (0)
where w is the separation between wo, w1 used to
represent 0, 1 , (0) is the initial phase
The minimum frequency separation
w=/Tb and consequently
s(t)=Acos(wct+bn t/2Tb+ (0)).
Where bn=1 representing binary 0, 1

Phase Trellis for MSK

MSK in Quadrature form

MSK can be viewed as a special case of QPSK
with sinusoidal shaping in place of rectangular
shaping pulse.
sn(t)=A[pncos(t/2Tb)cos(wct)+qnsin(t/2Tb)sin(wct)]

Or it can be written as
sn(t)=Apncos(wct t/2Tb) , (-) if pn=qn , (+) otherwise
This is equivalent to bn= -pn x qn

Thus MSK can be viewed as either QPSK with

sinusoidal shaping or CPFSK with minimum
frequency separation f=Rb/2

Generating MSK

MSK spectrum
MSK spectrum rolls off
at rate proportional to f4
for larger values of f
while OQPSK spectrum
rolls off at rate
proportional to f2
MSK has better 99%
power bandwidth than
OQPSK

Continuous Phase Modulation

MSK+pre.shaping with smooth function
s(t)=Acos(wct+(,t)).
The transmitted information is contained in the phase.
n

(t , ) 2h i q(t iT )
i 0

with

q (t ) g ( x) dx
0

Where g(t) is a smooth shape function over a finite interval

[0 LT] where h: modulation index, L : No. of bits/symbol
It can be represented in the I & Q form where:
I=cos((,t) , Q= cos((,t)

 The M-ary symbols i take : 1, 3, , (M-1)

Where M is a power of two.
The shape of g(t) determines the smoothness of
the transmitted information carrying phase.
The rate of change of the phase is proportional to
the modulation index h.
We have different shaping function each produce a
modulation technique.
We will focus on two types, namely, Gaussian
MSK (GMSK) and Tamed Frequency
Modulation(TFM)

GMSK

One of the CPM techniques, its shaping function is:

g (t )

1
2T

Q( 2Bb

where

T
T
t
2 ) Q(2B
2 ) , 0 B

b
b
ln 2
ln 2

Q (t )

1 2 / 2
e
d
2

 GSM uses the Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK)

with modulation index 0.5, BT (filter bandwidth times bit
period) equal to 0.3 and a modulation rate of 271 (270 5/6)
kbauds. The GMSK modulation has been chosen as a
compromise between a fairly high spectrum efficiency (of
the order of 1 bit/Hz) and a reasonable demodulation
complexity. The constant envelope allows the use of
simple power amplifiers and the low out-of-band radiation
minimizes the effect of adjacent channel interference

Spectral Efficiency
SE: is given by the No. of bits per second of data that can
be supported by each hertz of bandwidth.
R
(bit / s ) / Hz
B
where R : data rate, B : bandwidth

So we have to choose a signaling and a modulation

technique that gives the highest spectral efficiency which
achieve the given cost and specifications.

PSD of Modulation Techniques

sin(fTb ) 2
)
( f ) Tb (
fTb

sin(fTb ) 2
P( f ) AcTb (
)
fTb
Ac
P( f )
2

sin(flTb ) 2
P( f ) k (
)
flTb

( for OOK )
( for PSK )
( for MPSK & QAM )

where M 2 is the No. of po int s in the consellation diagram.

l

16 AcTb cos(2fTb ) 2
P( f )
(
)
2
2

[1 (4Tb f ) ]

( for MSK )

Spectral Efficiency
Mod. Type

Null-to-Null
BW

3 dB BW

OOK&PSK

0.5

0.052

QPSK&OQPSK

0.104

MSK

0.667

0.438

16 QAM

0.208

64 QAM

0.313

Spectral Efficiency of QAM

No. of levels

Size of DAC, L

Null-to Null
BW

0.5

1.5

16

32

2.5

Spectral Efficiency of line codes

Coding

Null-to-Null
BW

SE

Unipolar NRZ

Polar NRZ

Unipolar RZ

2R

0.5

Polar RZ

Multi level NRZ

R/L