Digital Modulation

Digital Modulation is the process of modifying some parameters of the carrier wave (amplitude, frequency and/or phase) in accordance with the information signal, for the purpose of making the information signal suitable for transmission over the communication channel. The receiver, on the other hand, recreates or recovers the original information signal, the process is known as demodulation. Digital Modulation is classified as Continuous-Wave Modulation or Pulse Modulation. Continuous-Wave (CW) Modulation uses a sinusoidal wave as the carrier. When the amplitude of the carrier is changed by the information signal, the process is called Amplitude Shift Keying. When the frequency of the carrier is changed it is known as Frequency Shift Keying. Also, when the phase angle of the carrier is changed it is called Phase Shift Keying. Quadrature-Amplitude Modulation is when both the amplitude and the phase angle of the carrier are changed.

Pulse Modulation uses a sequence of rectangular pulses is used as the carrier. It can be subdived as Analog Pulse Modulation or Digital Pulse Modulation. Analog Pulse Modulation alters the Amplitude, pulse width or shifts the position of the pulse carrier in accordance with the information signal. Pulse Amplitude Modulation refers to the analog pulse modulation where the amplitude of the carrier is changed. Pulse Width Modulation is when the width of the carrier is changed. And Pulse Position Modulation is when the position of the carrier pulse is shifted with respect with the information signal. The only standard for digital pulse modulation is the Pulse Code Modulation. The information signal is sampled, quantized and coded to its corresponding binary sequence. PCM is more preferred method of modulation because of the following reasons: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Robustness in a noisy environment Flexibility in operation Integration of diverse source of information into a common format Security of information. Multiplexing

Multiplexing is the process of combining several message signals for a simultaneous transmission over a single communication channel. The commonly used multiplexing methods are Frequency Division Multiplexing, Time Division Multiplexing and code division multiplexing.

Information Capacity
The Information Capacity of a digital communication system is measured by the number of independent symbols that can be carried through the system in a given unit of time. It is often expressed in bits per second (bps). Harleys Law states that the information capacity is proportional to the bandwidth (Hz) and the length of transmission time (sec).

Shannons Limit for Information Capacity relates the information capacity with the Bandwidth and the signal-to-noise ratio.

It should be noted that the above equation should be used with digital transmission systems that have more than two output conditions to represent a sequence of bits.

Baud
Baud rate is the rate of change (of symbols) at the output of a modulator. It defines the line speed in symbols per second or simply baud.

Continuous-Wave Modulation
The figure shows the basic block diagram of a message signal modulating a sinusoidal carrier wave and the resulting waveform labelled as modulated wave. Continuous wave modulation is classified based on the characteristic of the carrier wave that is being modified by the modulating signal.

Amplitude Shift Keying An ASK signal is defined as

m(t) represents a Unipolar binary modulating signal. When m(t) is 1, the equation is reduced to

Which just the carrier wave, but when m(t) is 0, the equation becomes zero, resulting in a zero output. Graphically,

Frequency Shift Keying Frequency Shift Keying is a digital modulation technique in which the frequency of the carrier wave is shifted between a higher and a lower frequency in accordance with the input signal. It is classified under Angle Modulation. The equation of an FSK signal is: *( ) +

The equation shows the output frequency can deviate between +/2 and -/2 for a modulating signal of +1 and -1, respectively. The amplitude remains constant. The output frequency for a high input is called mark frequency; while for a low input is called space frequency.

Baud Rate The Baud rate is equal to the bit rate, this is because, only one symbol is used to represent a bit in the input of the modulator. Modulation Index The modulation index of in FSK is equal to ; where M is the modulation index, f is the frequency

deviation and fa is the modulating frequency. The worst-case modulation index is the modulation index that yields the widest output bandwidth. This happens when the both the frequency deviation and the modulating frequencies are at the maximum values. However, in the case of FSK, where the amplitude of the modulating signal is fixed for only two discrete values (i.e. a high and a low logic) the frequency deviation f remains constant. The modulating index can also be computed in terms of the mark and space frequencies, and the input bit rate. | Bandwidth of FSK Theoretically, frequency modulation produces an infinite number of sidebands, thus requiring an infinite bandwidth to accommodate an FM signal. In practice, however, only significant number of sidebands is being put in consideration to compute for the bandwidth. The Spectral Diagram shows the relationship between the modulating index and bandwidth of a constant-amplitude modulating signal (in which the resulting frequency deviation is also constant). As shown in the figure, as the modulating index is increased, the number of sidebands also increases with in the range of the frequency deviation. Sidebands outside this range attenuates on a relatively faster rate, thus these becomes significant sidebands. The resulting bandwidth becomes limited to 2f. Carsons Rule defines the bandwidth of a frequency modulated wave as: ( ) | | |

Carsons Rule is based on a single toned modualting wave, which is most likely simillar to the ideal condition. As the modulating frequency deviates, a maximum and a minimum bit rate is encountered, thus carsons rule may no longer be accurate. The Bessel Function is used to define the number of significant sidebands generated by different modulating index.

The bessel function shows that for a modulating index between 0.5 to 1, the number of significant sidebands is between 3 and 4 sidebands. Thus, the bandwidth is equal to two to three times the input bit rate. MSK Minimum Shift Keying is a form of Continuous Phase Shift Keying (CPSK). The mark frequency and the space frequency are selected in such a way that they are separated from the carrier frequency is by an exact odd multiple of half the bit rate ( ) Where, n is an exact odd multiple of the carrier frequency. This ensures that there is a smooth phase transition in the analog output signal when it changes from the mark frequency to the space frequency and vice versa. Phase Shift Keying Phase Shift Keying is a digital modulation technique where the phase angle of the carrier wave is changed by a digital modulating signal. Binary Phase Shift Keying

The Binary Phase Shift Keying produces two output phases which corresponds to a high and a low logic of the modulating signal. The figure above shows a typical output of a BPSK modulator.

BPSK Transmitter Binary Data In Balance Modulator Bandpass Filter Analog (PSK) output

Reference Carrier Oscillator

The figure above shows a block diagram of a BPSK transmitter. It consists of 3 main blocks, the Balance Modulator, the Reference Carrier Oscillator and the Band pass filter

A Standard Lattice Ring Modulator or a Balance Modulator used in generating a DSBSC AM signal can also be used in generating BPSK signals. The output of the reference carrier oscillator is applied to the transformers input and the binary signal is applied to the transformers center tap.

When a binary 0 is present in the input, A has a negative potential and B has a positive potential. Thus D2 and D3 are on, while D1 and 4 are off. Reconstructing the circuit shows that X of T1 is now connected to Y of T2 and X of T2 to Y of T1. This produces an output wave that is 180: out of phase with the input signal. When a binary 1 is present in the input, A becomes more positive than B. D1 and D4 are on while D2 and D3 are off. Thus, there is a direct connection between Xs and the Ys of both T1 and T2.

A Constellation Diagram or Signal State-Spaced Diagram is used to show the number of possible output of a PSK modulator using the Cartesian Coordinate System. In BPSK, the constellation diagram is

Logic 0

Logic 1

Bandwidth of BPSK Mathematically, the bandwidth of a BPSK signal is equal to [ ] [ ]

The Nyquist minimum bandwidth requirement M-ary Encoding

It describes the number of ways a symbol can be represented by a given number of bits

Where N is the number of bits; and M is the number of symbols Ex: If M = 2, thus

This is the same as those of ASK, FSK and BPSK The equation may also be rewritten as

Ex: Given the number of bits to represent a symbol, N = 2

Thus, if two bits can use to represent 4 symbols. Obviously, if N is greater than 1, the baud rate is no longer equal to the input bit rate. For the above example, if two bits will occur at the input every second, then the input bit rate is 2b/s. But since each two bit combination represents only one symbol, thus the baud rate at the output is equal to 1 symbol per second or 1 baud. Quaternary(Quadrature) Phase Shift Keying QPSK is a form of an M-ary encoding where there are 4 possible conditions at the output to represent the binary bit stream at the input. Since M is equal to four, it follows that N is then equal to two.

The group of two bits is called dibits, in QPSK the bit combinations to represent a symbol are 00, 01, 10, and 11. A typical block diagram of a QPSK modulator is shown in the figure. The clock allows two input bits to be taken from the input bit sequence. They are separated to pass two different channels I Channel and Q channel. The first bit modulates the carrier that is in phase with the reference oscillator (I-Channel)

while the second bit modulates the carrier that is 90: out of phase with the reference with the oscillator (Q-Channel). There are two possible outputs from each of the channel as shown in the table I-Channel IN OUT 0 -sinCt 1 +sinCt Q-Channel IN OUT 0 -cosCt 1 +cosCt

The two outputs were placed in a Linear Summer that computes for the resultant phasor. The resulting possible combinations are I-Channel 0 0 1 1 Truth Table of QPSK
10 11

Q-Channel 0 1 0 1

Linear Summer Output -135: -45: 135: 45:

00

01

QPSK Constellation Diagram

QPSK Output waveform

Bandwidth of QPSK The minimum bandwidth of a QPSK signal, based on Minimum Nyquist Bandwidth, is equal to fb/2. This is due to the fact that 2 bits were taken at time from the bit sequence having the highest frequency at fb/2. Thus, the highest frequency at the input bit sequence happens at fb/4, and then based on the minimum bandwidth required by Nyquist, 2(fb/4) = fb/2.

The baud rate at the output of the modulator is equal to the half of the input bit rate. Since two bits at the input represents a symbol at the output. Offset QPSK

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation is a digital modulation technique that modifies the amplitude and phase of the carrier in accordance with the condition of the information signal. 8QAM 8-QAM is an M-ary encoding technique with M=8 and N =3. The modulator is similar to an 8-PSK modulator, except that it does not have a carrier recovery circuit. Three bits are taken at a time from the bit sequence at the input of the modulator. The three bits are separated and passes through three different channels, namely I, Q and C. Bits passing through I and Q channels determines the polarity of the output PAM signal, while the bit passing through C-channel determines the magnitude of the signal. Thus the output of the 2-to-4 level converters is a PAM signal having 4 possible output conditions like shown in the figure below.

Example The PAM signal from the combined I and C channels modulates a carrier from a reference oscillator using a product modulator. And the PAM signal from the combined Q and C channels modulates a carrier from the same reference oscillator that is shifted to 90 using another product modulator. The outputs from the two product oscillators are then added using a Linear Summer circuit to produce the desired QAM signal.

The process is described by the example problem found in Electronic Communicatios Systems by W. Tomasi. In this example, the conditions for I, Q and C bits are all zeroes. The expected outputs from the two 2-to-4 Level Converters are

I/Q C Output 0 0 -0.541V 0 1 -1.307V 1 0 +0.541V 1 1 +1.307V Thus, for this example, the outputs from the converters are -0.541V. The product modulator performs a multiplication process of two inputs from a reference modulator (a carrier) and from the PAM signal generated by the 2-to-4 Level Converter. The expected products are I = (-0.541)(sinct) = -0.541 sinct

Q = (-0.541)(cosct) = -0.541 cosct These are added combined using a Linear Summer, the output is then equal to -0.541sinct-0.541cosct = 0.765 sin (ct -135) Which is a QAM signal with a magnitude of 0.765 V and a phase angle of -135.

Bandwidth of 8-QAM The considerations in computation for the bandwidth of 8-QAM are the same as that for an 8-PSK signal. Since the input is divided into 3 bits, the highest fundamental frequency at the output is equal fb/3/2. The Minimum Nyquist Bandwidth should be twice the fundamenta frequency, thus the bandwidth is fb/3. The baud rate of 8-QAM signal is equal to one third of the input bit rate, since three bits are needed to generate a symbol of the 8-QAM signal.