Lab 1: Generation and Display of Various Signals

In the first part of Lab 1, our goal is to generate five kinds of electrical signals and display them
properly on a scope. These signals are as follows:
1. A rectangular pulse of amplitude 2 volts starting at time T1 = 3 sec and going back to zero at
T2 = 9 sec;
2. A sine wave of amplitude 1 volt and frequency 0.1 Hz;
3. A saw-tooth wave of amplitude 1 volt and frequency 0.2 Hz;
4. A square wave oscillating between 0 and 1 volt, with frequency 0.05 Hz;
5. A noise process of power 0.05 watt and sample time Ts = 0.1 sec.
For this experiment you will need the following blocks:
Simulink Commonly Used Blocks: Sum, Constant and Gain
Simulink Sources: Signal Generator, Signal Builder and Band-Limited White Noise
Simulink Sink: Scope
Display these five signals on the same scope and make sure to set the X and Y scales to suitable
values for proper display. You can get a copy of the scope output by pressing Alt and Prt Scrn and
pasting it into a Word document. The scope should have five inputs and a time range of 100
seconds. The simulation will run from Tstart = 0 sec to Tend = 100 sec, and will operate on a discrete
and fixed time-step of 0.1 sec. The Simulink model should look like Figure 1.

Figure 1: Simulink Model for Lab 1

In the second part of Lab 1, write your own MATLAB scripts to plot the periodic signals 2 to 4 from
Tstart = 0 sec to Tend = 60 sec.

Lab 2: Low-Pass Digital Filter

In this experiment, you will implement the low-pass digital filter in Simulink as shown in fig. 2. You
will need the following blocks:
Simulink Commonly Used Blocks: Product, Sum and Constant
Simulink Sources: Sine Wave
Simulink Sink: Scope
Simulink Discrete: Unit Delay (1/z)
In the Sine Wave block, change Sine type to Sampled, Samples per Period to 256 and Sample
Time to 0.001.
For the Unit Delays make sure that Input Processing is set to Inherited.

1. The discrete frequency fd of the sampled sine wave is 1/(samples/period). With the number of
samples/period equal to 256 the discrete frequency is therefore 1/256 cycles/sample. Given that
the sample time is 0.001s, what is the analogue frequency of the sine wave?
2. With the number of samples per period set to 256, observe and record the input and output of
the filter with the Scope. Now set the number of samples per period to 4 and observe and
record the filter input and output. Explain your results.
3. You will now plot the frequency response of the low-pass filter. Record the amplitude of the
filter output for several values of samples per period ranging from 256 down to 4 in a table. Plot
the frequency response of the amplitude against analogue frequency. What is the -3dB
bandwidth of the low-pass filter?
4. Add a second Sine Wave block to the system and change Sine Type to sampled, Samples per
period to 4 and Sample time to 0.001s. Change the first Sine wave block so that the Samples
per period is set to 64.
Use a Sum block to add the two Sine Wave blocks together and connect the output to the input
of the filter. Set the Scope to have 3 axes and connect it to the original signal, the summed signal
and the filter output. Observe and record the signals on the Scope and explain your results.

Figure 2: FIR Low-Pass Filter for Lab 2.

Lab 3: Fourier Series

Assume that s(t) is a periodic signal with period T. Fourier showed that such signal can be seen as an
infinite sum of sine and cosine terms:

f (t ) a0

an cos2nft bn sin2nft

n 1

where

a0

an

bn

2
T

2
T

1
T

T
2

f (t )dt ,

T2

T
2

f (t ) cos2nft dt ,

T2
T
2

f (t ) sin 2nft dt .

T2

Three examples of periodic signals and their Fourier series:

1. Square Wave

s(t )

4
1
1
1

cost cos3t cos5t cos7t

3
5
7

2. Triangle Wave

s(t )

8
1
1
1

cost cos3t cos5t cos7t

2
9
25
49

3. Saw-Tooth Wave

s(t )

2
1
1
1

sin t sin 3t sin 5t sin 7t

2
3
4

For this experiment you will need the following blocks:

Simulink Commonly Used Blocks: Sum and Gain
Simulink Sources: Sine Wave
Simulink Sink: Scope
Throughout this lab, our goal is to check that any periodic signal can indeed be seen as a sum of sine
waves in order to illustrate the concept of Fourier series. To this end, we consider the three periodic
signals mentioned above, namely the square wave, the triangular wave, and the saw-tooth wave.
For each kind of periodic signal, we use the model depicted in Figure 3 to visualize on a scope four
signals composed of:

1. The fundamental;
2. The fundamental plus the first harmonic;
3. The fundamental plus the first two harmonics;
4. The fundamental plus the first three harmonics.
Design the models corresponding to the three waves in the following order:
Experiment 1: Square wave.
Experiment 2: Triangular wave.
Experiment 3: Saw-tooth wave.
Comment on the differences between the various signals displayed on the scope and the three kinds
of waves we are trying to generate.

1
Sine Wave 1

Gain 1

4/pi
Gain 5
4/pi

1/3
Sine Wave 2

Gain 6

Gain 2
4/pi
Gain 7
1/5

Sine Wave 3

Gain 3

4/pi
Gain 8
1/7
Sine Wave 4

Gain 4

Scope

Figure 3: Simulink model to observe fundamental and first three harmonics of a square wave.

Lab 4: Amplitude Modulation and Demodulation

In this lab, you will investigate amplitude modulation (AM) and two types of demodulation: the
product detector and the envelope detector. A DC voltage, VDC, is added to the message, m(t), and
the sum is multiplied by a carrier signal, cos(2fct), which has a much higher frequency, fc, than the
highest frequency in m(t), as shown in fig. 4a.

VDC

m(t)

cos2f ct

AM carrier

Figure 4a: Amplitude Modulator

At the receiver, a product detector multiplies the AM carrier with a signal generated by a local
oscillator with the same frequency as the carrier frequency, fc. This will result in two copies of the
AM signal: one centred at twice the carrier frequency, 2fc, and centred at 0Hz (baseband). A lowpass filter removes the high frequencies to leave the desired baseband signal.
Alternatively, an envelope detector can be used at the receiver, which comprises a diode followed
by a resistor and capacitor in parallel acting as a low-pass filter. Both detectors are shown in fig. 4b.
cos2f ct

AM carrier

LPF

m(t)

AM
carrier

m(t)

Figure 4b: Product detector and envelope detector.

In this experiment you will need the following blocks:
Simulink Commonly Used Blocks: Product, Sum, Constant, Saturation
Simulink Sources: Signal Generator
Simulink Sink: Scope
Simulink Discrete: Zero-Order Hold
DSP System Toolbox Filtering Filtering Implementations: Analog Filter Design
DSP System Toolbox Sinks: Spectrum Scope
Construct the AM communication system in fig. 4c and set the blocks as follows:

For the message Signal Generator block set Wave form to sine and Frequency to 100.
For the carrier Signal Generator block set Wave form to sine and Frequency to 1000.
Set the DC offset to 3
For the local oscillator Signal Generator block set Wave form to sine and Frequency
to 1000.
Set both low-pass filters so that Filter order is 8 and Passband edge frequency is
300*2*pi (300Hz*2*pi rad/s).
For the Zero-Order Hold block connected to the AM signal set the Sample time to 4E-4
and set the Spectrum Scope so that Spectrum units are dBW, Spectrum type is onesided, Buffer input is ticked, Buffer size is 8192, Specify FFT length is ticked and FFT
length is 8192.
For the Zero-Order Hold block connected to the AM signal set the Sample time to 1E-4
and set the Spectrum Scope so that Spectrum units are dBW, Spectrum type is onesided, Buffer input is ticked, Buffer size is 2048, Specify FFT length is ticked and FFT
length is 2048.
For the Zero-Order Hold block connected after the low-pass filter set the Sample time
to 1E-3 and set the Spectrum Scope so that Spectrum units are dBW, Spectrum type

is one-sided, Buffer input is ticked, Buffer size is 8192, Specify FFT length is ticked
and FFT length is 8192.
Note: The zero-order hold blocks sample the continuous signals and the FFT (fast Fourier transform)
blocks perform a discrete Fourier transform on the sampled signal to transform it to the frequency
domain. The discrete Fourier transform will be introduced in Stage 2. You can get a copy of the
frequency spectra by pressing Alt and Prt Scrn and pasting it into a Word document.
1. Run the model and observe and record the signals on the Scope.
2. Comment on the amplitude modulated carrier waveform with reference to the message signal
and the DC offset value.
3. Compare and discuss the demodulated signals from the product detector and envelope
detector.
4. Observe and record the frequency spectra on the three Spectrum Scopes (Click on Autoscale to
obtain a good view of the spectra). Explain how each spectrum is related to its corresponding
time domain signal.
5. Now change the DC offset to 0 and repeat tasks 2, 3 and 4.

Figure 4c: Amplitude Modulator and Demodulators for Lab 4.

Lab 5: Noise in a Digital Communication System

The aim of this lab is to investigate the effect of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) on the
performance of a digital communication system. The communication system is shown in fig. 5 and
has a binary output generated by the Bernoulli Binary Generator, which has a bit period of 1s. The
binary signal then modulates the amplitude of the carrier wave. The carrier wave is multiplied by
either 0 or 1 so the modulated output will be a sine wave with amplitude 0 or 1. This is an example
of a simple digital modulation scheme called On-Off Keying (OOK), which can be generated using an
amplitude modulator.

The Gaussian Noise Generator generator generates Gaussian-distributed random noise samples
that are added to each sample of the modulated signal.
The demodulation of the signal is achieved by first multiplying the modulated signal with a local
oscillator that has the same frequency as the carrier wave. The Integrate and Dump block then
calculates the average of this signal. This is scaled down to match the amplitude of the original
binary signal. The Switch block checks compares average value with a threshold value and outputs
0 is the average is less than 0.5 and output 1 if it is greater than or equal to 0.5, thus generating a
binary signal. If the noise is not too severe then this binary signal should be the same as the original
binary signal. The Display shows, from top to bottom, the bit-error rate, the number of bit errors
and the total number of bits transmitted.
For this experiment you will need the following blocks:
Simulink Commonly Used Blocks: Product, Sum, Constant, Gain and Switch
Simulink Sources: Sine Wave
Simulink Sink: Scope and Display
Communications System Toolbox Comms Sources Random Data Sources: Bernoulli Binary
Generator
Communications System Toolbox Comms Sources Noise Generators: Gaussian Noise Generator
Communications System Toolbox Comm Sinks: Error Rate Calculator
Communications System Toolbox Comm Filters: Integrate and Dump
Construct the system shown in fig. 5 and set the Simulation stop time to 1000.
Set both Sine wave blocks so that the Sine type is time based, frequency is 200 and
Sample time is 0.001.
In the Gaussian Noise Generator block set Variance to 0 and Sample time to 0.001.
In the Integrate and Dump block set the Integration period to 1000.
In the Error rate calculator block set the Receive delay to 1.
In the Switch block set Threshold to 0.5.
1. Run the system and observe and record the signals on the Scope. To see the signals more clearly
change the Time range to 10. Notice that the demodulated signal has a delay of 1 second
compared with the input signal. This delay is due to the Integrate and Dump function and is
compensated for in the 'Error Rate Calculator by setting Receive delay to 1.
2. Increase the values of Variance in the Gaussian Noise Generator block from 10 to 100 and
record the corresponding number of bit errors and the bit-error rate in a table.
3. The performance of a digital communication system is evaluated by plotting the bit-error rate
against a signal-to-noise ratio. Conventionally, this is the bit energy Eb divided by the noise
power spectral density N0. The bit energy is equal to the energy of the modulated carrier over a
1 second interval, which is determined by squaring each sampled value of the carrier signal and
summing them. Since the bit period is 1s and the sample period is 0.001s then there are 1000
samples. As discussed in the lectures, the energy of a sampled sine wave over one period is 0.5
no. of samples so its energy, and the bit energy, is 500. Also, from the lectures we know that N0
is two times the variance so the signal-to-noise ratio is

Eb
500

N 0 2 2

Use Matlab (or another program such as Excel or Libre Office Calc) to plot the bit-error rate
against Eb/N0 in decibels (dB). You need to set the y-axis so that it is logarithmic, which can be
achieved in Matlab by using the command semilogy to plot the results.

Figure 5: Digital Communication System for Lab 5.