Modulation

In electronics and telecommunications, 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 which
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 is used to transform a baseband message signal into a passbandsignal.
A device that performs modulation is known as a modulator and a device that performs the inverse
operation of modulation is known as a demodulator(sometimes detector or demod). A device that can do
both operations is a modem (from "modulatordemodulator").

The aim of digital modulation is to transfer a digital bit stream over an analog bandpass channel, for
example over the public switched telephone network (where a bandpass filter limits the frequency
range to between 300 and 3400 Hz), or over a limited radio frequency band.
The aim of analog modulation is to transfer an analog baseband (or lowpass) signal, for example an
audio signal or TV signal, over an analogbandpass channel at a different frequency, for example over
a limited radio frequency band or a cable TV network channel.
Analog and digital modulation facilitate frequency division multiplexing (FDM), where several low pass
information signals are transferred simultaneously over the same shared physical medium, using
separate passband channels (several different carrier frequencies).
The aim of digital baseband modulation methods, also known as line coding, is to transfer a digital
bit stream over a baseband channel, typically a non-filtered copper wire such as a serial busor a
wired local area network.
The aim of pulse modulation methods is to transfer a narrowband analog signal, for example a
phone call over a wideband baseband channel or, in some of the schemes, as a bit stream over
another digital transmission system.

Where :
Rx Threshold in dBm

S/N in dB
NF in dB
B in MHz

MICROWAVE LINK FUNDAMENTALS

LINK BUDGET
Now we will see link budget of MW link i.e. we will analyze gains
and losses and calculate received power at other end.
Refer Fig MW.13.1 before moving further.

Link

Fig MW.13.1 Link Budget for MW

From Fig MW.13.1 it can be seen clearly that received power at

Point B can be calculated as
RxA = TxA + GA - Lfs - Arain + GB
where
TxA = Transmit Power

GA = Gain of Antenna A
Lfs = Free Space Loss
Arain = Attenuation due to rain
GB = Gain of Antenna B
EXAMPLE
Suppose we have 6.2 GHz MW link. Diameter of antenna at both
sides is 1.8 m. Distance is 20 Kms. Calculate approx received
power at point B, if transmitted power at point A is 25 dBm.
SOLUTION
First we will calculate Gain of two antennas. Since diameter is
same, both antennas will roughly have gain of
= 17.8 + 20 log (freq * dia)
= 17.8 + 20 log (6.2 * 1.8)
= 38.753 dBi
Then, we will calculate rough free space loss as
= 98.45 + 20 log (dist * freq)
= 98.45 + 20 log (20 * 6.2)
= 140.318 dBm
Finally we will calculate received power at Point B from above
given formula. We are assuming rain attenuation as zero.
RxB = 25 + 38.753 - 140.318 - 0 + 38.753
=

- 37.812 dBm Answer

NOTE
Receiver sensitivity is generally around -65 dBm and hence the
receive power we are getting is good and also take care of rain
attenuation margin during rainy season. It is good practice to
leave around 30 dB as rain margin.

Summary: SDH is very useful equipment that is used for the telecommunication sector in easy transfer
of data. Earlier PDH was widely used but due to some of its weaknesses, SDH has replaced the use of
PDH. But not everywhere. Point to Point applications are still used mainly by PDH, and also, it's cheaper.
PDH or the plesiochronous digital hierarchy is a popular technology that is widely used in the networks of
telecommunication in order to transport the huge amounts of data over the digital equipment for
transportation like microwave radio or fiber optic systems. The term plesiochronous has been derived
from the Greek work plesio that means near and chronos meaning time. This means that the PDH
works in a state when the various different parts of a network are clearly synchronized. But with the
change in technology, the PDH is now being replaced by the SDH or what is popularly called as
synchronous digital hierarchy. The SDH is useful equipment that is used in most of the
telecommunications networks.
This PDH helps in proper transmission of the data that generally runs at the similar rate but allows some
slight variation in the speed than the nominal rate. The basic transfer rate of the data is 2048 kilobits
per second. For instance, in each speech transmission, the normal rate breaks into different thirty
channels of 64 kilobits per second along with two different 64 kilobits per second in order to perform the
tasks of synchronization and signaling. The typical rate of transmitting the data over the fiber optic
systems is 565 Mbit/sec in order to transport the data in the long distance. But as the technology has
improved with the passing of time, now the telecommunication companies have replaced the PDH
equipment with that of the SDH equipment, which has the capability of transmitting the data at much
higher rates as compared to the PDH system.
The SDH is an international standard that is highly popular and used for its high speed data transfer of
the telecommunication and digital signals. This synchronous system has been specially designed in order
to provide a simple and flexible network infrastructure. This system has brought a considerable amount
of change in the telecommunication networks that were based on the optical fibers as far as
performance and cost were concerned.
The weaknesses that PDH faced paved way for the introduction and use of the SDH systems. Although
the PDH proved to be a breakthrough in the field of digital transmission, the weaknesses that made it
less demanded includes:
1.

Asynchronous structure that is rigid.

2.

Restricted management capacity.

3.

Non availability of world standard on the digital formats.

4.

No optical interfaces world standard and without an optical level, networking is not possible.

But if we compare the PDH system with that of the SDH system, the latter one has a large number of
advantages. Some of the most common advantages enjoyed by the usage of SDH include:
1.

optical interfaces

2.

capability of powerful management

3.

world standard digital format

4.

synchronous structure is flexible

5.

cost effective and easy traffic cross connection capacity and add and drop facility

6.

reduced networking cost due to the transversal compatibility

7.

forward and backward compatibility

Apart from all the advantages mentioned above, the SDH also has various management capabilities such
as performance management, security and access management, configuration management and the
event or the alarm management. So, we can clearly make a distinction between the PDH and SDH
systems so that as per the needs of the telecommunication, the appropriate transmission system can be
used.
Please note also, that PDH, if we talk as n x E1 G.703 lines to be transmitted, can be developed only up
to 16 E1 lines - 34 Mbit/s. But SDH - can reach 155 Mbit/s, which corresponds to STM-1, can reach 622
Mbit/s - STM-4

Digital QAM

Like all modulation schemes, QAM conveys data by changing some aspect of a carrier signal, or
the carrier wave, (usually a sinusoid) in response to a data signal. In the case of QAM, the amplitude
of two waves, 90 out-of-phase with each other (in quadrature) are changed (modulated or keyed) to
represent the data signal. Amplitude modulating two carriers in quadrature can be equivalently viewed
as both amplitude modulating and phase modulating a single carrier.
Phase modulation (analog PM) and phase-shift keying (digital PSK) can be regarded as a special
case of QAM, where the magnitude of the modulating signal is a constant, with only the phase
varying. This can also be extended to frequency modulation (FM) and frequency-shift keying (FSK),
for these can be regarded as a special case of phase modulation.

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is both an analog and a digital modulation scheme. It
conveys two analog message signals, or two digital bit streams, by changing (modulating)
the amplitudes of two carrier waves, using the amplitude-shift keying (ASK) digital modulation scheme
or amplitude modulation (AM) analog modulation scheme. The two carrier waves, usually sinusoids,
are out of phase with each other by 90 and are thus called quadrature carriers or quadrature
components hence the name of the scheme. The modulated waves are summed, and the resulting
waveform is a combination of both phase-shift keying (PSK) and amplitude-shift keying (ASK), or (in
the analog case) of phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation. In the digital QAM case, a
finite number of at least two phases and at least two amplitudes are used. PSK modulators are often
designed using the QAM principle, but are not considered as QAM since the amplitude of the
modulated carrier signal is constant. QAM is used extensively as a modulation scheme for
digital telecommunication systems. Arbitrarily high spectral efficiencies can be achieved with QAM by
setting a suitable constellation size, limited only by the noise level and linearity of the communications
channel.[1]