ENGG 2310-B: Principles of Communication Systems 201617 First Term

Assignment 2
Instructor: Wing-Kin Ma Due: October 21, 2016

Problem 1 For each of the following message signals, do the following:

- determine the Fourier transforms of the resulting AM, DSB-SC and SSB modulated signals;

- sketch the corresponding AM, DSB-SC and SSB amplitude spectra, and determine their
transmission bandwidths;

- determine the largest possible amplitude sensitivity ka for AM.

(a) (20%) m(t) = cos(2f1 t) cos(2f2 t), where f1 = 10 Hz and f2 = 20 Hz.

(b) (20%) m(t) = sinc(2W t), where W = 50 Hz.

Some settings are described as follows: the carrier frequency is fc = 1000 Hz. The carrier
amplitude Ac and AM amplitude sensitivity may be arbitrary. For SSB, you may use either upper
sideband or lower sideband. However, you should mention which sideband you use in your answer.
Also, we are allowed to use standard results and properties in Fourier transform; e.g., rect(t)
sinc(f ), and so forth.

Problem 2 (20%) Consider a superheterodyne receiver for demodulation of DSB-SC signals in

Figure 1. Suppose that the received signal is given by

s(t) = m(t) cos(2fc t) + (t) cos(2fo t)

| {z } | {z }
desired DSB-SC signal interference from another band

Here, m(t) is the desired message signal to be demodulated, fc is the carrier frequency we tune at,
(t) is an undesired baseband signal that comes from a different frequency band, fo is the center
frequency of the undesired frequency band. The setting is as follows: fc = 100kHz, fo = 90kHz,
fLO = 95kHz, fIF = 5kHz, the bandwidth of both m(t) and (t) is W = 1kHz, the bandpass filter
block in Figure 1 has its passband given by [4kHz, 6kHz], and the lowpass filter block in Figure 1
has its cut-off frequency at 1kHz. Show that the output of the receiver is

v2 (t) = m(t) + (t).

Problem 3 (20%) In this problem we consider a modified version of the DSB-SC scheme. We
assume that the message signal has zero DC; a specific diagram for the spectrum of the message
signal is shown in Figure 2.(a). When transmitting the DSB-SC modulated signal, we also insert a
small amount of pilot carrier into the signal; i.e.,

s(t) = Ac m(t) cos(2fc t) + Ac cos(2fc t),

where Ac cos(2fc t) is the inserted pilot carrier signal. The spectrum of the resulting modulated
signal is shown in Figure 2.(b). Note that this scheme is not AM; in particular the pilot amplitude Ac

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 Figure 1: Problem 2.

can take any (positive) value. At the receiver, we assume that we do not have a phase-synchronous
local oscillator. Instead, we use the system in Figure 2.(c) to perform demodulation. Discuss why
the system in Figure 2.(c) would work. In the system in Figure 2.(c), the narrowband-pass filter
has a passband of [fc fa , fc + fa ], the narrowband-stop filter has a stopband of [fc fa , fc + fa ],
and the lowpass filter has its cut-off frequency at fb .
Problem 4 A carrier wave of frequency 100 MHz is frequency-modulated by a sinusoidal wave
of amplitude 20 volts and frequency 100 kHz. The frequency sensitivity of the modulator is 25 kHz
per volt.

(a) (10%) Calculate the approximate bandwidth of the FM signal using Carsons rule.

(b) (5%) Repeat the calculation when the amplitude of the modulating signal is doubled.

(c) (5%) Repeat the calculation when the modulation frequency is doubled.

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Figure 2: Problem 3.