International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 4, April 2012)

216

Study and Comparison of Various Modulation Classification
Techniques under Noisy Channel Conditions
Jaspal Bagga
1
, Dr Neeta Tripathi
2

1
Asso. Proff,Deptt of E&TC SSGI,Bhilai(C.G.)India
2
Principal SSITM Bhilai (C.G.)India

1
baggajaspal@gmail.com
2
neeta31dec@rediffmail.com

AbstractAutomatic Modulation Classification is a
procedure performed at the receiver based on the received
signal before demodulation when the modulation format is not
known to the receiver. : Automatic Modulation Classification
is also believed to play an important role in the
implementation of Software Defined Radio (SDR) of the 4th-
Generation (4G) communication system. The ability to
automatically select the correct modulation scheme used in an
unknown received signal is a major advantage in a wireless
network.
The automatic recognition of the modulation format of a
detected signal, the intermediate step between signal detection
and demodulation, is a major task of an intelligent receiver.
The work aims in devising low complexity blind algorithm
under noisy and frequency selective channel conditions
Database has been generated for various modulated signals
such as 2ASK, 4ASK, 2FSK,4FSK, BPSK and QPSK and
QAM signals. Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) noise
is added and signals are analyzed for varying Signal To Noise
(SNR) ranging from 30db to a lower-bound channel SNR of
0db.

Keywords Additive White Gaussian Noise, Automatic
Modulation Classification, digital modulation, Statistical
parameters, Wavelet transform,
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the past two decades, a major transition has
occurred from analog modulation to digital modulation
techniques in communication systems. Moreover, while
communication systems were initially established as voice
networks, they now have to accommodate computer data as
well as multimedia content. And, as more and more users
join the communication network the need for efficient use
of available bandwidth in the RF spectrum becomes even
more important. Digital modulation techniques provide
more information carrying capacity, better quality
communication, data security and RF spectrum sharing to
accommodate more services when compared to analog
modulation.
Automatic Modulation Classification (AMC) is a
problem of current and future significance for both
commercial and military communication systems. In an
adaptive communication system, the modulation format can
be changed according to the channel state to achieve high
efficiency communication.
Automatic identification of the digital modulation type
of a signal is a rapidly evolving area [1]. The techniques
are proposed to distinguish digitally modulated signals such
as Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) signal, Phase
Shift Keying (PSK) signal and Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK) signal. [2] .The features for identification may be
either time based or frequency based. Time domain features
may be amplitude, instantaneous frequency or phase of
complex envelop of modulated signal In frequency domain
power spectrum may be analysed or parameters such as
variance skewness ,etc may be analysed. [3][4].Counts of
signals falling into different parts of the signal plane are
used to identify the digital modulation types.. These
methods are either computationally intensive or require a
high Carrier-To-Noise Ratio (CNR). Another approach for
digital modulation types identification is to use Wavelet
Transform (WT) [5-10]. Under the assumption that some
communication parameter such as carrier frequency and
symbol rate are available, another technique used is an
approximate likelihood ratio modulation classifier to
separate BPSK and QPSK [11-13].Artificial neural network
approach has been applied to classify identification
schemes [14-15]. Instantaneous parameters, stochastic
features, Higher order Statistics, wavelet transform, are
some of the feature extracting techniques. This paper
presents a comparison of various techniques used by the
author to analyse digitally modulated signals. In first
technique wavelet transform has been applied to extract the
transient characteristics of the received signal. After
extracting the transient characteristics, the coefficients were
extracted to generate the histogram peak.


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Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, Volume 2, Issue 4, April 2012)
217

The developed scheme based on wavelet transform and
statistical parameters have been used to identify M-ary
PSK, M-ary QAM, and M-ary FSK modulations. The
channel conditions considered include only AWGN
channel, and the receiver is assumed to have a prior
knowledge of carrier frequency and symbol rate[16]
The second technique adopted was to design digital
modulation identifier using wavelet transform for ASK,
QAM, PSK and FSK signals. It computes the magnitude of
HAAR wavelet of an input signal with and without
amplitude normalization, for pre-processing uses median
filters to remove the peaks in the HWT, calculates the
variances of the median filter outputs, and makes the
decision of the input modulation type by comparing the
variances with thresholds. Simulations showed that the
percentage of correct identification is higher, when SNR is
greater than 7Db . The limitation is that the difference in
the threshold values is very small .The channel conditions
considered include only AWGN channel [17].
The third technique adopted is a simple, effective and
robust method based on the stochastic features derived
from instantaneous features to classify digital modulation
signals.. This method is capable of differentiating ASK2,
ASK4, FSK2, FSK4, PSK2 and PSK4 signals at the output
of a typical high frequency channel with white Gaussian
noise, Unlike most other existing methods, this method
assumes no prior information of the incoming signal
(symbol rate, carrier frequency, amplitude etc.). Simulation
results demonstrate that this approach is robust in various
practical situations in identifying the modulated signals.
When SNR is less than 5 dB, the percentage of correct
identification is about 90% which increases for higher SNR
[18].
II. MODULATION IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES
Two general classes of AMC algorithms can be
crystallized. Likelihood-Based (LB) and Feature-Based
methods (FB). The former is based on the likelihood
function of the received signal and the decision is made
comparing the likelihood ratio against a threshold. A
solution offered by the LB algorithms is optimal in the
Bayesian sense, viz., it minimizes the probability of false
classification. The optimal solution suffers from
computational complexity. In the FB approach, on the other
hand, several features are usually employed and a decision
is made based on their observed values. Once the
modulation format is correctly identified, other operations,
such as signal demodulation and information extraction,
can be subsequently performed. The Modulation
Classification model in shown in Fig. 1

Fig 1 Modulation classification model
The work of the pre-processor is to increase the
performance of the classifier. The pre-processor removes
disturbances from the signal such as interfering signals and
increasing the (SNR) and also filtering the received signal,
down converting, equalizing, it then compensates for
fading on the channel. This is only a preparation for the
feature processor which extracts discrimination features of
the signal before the classifier makes the decision about the
modulation type of the given available data.
A. Technique 1
This technique of modulation identification scheme for
recognition of digitally modulated signals is based on
transient behavior of digitally modulated signals . In ideal
case, the Haar WT magnitude (jHWTj) of a PSK signal is a
constant and that of a FSK signal is a multistep function.
Hence the variance of jHWTj of an input signal is used as a
feature to classify the two signals. Compared to PSK and
FSK signals, one distinction in QAM signal is that it does
not have constant amplitude. The jHWTj of a QAM signal
is a multi-step function similar to that of a FSK signal
because of the change in amplitude as symbol changes.
Histogram peak count technique is used to distinguish the
modulated signals for varying SNRs. The modulation
identification scheme is shown in Fig.2


Fig . 2 Identification algorithm for technique 1

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218

B. Technique 2
In Technique 2 Wavelet Transform modulation identifier
for ASK QAM, PSK and FSK signals is used. The
identifier as in Fig.3 consists of two branches .One branch
is without amplitude normalization and the other is with
amplitude normalization. The identifier first finds the
wavelet transform an input signal. After removing the
peaks of by a median filter, the identifier computes the
variance of the median filter outputs. V1 is the variance
obtained without normalization and V2 is variance with
normalization.

Fig. 3 Identification algorithm for technique 2
C. Technique 3
This technique of modulation classification is based on the
stochastic features derived from instantaneous features to
classify digital modulation signals.. This method is capable
of differentiating ASK2, ASK4, FSK2, FSK4, PSK2 and
PSK4 ,16 QAM signals at the output of a typical high
frequency channel with white Gaussian noise, Unlike most
other existing methods, this method assumes no prior
information of the incoming signal (symbol rate, carrier
frequency, amplitude etc.).The identification algorithm is
shown in Fig.4.

Fig .4 Identification algorithm for Technique 3
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In technique 1 the identification has been done using
statistical parameters. Digitally modulated signal corrupted
by noise is used as input signal .Code is developed to
extract features such as mean and variance for the signal
.Histogram is plotted for various input signals and and then
peaks are generated. Based on the peaks, decision is taken
.Since the transient characteristics of M-ary QAM and M-
ary PSK signal are constant it will have single peak in its
histogram but the M-ary FSK signals have more than
single peak because these signals have multistep frequency
component .
Signals are further classified as that belonging to Class
A and Class B , based on threshold values decided based on
number of signals .Signals falling in class A and class B
has been shown in Table 1.
Further classification of signals belonging to class A
based on comparison of statistical values with threshold
values (Th1) and variance (thp1, thp2,thq1,thq2)as
calculated using wavelet transform, is shown in Fig 3.
Verification of signals is also done by finding the transient
values by applying 1D wavelet transform to various
modulated signals. The wavelet selected is Haar Wavelet.
In this technique 5-class problem was considered,
channel conditions considered were AWGN channel, this
technique using decision tree classifier has 85 %success
rate in classification for SNR limit of 15 db.
TABLE I
CLASS DISTINCTION OF MODULATED SIGNALS

Further classification of signals belonging to class A based
on comparison of statistical values with threshold values
(Th1) and variance (Thp1, Thp2, Thq1, Thq2)as calculated
using wavelet transform, is shown in Fig. 5

Fig. 5 Classification of Class A type Signals

Noisy BPSK Signal is generated as shown in Fig.6 The
histogram plot and histogram peak of BPSK is shown in
Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. These figures show as M-ary
PSK signal has constant transient characteristics; it has a
single peak in its histogram. Fig. 9 shows a M-ary FSK
signal, its histogram plot is shown in Fig 10 . Fig 11 shows
multiple peaks as signal have multistep frequency
component .which distinguishes the two signal.
Class A Class B
M-ary PSK M-ary FSK
M-ary QAM GMSK

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0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
x 10
4
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
bpsk.wav

Fig. 6 BPSK waveform corrupted by noise
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5

Fig. 7 Histogram Plot for BPSK




Fig. 8 Histogram Peaks for BPSK

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
x 10
4
-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
fsk.wav

Fig.9 2FSK signal corrupted by noise

-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1

Fig.10 Histogram plot of 2FSK signal



Fig.11 Histogram peak of 2FSK signal

In technique 2 digitally modulated signals are analyzed
in wavelet domain Fig. 12 shows generated 2ASK signal
with and without noise Fig. 13 shows wavelet transformed
2ASK signal with and without normalization. Fig. 14 and
Fig. 15 show generation and wavelet transformed 2PSK
signals resp. The thresholds are derived from the variance
curve as function of SNR for each modulation type .The
variance curves are shown in Fig 16 and Fig 17.


Fig .12 2ASK signals

0 500 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
data size
| H
W
T
|
2ask signal without amplitude normalization
0 500 1000
0
1
2
3
| H
W
T
|
2ask noise signal without amplitude normalization
0 500 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
data size
| H
W
T
|
2ask signal with amplitude normalization
0 500 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
| H
W
T
|
2ask noise signal with amplitude normalization

Fig. 13 Wavelet transformed 2ASK signal with and without
normalization


Fig .14 2PSK signals


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220

0 500 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
data size
| H
W
T
|
2psk signal without amplitude normalization
0 500 1000
0
1
2
3
| H
W
T
|
2psk noise signal without amplitude normalization
0 500 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
data size
| H
W
T
|
2psk signal with amplitude normalization
0 500 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
| H
W
T
|
2psk noise signal with amplitude normalization


Fig. 15 Wavelet transformed 2PSK signal with and without
normalization




Fig 16 Variance curve 1(without normalization)



Fig .17 Variance curve 1(with normalization)

Decision of the input modulation type is done by
comparing the variances with thresholds. Simulations
showed that the percentage of correct identification is
higher, when SNR is greater than 7Db . The limitation is
that the difference in the threshold values is very small.
Percentage of classification falls below 5Db
In technique 3 various digitally modulated signals such
as 2ASK, 4ASK, 2PSK, 4PSK, 2FSK, 4FSK, 16QAM are
first generated and analyzed with and without noise. The
carrier frequency and the sampling frequency has been
taken as 10kHz and 200kHz respectively. The symbol rate
taken is 600 symbols per second. .Signals are then passed
through AWGN channel. The binary data stream for
modulation has been obtained from random number
generator. Fig 18 and Fig. 19. show the generation of
signals 2ASK and 2FSK respectfully as an example.
Stochastic features such as amplitude mean, amplitude
mean-square, phase mean ,frequency mean square are
calculated and derived from instantaneous features for all
set of signal 2ASK, 4ASK, 2PSK, 4PSK 2FSK, 4FSK and
16 QAM. Fig.20 shows instantaneous amplitude, phase and
frequency for 2ASK signal. The feature vectors derived for
all modulated signals and are plotted for SNR varying from
0db to 20 db. These instantaneous features are first
derived for all modulated signals as the stochastic features
derived are based on them. Five class of feature vectors are
used to classify the signals Threshold values are thus
derived based on these features .Decision tree classifier is
developed to classify the modulated signals.

0 500 1000
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2ASK signal
0 500 1000
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2ASK signal snr=20db
0 500 1000
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
2ASK signal snr=10db

Fig .18 2ASK signal with and without AWGN noise


0 500 1000
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2fsk signal
0 500 1000
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2fsk signal snr=20db
0 500 1000
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
2fsk signal snr=10db

Fig. 19 2FSK signal with and without AWGN noise

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
0
0.5
1
1.5
amplitude
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
-1
0
1
phase
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
-1
0
1
frequency

F ig .20 Amplitude, Phase and Frequency plot for 2ask signal
IV. CONCLUSION
Simulations results are compared for the three techniques.
As compared to the first two techniques third technique is
more flexible for wide variety of signals . The percentage
of correct classification is high for AWGN and Fading
channel conditions however for higher order QAM signals
equalization techniques need to be incorporated as 64-
QAM and 256-qam signals are greatly affected by fading .

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221

The developed algorithm for classification is suited for
number of modulation schemes employed in SDR, the
algorithm developed is used to test for various modulated
corrupted signals. Experimental results indicates that the
proposed method can be effectively used to classify M-ary
ASK, M-ary PSK and M-ary FSK, 16-QAM in this 7 class
problem. Simulated results show that correct modulation
identification is possible for varying SNR under AWGN
and multipath Raleigh fading channel conditions. Carrier
frequency estimation and channel equalization work
especially for higher order QAM class will be included in
future work .
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