Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Baseband Digital Communication

Govind Sharma

Department of Electrical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Effect of finite channel bandwidth

Rectangular pulses require infinite bandwidth for transmission. All

physical channels have finite bandwidth. Suppose that a channel
has first order low-pass characteristics then for input
x (t) = u(t) − u(t − T ) output y (t) is given by
t t−T
h i h i
y (t) = 1 − e − RC u(t) − 1 − e − RC u(t − T )

Response of the previous pulses interfere with response of the

present pulse giving rise to inter symbol interference (ISI).

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Examples of ISI

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Examples of ISI

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Inter Symbol Interference (ISI)

Consider a particular symbol sequence ak . If the received PAM

signal is sampled at multiples of T then
∞
X
s(mT ) = ak g(mT − kT )
k=−∞
= am ∗ g(mT )
X
= g(0)am + ak g(mT − kT )
k6=m

Second term represents interference from neighboring symbols and

is called inter-symbol interference (ISI). Its maximum possible
value is called peak distortion.

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Condition for Zero ISI

If g(kT ) = δk , then there is no ISI. Taking DTFT and using result

from sampling theorem we get
∞
1 X k
 
G f− =1
T k=−∞ T

This is known as Nyquist criterion for zero ISI and corresponding

pulse is called Nyquist pulse. If we want to avoid ISI then
• There exists a minimum bandwidth for transmission at a given
rate.
• Given a transmission bandwidth there exists a maximum
symbol rate.

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Illustration of Nyquist criterion

1 1
G(f + ) G(f ) G(f − )
T T
··· ···
f
1 1
− 0 W
T T
In this case ISI can not be avoided.

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Minimum Bandwidth Nyquist Pulse

g(t) G(f )
T

t f
1 1
− 0
2T 2T
Minimum bandwidth pulse is impractical.

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Non-minimum Bandwidth Nyquist Pulses

G(f ) G(f )

f f
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
− − 0 − − 0
T 2T 2T T T 2T 2T T

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Raised cosine pulse

 
sin πt απt
!
T  cos T
g(t) =

πt   2 
2αt
T 1− T

Its Fourier transform is

1−α


 T, |f | ≤
2T


1−α 1−α

πT 1+α
   
G(f ) = T cos 2 |f | − , < |f | ≤

 2α 2T 2T 2T

 1+α
0, < |f |.


2T

G Sharma EE321A
 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Raised cosine pulse

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 Nyquist Pulse Shaping

Excess Bandwidth Parameter

1+α
W= , α≥0
2T
α is called excess bandwidth parameter (usually expressed as
percentage). For raised cosine pulse α is also called roll-off factor.
• Pulses are synthesized using discrete time processing and
DAC.

G Sharma EE321A