MIRPUR UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(MUST), MIRPUR

MIRPUR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

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 This Lecture includes

Lecture No. 17 and Lecture No. 18

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 Communications Technology
ET-353

Lecture No.17: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

Engr. Faisal Iqbal

Lecturer
Date: March 09, 2022

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Lecture Outline
MODULATION OF DIGITAL DATA
TYPES OF DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG MODULATION
WHAT IS QAM ?
QAM MODULATOR & DEMODULATOR
QAM APPLICATIONS
ADVANTAGES/ DISADVANTAGES OF QAM
WHY QAM CALLED COMBINED ASK ANDPSK

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 MODULATION OF DIGITALDATA
Modulation – Process of converting digital data or a low-pass analog
signal to band-pass (higher-frequency) analog signal.

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 DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG MODULATION

Process of changing one of the characteristic of an analog

signal (typically a sinewave) based on the information in a
digital signal.

Sinewave is defined by 3 characteristics (amplitude,

frequency, and phase) ⇒ digital data (binary 0 & 1) can be
represented by varying any of the three.

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TYPES OF DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG MODULATION

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 WHAT IS QAM ?
 Quadrature amplitude modulation or QAM is a form of modulation which is widely used for
modulating data signals onto a carrier used for radio communications.
 It is widely used because it offers advantages over other forms of data modulation such
 as PSK, although many forms of data modulation operate alongside each other.
 QAM is a signal in which two carriers shifted in phase by 90° are modulated & the resultant
output consists of both amplitude & phase variations.
 In view of the fact that both amplitude & phase variations are present it may also be
 considered as a mixture of amplitude & phase modulation.
 A motivation for the use of QAM comes from the fact that a straight amplitude modulated signal,
i.e. Double sideband even with a suppressed carrier occupies twice the bandwidth of the
modulating signal. This is very wasteful of the available frequency spectrum.
 QAM restores the balance by placing two independent double sideband suppressed carrier signals
in the same spectrum as one ordinary double sideband suppressed carrier signal.

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 WHAT IS QAM?
 A form of modulation which is widely used for
modulating data signals onto a carrier used for radio
communications.
 QAM is a signal in which two carriers shifted in phase
by 90 degrees are modulated.
 The resultant output consists of both amplitude and

phase variations.
 Hence it may also be considered as a mixture of
amplitude and phase modulation.

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 WHY QAM?
 The main aim is to save the bandwidth.

HOW?
 Double sideband(DSB) even with a suppressed carrier
occupies twice the bandwidth of the modulating signal.
 This is very wasteful of the available frequency
spectrum.
 QAM places two independent double sideband
suppressed carrier signals in the same spectrum as one
ordinary double sideband suppressed carrier signal.

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 TYPES OF QAM
 It exists in both analogue and digital formats.

 The analogue versions of QAM are typically used to allow multiple

analogue signals to be carried on a single carrier.

 It combines phase modulation and amplitude modulation in a form of

modulation known as quadrature amplitude modulation, QAM

 Digital formats of QAM are often referred to as “Quantised QAM”.

 It combines phase shift keying and amplitude keying in a form of
modulation known as quadrature amplitude modulation, QAM

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 QAM THEORY
 Quadrature amplitude theory states that both amplitude
and phase change within a QAM signal.
 The basic way in which a QAM signal can be generated
is to generate two signals that are 90° out of phase with
each other and then sum them.
 This will generate a signal that is the sum of both waves,

which has a certain amplitude resulting from the sum of

both signals and a phase which again is dependent upon
the sum of the signals.

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 QAM THEORY….
 As there are two RF carrier signals that can be modulated, these are referred
to as the I - In-phase and Q - Quadrature signals.

 The I and Q signals can be represented by the equations below:

 I = A cos(Ψ) Q = A sin(Ψ)

 It can be seen that the I and Q components are represented as cosine and
sine. This is because the two signals are 90° out of phase with one another.

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 QAM MODULATOR & DEMODULATOR
 The modulator & demodulator are used to encode the signal, often data,
onto the radio frequency carrier that is to be transmitted. Then the
demodulator is used at the remote end to extract the signal from the RF
carrier so that it can used at the remote end.

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Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

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Transmitter

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Receiver

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 QAM cont.
 Quadrature multiplexing is used in color television
to multiplex the signals which carry the
information about colors.

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 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
The DSB signals of AM require twice the bandwidth required for the
baseband signal!

Idea:Try to send two signals m1(t) and m2(t) simultaneously by modulating

them with two carrier signals of same frequency but shifted in phase by –/2

The combined signal is m1 (t)  m2 (t)  m1 (t) cos wct  m2 (t) sin wct

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 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (cont…)
Both modulated signals occupy the same band

•At the receiver the two baseband signals can be separated by using a second
carrier that is shifted in phase by –/2

•The first signal m1(t) can be detected by a multiplication with 2cos(ct)

followed by a low-pass filter

The second signal x2(t) can be detected accordingly by a multiplication with sin(ct)
followed by a low-pass filter
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 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (cont…)
 Thus, two baseband signals, each of bandwidth B, can be
simultaneously transmitted over a channel with
bandwidth 2B

 This principle is called quadrature amplitude modulation

(QAM), because the carrier frequencies are in phase
quadrature.

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 QAM MODULATOR
 The modulator is used to encode the signal, often data, onto
the radio frequency carrier that is to be transmitted.

 The QAM modulator essentially follows the idea that can be

seen from the basic QAM theory where there are two carrier
signals with a phase shift of 90° between them.
 These are then amplitude modulated with the two data
streams known as the I or In-phase and the Q or quadrature
data streams.

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QAM MODULATOR

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 QAM MODULATOR ……
 The two resultant signals are summed and then
processed as required in the RF signal chain, typically
converting them in frequency to the required final
frequency and amplifying them as required.
 It is worth noting that as the amplitude of the signal varies
any RF amplifiers must be linear to preserve the integrity
of the signal.
 Any non-linearities will alter the relative levels of the signals
and alter the phase difference, thereby distorting the signal
and introducing the possibility of data errors.
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 QAM DEMODULATOR
 The QAM demodulator is very much the reverse of the
QAM modulator.

 The signals enter the system, they are split and each
side is applied to a mixer.

 One half has the in-phase local oscillator applied and

the other half has the quadrature oscillator signal
applied.

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QAM DEMODULATOR

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 QAM APPLICATIONS
QAM is in many radio communications and data delivery applications.
However some specific variants of QAM are used in some specific
applications and standards.
For domestic broadcast applications for example, 64 QAM and 256 QAM
are often used in digital cable television and cable modem applications. In
the UK, 16 QAM and 64 QAM are currently used for digital terrestrial
television using DVB Digital Video Broadcasting. In the US, 64 QAM and
256 QAM are the mandated modulation schemes for digital cable as
standardised by the SCTE in the standard ANSI/SCTE 07 2000.
In addition to this, variants of QAM are also used for many wireless and
cellular technology applications.

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 ADVANTAGES OF QAM
QAM appears to increase the efficiency of
transmission for radio.

communications systems by utilizing both amplitude

and phase variations,

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 DISADVANTAGES OF QAM
more susceptible to noise because the states are closer together so that a
lower.
 level of noise is needed to move the signal to a different decision point.
Receivers for use with phase or frequency modulation are both able to use
limiting amplifiers that are able to remove any amplitude noise and thereby
improve the noise reliance. This is not the case with QAM.
The second limitation is also associated with the amplitude component of
the signal. When a phase or frequency modulated signal is amplified in a
radio transmitter, there is no need to use linear amplifiers, whereas when
using QAM that contains an amplitude component, linearity must be
maintained. Unfortunately linear amplifiers are less efficient and consume
more power, and this makes them less attractive for mobile applications.

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 WHY QAM CALLED COMBINED ASK ANDPSK
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation uses the phase and amplitude of the
carrier signal to encode data. QAM finds widespread use in current and
emerging wireless standards, including Wi-Fi, Digital Video Broadcast
(DVB), WiMAX, IEEE 802.11n, and HSDPA/HSUPA.

The QAM modulation scheme encodes data by varying both amplitude and
phase of the carrier signal. Thus, it is sometimes viewed as a combination of
ASK and PSK modulation.

 A modulated carrier signal can be expressed in terms of it’s components as:

AcCos(2*pi*fc*t+θ) =ICos(2*pi*fc*t) - QSin(2*pi*fc*t)
Where I = Ac Cosθ and Ac Sinθ
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 Conclusion

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation is an important

modulation scheme with many practical applications,
including current and future wireless technologies. Some
examples of communication systems that use QAM are
Wi‐Fi, cable modems, Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) and
WiMAX.

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Any Question?

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 Communications Technology
ET-353

Lecture No.18: Amplitude Modulation-Single Sideband

(AM-SSB)

Engr. Faisal Iqbal

Lecturer
Date: February 09, 2022

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Lecture Outline
Single Side Band Modulation (SSB)
Amplitude Modulation (Single Sideband SSB)
Generation of SSB Signals
Selective Filtering Method
Phase–Shift Method
Demodulation of SSB Signals

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 Single Side Band Modulation (SSB)

How to generate SSB signal?

• Generate DSB-SC signal
• Band-pass filter to pass only one of the sideband and suppress the other.

For the generation of an SSB modulated signal

to be possible, the message spectrum must have
an energy gap centered at the origin.

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• Example of signal with -300 Hz ~ 300 Hz energy gap
Voice: A band of 300 to 3100 Hz gives good articulation
• Also required for SSB modulation is a highly selective filter

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 Amplitude Modulation (Single Sideband SSB)
• The DSB spectrum has two sidebands: USB and LSB
•Both USB and LSB contain complete information of the baseband
signal.
•A scheme in which only one sideband is transmitted is known as
single-sideband ( SSB) transmission.
•In SSB transmission the required bandwidth is half compared to DSB
signal.
• An SSB signal can be coherently (synchronously) demodulated. E.g.

For example, multiplying USB signal by cos wct shifts its spectrum to the
left and right by wc Communications Technology 37
 Single Sideband SSB (cont..)

Low pass filtering will give the required baseband signal at the
receiver.
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 Single Sideband SSB (cont..)

Time domain representation of SSB signals:

SSB (t)  m(t) cos wct  mh (t) sin wct

mh (t) Hilbert Transform of m(t)

and delays the phase of each component by 2

Where minus sign applies to USB and the plus sign applies to LSB

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 Example 4.7 p-174

Tone Modulation:

Find SSB (t) for a simple case of tone modulation, that is, when the
modulating signal is a sinusoid m(t)  coswmt
Solution:
SSB (t)  m(t) cos wct  mh (t) sin wct

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 Example 4.7 p-174

Hence

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Example 4.7 p-174

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 Generation of SSB Signals
Two methods are generally used to generate SSB signals.
1) Sharp cutoff filters
2) Phase shifting networks

Selective Filtering Method:

•In this method the DSB-SC signal is passed through a sharp cutoff filter to eliminate the
undesired sideband.
•To obtain USB , the filter should pass all components above wc, attenuated and
completely suppress all components below wc
•Such an operation requires an ideal filter that is practically not possible.

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 Generation of SSB Signals
• This method of generating SSB signal can be used when there is some separation
between the passband and stopband.
• In some application this can be achieved e.g. voice signals
• Voice signals spectrum shows little power content at the origin. Thus filtering
the unwanted sideband is relatively easy.

Tests have shown that frequency components

below 300Hz are not important.

600Hz transition region around the cutoff

frequency wc , makes filtering easy and
minimize the channel interference

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 Generation of SSB Signals(cont…)

Phase-Shift Method:
The basis of this method is the following equation

SSB (t)  m(t) cos wct  mh (t) sin wct

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Generation of SSB Signals(cont…)

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Single Sideband (SSB)

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 Demodulation of SSB Signals
 Demodulation of SSB signals can be accomplished by
using a synchronous detector as used in the
demodulation of normal AM and DSBSC signals.

 If we want to use an envelope detector, it can be

shown that we must insert a pilot carrier signal
Acos(2 fct) to the SSB signal,
where A >> m(t) and A >> m^(t).
 The pilot signal carries most of the transmission
power which becomes inefficient.

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Any Question?

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