Chapter 14 Pulse amplitude modulation

SUMMARY: In this chapter we discuss serial pulse amplitude modulation. This method provides us with a new channel dimension every T seconds if we choose the pulse according to the so-called Nyquist criterion. The Nyquist criterion implies that the required bandwidth W is larger than 1/(2T ). Multi-pulse transmission is also considered in this chapter. Just as in the single-pulse case a bandwidth of 1/(2T ) Hz per used pulse is required. This corresponds again to 2W = 1/T dimensions per second.

14.1 Introduction
0 d

p(t)

d d t T 2T

impulses a0 , a1 , , a K 1

n w (t)
c # E + "!

sa (t) p(t)

r (t)

+1
T 0 T

+1 +1
T 2T T

t
3T

d d s (t) f da d f d t d f 3T T f 2T 4T 5T d d

Figure 14.1: A serial pulse-amplitude modulation system. In chapter 11 we could observe that a channel with a bandwidth of W Hz can accommodate roughly 2W T dimensions each T seconds (for large enough T ). We considered there buildingblock waveforms of nite duration, therefore the bandwidth constraint could only be met approx119

CHAPTER 14. PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

120

imately. Here we will investigate whether it is possible to get a new dimension every 1/(2W ) seconds. We allow the building blocks to have a non-nite duration. Moreover all these buildingblock waveforms are time shifts of a pulse. The subject of this chapter is therefore serial pulse transmission. Consider gure 14.1. We there assume that the transmitter sends a signal s(t) that consists of amplitude-modulated time shifts of a pulse p(t) by an integer multiple k of the so-called modulation interval T , hence sa (t) =
k=0,K 1

ak p(t kT ).

(14.1)

The vector of amplitudes a = (a0 , a1 , , a K 1 ) consists of symbols ak , k = 0, K 1 taking values in the alphabet A. We call this modulation method serial pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM).

14.2 Orthonormal pulses: the Nyquist criterion

14.2.1 The Nyquist result
If we have the possibility to choose the pulse p(t) ourselves we can choose it in such a way that all time shifts of the pulse form an orthonormal base. In that case the pulse p(t) has to satisfy

p(t kT ) p(t k T )dt =

1 if k = k , 0 if k = k , 1 if k = 0, 0 if k = 0,

(14.2)

for integer k and k . This is equivalent to

p( ) p( kT )d = p(t) p(t)|t=kT = h(kT ) =

(14.3)

where h(t) = p(t) p(t). This time-domain restriction on the pulse p(t) is called the zeroforcing (ZF) criterion. Later we will see why. THEOREM 14.1 The frequency-domain equivalent to (14.3) which is known as the Nyquist criterion for zero intersymbol interference is 1 Z( f ) = H ( f + m/T ) T
m= ,1,0,1,2,

1 = T

P( f + m/T )
m= ,1,0,1,2,

=1

for all f ,

where H ( f ) = P( f )P ( f ) = P( f ) 2 is the Fourier transform of h(t) = p(t) p(t). Note that P( f ) is the modulus of P( f ). Moreover Z ( f ) is called the 1/T -aliased spectrum of H ( f ). Later in this section we will give the proof of this theorem. First we will discuss it however and consider an important consequence of it.

CHAPTER 14. PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

H( f )

1 2T

121 Z( f )

e e
1 2T

e e

e e

e e

e e
1 2T

1 T

e e
3 2T

e e

3 1 1 2T T 2T 2

Figure 14.2: The spectrum H ( f ) = P( f ) the Nyquist criterion. H( f ) T

1 2T 1 2T

corresponding to a pulse p(t) that does not satisfy Z( f )

1 f
3 1 1 2T T 2T 1 2T 1 T 3 2T

Figure 14.3: The ideally bandlimited spectrum H ( f ) = P( f ) 2 . Note that P( f ) is a spectrum with the smallest possible bandwidth satisfying the Nyquist criterion.

14.2.2 Discussion
Since p(t) is a real signal, the real part of its spectrum P( f ) is even in f , and the imaginary part of this spectrum is odd. Therefore the modulus P( f ) of P( f ) is an even function of the frequency f . If the bandwidth W of the pulse p(t) is strictly smaller than 1/(2T ) (see gure 14.2), then the Nyquist criterion, which is based on H ( f ) = P( f ) 2 , can not be satised. Thus no pulse p(t) that satises a bandwidth-W constraint, can lead to orthogonal signaling if W < 1/(2T ). The smallest possible bandwidth W of a pulse that satises the Nyquist criterion is 1/(2T ). The basic pulse with bandwidth 1/(2T ) for which the Nyquist criterion holds has a socalled ideally bandlimited spectrum, which is given by T if | f | < 1/(2T ), P( f ) = (14.4) 0 if | f | > 1/(2T ), and T /2 for | f | = 1/(2T ). The corresponding H ( f ) = spectrum Z ( f ) can be found in gure 14.3. P( f )
2

and 1/T -aliased

The basic pulse p(t) that corresponds to the ideally bandlimited spectrum is shown in gure 14.4. It is the well-known sinc-pulse 1 sin(t/T ) p(t) = . T t/T (14.5)

CHAPTER 14. PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

1

122

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.4 5

Figure 14.4: The sinc-pulse that corresponds to T = 1, i.e. p(t) = sin( t)/( t). H( f )

Z( f ) 1 f
d d d d d d d d d d d d
1 2T 1 T

d d d
1 2T

d d d
3 2T

d d d

1 2T

3 1 1 2T T 2T

Figure 14.5: A spectrum H ( f ) with a positive excess bandwidth satisfying the Nyquist criterion. A pulse with a bandwidth larger than 1/(2T ) can also satisfy the Nyquist criterion as can be seen in gure 14.5. Note that the so-called excess bandwidth, i.e. the bandwidth minus 1/(2T ), can be larger than 1/(2T ). Square-root raised-cosine pulses p(t) have a spectrum H ( f ) = |P( f )|2 that satises the Nyquist criterion and an excess bandwidth that can be controlled. At he end of this subsection we state the implication of the previous discussion. RESULT 14.2 The smallest possible bandwidth W of a pulse that satises the Nyquist criterion 1 1 is W = 2T . The sinc-pulse p(t) = sin(t/T ) has this property. Note that this way of serial t/T
T

pulse transmission leads to exactly

1 T

= 2W dimensions per second.

Moreover observe that unlike before in chapter 11, our pulses and signals are not timelimited!

14.2.3 Proof of the Nyquist result

We will next give the proof of result 14.1, the Nyquist result. Proof: Since H ( f ) is the Fourier transform of h(t), the condition (14.3) can be rewritten as

h(kT ) =

H ( f ) exp( j2 f kT )d f =

1 if k = 0, 0 if k = 0.

(14.6)

CHAPTER 14. PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

We now break up the integral in parts, a part for each integer m, and obtain
(2m+1)/2T

123

h(kT ) =
m= (2m1)/2T 1/2T

H ( f ) exp( j2 f kT )d f H( f +
m= 1/2T 1/2T

= =
1/2T 1/2T

m ) exp( j2 f kT )d f T m ) exp( j2 f kT )d f T (14.7)

H( f +
m=

=
1/2T

Z ( f ) exp( j2 f kT )d f

where we have dened Z ( f ) by

Z( f ) =
m=

H( f +

m ). T

(14.8)

Observe that Z ( f ) is a periodic function in f with period 1/T . Therefore it can be expanded in terms of its Fourier series coefcients , z 1 , z 0 , z 1 , z 2 , as

Z( f ) =
k=

z k exp( j2 k f T )

(14.9)

where zk = T

1/2T

Z ( f ) exp( j2 f kT )d f.
1/2T

(14.10)

If we now combine (14.7) and (14.10) we obtain that T h(kT ) = z k , (14.11)

for all integers k. Condition (14.3) now tells us that only z 0 = T and all other z k are zero. This implies that Z ( f ) = T, (14.12) or equivalently

H( f +
m=

m ) = T. T

(14.13) 2

CHAPTER 14. PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

r (t)
r r r

124 rk

p(T p t)

sample at t = T p + kT Figure 14.6: The optimum receiver front-end for detection of serially transmitted orthonormal pulses.

14.2.4 Receiver implementation

If we use serial PAM with orthonormal pulses p(t kT ), k = 0, K 1, then we can use a single matched-lter m(t) = p(T p t) for the computations of the correlations of the received waveform r (t) with all building-block waveforms, i.e. with all pulses. Assume that the delay T p is chosen in such a way that m(t) is (effectively1 ) causal. The output of this lter m(t) when r (t) is the input signal is

u(t) =

r ()m(t )d =

r () p(T p t + )d.

(14.14)

At time t = T p + kT we see at the lter output

rk = u(T p + kT ) =

r () p( kT )d,

(14.15)

which is what the optimum receiver should determine, i.e. the correlation of r (t) with the pulse p(t kT ). This leads to the very simple receiver structure shown in gure 14.6. Processing the samples rk , k = 1, K , should be done in the usual way. When there is no noise r (t) = k=0,K 1 ak p(t kT ). Then at time t = T p + kT we see at the lter output

rk = u(T p + kT ) = =

r () p( kT )d
k =0,K 1

ak p( k T ) p( kT )d

=
k =0,K 1

ak

p( k T ) p( kT )d = ak ,

(14.16)

by the orthonormality of the pulses. Conclusion is that there is no intersymbol interference present in the samples. In other words the Nyquist criterion forces the intersymbol interference to be zero (zero-forcing (ZF)).
1 Note

that p(t) has a non-nite duration in general.

CHAPTER 14. PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

125

14.3 Multi-pulse transmission

Instead of using shifted versions of a single pulse we can apply the shifts of a set of orthonormal pulses. Consider J pulses p1 (t), p2 (t), , p J (t) which are orthonormal. The shifted versions of these pulses can be used to convey a stream of messages. Again the shifts are over multiples of T and T is called the modulation interval again. Thus a signal s(t) can be written as s(t) =
k=0,K 1 j=1,J

ak j p j (t kT ),

(14.17)

for ak j A. If we want all pulses and its time-shifts to form an orthonormal basis, then the time-shifts of all pulses should be orthogonal to the pulses p j (t), j = 1, J . In other words, we require the J pulses to satisfy

p j (t kT ) p j (t k T )dt =

1 if j = j and k = k , 0 elsewhere,

(14.18)

for all j = 1, J , j = 1, J , and all integer k and k . A set of pulses p j (t) for j = 1, 2, , J that satises this restriction is 1 sin( t/(2T )) p j (t) = cos ((2 j 1) t/(2T )) . (14.19) T t/(2T ) For J = 4, and assuming that T = 1, these pulses and their spectra are shown in gure 14.7. Observe that in this example the total bandwidth of the J pulses is J/(2T ). RESULT 14.3 The smallest possible bandwidth that is occupied by orthogonal multi-pulse signaling with J pulses each T seconds is J/(2T ). Note therefore that also bandwidth-efcient serial multi-pulse transmission leads to exactly 2W dimensions per second. Proof: (Lee and Messerschmitt [13], p. 266) Just like in the proof of theorem 14.1 we can show that the pulse-spectra P j ( f ) for j = 1, J must satisfy 1 T

Pj ( f +
m=

m m )P j ( f + ) = j j . T T

(14.20)

Now x a frequency f [1/(2T ), +1/(2T )) and dene for each j = 1, J the vector P j = ( , P j ( f 1/T ), P j ( f ), P j ( f + 1/T ), P j ( f + 2/T ), ). (14.21)

Here P j ( f +m/T ) is the component at position m. With this denition condition (14.20) implies that the vectors P j , j = 1, J are orthogonal. Assume for a moment that there are less than J positions m for which at least one component P j ( f + m/T ) for some j = 1, J is non-zero. This would imply that the J vectors P j , j = 1, J would be dependent. Contradiction! Thus for each frequency interval d f [1/(2T ), 1/(2T )) we may conclude that the J pulses ll at least J disjoint intervals of size d f of the frequency spectrum. In total the J pulses ll a part J/T of the spectrum. The minimally occupied bandwidth is therefore J/(2T ). 2 Note that the optimum receiver for multi-pulse transmission can be implemented with J matched lters that are sampled each T seconds.

CHAPTER 14. PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

1 0 1 3 1 0 1 3 1 0 1 3 1 0 1 3 1 0.5 0 3 1 0.5 0 3 1 0.5 0 3 1 0.5 0 3

126

Figure 14.7: Time domain and frequency domain plots of the pulses in (14.19) for j = 1, 2, 3, 4 and T = 1.

14.4 Exercises
1. Determine the spectra of the pulses p j (t) for j = 1, 2, , J dened in (14.19). Show that these pulses satisfy (14.18). Determine the total bandwidth of these J pulses.