Chapter 4

4.1 : Digital Modulation

4.2 : Digital Transmission

4.3 : Multiple Access Methods

4.1 Digital Modulation
Outlines

a. Introduction
b. Information capacity, Bits, Bit
Rate, Baud,
M-ary Encoding
c. Digital Modulation Techniques
- ASK, FSK, PSK, QAM
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL
MODULATION
• Digital modulation : the transmittal of
digitally modulated analog signals between
two or more points in a communications
system.
• Can be propagated through Earth’s
atmosphere and used in wireless
communication system - digital radio.
• Offer several outstanding advantages over
traditional analog system.
• Ease of processing
• Ease of multiplexing
• Noise immunity
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL
MODULATION
 Applications:
 Low speed voice band data comm. Modems
 High speed data transmission systems
 Digital microwave & satellite comm.
Systems
 PCS (personal communication systems)
telephone
 Why digital modulation?
 The modulation of digital signals with analogue
carriers allows an improvement in signal to
noise ratio as compared to analogue
modulating schemes.
Forms of Digital Modulation
v(t )  V sin( 2  ft   )

ASK FSK PSK

QAM

•If the amplitude, V of the carrier is varied

proportional to the information signal, a digital
modulated signal is called Amplitude Shift Keying
(ASK)
•If the frequency, f of the carrier is varied
proportional to the information signal, a digital
modulated signal is called Frequency Shift
Keying (FSK)
•If the phase, θ of the carrier is varied proportional to
Cont’d…

 Ifboth the amplitude and the phase, θ of the carrier

are varied proportional to the information signal, a
digital modulated signal is called Quadrature
Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
Cont’d...
Block Diagram
Simplified block diagram of a digital
modulation system
Cont’d…
 Precoderperforms level conversion &
encodes incoming data into group of bits
that modulate an analog carrier.

 Modulated carrier filtered, amplified &

transmitted through transmission medium to
Rx.

 InRx, the incoming signals filtered, amplified

& applied to the demodulator and decoder
circuits which extracts the original source
information from modulated carrier.
Information Capacity, Bits,
Bit Rate, Baud, M-ary
Encoding
Information capacity, Bits & Bit Rate
◦ Information capacity is a measure of how much
information can be propagated through a
communication system and is a function of
bandwidth and transmission time.
◦ represents the number of independent symbols
that can be carried through a system in a given
unit of time.
◦ Basic digital symbol is the binary digit or bit.
◦ Express the information capacity as a bit rate.
Hartley’s Law

I  Bt

Where
I = information capacity (bps)
B = bandwidth (Hz)
t = transmission time (s)
From the equation, Information capacity is a
linear function of bandwidth and transmission
time and directly proportional to both.
Shannon’s Formula
I  B log 2 (1  NS ) or I  3.32B log10 (1  NS )

Where
I = information capacity (bps)
B = bandwidth (Hz)
S = signal to noise power ratio (unitless)
N

The higher S/N the better the performance and

the higher the information capacity
Example 2
By using the Shannon’s Formula, calculate
the information capacity if S/N = 30 dB and
B = 2.7 kHz.
 M-ary Encoding
 Itis often advantageous to encode at a level
higher than binary where there are more then
two conditions possible.
 The number of bits necessary to produce a given
number of conditions is expressed
mathematically as

N  log 2 M
Where N = number of bits necessary
M = number of conditions, level or combinations
possible with N bits.
Cont’d…
Each symbol represents n bits,
and has M signal states, where M
= 2N.
Find the number of voltage levels
which can represent an analog
signal with
a. 8 bits per sample
b. 12 bits per sample
 Baud & Minimum BW
 Baud refers to the rate of change of a signal on
the transmission medium after encoding and
modulation have occurred.

11
baud 
baud
t st s
Where
baud = symbol rate (symbol per second)
ts = time of one signaling element @ symbol
(seconds)
 Cont’d…

 Minimum Bandwidth
◦ Using multilevel signaling, the Nyquist formulation for
channel capacity

f b  2 B log 2 M

Where fb= channel capacity (bps)

B = minimum Nyquist bandwidth (Hz)
M = number of discrete signal or voltage levels
 Cont’d…

For B necessary to pass M-ary digitally modulated carriers

 fb  fb
B      baud
 log 2 M  N

Where N is the number of bits encoded into each

signaling element.
 Amplitude Shift Keying
(ASK)
 Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is a process where a
binary information signal directly modulates the
amplitude of an analog carrier.
 ASK is similar to standard amplitude modulation
except there are only two output amplitudes possible.
 Amplitude shift keying is sometimes called digital
amplitude modulation (DAM) or on-off keying (OOK).
vask (t )  [1  vm (t )] A2 cos(c t )

Where vask (t) = amplitude shift keying wave

vm(t) = digital information signal (volt)
A/2 = unmodulated carrier amplitude (volt)
ωc = analog carrier radian frequency (rad/s
If binary ‘1’, carrier wave is transmitted.
If binary ‘0’, carrier wave is suppressed.
Application : multichannel telegraph system.

Figure 4.7: Digital amplitude modulation: (a) input binary,

(b) output DAM/ASK waveform.

 A cos(c t ) for logic'1' , vm (t )  1

vask (t )  
 0 for logic'0' , vm (t )  1
 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
 Called as Binary Frequency Shift Keying (BFSK)
 The phase shift in carrier frequency (∆f) is proportional
to the amplitude of the binary input signal (vm(t)) and
the direction of the shift is determined by the polarity

v fsk (t )  Vc cos 2 [ f c  vm (t )f ]t

Where vfsk(t) = binary FSK waveform

Vc = peak anlog carrier amplitude (volt)
fc = analog carrier center frequency (Hz)
∆f = peak shift in analog carrier frequency (Hz)
vm(t) = binary input signal (volt)
B  ( f s  f b )  ( f m  f b )  f s  f m  2 f b  2(f  f b )
Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK)
 Similar to the standard frequency modulation (FM)
except the modulating signal is binary signal that
varies between two discrete voltage levels rather
than a continuously changing analogue waveform.
 FSK waveform :

Figure 4.9: FSK in the time domain: (a) waveform, (b) truth table.
Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK)
 As the binary input signal changes from a logic 0 to
a logic 1 and vice versa, the output frequency shifts
between two frequencies: a mark, or logic 1
frequency (fm), and a space, or logic 0 frequency (fs).
 When the binary input (f ) changes from a logic 1 to
b
a logic 0 and vice versa, the FSK output frequency
shifts from a mark (fm) to a space (fs) frequency and
vice versa.
 In Figure 4.9(a), the mark frequency is the higher
frequency (fc + Δf) and the space frequency is the
lower frequency (fc - Δf), although this relationship
could be just the opposite.
 Figure 4.9(b) shows the truth table for a binary FSK
modulator. The truth table shows the input and
output possibilities for a given digital modulation
scheme.
 Vc cos 2 [ f c  f ]t for logic'1' , vm (t )  1
v fsk (t )  
Vc cos 2 [ f c  f ]t for logic'0' , vm (t )  1

fm  fs
f  ,
2
where
f  frequency deviation (Hz)
f m  f s  absolute difference between mark & space frequency (Hz)
Frequency Shift Keying
(FSK)
 Advantages of FSK over ASK :
1. ASK needs automatic gain control (AGC) to
overcome fading effects.
2. Easy for generation of FSK.
3. The constant amplitude property of the
carrier signal does not waste power and
produce some immunity to noise.
 Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
 PSK is an M-ary digital modulation scheme similar to
conventional phase modulation except that in PSK the
input signal is a binary digital signal and a limited
number of output phases are possible.
 The simplest form of PSK is binary phase shift keying
(BPSK).
 In BPSK, two outputs are possible for a single carrier
(“binary” meaning “2”) i.e., where N(input bits) = 1
and M(output phase) = 2. Therefore, with BPSK, two
phases (21 = 2) are possible for the carrier. One output
phase represents a logic 1 and the other a logic 0, i.e.,
one phase represents logic 1 and the other phase
represents a logic 0.
 As the input digital signal changes state (i.e., from a 1
to a 0 or from a 0 to a 1), the phase of the output
carrier shifts between two angles that are 180° out of
phase.
 (b)

(a)
Figure 4.9: BPSK in the time domain: (a) waveform, (b) truth table.
 Cont’d...

a) Truth Table b) Phasor Diagram c) Constellation Diagram

Cont’d...

BPSK Transmitter
Cont’d...

BPSK Receiver
Quadrature-Amplitude
Modulation (QAM)
 Quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM) is a
form of digital modulation similar to PSK except
the digital information is contained in both the
amplitude and the phase of the transmitted
carrier.
 8-QAM is an M-ary encoding technique where M
= 8. Unlike 8-PSK, the output signal from an 8-
QAM modulator is not a constant-amplitude
signal.
 Figure 4.17 shows the output phase-versus-
time relationship for an 8-QAM modulator. Note
that there are two output amplitudes, and only
four phases are possible.
 (a)

(b)

Figure 4.17: (a) 8-QAM modulator: output phase-versus-time relationship.

(b) Truth table
Example 1
For the digital message 1101 1100
1010, sketch the waveform for the
following:
a. ASK
b. FSK
c. PSK
d. QAM
 CONSTELLATION DIAGRAM

Definition : A graphical representation of the

complex
envelope of each possible symbol state.

 The x-axis represents the in-phase component

and the y-axis the quadrature component of the
complex envelope

 The distance between signals on a constellation

diagram relates to how different the modulation
waveforms are and how easily a receiver can
differentiate between them.
Cont’d...
Cont’d...
 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(QAM)
Combine amplitude and phase-
shift keying.
Method of voice band data
transmission.
QAM = 4-PSK
Cont’d...
Cont’d...
Cont’d...
 Amplitude and phase shift keying can be combined
to transmit several bits per symbol.
◦ Often referred to as linear as they require linear
amplification.
◦ More bandwidth-efficient, but more susceptible to
noise.

 For M = 4, 16QAM has the largest distance between

points, but requires very linear amplification.
16PSK has less stringent linearity requirements,
but has less spacing between constellation points,
and is therefore more affected by noise.

 High level M-ary schemes (such as 64-QAM) are

very bandwidth-efficient but more susceptible to
noise and require linear amplification
Bandwidth Efficiency

◦ Used to compare the performance of one digital

modulation technique to another.

Bη = Transmission bit rate (bps)

Minimum bandwidth (Hz)

Example 5
For 16-PSK system, operating
with an information bit rate of 32
kbps, determine:
a. Baud
b. Minimum bandwidth
c. Bandwidth efficiency
Solution:
16PSK= log2(M)
a) baud= 32000/4=8000
b) minimum bandwidth =
32000/4 =8000
c)Bandwidth efficiency
=transmission bit rate/minimum
bandwidth= 32000/8000=4 bits
per cycle
 CONCLUSION

To decide which modulation method

should be used , we need to make
considerations of

a) Bandwidth
b) Speed of Modulation
c) Complexity of Hardware