DIGITAL MODULATION

Polar Representation of
Sinusoids

http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5965-7160E.pdf
Constellation Diagram

http://computing.dcu.ie/~HUMPHRYS/Notes/Networks/tanenbaum/2-25.jpg
Modulation
 Modulation: the process of encoding information from a
message source in a manner suitable for transmission
 Involves translating a baseband message signal to a
bandpass signal at frequencies much higher w.r.t.
baseband frequency
 Modulated Signal – bandpass carrier signal
 Modulating Signal – baseband message signal
 Amplitude, frequency or phase a carrier signal is varied
in accordance with the amplitude of the message signal
 Demodulation: the process of extracting baseband
message from the carrier
Modulation

Digital modulation
◦ digital data is translated into an analog signal (baseband)
◦ differences in spectral efficiency, power efficiency, robustness

Analog modulation
◦ shifts center frequency of baseband signal up to the radio carrier

Basic schemes
◦ Amplitude Modulation (AM)
◦ Frequency Modulation (FM)
◦ Phase Modulation (PM)
Modulation and demodulation
analog
baseband
digital
signal
data digital analog
101101001 modulation modulation radio transmitter

radio
carrier

analog
baseband
digital
signal
analog synchronization data
demodulation decision 101101001 radio receiver

radio
carrier
Digital Modulation
 Digital modulation schemes – mainly used in present 2G and
future mobile radio systems
 A digital modulation is a mapping from a block of log2M
bits/s to a symbol from an alphabet of M symbols
 Advantages of digital modulation
 Greater noise immunity
 Robustness to channel impairments
 Easier multiplexing of various forms of information (voice, data,
video)
 Support complex signal conditioning and processing
 Error detection/correction - utilization of error control codes
 Digital modulation

Modulation of digital signals known as Shift Keying 1 0 1

Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK): t

◦ very simple
◦ low bandwidth requirements 1 0 1
◦ very susceptible to interference
t

Frequency Shift Keying (FSK):

◦ needs larger bandwidth
1 0 1

Phase Shift Keying (PSK): t

◦ more complex
◦ robust against interference
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Digital Modulation
Digital modulation is the process of Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
modulation where an analog ◦ Frequency of the sinusoidal is varied
sinusoidal signal is modulated by the to carry Information.
digital data.

Phase Shift Keying (PSK)

One or two parameters (Amplitude,
Frequency and Phase) of the
sinusoidal waveforms are modified
with respect to the digital data.
Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
◦ Amplitude of the sinusoidal is varied to
carry Information.
◦ Phase of the sinusoidal is varied to
carry Information.
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(QAM)
◦ Amplitude and phase of the sinusoidal
is varied to carry Information.
Amplitude Shift Keying
(ASK)
In ASK, the amplitude of the All the other parameters of the
carrier is changed in response to carriers are kept constant which
information and all else is kept include frequency and phase.
fixed.

On Off Keying (OOK) is a special

Bit ‘1’ is transmitted by the carrier case of ASK where one of the
of one particular amplitude. amplitudes is ‘Zero’.

Bit ‘0’ is transmitted by the carrier

of another amplitude.
Amplitude Shift Keying
(ASK)
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
In FSK the frequency of the carrier The simplest Frequency Shift
signal is varied to carry Keying (FSK) is Binary FSK.
information.

In BFSK, a binary ‘1’ is represented

Different binary signals are by one frequency while a binary
represented by different frequency ‘0’ is represented by another
sinusoids. frequency.

All other parameters including

amplitude and phase are kept
constant.
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
Phase Shift Keying (PSK) is the type Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK)
of modulation in which the phase of ◦ Two phase levels represent ‘1’ and ‘0’.
the carrier sinusoid is varied
according to the digital data.
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
(QPSK) or 4-PSK
PSK uses finite number of phases to ◦ Four phase levels represent 4
represent single bits or unique different bit combinations or
combination of bits. symbols.

Depending upon the number of bits 8-PSK

represented by a phase, PSK has ◦ Eight phase levels represent 8 different bit
combinations or symbols
different variants known as M-PSK.
Binary Phase Shift Keying
(BPSK) BPSK Constellation Diagram

In BPSK, a binary ‘1’ is represented

by a phase of zero degrees while a
binary ‘0’ is represented by 180
degrees. All other parameters of
the carrier sinusoid are kept
constant.
BPSK Time Domain Signal

http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/papers/modulation_1.pdf
 Quadrature Phase Shift
Keying (QPSK)
In QPSK, four different symbols are
represented by four distinct
phases.

Bit # 01 Bit # 02 Phase

(Degrees)
0 0 45
1 0 135
0 1 -135
1 1 -45

QPSK Constellation Diagram

 8-Phase Shift Keying (8-PSK)
In 8-PSK, eight different binary
symbols are represented by 8
distinct phases.
Bit # 01 Bit # 02 Bit # 03

0 0 0
0 0 1
0 1 0
0 1 1
1 0 0
1 0 1
1 1 0
1 1 1
QPSK Constellation Diagram
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM): combines
amplitude and phase modulation

it is possible to code n bits using one symbol Q

0010
0001
2 discrete levels, n=2 identical to QPSK
n
0011 0000
bit error rate increases with n, but less errors φ
a I
compared to comparable PSK schemes 1000
Example: 16-QAM (4 bits = 1 symbol)

Symbols 0011 and 0001 have the same phase φ, but

different amplitude a. 0000 and 1000 have different
phase, but same amplitude.

 used in standard 9600 bit/s modems

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 Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM)
16 QAM
In Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM) both
amplitude and phase are varied
simultaneously to carry
information.

8 QAM

http://cnx.org/content/m35715/latest/graphics20.png
 Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM)
32 QAM
Hierarchical Modulation
DVB-T modulates two separate data streams onto a single DVB-T stream

High Priority (HP) embedded within a Low Priority (LP) stream

Multi carrier system, about 2000 or 8000 carriers

QPSK, 16 QAM, 64QAM Q

Example: 64QAM
◦ good reception: resolve the entire
10
64QAM constellation I
◦ poor reception, mobile reception:
resolve only QPSK portion
◦ 6 bit per QAM symbol, 2 most 00

significant determine QPSK 000010 010101

◦ HP service coded in QPSK (2 bit),

LP uses remaining 4 bit
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 Digital Modulation

Choice of Digital Modulation

 Desirable properties:
 Low BER at low SNR.
 Occupies minimum bandwidth.
 Performs well in multipath
 Simple (cost-effective)

 Performance measures - power efficiency, bandwidth

efficiency
 Power efficiency - Eb/N0 ratio of energy per bit to noise
power spectral density (PSD) required for specified
performance (say BER=10^-5)
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Example of the block codes

PB
8PSK

QPSK

Eb / N 0 [dB] 23
 Digital Modulation
 Bandwidth efficiency

B  R (data rate in bps)

B (bw occupied by modulated RF signal)
 Fundamental upper bound on bandwidth efficiency limited
by noise in the channel.
 Shannon’s Channel Capacity Theorem
 Upper bound on spectral efficiency achievable for a given
SNR.
C
 B  B  log 2  1  SNR 

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 Digital Modulation
 Trade off between power efficiency and bandwidth efficiency

C  B log 2  1  SNR  bits/s

Information rate can be increased by increasing either

bandwidth or SNR

E Determine capacity data rate C, given that SNR=20 dB, B=30k

Hz (TDMA)

C  B log 2  1  SNR   200 kbps

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 Digital Modulation
Other Factors affecting choice of modulation

 receiver cost and complexity

 detection/demodulation is simple

 performance under various channel impairments

(fading, multipath time dispersion)

 performance in interference environment

Simulation analysis of complete system including

modulation, interference, fading and demodulation to
determine relative performance and select
appropriate techniques
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