Pulse Modulation

Dr Charles S Lubobya

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 Outline
• Introduction
• Pulse amplitude modulation(PAM)
• Pulse duration modulation(PDM or PWD)
• Pulse position modulation(PPM)
• Comparison of the three
• References
• Tutorial

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 Introduction
• Pulse modulation involves analogue
modulation of pulse carrier and base band
signal.
• Three common types: PAM, PWM, PPP

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Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)
• is an analog modulating scheme
• in which the amplitude of the pulse carrier
varies proportional to the instantaneous
amplitude of the message signal.
• The pulse amplitude modulated signal, will
follow the amplitude of the original signal, as
the signal traces out the path of the whole
wave.

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 PAM block diagram

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 Example of PAM circuits

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Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)
• Lets consider the waveform:

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 Noise and power in PAM
• Higher noise because of varying amplitude,
difficulty to eliminate
• Transmission power varies again due to
variation in amplitude

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 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
• or Pulse Duration Modulation (PDM) or Pulse Time Modulation
(PTM)
• is an analog modulating scheme
• in which the duration or width or time of the pulse carrier varies
proportional to the instantaneous amplitude of the message signal.

• The width of the pulse varies in this method, but the amplitude of
the signal remains constant.
• Amplitude limiters are used to make the amplitude of the signal
constant. These circuits clip off the amplitude, to a desired level
and hence the noise is limited.

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 PWM block diagram

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 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

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 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
• There are three variations of PWM. They are −

– The leading edge of the pulse being constant, the trailing

edge varies according to the message signal.

– The trailing edge of the pulse being constant, the leading

edge varies according to the message signal.

– The center of the pulse being constant, the leading edge and
the trailing edge varies according to the message signal.

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 Noise and power in PWM
• Noise is relatively lower than in PAM
• Transmitted power varies with variation of
amplitude and width of the modulated signal

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 Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)
• is an analog modulating scheme
• in which the amplitude and width of the pulses are kept
constant, while the position of each pulse, with reference
to the position of a reference pulse varies according to the
instantaneous sampled value of the message signal.
• The transmitter has to send synchronizing pulses (or simply
sync pulses) to keep the transmitter and receiver in
synchronism.
• These sync pulses help maintain the position of the pulses.
The following figures explain the Pulse Position
Modulation.
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 PPM block diagram

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 Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)

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 Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)
• Pulse position modulation is done in accordance with the pulse width
modulated signal. Each trailing of the pulse width modulated signal
becomes the starting point for pulses in PPM signal. Hence, the position
of these pulses is proportional to the width of the PWM pulses.

Advantage
• As the amplitude and width are constant, the power handled is also
constant.
• Noise interference is low due to constant amplitude

Disadvantage
• The synchronization between transmitter and receiver is a must.

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Comparison between PAM, PWM & PPM

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 Duty Cycle

Definition: The Duty Cycle is a measure of the time
the modulated signal is in its “high” state.

It is generally recorded as the percentage of the
signal period where the signal is considered on.
On Off

VH

Duty Cycle
(D)
VL

Period (T)

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 Duty Cycle Formulation
Duty Cycle is
On Off determined by:
VH On Time
Duty Cycle  100%
Period
Duty
VL Cycle (D) *Average value of a
signal can be found as:
Period (T)
1 T
y   f (t )dt
T 0
Vavg  D VH  1  D VL
*In general analysis, VL is taken as zero volts for
simplicity.
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 Reference
[1] William Stallings, 2010, “Data and Computer
Communications, 9th Edition”, Pearson, ISBN-
10:0132172178 or ISBN-13: 978-0132172172.
[2] Michael P. Fitz, 2007, "Fundamentals of Communication
Systems, 1st Edition”, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN-10:
0071482806 or ISBN-13: 978- 0071482806.
[3] John G. Proakis and Masoud Salehi , 2013,
“Fundamentals of Communication Systems, 2 nd Edition”,
Prentice Hall, ISBN-10: 0133354857 or ISBN-13: 978-
0133354850

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 Tutorial
a) Compare and contrast PWM and PPM
b) State the major weaknesses of PAM
c) With the aid of a diagram explain how you
would achieve:
i) A flat PAM signal
ii) A natural PAM

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 TUTORIAL
• With the aid of a block diagram and
appropriate aveforms , explain how PPM is
generated.
• What are the advantages of PPM over PAM?

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