Modulation Techniques

Prof. Tzong-Lin Wu
EMC Laboratory
Department of Electrical Engineering
National Taiwan University

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• Analog modulation: AM, FM and PM.
• Modern wireless systems use digital modulation.
• More spectrum efficient, less power required and
error correction
• Better immunity to fading.
• Study the effect of noise of digital modulation, the
modulation and de-modulation.

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 9.1 Analog modulation

Because the IF signal in a receiver contains noise from the antenna and receiver circuitry, as well as
the desired signal, the characteristics of the demodulator play a critical role in the overall performance
of the wireless system.

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Single-sideband modulation
The upper sideband is selected from the mixer output with a bandpass filter, although
the lower sideband could be selected, if preferred.

Note that the demodulator LO is identical in frequency and phase with the modulator
LO; this is called a synchronous, or coherent, demodulator.

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The SSB input voltage to the demodulator can therefore be expressed as

n(t) is limited to a narrow frequency band

The output voltage of the mixer

After low-pass filtering, the final output voltage

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The average input signal power of the SSB signal of (9.1) is found by time-averaging:

the average power of the output signal

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 mixing noise has the effect of reducing
its power by half.

in agreement with our earlier result of (9.8).

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Double-sideband suppressed-carrier modulation
If the mixer were ideal, the carrier frequency (fw) would not be present in the output, so
this modulation is referred to as double-sideband suppressed carrier (DSB-SC).

Input voltage to the demodulator can then be expressed as

We have normalized the input voltage so that the total DSB-SC input power is identical
to the input power of the SSB case.

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narrowband representation for n(t):

The output of the mixer is

After the low-pass baseband filter,

The output signal power is

Why?
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The noise power of the output voltage

This improvement is due to the effective doubling of signal power.

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A more realistic result is found by expressing the input noise power in terms of the
power spectral density of the white noise at the input to the IF stage.

where the factor of four accounts for positive and negative frequency portions of the
filter response.

which is seen to be identical to the result for the SSB case given in (9.13). This implies
that the coherent SSB and DSB-SC demodulators have the same SNR performance,
when expressed in terms of a uniform input white noise level; this is a more meaningful
comparison than that of (9.21)

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 Double-sideband large-carrier modulation
If the double-sideband signal of the previous case is transmitted without suppression of
the carrier wave, it is referred to as double-sideband large-carrier (DSB-LC) modulation.

This is an advantage in that the carrier signal, even if much lower in amplitude than the
sidebands, can be used as a reference signal to phase-lock the local oscillator to
synchronization with the incoming signal.

The amplitude, m, of the modulating signal relative to the carrier is called the modulation index.

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 Double-sideband large-carrier modulation
The signal power associated with this input voltage

The carrier power thus increases the total input power, but does not directly contribute to
the output power after demodulation since it does not contain any modulation information.

Mixing the input voltage of (9.24) with the LO and low-pass filtering gives
the demodulator output voltage as

the output signal power

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Using (9.20) and (9.22) with (9.27) gives the output SNR

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Envelope detection of double-sideband modulation

SSB and DSB-SC demodulators require a synchronous local oscillator for proper operation.

An advantage of DSB with a carrier component (DSB-LC) is that detection can be done
without a local oscillator and mixer, by using an envelope detector (noncoherent
demodulator).

It is the preferred method for broadcast AM radio, where it is desired to make the receiver
as inexpensive as possible.
The DSB-LC signal waveform

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 The basic envelope detector circuit
The RC time constant should be large enough so that the capacitor voltage does not
decay too quickly before the next carrier peak arrives, but small enough so the
output can track the envelope when it is decreasing.

The output of the envelope detector shown in Figure 9.6a has a DC level that must
be removed with a series capacitor. This may limit the low frequency response of the
detector.

Thus broadcast radio systems must ensure that the modulation index is always less
than 100% in order to avoid signal distortion.

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Derive the Output SNR of the Envelope Detector

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the envelope of the carrier

The phase function

The signal input power

The output signal power is given by the time-average of the square of the envelope
voltage with the noise terms set to zero:

The first term in (9.34) represents power of a DC component, which would generally be
filtered with a DC block.

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Evaluation of the noise power contained in the envelope voltage is complicated by the
presence of the square root in (9.31).

This is identical to the result of (9.28) for the synchronous demodulation of a DSB-LC signal, showing
that no degradation in SNR occurs with the much simpler method of envelope detection for high input
SNR.
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Frequency modulation (FM)
Better SNR then AM at expense of bandwidth

An FM waveform has the general form

where

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Bessel function

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Observe that the sideband magnitude decreases for large n, so the practical bandwidth
is not infinite.

In fact, good transmission fidelity generally only requires those sidebands whose
amplitude is 1 % or larger relative to the unmodulated carrier (the n = 0 term)

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A convenient way to combine these two results is with the approximation known as
Carson's rule:

In telecommunication, Carson's bandwidth rule defines the approximate bandwidth

requirements of communications system components for a carrier signal that is
frequency modulated by a continuous or broad spectrum of frequencies rather than a
single frequency.

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S/N for FM modulation

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Noises

If we assume the noise voltage is small relative to the carrier amplitude,

A>>x(t) and y(t)

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The limiter will remove the effect of the time variation of r(t), so the noise output of the
discriminator will be

After envelope detection and DC blocking, the output noise voltage is

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 The input noise power over the same passband is

Finally, the output SNR of the FM demodulator is

Note that (9.61) indicates that the SNR of a demodulated FM signal can be improved
by a factor of

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Comparing this with the corresponding result for AM demodulation by using
(9.28) with a 100% modulation index (m = 1)

Using

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 9.2 Binary digital modulation
Digital Mod. Vs Analog mod.

Improved performance in the presence of noise and fading, lower transmit power
requirements, and better suitability for transmission of digital data with error correction
and encryption.

Amplitude shift keying (ASK)

Frequency shift keying (FSK)
Phase shift keying (PSK)

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Binary Signals: RZ, NRZ

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Amplitude shift keying

This requires the LO to have precisely the same phase

and frequency as the incoming signal.

When the local oscillator does not have perfect phase

coherence or frequency synchronization, distortion may
be introduced.

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ASK can be demodulated coherently using a synchronous local oscillator and mixer,
but it is also possible to demodulate ASK with an envelope detector.

Although envelope detection cannot be used to demodulate a DSB-SC signal, it can

be used with an ASK DSB-SC waveform because the modulating signal m(t) is never
negative.

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Another noncoherent demodulator is the rectifier, or square-law, detector shown
in Figure 9.14.

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Frequency shift keying
Frequency shift keying involves switching a sinusoidal carrier wave between two
frequencies.

FSK modulated waveform

In general the spectrum of an FSK signal is complicated because of the essentially

random switching between two frequency states.

It can be shown

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Modulation and demodulation of FSK signals.

After low-pass filtering only the DC term from (9.67a) remains, resulting in a positive
pulse at the output of the summer, indicating that a "1" has been received.

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FSK can also be demodulated using an envelope
detector, thereby avoiding the requirement
for two coherent local oscillators.

The outputs of the envelope detectors are

combined with a summer to form a polar NRZ
output.

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Phase shift keying

In PSK modulation the phase of the carrier wave is switched between two states, usually
0" and 180".

The spectrum of the PSK waveform is relatively wide in bandwidth due to the sharp
transitions caused by phase reversal. These are usually smoothed by filtering, but the
resulting bandwidth is usually still wide enough that PSK is impractical for multichannel
wireless systems.

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Synchronous demodulation of PSK

Since the PSK waveform has a constant envelope, it cannot be demodulated with an
envelope detector.

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Carrier synchronization

Synchronism implies that both frequency and phase are identical, a result that is
generally difficult to achieve in practice.

As an example, if we set a criteria of requiring less than 45" phase error at a carrier
frequency of 1 GHz, synchronization of the LO to the carrier must be better than T/8 =
0.125 nS. A free-running local oscillator will virtually never exhibit such synchronism
because of frequency drift, Doppler effects, and the arbitrary (and sometimes variable)
distance between the transmitter and receiver.

Two ways in which a local oscillator can be synchronized with an incoming carrier wave:
transmit a pilot carrier, or use a carrier-recovery circuit. Transmitting a low-level carrier is
probably the easiest way, as this signal can be used to phase-lock the local oscillator.

ASK and FSK can use envelop detector but bad BER.

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Carrier recovery circuits use phase or frequency information from the received signal to
synchronize the local oscillator. (a phase-locked loop)

A clever alternative carrier-recovery circuit for PSK demodulation

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9.3 Error probability for binary modulation
PCM signals and detections
In general, PCM codes a binary "1" as a signal voltage s 1(t), and a binary "0" as a signal voltage s 2(t),
each of bit duration T.

In the transmitter these PCM signals are used to modulate a carrier by amplitude, frequency, or
phase modulation.

In the receiver, as we have shown, synchronous demodulation or envelope detection (for ASK or FSK)
can be used to recover s(t) = s1(t) or s2(t).

The demodulated signal is then used to make the decision as to whether a binary "1" or "0" has
been received. In the absence of noise this can simply be done by setting a detection threshold,
where "1" or "0 is decided using a comparator circuit.

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PCM signals and detections
When noise is present, the problem of detection is more difficult. It can be shown in
this case that optimum detection of PCM signals can be made with a correlation receiver,
consisting of an integrator (or low-pass filter) followed by a sampler and a comparator.

Although the effect of the (zero mean) noise voltage is minimized by averaging over
the bit period, the random nature of the noise results in occasional errors, and the
likelihood of an error increases with the power of the input noise.

The likelihood that a single bit is received incorrectly is called the probability of error, or
the bit error rate (BER).

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• Probability of error or bit error rate (BER)

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Bit energy as the energy of the (non-zero) signal voltage over one bit period:

The noise power output from an integrator with a bandlimited white noise input was
derived in (3.38) as

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 Synchronous ASK

Assume that a binary "0" has been transmitted in an ASK system, in the presence of
bandlimited Gaussian white noise.
An error will occur if the output signal and noise voltage is greater than the threshold VT/2.

using (9.73) and (9.74):

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Synchronous PSK
Now assume that a binary "0" is transmitted in a PSK system, in the presence of bandlimited
Gaussian white noise.

Then we have s(t) = s2(t) = -V and so(T) = -VT, with a detection threshold of zero.

An error will occur if the sampled output voltage from the integrator is greater than the
threshold.

Due to the symmetry of the PSK signal and the demodulator,

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 ASK v.s. PSK
Observe that the bit energy-to-noise ratio in the argument of the complementary error
function for the PSK case differs by a factor of four (6 dB) compared to the result for
ASK.

This implies that, for the same probability of error, PSK requires only one-fourth the
power of an ASK system.

Since an ASK signal is off half the time, however, the average transmit power of an ASK
system is half that of a PSK system, for the same peak power (same signal voltage, V).

Thus, in terms of average transmit power, the PSK result is better by a factor of two (3
dB), compared with ASK.

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 Synchronous FSK
Next we consider a synchronous FSK receiver, and assume that a binary "0" is
transmitted in the presence of bandlimited Gaussian white noise.

In the synchronous FSK demodulator output noise consists of the difference between
noise that has passed through both the channels.

The variance of n(t) can be computed as (n1 and n2 are uncorrelated)

The result of (9.80) shows that the total noise power of the FSK demodulator is doubled
relative to the synchronous ASK or PSK demodulator.

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 Synchronous FSK

Observe that synchronous FSK requires 3 dB more signal power than an equivalent
PSK system for the same probability of error, and 3 dB less power than an ASK system
on a peak power basis.

FSK and ASK, however, have equal error rates when compared in terms of average
transmit power, since an ASK system transmits power only half the time.

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Envelope detection of ASK
The derivation of the probability of error is more difficult because of the effect of the
nonlinearity of the envelope detector on the noise.

Narrowband representation of noise

Statistics of r(t) depends on m(t), We will discuss m(t)=0 and m(t)=V, respectively.

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m(t)=0

x(t) and y(t) are independent, joint probability distribution function

Rayleigh probability distribution

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 m(t) = V

Let x’ = x + V

Error (V2)

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Bessel function definition

Rewrite in terms of the modified Bessel function of zero order:

The peak of (9.95) occurs when r = V.

Note that the rician distribution reduces to the Rayleigh pdf when V = 0, as expected;

it can be shown that the rician pdf approaches a Gaussian distribution when the
argument is large.
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Rician probability distribution
The probability of error when sending m(t) = V

The integral in (9.96) cannot be evaluated in closed form, but must be calculated
numerically.

the overall probability of error for envelope detected ASK is

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Envelope detection of FSK

Derivation of the probability of error for noncoherent FSK is similar to the procedure
used for noncoherent ASK, since the two channels of the FSK demodulator of Figure
9.16a essentially decompose the FSK signal into two ASK signals.

The probability of error when a "1" is sent can

be written as

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In this expression both r1(t) and r2(t) are random variables.
Since r1(t) consists of signal plus noise, it has a rician pdf; r2(t) has a Rayleigh pdf since
it consists of noise only.

If we temporarily assume a fixed value of r1(t), the probability of error can be computed
as

The overall probability of error:

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The inner integral can be evaluated directly as

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Bit rate and bandwidth efficiency
Eb/n0, the ratio of bit energy to noise power spectral density.
The dimensions of Eb are W-sec, while the dimensions of no are W/Hz, so the ratio is
dimensionless.
In practice it is more convenient to write the bit energy in terms of signal power and the
data rate.
Signal power: S = Rb x Eb

Let Rb be the bit rate of the binary message signal, with dimensions of bits per second
(bps).

Thus the probability of error is determined solely by the carrier power, the bit rate,
and the PSD of the input noise.

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 Bit rate and bandwidth efficiency
We can also express the bit energy-to-noise density ratio in terms of the SNR of the receiver.

Depending on the type of modulation, the required receiver bandwidth may range from
one to several times the bit rate.

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 Bit rate and bandwidth efficiency
Each of the above binary modulation methods transmit one bit during each bit period,
and are therefore said to have a bandwidth efficiency of 1 bps/Hz.

Thus, for example, an analog telephone circuit having a bandwidth of 2400 Hz (600 Hz-
3 kHz) is limited to a maximum data rate of (2400 Hz)(1 bps/Hz) = 2400 bps when
used with binary modulation.

We will see later in this chapter that substantially greater data rates can be achieved
with multilevel modulation methods that transmit more than one bit per period. Such
methods have bandwidth efficiencies greater than 1 bps/Hz.

Thus the terms data rate and bandwidth are not synonymous, in spite of the often-
heard (but incorrect) use of the word "bandwidth" when referring to high data rates.

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Comparison of ASK, FSK, and PSK systems

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Comparison of ASK, FSK, and PSK systems
Note that the lowest error rate occurs for the coherent detection of PSK, but the price
paid for this performance is the need for a synchronized LO and a relatively wide signal
bandwidth.
Next in order of performance is coherent FSK, which requires 3-4 dB more power than
PSK for the same error rate. The error rate for noncoherent (envelope detected) FSK is
only slightly worse (about 1 dB) than for coherent FSK, and is better than coherent ASK.

This conclusion only applies, however, when using the peak power for ASK, when the
average power of the ASK signal is used the error rate for coherent ASK and coherent
FSK are identical.

The worst performance is obtained with noncoherent ASK.

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Comparison of ASK, FSK, and PSK systems
The error rate that is required in practice depends on the application, as well as tradeoffs
between bandwidth, transmitter power, range, and receiver complexity and cost. It may
range from 10-2 (image data from early space probes) to 10-8 for high-data rate computer
networks.

ASK transmitters are very simple, and efficient since no power is radiated when no
data is being sent. ASK receivers are also simple, if envelope detection is used. Because
the bit error rate is poor in comparison to other modulation methods, ASK is limited to
low data rates. In addition, the fact that the detection threshold depends on the received
signal level makes ASK performance very poor in a fading environment. For these reasons,
ASK applications are usually limited to short-range, low-cost telemetry and RFID.

An FSK transmitter is only slightly more complicated than for ASK, and an FSK receiver
using envelope detection can be made simply and inexpensively.

Noncoherent FSK has found widespread historical application in a wide variety of both
baseband and modulated data transmission systems, such as data modems, teletype, and
fax.

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PSK also requires a relatively wide signal spectrum, typically ranging from 2Rb to 4Rb.
For these reasons, applications of PSK are generally limited to high performance
systems such as space and satellite communications

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9.4 Effect of Rayleigh Fading of Bit Error Rates
The presence of multiple signal paths between transmitter and receiver lead to Rayleigh
fading.

This causes sharp reductions in received signal power over short time intervals, or with
movement over small distances, due to phase cancellation.

Although the average receive power is not greatly reduced, fading has a major impact
on error rates because the presence of brief but deep drops in received power results in
very large error rates for short periods.

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r(t) is a random variable with a Rayleigh PDF given by

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Effect of Rayleigh fading on coherent PSK

Account for Rayleigh fading by considering the conditional probability of error for a
fixed signal amplitude, then integrating over the Rayleigh probability distribution
function for this amplitude.

If we consider r(t) to be a fixed multiplier, then the probability of error derived in (9.78)
can be modified to give

The overall probability of error

using

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Define average received bit energy-to-noise power spectral density ratio of the
faded received signal as:

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Using integration by parts:

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Effect of Rayleigh on noncoherent FSK
The derivation is easier because the non-faded expression for probability of error
in (9.113) is simpler.

The required integral in (9.1 14) is listed in Appendix B.

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Comparison of faded and nonfaded error rates

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 9.5 M-ary digital modulation
Here we consider the more general case of M-ary modulation methods, where more
than one bit may be transmitted per signaling interval. This allows greater bit rates for
the same bandwidth, at the expense of a more complex system.

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Quadrature phase shift keying
If we use four states, where n = 2 and M = 4, then we can transmit two bits, or four
symbols, for each signaling interval. This is called quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK).

the horizontal axis represents the in-phase (I) component, while the vertical axis
represents the quadrature (Q), component that is shifted 90" in phase.

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The In-phase and Quadrature components of the QPSK signal

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 Modulator
Each QPSK phase state can then be used to represent two bits of data, as shown in the
above table. The incoming serial binary data stream must be multiplexed into groups of
two bits, which separately modulate the I and Q components of the carrier.

The QPSK modulator thus takes the form shown in Figure 9.26. A 90" hybrid divider can
be used to provide the I and Q components of the LO from a single oscillator.

Because the average transition between phase states is 90°, the bandwidth of the QPSK
spectrum is narrower than the spectrum of a BPSK signal.

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 Demodulator

Demodulation of QPSK requires coherent detection.

The demodulator uses two mixers with quadrature LO components to recover the I and
Q signals.
PCM detectors, each consisting of an integrator and a sampler, are used to detect the I
and Q NRZ data, which is then decoded with a parallel-to-serial converter to provide
serial binary output.

Since QPSK is a constant envelope modulation, the detectors can use a zero threshold.

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Demodulator

The constant C is defined as

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The assignment of bits pairs to symbols given in Table 9.3 is not unique.

But the above choice has the very useful property that when an error occurs in the
detection of a symbol, it is most likely that only one of the bits will be in error, rather
than both bits.

This is because an error is most likely to result in a shift from the correct phase state
to the immediately adjacent phase, rather than the diametrically opposite phase

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 Probability of error of QPSK

By symmetry the error rates for all si are equal, so let us assume that s1 is received

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The detection threshold for both detectors is zero, so the probability of a symbol error at
the I correlator is

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By symmetry we will also obtain the same expression for the probability of a symbol
error at the Q correlator:

Since the overall probability that a symbol is received correctly is the product of the
probabilities that each correlator operates correctly, the overall probability of error for
a symbol is

Twice data rate at same bandwidth and error rate as BPSK

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If, as is the usual case in practice, we use QPSK with Gray coding, then we can assume
that a symbol error is most likely to cause only a single bit error.

Then since each symbol contains two bits, the bit error rate for QPSK will be one-half
the symbol error rate:

Note that because the symbol period T is twice the bit period, E, = 2Eb, where Eb is
the bit energy.

This shows that the expression of (9.125) is equivalent to the probability of error for
BPSK as given in (9.78).

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M-ary phase shift keying

where

It is straightforward to show that the probability of a symbol error for M-PSK is

approximately given by

Valid for

If Gray coding is used:

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Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)
We can further generalize M-ary modulation by allowing the amplitudes of the I and
Q components of the carrier as given in (9.117) to vary arbitrarily.

We can therefore say that 4-QAM is identical to QPSK, if the signal amplitudes are
constant.

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It can be shown that an approximate expression for the symbol error rate of 16-QAM
is given by

Because of the high bandwidth efficiency that can be obtained with QAM, it is increasingly
being used in modem wireless systems, including point-to-point microwave radios, LMDS
systems, and the DVB-C digital video cable broadcasting system.

Table 9.5 summarizes the ideal performance of several types of coherent digital
modulation methods.

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Channel capacity
It is possible to achieve as low an error rate as is desired once Eb/no is above a critical
value.

Since Eb = S/Rb, this also implies that, for a fixed signal power S, there is a critical
value of the data rate Rb for which the error rate can be made as small as desired.

This particular value is called the channel capacity, and is given by a formula derived by
Claude Shannon:

Shannon limit:

C: maximum data rate in bps

B: bandwidth in Hz
S: signal power in W
n0/2 : two-sided noise power

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The Shannon channel capacity formula gives the upper bound on the maximum data
rate that can be achieved for a given channel in the presence of additive Gaussian
noise.

Practical modulation methods usually perform at only a fraction of this value, but the
use of error correcting codes can provide performance close to the Shannon
limit.

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