Discussion On Modulation

Electronics and Communications Engineering
Discussion on Modulation
Efficient and accurate communication between two points must be achieved for every
information transfer. Few of the key factors to do this are modulation and coding; which are
performed in the transmitter to have a more reliable information transmission.
Modulation consists of two waveforms for practical applications – a modulating signal, and a
carrier wave. This method alters the carrier wave in respect to the modulating signal’s parameters.
This modulated wave has the information which generally should be reversible so the original
message can be retrieved, through its complementary process known as demodulation. As shown in
Figure 1, there are mainly two types of modulation: continuous-wave (CW) and pulse. CW
modulation consists of methods for sinusoidal carrier modulation. There are three as shown in Figure
2: Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), and Phase Modulation (PM). These
three differ in terms of the parameter of the carrier wave that is being modulated – amplitude for AM,
frequency for FM, and phase for PM. AM operates with a frequency of 1 MHz with a wavelength of
between 100m-1km while FM operates with a frequency of 100 MHz with a wavelength of between
1m-10m. Personally, I prefer FM radio stations just because they have greater tunes.
Types of Modulation
Continuous-Wave (CW) Pulse

Modulation Modulation
Amplitude Modulation (AM)
Frequency Modulation (FM)
Phase Modulation (PM)
Figure 1. Types of Modulation Figure 2. Continuous-Wave Modulation
Another type of modulation, pulse modulation, utilizes a recurring pulse for the carrier wave.
This type of modulation heavily relies on sampling which offers the possibility to reconstruct the
waveform from periodic samples. However, pulse modulation alone does not involve frequency
translation which is needed for accurate signal transmission. Hence, this is combined to other methods
such as CW modulation or even coding.
Since different parameters are being changed according to the modulating signal, external
factors have different effects on each signal. One example would be FM would be more robust to
noise as compared to AM. Since information is “stored” in the amplitude of an AM signal, it is more
prone to noise contamination as noise affects amplitude. While on the other hand, FM is less prone to
noise contamination since the frequency has been altered, not the amplitude. Furthermore, FM uses
more bandwidth than AM; which in turn, is more resistant to noice.
Modulation offers several benefits. Mainly of which is to provide a modulated signal that is
compatible to the transmission channel. Furthermore, some of the key benefits are discussed below:
1. Efficient Transmission. As communication is done over long distances, the efficiency of

its transmission is dependent on the frequency of the signal that is being transmitted. To put
into perspective, antennas should be at least 10% of the signal’s wavelength for efficient
propagation. With this, unmodulated signals would need antennas of hundreds of
kilometers in length. Fortunately, with modulation, only meters of antenna is used which is
practical to its size and for its application.
2. Hardware Limitations. All hardware components are limited by its cost and availability.
Thus, limiting the design of a communication system. Through modulation, a signal is
place in a specific frequency to avoid the said limitation. Consequently, costs are lessened
when fractional bandwidth is maintained under 10%.
3. Lesser Noise and Interference. One method to lessen noise and interference is to increase
the signal power. However, increasing power is not cost-effective. Contradictingly, other
types of modulation especially FM have the wideband noise reduction which is a property
that lessens noise and interference; which requires the transmission bandwidth to be greater
than the modulating signal’s bandwidth.
4. Frequency Assignment. Modulation assigns a different carrier frequency to a specific
station where the desired signals are separated through filtering. If there’s no modulation,
only one station could transmit in an area.
5. Multiplexing. Multiplexing is the combination of many signals for synchronous
tansmission on one channel. It has primarily two types: Frequency-division multiplexing
(FDM) and Time-division multiplexing (TDM). FDM uses CW modulation so each signal
could have a different carrier frequency while TDM utilizes pulse modulation for samples
of different signals could have non-simultaneous time slots. With this, gaps between pulses
could be filled with other samples from other signals.
The other key factor for efficient information transmission is coding. Primarily, there are two
types of coding in communication systems – channel coding and source coding. Channel coding
mainly utilizes controlled repetition of bits to have better precision in a channel. The repetition of bits
is used for verification of the information that is being received. However, bandwidth is
compromised. On the other hand, source coding utilizes the statistical knowledge of the signal source
for efficient encoding. This is done through reduction of the number of repeated bits; which in turn,
reduces bandwidth.
Radio waves propagates through the troposphere and ionosphere to enable communication over
large distances. The troposphere’s density is dependent on air temperature and moisture content while
the ionosphere’s behavior depends of solar activities, and ionization by the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
These activities in the ionosphere will result to an increasing electron density with respect to altitude.
Figure 3. Ionosphere Layers during Night and Day
As shown in Figure 3, the ionosphere is composed of three layers, namely D-layer, E-layer,
and F-layer. During the night, where ionizing rays are less, the D- and E- layers are significantly less
ionized. However, F-layer – F1 and F2 during the night, especially F2 are still ionized. Because of
this, the E- and D-layers are less densed during the night and reflection characteristics of the
ionosphere is better as compared during the day. Hence, more AM broadcast stations can be heard at
night. Consequently, there will be more interference during the night as AM broadcast stations can
interfere with each other. Hence, other AM broadcast stations reduces power, uses directional
antennas or resumes operation by daytime to avoid interference. On the other hand, FM stations
doesn’t have to do any of these as FM signals is not affected by the ionosphere.
The ionosphere, especially the F-layer, is also responsible how some radio waves can be
transmitted even without satellites. Radio waves are refracted off the ionosphere so it could travel. In
addition, some radio waves are deflected in the trophosphere to enable communication between
significant distances. These are collectively known as skywave propagation.
Communication and radios are often overlooked and taken for granted. These are key factors
how our world began where mode of communication become much easier and how it takes us on what
we have today. Understanding the past and current technologies will open a door for tomorrow’s idea.
References
A. Carlson, P. Crilly. Communication systems: An introduction to signals and noise in electrical

communication, 5th Ed., McGraw Hill.
[Figure 2]
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[Figure 3]
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Electronics and Communications Engineering

Continuous-Wave (CW) Pulse

Amplitude Modulation (AM)

Frequency Modulation (FM)

Phase Modulation (PM)

Figure 1. Types of Modulation Figure 2. Continuous-Wave Modulation

1. Efficient Transmission. As communication is done over long distances, the efficiency of

Figure 3. Ionosphere Layers during Night and Day

A. Carlson, P. Crilly. Communication systems: An introduction to signals and noise in electrical

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