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Digital Modulation Basics

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Outline
Introduction to digital modulation
Relevant modulation schemes
Geometric representations
Coherent & Non-Coherent Detection
Modulation spectra
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Modulation & Demodulation
Baseband
Modulation
Carrier
Radio
Channel
Synchronization/Detection/
Decision
Carrier
Data in
Data out
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Modulation
Modulation - process (or result of the process) of
translation the baseband message signal to
bandpass (modulated carrier) signal at frequencies
that are very high compared to the baseband
frequencies.
Demodulation is the process of extracting the
baseband message back the modulated carrier.
An information-bearing signal is non-
deterministic, i.e. it changes in an unpredictable
manner.
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Why Carrier?
Effective radiation of EM waves requires
antenna dimensions comparable with the
wavelength:
Antenna for 3 kHz would be ~100 km long
Antenna for 3 GHz carrier is 10 cm long
Sharing the access to the telecommunication
channel resources
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Modulation Process
Modulation implies varying one or more
characteristics (modulation parameters a
1
, a
2
, a
n
) of
a carrier f in accordance with the information-bearing
(modulating) baseband signal.
Sinusoidal waves, pulse train, square wave, etc. can be
used as carriers
( )
1 2 3
1 2 3
, , ,... , (= carrier)
, , ,... (= modulation parameters)
(= time)
n
n
f f a a a a t
a a a a
t
=
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Continuous Carrier
Carrier: A sin[et +]
A = const
e = const
= const
Amplitude modulation (AM)
A = A(t) carries information
e = const
= const
Frequency modulation (FM)
A = const
e = e(t) carries information
= const
Phase modulation (PM)
A = const
e = const
= (t) carries information

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Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
Pulse shaping can be employed to remove spectral spreading
ASK demonstrates poor performance, as it is heavily affected by noise,
fading, and interference
Baseband
Data
ASK
modulated
signal
1
1
0
0 0
Acos(et) Acos(et)
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Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
Example: The ITU-T V.21 modem standard uses FSK
FSK can be expanded to a M-ary scheme, employing multiple
frequencies as different states
Baseband
Data
BFSK
modulated
signal
1
1
0
0
where f
0
=Acos(e
c
-Ae)t and f
1
=Acos(e
c
+Ae)t
f
0
f
0
f
1
f
1

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Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
Major drawback rapid amplitude change between symbols due to phase
discontinuity, which requires infinite bandwidth. Binary Phase Shift Keying
(BPSK) demonstrates better performance than ASK and BFSK
BPSK can be expanded to a M-ary scheme, employing multiple phases and
amplitudes as different states
Baseband
Data
BPSK
modulated
signal
1
1
0
0
where s
0
=-Acos(e
c
t) and s
1
=Acos(e
c
t)
s
0
s
0
s
1
s
1

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Differential Modulation
In the transmitter, each symbol is modulated
relative to the previous symbol and modulating
signal, for instance in BPSK 0 = no change,
1 = +180
0
In the receiver, the current symbol is demodulated
using the previous symbol as a reference. The
previous symbol serves as an estimate of the
channel. A no-change condition causes the
modulated signal to remain at the same 0 or 1 state
of the previous symbol.
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DPSK
Differential modulation is theoretically 3dB
poorer than coherent. This is because the
differential system has 2 sources of error: a
corrupted symbol, and a corrupted reference (the
previous symbol)
DPSK = Differential phase-shift keying: In the
transmitter, each symbol is modulated relative to
(a) the phase of the immediately preceding signal
element and (b) the data being transmitted.
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Demodulation & Detection
Demodulation
Is process of removing the carrier signal to
obtain the original signal waveform
Detection extracts the symbols from the
waveform
Coherent detection
Non-coherent detection

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Coherent Detection
An estimate of the channel phase and attenuation
is recovered. It is then possible to reproduce the
transmitted signal and demodulate.
Requires a replica carrier wave of the same
frequency and phase at the receiver.
The received signal and replica carrier are cross-
correlated using information contained in their
amplitudes and phases.
Also known as synchronous detection
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Coherent Detection 2
Carrier recovery methods include
Pilot Tone (such as Transparent Tone in Band)
Less power in the information bearing signal, High peak-to-
mean power ratio
Carrier recovery from the information signal
E.g. Costas loop
Applicable to
Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
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Non-Coherent Detection
Requires no reference wave; does not
exploit phase reference information
(envelope detection)
Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK)
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
Non coherent detection is less complex than
coherent detection (easier to implement), but
has worse performance.
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Geometric Representation
Digital modulation involves choosing a particular
signal s
i
(t) form a finite set S of possible signals.
For binary modulation schemes a binary
information bit is mapped directly to a signal and
S contains only 2 signals, representing 0 and 1.
For M-ary keying S contains more than 2 signals
and each represents more than a single bit of
information. With a signal set of size M, it is
possible to transmit up to log
2
M bits per signal.
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Geometric Representation 2
Any element of set S can be represented as a point
in a vector space whose coordinates are basis
signals |
j
(t) such that
i = 1,2M
j =1,2 N
s
ij
= s
i
(t)j(t)
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Example: BPSK Constellation Diagram
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( )
1 2
1
2 2
cos 2 , cos 2 ; ; 0
energy per bit; bit period
For this signal set, there is a single basic signal
2
cos 2 ; 0
b b
BPSK c c b
b b
b b
c b
b
BPSK
E E
S s t f t s t f t t T
T T
E T
t f t t T
T
S E
t t
| t

( (

= = = s s
( ( `
( (


)
= =
= s s
=
( ) ( )
{ } 1 1
,
b b
t E t | |
( (

-\E
b
\E
b
Q
I
Constellation diagram
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Constellation diagram/Signal space
Diagram
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.
Constellation for ASK
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BPSK
BPSK can be represented as:



It can be generated by applying the waveform cosw
o
t as a
carrier to a balanced modulator and applying the signal b(t)
as the modulating waveform
The received signal has the form


Where is the nominal fixed phase shift corresponding to
time delay




t w P t b t v o s bpsk cos 2 ) ( ) ( =
) cos( 2 ) ( ) ( 0 + = t w P t b t v o s bpsk
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BPSK Modulator and Demodulator


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BPSK Demodulator
Synchronous demodulation is used
The received signal is squared to generate
the signal
(1+cos2(w
o
t+))
DC Component is removed
Freq. Divider composed of a flip-flop and a
narrowband filter tuned to fo is used to
regenerate the waveform cos(w
o
t+)
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BPSK Demodulator
The received signal is multiplied with the
recovered carrier to generate the signal
b(t) (1+cos2(w
o
t+))
This is given to an integrator
The output voltage v
o
(kT
b
) at the end of the
bit interval extending from (k-1)T
b
to kT
b
is
2 / ) (
) ( 2 cos 1 2 / 1 2 ) ( ) (
) 1 (
Ps T kT b
dt t w P kT b kT v
b b
o
kTb
Tb k
s b b o
=
+ + =
}

0
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Bit synchronizer
It is a PLL in which the timing comparision is
done by a flip flop.
Flip-flop will respond to positive going transitions
Time to voltage converter which generates a dc
voltage at its output, which is proportional to pulse
duration, and keeps it constant till next transition.
This voltage will cause VCO to oscillate at
frequency f
b
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Bit Synchronizer

S
R
Q
Flip-
flop
Time to
voltage
converter
VCO
Received
data bit
stream
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Spectrum of BPSK

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PSD of BPSK

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QPSK
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) can
be interpreted as two independent BPSK
systems (one on the I-channel and one on
Q), and thus the same performance but
twice the bandwidth efficiency
Large envelope variations occur due to
abrupt phase transitions, thus requiring
linear amplification
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QPSK Equation
I = 1,2,3,4
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Signal space representation
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Signal space diagram
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QPSK Constellation Diagram
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying has twice the bandwidth efficiency of
BPSK since 2 bits are transmitted in a single modulation symbol
Carrier phases
{0, t/2, t, 3t/2}
Carrier phases
{t/4, 3t/4, 5t/4, 7t/4}
Q
I
I
Q
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QPSK Modulator

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QPSK Clock
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QPSK waveform for bits 0110100
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QPSK Demodulator
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Types of QPSK-
Offset and Non-offset
Conventional QPSK has transitions through zero (i.e. 180
0
phase
transition). Highly linear amplifiers required.
In Offset QPSK, the phase transitions are limited to 90
0
, the

transitions
on the I and Q channels are staggered.
All QPSK schemes require linear power amplifiers
I
Q
I
Q
Conventional QPSK
Offset QPSK
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Mary PSK equation
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Mary PSK Modulator
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Modulator Description
Bit stream is applied to serial to parallel converter
This converter has facility for storing the N bits of
the symbol
N bits are presented serially i.e in time sequence
one after another
N bits are then presented at once on the N output
lines of converter
T=NT
b
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Modulator Description
The output from serial to parallel converter is applied to
Digital to Analog converter
DAC generates an output v(s
m
)which assumes one of
2
n
=M different values
v(s
m
) is applied as a control input to a special type of
constant amplitude sinusoidal signal source whose phase
(m) is determined by v(s
m
)
The output is a fixed amplitude sinusodial waveform
whose phase (m) has a one to one correspondence to the
assembled N bit symbol
The phase can change once every symbol

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Mary
PSK demodulator
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Mary PSK equation
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Power spectra of MPSK
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Mary PSK phasor
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Mary PSK phasor

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Bandwidth Efficiency of MPSK
Formula for Bandwidth efficiency is given by
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MPSK bandwidth efficiency
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QASK
QAM can be obtained by simultaneously
impressing two separate K bit symbols from
the information sequence on two quadrature
Carrier.

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QAM constellation formation
The signal point is specified by its x and y
coordinates along the quadrature axis
In cartesian coordinates [a
i
Es ,b
i
E] where E is the
signal energy, L=M
(a
i,
b
i
) =[ (-L+1,L-1) (-L+3,L-1). (L-1,L+1)
(-L+1,L-3) (L-1,L-3)
(-L+1,-L+1).(L-1,-L+1) ]


Matrix
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QAM
When M=4 then L=2
{a
i
,b
i
} =[ (-1,1) (1,1)
(-1,-1) (1,-1) ]
When M=16 ?
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QASK Signal space diagram
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QASK EQUATION

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QASK Modulator
to Ts
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QASK Demodulator
b
0
b
1
b
2
b
3
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QASK Demodulator

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Bandwidth of a QASK signal

fo)Ts
)Ts
2
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BFSK

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BFSK Modulator
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Coherent Detection

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Non Coherent Detection of BFSK

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BFSK Spectrum

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BFSK Spectrum

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Geometric Representation of
Orthogonal BFSK
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Geometric Representation of
Orthogonal BFSK
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Geometric Representation of Non-
Orthogonal BFSK

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Geometric Representation of Non-
Orthogonal BFSK

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Geometric Representation of Non-
Orthogonal BFSK

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Geometric Representation of Non-
Orthogonal BFSK

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Geometric Representation of Non-
Orthogonal BFSK

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M ary FSK modulator and
Demodulator

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Mary FSK Modulator
An N bit symbol is presented each T to an
N bit D/A converter
The converter output is applied to a
frequency modulator.
The transmitted waveform can be of
frequency f
0
or f
1
0r f
2
.or f
m-1
with
M=2
N
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Mary FSK Receiver
The incoming signal is applied to M parallel
BPFs having centre frequency as f
0
,f
1
,
f
2
., f
m-1

Each is followed by envelope detector
Envelope detector output is given to
comparator and the to an N bit A/D
convertor
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M ary FSK PSD
BW =2Mf
s ,
fs =f
b
/N and M=2
N
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Signal Space Representation of Mary FSK
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Bandwidth efficiency of MFSK
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Minimum Shift Keying
In MSK the baseband waveform that multiplies
the quadrature carrier is much smoother than the
abrupt rectangular waveform of QPSK.
The spectrum of MSK has centre lobe which is
1.5 times as wide as the main lobe of QPSK and --
side lobes in MSK are relatively much smaller in
comparision to main lobe , making filtering much
easier.
The waveform of MSK exhibits phase continuity ,
thus nonlinear amplifiers can be used
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MSK waveform
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MSK waveform contd

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MSK Equation as shaped QPSK
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MSK as FSK
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Why Minimum
Also,
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MSK phase continuity
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MSK waveform

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MSK phase continuity

Total phase change = 2 ..kT
b
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Signal waveform and signal space diagram for
MSK
Signal waveform:
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MSK Modulator

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MSK Demodulator
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Generation of x(t) and y(t)

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PSD of MSK
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Comparision of MSK and QPSK

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Signal space diagram for MSK
(t) = 2/Ts
sinw
H
t
(t) = 2/Ts
sinw
L
t