LECTURE 4 SSB-SC AMPLITUDE MODULATION

A/Prof Zhuquan Zang Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering Curtin University Perth, Western Australia

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Z.Zang@curtin.edu.au

LECTURE 4: SSB AMPLITUDE MODULATION

Single-sideband (SSB) modulation is a composite modulation technique in which both the amplitude and phase of the modulated carrier are varying in response to the modulating signal. SSB has been devised for minimum use of the transmission bandwidth, e.g., in HF radio where transmission bandwidth is a premium. In the development of amplitude modulation, it is observed that the spectrum of a DSBSC-AM signal consists of two sidebands. The transmission of both sidebands is not necessary, since either sideband contains the essential information for reconstructing the original message signal. Elimination of one of the sidebands prior to transmission leads to single-sideband modulation, which results in halving the transmission bandwidth. As will be noted later, this saving in bandwidth is accompanied by a considerable increase in complexity. The most straightforward way of generating an SSB signal is to select either the upper sideband or the lower sideband of a DSB-SC-AM signal using a bandpass lter with an appropriate passband.

Figure 1: (a) Modulating signal m(t), and (b) AM wave for |ka m(t)| < 1.

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The main disadvantage of this method of SSB generation by sideband ltering is the need of a bandpass lter with a very sharp transition response in the region between the USB and LSB. In practice, such a highly selective lter is realised by means of crystal resonators. To ease the requirement for the lter, the message signal must have an energy gap centered at the origin. This requirement is naturally satised by voice signal whose energy gap is about 600 Hz wide, which provides a transition bandwidth of 600 Hz in between the USB and LSB.

Time-domain representation of an SSB signal

Consider the spectrum M (f ) of the message signal m(t ), the spectrum Mp (f ) of the positive frequency pre-envelope signal mp (t ), and the spectrum Mn (f ) of the negativefrequency pre-envelope signal mn (t ).

The positive-frequency portion of M (f ) is given by the Fourier transform of of m(t ) and its Hilbert transform m(t), such that 1 Mp (f ) = {m(t) + jm(t)}. 2

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Similarly, the negative-frequency portion of M (f ) is given by Mn (f ) = 1 {m(t) jm(t)}. 2

The upper-sideband SSB is given in the frequency domain by 1 1 Xc,U SB (f ) = Ac Mp (f fc ) + Ac Mn (f + fc ). 2 2 Inverse Fourier transforming the above expression yields
1 1 xc,U SB (t) = 4 Ac [m(t) + jm(t)] exp(j 2fc t) + 4 Ac [m(t) jm(t)] exp(j 2fc t) 1 =4 Ac m(t)[exp(j 2fc t) + exp(j 2fc t)] + j 1 A m(t)[exp(j 2fc t) exp(j 2fc t)] 4 c 1 Ac m(t) cos(2fc t) 1 A m(t) sin(2fc t). =2 2 c

In a similar manner, the lower-sideband SSB is given in the frequency domain by 1 1 Xc,LSB (f ) = Ac Mp (f + fc ) + Ac Mn (f fc ). 2 2 Inverse Fourier transforming the above expression yields
1 1 Ac [m(t) + jm(t)] exp(j 2fc t) + 4 Ac [m(t) jm(t)] exp(+j 2fc t) xc,LSB (t) = 4 1 Ac m(t)[exp(j 2fc t) + exp(j 2fc t)] j 1 A m(t)[exp(j 2fc t) exp(j 2fc t)] =4 4 c

=1 A m(t) cos(2fc t) + 1 A m(t) sin(2fc t). 2 c 2 c Note: The above expressions for xc,LSB (t ), and xc,U SB (t ) provide a method for implementing an SSB modulator without the need for a highly selective bandpass lter for sideband selection.

Phase-shift method of SSB signal generation

The phase-shift method of SSB signal generation is based on the time-domain canonical representation of a bandpass signal. The modulating signal m(t ), and its 90o phase shifted version m(t)are applied to a pair of quadrature product modulators. The resultant SSB output is obtained by combining the outputs of the product modulators, xc (t ) and xs (t ) with an adder or subtractor. By
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adding xc (t ) and xs (t ) together, an SSB signal containing the LSB is produced. With a subtractor (i.e., xc (t ) xs (t )), the resultant SSB signal contains the USB. Note: The Hilbert transformer which performs the 90o phase shifting of the input message signal m(t ) cannot be implemented exactly. In practice, the 90o phase shift is performed by an all pass network. The main disadvantage of this phase-shift method of SSB signal generation is that it is dicult to implement a wideband 90o phase shift network to cover the entire bandwidth of the modulating signal.

Detection of an SSB modulated carrier

There are several methods that can be used to demodulate SSB. The simplest method is to multiply the incoming SSB signal with a local carrier vL(t ) followed by lowpass ltering. This method is suitable for recovering message signal m(t ) which contains no very low frequency, e.g., for human voice bandlimited to the range 300 - 3400 Hz.

Figure 2: SSB demodulation using a product demodulator.

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Let the input SSB signal at the receiver from end be represented by an USB such that 1 xc,U SB (t) = Ac [m(t) cos(2fc t) m(t) sin(2fc t)]. 2 The local carrier at the receiver side is given by vL (t) = AL cos[(2fc + f )t + (t)] where f is the frequency oset, and (t ) is the phase dierence between the transmit and local carriers. The demodulated output is given by

vd (t) =

1 Ac [m(t) cos(2fc t) m(t) sin(2fc t)]AL cos[2 (fc + f )t + (t)] 2 1 = Ac AL {[m(t) cos(2 f t + (t)) m(t) sin(2 f t + (t))] 4 + [m(t) cos[2 (2fc + f )t + (t)] + m(t) sin[2 (2fc + f )t + (t)]}

After lowpass ltering to remove the high frequency components located at 2fc , we obtain 1 vo (t) = Ac AL [m(t) cos(2 f t + (t)) m(t) sin(2 f t + (t))]. 4 The recovered message signal is distortionless if f=0, and (t )=0, i.e., 1 vo (t) = Ac AL m(t). 4 This will require that the local carrier to be phase locked to the carrier of the transmitted signal (coherent demodulation). If f=0, and (t ) is nonzero, then the output contains of two terms, such that 1 vo (t) = Ac AL [m(t) cos((t)) m(t) sin((t))]. 4 The rst term corresponds to a time-varying attenuation of the message signal and it is the same as the product demodulation of a DSB-SC-AM signal in the same manner. The second term is a crosstalk term and it gives rise to phase distortion, where each frequency component of the original message signal m(t ) undergoes a constant phase
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shift in the course of demodulation. This phase distortion may be tolerated with voice communications, as the human ear is insensitive to phase distortion. The presence of phase distortion will lead to a Donald Duck voice eect. If (t )=0, and f is nonzero, the recovered message signal is given by 1 vo (t) = Ac AL [m(t) cos(2 f t) m(t) sin(2 f t)]. 4 The rst term is the same signal as the product demodulated output of a DSB-SC-AM signal under the same conditions for the local carrier. The second term introduces crosstalk giving rise to distortion. In voice communication, a small value of f, say 10 Hz, is allowable as human hearing is not capable of appreciating such a small shift in frequency. Note: For the transmission of music, video and data signals, coherent demodulation of SSB signals is mandatory. Often, a low-power pilot carrier is transmitted together with the selected sideband to simplify the carrier recovery process. Another useful technique for demodulating an SSB signal is carrier reinsertion. The output of a local oscillator is added to the received signal.

Figure 3: (a) Modulating signal m(t), and (b) AM wave for |ka m(t)| < 1. Let the received SSB signal be the USB, so that the signal e (t ) at the input of the envelope detector after the carrier reinsertion is given by 1 1 e(t) = [ Ac m(t) + K ] cos(2fc t) Ac m(t) sin(2fc t). 2 2 In order to derive the output from the envelope detector, we express e (t ) as e(t) = R(t) cos(2fc t + (t))
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where R (t ) is the envelope of the signal e (t ), such that R(t) = and the phase (t) is given by (t) = tan1 [ Ac m(t)/2 ]. Ac m(t)/2 + K [Ac m(t)/2 + K ]2 + [Ac m(t) 2]2 ,

A m(t) + K ]2 >> [ 1 A m(t)]2 , then the output at Now, under the condition that [ 1 2 c 2 c the envelope detector yields 1 vo (t) = Ac m(t) + K. 2 The required message m(t ) can be easily extracted from vo (t) by using a dc blocker circuit. With this carrier reinsertion technique, it is assumed that the locally generated carrier is phase coherent with the original modulation carrier. In voice communication, the frequency and phase of the demodulation carrier can be manually adjusted until intelligibility is obtained.

Asymmetrical sideband (ASB ) modulation

Normal SSB is not suitable for message signal containing dc or very low frequency components. One way of overcoming this problem is to sacrice a bit of the bandwidth economy of SSB by employing a sideband lter which admits part of the unwanted sideband in the region adjacent to the carrier. Since the use of ASB is to retain the dc level and low-frequency components, and possibly the waveshape of the modulating signal, demodulation needs to be performed using a coherent product demodulator. Note that without special precaution, the demodulated signal spectrum will suer from distortion due to fold-over caused by the product demodulation process.

Vestigial-sideband (VSB ) modulation

In systems which require that the correct message signal spectrum be maintained after demodulation, then vestigial sideband (VSB ) modulation is adopted. A VSB
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modulated signal is obtained by ltering an DSB-AM signal with a sideband lter so that the resultant VSB spectrum is shown below: In this case, the amplitude response of the sideband lter is given by |H (f + fc )| = 1 |H (f fc )| |H (fc )| (fc f1 ) = = 1/2 f2 fc . for f1 f f2

In vestigial-sideband modulation, the required sideband ltering can be performed at either the transmitter or the receiver. In practice, this is normally carried out in the receiver as the signal power handled at the transmitter is relatively high and this makes it dicult in attempting to shape the transmit spectrum, e.g., in television broadcasting. Signal spectra in TV transmission: Note: In TV transmission, it is essential to preserve the dc component as it represents
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the average brightness of the picture. Note: The sideband lter in the transmitter simply bandlimits the video signal. The purpose of the dc restorer and white clipper is to ensure that the levels of the amplied signals are in proper proportion so that the picture has the necessary black-white dynamic range. The spectrum of the audio signal is centered about the audio carrier which is 4.5 MHz above the video carrier. Note: The control for the brightness level adjusts the dc level of the video signal, and the control for contrast level adjusts the IF amplier gain.

Independent-sideband (ISB ) modulation

ISB is used for radio transmission in the HF band (3-30 MHz ) because of its economy in bandwidth utilisation. In this case, one SSB signal (e.g., USB ) is used to convey one message, while another SSB signal (e.g., LSB ) of the same carrier is used to transmit another message.
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The two SSB signals are generated by two separate product modulators. The outputs of the modulators are ltered by appropriate sideband lters. A carrier pilot tone is usually inserted in the combined ISB signal to provide carrier phase reference in the receiver.

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Figure 4: Generation of an independent-sideband modulated signal.

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