Modulation Schemes

Lecture 05
EEE 352 Analog Communication Systems
Mansoor Khan
EE Dept.
CIIT Islamabad Campus
 Communication Systems
• Baseband Communication Systems
Baseband: band of frequencies of the signal delivered by a transducer.
Eg voice signals 0 to 3.5 kHz, TV signal occupies band from 0-4.5MHz

Short haul communication links, eg Local telephone communication,

PCM(between two exchanges) etc

• Carrier Communication Systems

Uses modulation to shift frequency spectra of baseband signals over
multiplexed communication channel.

Long haul effective communication

 Modulation
• A process of varying parameters of one waveform by another.
• In communication systems, a message signal (baseband signal),
which contains the information is used to control or vary the
parameters of a carrier signal, so as to impress the information onto
the carrier.
• A device that performs modulation is known as modulator and a
device which performs reverse operation i.e. extracting the
modulating or baseband from modulated carrier is termed as
demodulator.
 Analog and Digital Modulation
The Messages
The message or modulating signal may be either:

analog – denoted by m(t)

digital – denoted by d(t) – i.e. sequences of 1's and 0's

The Carrier

The carrier could be a 'sine wave' or a 'pulse train'. Frequency of carrier is much higher than
that of modulating baseband signal.

Analog Modulation: transferring analog baseband m(t) signal over a high frequency carrier.
Modulation is applied continuously in response to baseband signal.

Digital Modulation: analog carrier is modulated by digital bitstream d(t) analog carrier is
modulated from finite ary of symbols.
 Modulation principle

Change parameters of a carrier

vmod  t   Ac cos  2 f ct  c 
Controlled Parameters: Ac(t)
fc(t)
(t)
Analog Digital
Ac(t) : amplitude modulation AM ASK
fc(t) : frequency modulation FM FSK
(t) : phase modulation PM PSK
Amplitude Modulation Illustration
 Frequency Modulation (FM)

• In FM, the amplitude of the carrier remains fixed

• In FM, frequency changes according to the signal:
– when the signal is stronger, the carrier frequency increases slightly,
– and when the signal is weaker, the carrier frequency decreases slightly
• Figure (next slide) illustrates an example of FM for an info
signal
• FM is more difficult to visualize
– because slight changes in frequency are not as clearly visible
– However, one can notice that the modulated wave has higher frequencies
when the signal used for modulation is stronger
Frequency Modulation Illustration
 Modulation, Digital Input, And Shift Keying
• How can digital input be used in modulation?
• Modifications to the modulation schemes described above
are needed:
– instead of modulation that is proportional to a continuous signal, digital
schemes use discrete values
• To distinguish between analog and digital modulation
– we use the term shift keying rather than modulation
• Shift keying operates similar to analog modulation
– Instead of a continuum of possible values, digital shift keying has a fixed set
– For example, AM allows the amplitude of a carrier to vary by arbitrarily small
amounts in response to a change in the signal
• In contrast, amplitude shift keying uses a fixed set of possible amplitude
Figure Illustration of
•a carrier wave
•a digital input signal
•amplitude shift
keying
•frequency shift
keying
 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
• Amplitude shift keying (ASK): is a form of modulation which
represents digital data as variations in the amplitude of a carrier
wave. Two different amplitudes of carrier frequency represent '0'
, '1'.
 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
• In Frequency Shift Keying, the change in frequency define
different digits. Two different frequencies near carrier frequency
represent '0' ,''1'.
 Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
• PSK changes the phase of the carrier wave abruptly
– each such change is called a phase shift
– The phase of the carrier is discretely varied in relation either to a reference phase
or to the phase of the immediately preceding signal element, in accordance with
data being transmitted. Phase of carrier signal is shifted to represent '0' , '1'.
 Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
• Figure illustrates how phase shifts affects a sine wave
– There are three (abrupt) phase changes
– A phase shift is measured by the angle of the change
– The left most portion of sine wave changes its phase by π/2 radians
– The second phase change corresponds to a 180 shift
 Need for Modulation
Modulation facilitates transmission of baseband
signal on communication channel some of the
important reasons for use of modulation are:

a) Antenna Height (Ease of radiation)

b) Narrow Banding
c) Poor Radiation and Penetration
d) Multiplexing
 Antenna Height
• Transmitting and receiving antenna are the important elements of long range radio communications
where communication channel is free space and signal travel in the form of electromagnetic waves,
antenna converts information signal to EM waves and are converted back to electrical signals at
receiver side.
• The most important design parameter is to design antenna that provides efficient radiation of EM
waves and their satisfactory reception.
• The most important design parameter is the height of antenna.
• A rule of thumb for proper transmission and reception of radio waves, the height of antenna should be
the order of one quarter or half wavelength of the frequency of transmitted signal.
• If h is the height of antenna, l is the wavelength of the signal, f is the frequency of the signal, and c is
the velocity of light (3 * 10^8 m /sec) , then the required height of antenna according to rule is:

h = λ/4
Or
h = λ/2
Where λ = c/f

height of antenna can be expressed as a function of transmitted signal’s frequency as:

h(f) = c/4f
From the above result it is clear that height of antenna is inversely proportional to the frequency of
transmitted signal.
Consider the example of a radio broadcast system that transmits voice of 300 to 3000Hz.
Required antenna height to transmit the audio in the given range is:

Maximum height = 3 x 10^8 / 4 x 300

= 250km
Minimum height = 3 x 10^8 / 4 x 3000
= 25km

Therefore to transmit a signal in audio range the required height of antenna lies between 250 km and
25 km. It is obvious that the height is not practically feasible.

The only solution to this problem lies in transmitting the signal on a carrier of frequency higher than
that of baseband signal – modulation.
Therefore a modulated signal is transmitted to keep the height of antenna in practical range.

Suppose carrier frequency for audio range broadcast is 1.5MHz, corresponding height of antenna comes
to:

h = 3x10^8 / 4 x 1.5 x 10^6 = 50m

which is in practical limits.

 Narrow banding
• In all communication systems, the baseband signal occupies a range
of frequencies i.e. has a certain bandwidth for example audio
signals lie in the range of 20 – 20kHz, video signals lie in the range
of 0 to 5MHz.
• In radio communication system the frequency of the signal to be
transmitted determines antenna height.
• If an audio signal is to be transmitted, then each frequency suggests
corresponding antenna height, if baseband signal is transmitted
without modification then as many antennas are required as the
frequency components.
• As this is not practical, solution to this problem is smaller number of
antennas or preferably single antenna with height in practical limits,
which can transmit the entire baseband range.
• Solution to this problem can be found by analyzing band-edge ratio
of baseband signal.
Band-edge ratio of audio signal is(20 – 20kHz):
20 / 20 x 10^3 = 1 : 1000

The practical significance of this ratio is to transmit a frequency component of 20kHz height of antenna
required is 1 unit, then height of antenna for 20Hz component is 1000 units. Since band edge ratio is
large the antenna height may not be practical.

Solution to this problem is to translate the baseband signal to high frequency say 1.5MHz then lowest
and highest freq components becomes:

Lowest frequency component : 1.5MHz + 20Hz = 1500020Hz

Highest frequency component: 1.5MHz + 20kHz = 1520000 Hz

The band edge ratio of modulated signal is:

1500020/1520000 = 0.9868 (approximately 1)

Therefore band edge ratio is 1:1

Thus a single antenna can be used to transmit the entire range of baseband signal. With this concept a
wideband is practically narrowed so the ratio to lowest and highest frequency component is 1:1.
 Poor Radiation and Penetration
• The radiated power is directly proportional to the frequency of EM (radio)
waves.
• E = hf ; where h is the Planck’s constant
h = 6.626068 × 10-34 m2 kg / s
• If the baseband signal is to be transmitted without modulation the
radiations will be poor and may suffer complete deterioration over large
distances due to attenuation and additive channel noise.
• This may result in loss of signal at the receiver.
• Therefore to make sure that the transmitted radiation has sufficient power
to reach the receiver the baseband signal needs to be translated to high
frequency carrier – modulation.
• Another reason to use modulation is to increase the penetration of
radiation in ionospheric layers of atmosphere in free space for effective
satellite communication systems. Low frequency baseband signals cannot
penetrate the atmospheric layers resulting in poor reception at the end.
 Multiplexing
• Consider a case of several radio stations broadcasting in the audio range
simultaneously without any modification. Since the bandwidth of
transmitted signal for each radio station is close to each other.
Interference takes place over the communication channel.
• This makes it impossible for several radio stations to broadcast
simultaneously.
• Bandwidth of channel may be greater than that of audio range, which
results in wastage of channel resource utilization if single station transmits
at a time.
• Practical solution to such problem is to modulate the transmitted signals
at same time assigning each station a frequency range far apart from one
another (preventing overlapping)which can be bandpass tuned at receiver
end.
• Such technique which uses same channel to transmit several signals at the
same time assigning each signal a frequency band is known as Frequency
Division Multiplexing.
• Here the bandwidth of the channel is shared by various signals without
overlapping.