DIGITAL MODULATION
Electronic Communications
Definition: Transmission, reception, and processing of information
with the use of electronic circuits
Information
Definition: Knowledge or intelligence that is communicated (i.e.,
transmitted or received) between two or more points.
Digital modulation - digital radio
- used in wireless communications systems
Definition: Transmittal of digitally modulated analog signals (carriers)
between two or more points in a communications system.
Modulation – always consists of two signals:
1. carrier
2. information
Digital modulation
Carrier – analog signal
Information – digital signal
Advantages over Analog Modulation
1. Ease of processing
2. Ease of multiplexing
3. Noise immunity.
2 Kinds of Digital Communications:
1. Digital Transmission Systems
• Transmit digital pulses along physical wire
2. Digital Radio System
• Transmit digitally modulated signal and use
airwaves or physical medium for transmission
Kinds of Digital Modulation:
1. ASK – Amplitude Shift Keying
2. FSK – Frequency Shift Keying
3. PSK – Phase Shift Keying
Applications for Digital Modulation
(1) low-speed voice-band data communications modems (Computers)
(2) DSL
(3) Microwave and satellite communications
(4) Cellular Phones
TOPIC: INFORMATION CAPACITY, BITS, BIT RATE, BAUD,
AND M-ARY ENCODING
Information theory
Definition: Theoretical study of the efficient use of bandwidth
to propagate information through electronic
communications systems.
Information capacity
Definition: A measure of how much information can be propagated
through a communications system and is a function of
bandwidth and transmission time.
- Measured in bit – binary digit
- Also known as BIT RATE (no. of bits per second, bps)
1928 - R. Hartley of Bell Telephone Laboratories developed Hartley’s
law
Hartley’s law - relationship among bandwidth, transmission time, and
information capacity.
1948 - Claude E. Shannon (also of Bell Telephone Laboratories)
published a paper in the Bell System Technical Journal (Shannon
limit for information capacity
Shannon limit for information capacity – relationship between the
information capacity of a communications channel to bandwidth
and signal-to-noise ratio
Example: For a standard telephone circuit with a signal-to-noise power
ratio of 1000 (30 dB) and a bandwidth of 2.7 kHz, the Shannon
limit for information capacity is
• This means that 26.9 kbps can be propagated through
a 2.7-kHz communications channel
Or
B = 2.7 kHz
I = 26.9 kbps (bit rate)
M-ary Encoding
M-ary – from the word binary
M - represents a digit that corresponds to:
a. number of conditions
b. number of levels
c. combinations possible for a given number of binary variables
Example:
M = 4 means there are 4 voltage levels that we can use
to represent signals
Example: Given the no. of bits, find the number of conditions
a. N =1, 𝑀 = 2𝑁 = 21 = 2
b. N = 2, 𝑀 = 2𝑁 = 22 = 4
Baud
Definition: Rate of change of a signal on the transmission
medium after encoding and modulation have occurred.
• unit of transmission rate, modulation rate, or symbol rate
• symbols per second
Bit Rate
Definition: Rate of change of a digital information signal, which is
usually binary
Signaling element – also called symbol
- change in amplitude, frequency or phase
Note: a baud may represent more than one information bit
Nyquist bandwidth
𝑓𝑏 = 2𝐵 where fb – data rate
B – Nyquist minimum bandwidth
Using multilevel signaling, meaning more than 1 bit is used
per signaling element:
𝑓𝑏 = 2𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝑀
where 𝑓𝑏 - channel capacity (bps)
B - minimum Nyquist bandwidth (hertz)
M - number of discrete signal or voltage
levels
𝑓𝑏
and 𝐵= with 𝑁 = 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝑀
𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝑀
then 𝑓𝑏 N – no. of bits in a
𝐵= signaling element
𝑁
𝑓𝑏
𝑏𝑎𝑢𝑑 =
𝑁
TOPIC: KINDS OF DIGITAL MODULATION
AMPLITUDE SHIFT KEYING (ASK)
• binary information signal directly modulates the amplitude of
an analog carrier
• digital amplitude modulation (DAM)
• on-off keying (OOK).
𝐴
𝑣𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 1 + 𝑣𝑚 (𝑡) 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑤𝑐 𝑡
2
where
𝑣𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡 -amplitude shift keying
𝑣𝑚 (𝑡) – digital information (modulating) signal (volts)
𝐴
− unmodulated carrier amplitude (volts)
2
𝑤𝑐 - analog carrier radian frequency (radians per second,
2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡
𝑣𝑚 (𝑡) – normalized binary waveform where
+1𝑉 − 𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐 1
−1𝑉 − 𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑖𝑐 0
For 𝑣𝑚 𝑡 = +1𝑉
𝐴
𝑣𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 1+1 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑤𝑐 𝑡
2
𝑣𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 𝐴cos(𝑤𝑐 𝑡) “ON”
For 𝑣𝑚 𝑡 = −1𝑉
𝐴
𝑣𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 1−1 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑤𝑐 𝑡
2
𝑣𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 0 “OFF”
Example:
Determine the baud and minimum bandwidth necessary to pass a
10 kbps binary signal using amplitude shift keying.
Solution:
Given: 𝑓𝑏 = 10𝑘𝑏𝑝𝑠
Find: baud and bandwidth
For ASK, N = 1
𝑓𝑏 10𝑘𝑏𝑝𝑠
𝐵= = = 10𝐾𝐻𝑧
𝑁 1
𝑓𝑏 10𝑘𝑏𝑝𝑠
𝑏𝑎𝑢𝑑 = = = 10𝑘𝑏𝑎𝑢𝑑
𝑁 1
Characteristics of ASK:
1. Low quality
2. Low cost
3. For very low-speed telemetry circuits
FREQUENCY-SHIFT KEYING
• binary information signal directly modulates the frequency of
an analog carrier
• binary FSK (BFSK)
𝑣𝑓𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 𝑉𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋 𝑓𝑐 + 𝑣𝑚 (𝑡)∆𝑓 𝑡
where
𝑣𝑓𝑠𝑘 𝑡 -binary frequency shift keying (FSK) waveform (volts)
𝑉𝑐 – peak analog carrier amplitude (volts)
𝑓𝑐 − analog carrier center frequency (hertz)
∆𝑓 − peak change (shift) in the analog carrier frequency (hertz)
𝑣𝑚 𝑡 − binary input (modulating) signal (volts)
∆𝑓 − proportional to 𝑣𝑚 𝑡
For 𝑣𝑚 𝑡 = +1𝑉
𝑣𝑓𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 𝑉𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋 𝑓𝑐 + 𝑣𝑚 (𝑡)∆𝑓 𝑡
= 𝑉𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋 𝑓𝑐 + ∆𝑓 𝑡
For 𝑣𝑚 𝑡 = −1𝑉
𝑣𝑓𝑠𝑘 𝑡 = 𝑉𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋 𝑓𝑐 + 𝑣𝑚 (𝑡)∆𝑓 𝑡
= 𝑉𝑐 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋 𝑓𝑐 − ∆𝑓 𝑡
𝑓𝑚 - mark, or logic 1 frequency
𝑓𝑠 − space, or logic 0 frequency
𝑓𝑚 − 𝑓𝑠 ∆𝑓 − 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 (ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑧)
∆𝑓 =
2
𝑓𝑚 − 𝑓𝑠 - absolute difference between
the mark and space frequencies (hertz)
𝑓𝑏
𝑏𝑎𝑢𝑑 =
1
𝐵 = 𝑓𝑠 − 𝑓𝑏 − 𝑓𝑚 − 𝑓𝑏
= 𝑓𝑠 − 𝑓𝑚 + 2𝑓𝑏
= 2∆𝑓 + 2𝑓𝑏
=2 ∆𝑓 + 𝑓𝑏
Where
B - minimum Nyquist bandwidth (hertz)
∆𝑓 − frequency deviation 𝑓𝑠 − 𝑓𝑚 (hertz)
𝑓𝑏 −input bit rate (bps)
Example:
Determine (a) the peak frequency deviation, (b) minimum
bandwidth, and (c) baud for a binary FSK signal with a mark
frequency of 49 kHz, a space frequency of 51 kHz, and an input bit
rate of 2 kbps.
Solution:
Given:
𝑓𝑚 = 49 𝑘𝐻𝑧
𝑓𝑠 = 51 𝑘𝐻𝑧
𝑓𝑏 = 2 𝑘𝑏𝑝𝑠
Find:
a. ∆𝑓
𝑓𝑠 −𝑓𝑚 51𝑘𝐻𝑧−49𝑘𝐻𝑧
∆𝑓 = = = 1 𝑘𝐻𝑧
2 2
𝑏. 𝐵 = 2 ∆𝑓 + 𝑓𝑏 = 2 1𝑘𝐻𝑧 + 2𝑘𝑏𝑝𝑠 = 6𝑘𝐻𝑧
𝑓𝑏 2𝑘𝑏𝑝𝑠
𝑐. 𝑏𝑎𝑢𝑑 = = = 2 𝑘𝑏𝑎𝑢𝑑
1 1
Note: Bessel functions can also be used to determine the approximate
bandwidth for an FSK wave
𝑓𝑏
𝑓𝑎 =
2
where
𝑓𝑎 - highest fundamental frequency of the binary input signal (hertz)
𝑓𝑏 - input bit rate (bps)
∆𝑓
ℎ= (unitless)
𝑓𝑎
where
h - FM modulation index called the h-factor in FSK
∆f - fundamental frequency of the binary modulating signal (hertz)
𝑓𝑎 - peak frequency deviation (hertz)
worst-case modulation index (deviation ratio)
- widest bandwidth
- max. frequency deviation and modulating frequency
𝑓𝑚 − 𝑓𝑠
2 𝑓𝑚 − 𝑓𝑠
ℎ= =
𝑓𝑏 𝑓𝑏
2
Example:
Using a Bessel table, determine the minimum bandwidth for the
same FSK signal described in Example 1 with a mark frequency of
49 kHz, a space frequency of 51 kHz, and an input bit rate of 2
kbps.
