ELL 311: Communication Engineering
Problem Set 3
1. What is the need for signal modulation?
2. Mention one advantage and one disadvantage of AM signal over DSB-SC signal.
3. Given a message signal m(t) , plot the DSB-SC signal of m(t)c(t) and identify the USB and LSB
from the modulated signal when (a) m(t)π= cos(1000πt) cos(3000πt) and c(t) = cos(10000πt),
−|t|
(b) m(t) = e and c(t) = cos 10000πt −
4
4. For an AM signal x(t) modulated using single tone message signal, calculate the efficiency of the
AM (ratio of sideband power to signal power) for µ = 0.2. What is the maximum efficiency achieved
by varying µ?
5. Consider the circuit given in figure 1. We consider the input-output characteristics of the circuit
given by (small signal model approximation)
vo (t) ≈ a1 vi (t) + a2 vi2 (t)
Given vi (t) = Ac cos(2πfc t) + m(t), where m(t) is bandlimited to [−f0 , f0 ] Hz.
(a) Determine the spectral content of vo (t).
(b) Determine the cutoff frequencies of the filter required to extract an AM signal from vo (t)
(c) What is the minimum value of fc so as to avoid spectral distortion (aliasing) in the generated
AM signal in the previous part?
vo (t)
m(t)
vi (t)
Ac cos(2πfc t)
Figure 1: Square Law Modulator
6. Two signals m1 (t) and m2 (t), both band limited to 5000 Hz, are to be transmitted simultane-
ously over a channel by the multiplexing scheme shown in figure 2. The final signal at point c is
transmitted over a channel.
(a) Sketch signal spectra at points a, b and c.
(b) What must be the bandwidth of the channel?
(c) Design a receiver to recover signals m1 (t) and m2 (t) from the signal at point c.
1
M1 (f )
m1 (t)
-5000 5000 f
b c
Σ x
M2 (f )
m2 (t) a
x 2 cos(40000πt)
-5000 5000 f
2 cos(20000πt)
Figure 2: Figure for question 6
7. A DSB-SC signal is given by m(t) cos(2π106 t). The carrier frequency of this signal 1 MHz is to
be changed to 400 kHz. The only equipment available consists of one ring modulator, a bandpass
filter centered at frequency 400 kHz, and one sine wave generator whose frequency can be varied
from 150 to 210 kHz. Device a scheme to obtain the output y(t) = λm(t) cos(2π400 × 103 t) using
the above equipments and find the value of λ obtained?
8. A particular version of AM stereo uses quadrature multiplexing. Specifically the carrier Ac cos(2πfc t)
is used to modulate the sum signal
m1 (t) = V0 + ml (t) + mr (t)
where V0 is a DC offset included for the purpose of transmitting carrier component, ml (t) is
the left-handed audio signal and mr (t) is the right-handed audio signal. The quadrature carrier
Ac sin(2πfc t) is used to modulate the difference signal
m2 (t) = ml (t) − mr (t)
(a) Can the signal mr (t) + ml (t) be recovered using an envelope detector? If yes, how would you
minimise the signal distortion produced by the detector?
(b) Device a scheme to obtain ml (t) and mr (t) from m1 (t) and m2 (t) respectively?
9. The single tone modulating signal m(t) = Am cos(2πfm t) is used to generate the VSB signal
1 1
s(t) = aAm Ac cos[2π(fc + fm )t] + Am Ac (1 − a) cos[2π(fc − fm )t]
2 2
where a < 1, represents the attenuation of the upperside frequency.
(a) Find the quadrature component of s(t).
(b) The VSB signal, plus the carrier Ac cos(2πfc t) is passed through an envelope detector. Deter-
mine the distortion produced by the quadrature component.
(c) What is the value of a for which this distortion reaches its worst possible condition?