MODULE III

UNIT 5
MODULATION SCHEMES
Digital Modulation

Overview
 Difference from Analog Modulation
• In digital modulation, the information signal takes
discrete levels, while in analog modulation, the
information signal has no discretization and can
take any level.
• Digital modulation is the process of encoding a
digital information signal into the amplitude,
phase, or frequency of the transmitted signal. The
encoding process affects the bandwidth of the
transmitted signal and its robustness to channel
impairments.
 Contd.
• An advantage of digital modulation is that it can
operate with much lower signal-to-noise ratio than
can analog modulation,
• Also, output level is not dependent on optical level,
and there is no degradation of signals through the
system.
• The modulation method in which discrete signals are
used to modulate carrier waves and remove noise
from the waves is known as digital modulation.
 Digitally Modulated Signals
• Digital Modulation (or digital signaling):
• The process of mapping a digital sequence to signals for
transmission over a communication channel.

• In the process of modulation, usually the transmitted signals

are bandpass signals suitable for transmission in the andwidth
provided by the communication channel.

The transmitted signal can be memoryless or with memory.

 Factors Causing ISI

• ISI arises due to imperfections in the overall frequency

response of the system.
• If a short pulse of duration seconds is transmitted
through a bandlimited system, then the frequency
component contained in the input pulse are differentially
attenuated and more importantly differentially delayed by
the system.
• So, the pulse appeared at the output of the system will be
dispersed over an interval that is longer than seconds.
• Due to this dispersion, the symbols each of duration
 Contd.
• Will interfere with each other when transmitted over
the communication channel resulting ISI.
• EFFECTS-
• In the absence of ISI and noise, the transmitted bit
can be decoded correctly at the receiver.
• Presence of ISI will introduce errors in the decision at
the receiver receiver output.
• For which the receiver can an error in deciding the
receipt of bit a logic 1 or a logic 0
 Remedy to reduce ISI
• A sinc function produces zero ISI.

• This is known as Nyquist Pulse sahaping.

• The FT of a Sinc funtion is a rectangular

function. So, to prserve all the frequency
components, the frequency response of the
filter must be exactly flat in the pass band and
zero in the attenuation band.
 Pulse Shaping
• pulse shaping is the process of changing the
waveform of transmitted pulses. Its purpose is to
make the transmitted signal better suited to its
purpose or the communication channel, typically by
limiting the effective bandwidth of the transmission.
• By filtering the transmitted pulses this way,
the intersymbol interference caused by the channel
can be kept in control. In RF communication, pulse
shaping is essential for making the signal fit in its
frequency band.
 Contd.
• Pulse shaping is one technique used in
communication to overcome the degradation
of signals due to ISI.
• It involves the process of choosing the time
domain and spectral shape of the symbols so
that the pulses do not spread or overlap.
 Nyquist ISI criterion
• In communications, the Nyquist ISI criterion describes the conditions
which, when satisfied by a communication channel (including responses of
transmit and receive filters), result in no intersymbol interference or ISI. It
provides a method for constructing band-limited functions to overcome the
effects of intersymbol interference.
• When consecutive symbols are transmitted over a channel by a linear
modulation (such as ASK, QAM, etc.), the impulse response (or
equivalently the frequency response) of the channel causes a transmitted
symbol to be spread in the time domain. This causes intersymbol
interference because the previously transmitted symbols affect the currently
received symbol, thus reducing tolerance for noise. The Nyquist theorem
relates this time-domain condition to an equivalent frequency-
domain condition.
• The Nyquist criterion is closely related to the Nyquist–Shannon sampling
theorem, with only a differing point of view.
 Inter Symbol Interference

• This is a form of distortion of a signal, in which

one or more symbols interfere with
subsequent signals, causing noise or delivering
a poor output.
• Causes of ISI
• The main causes of ISI are −
• Multi-path Propagation
• Non-linear frequency in channels
 Contd.
• The ISI is unwanted and should be completely
eliminated to get a clean output. The causes
of ISI should also be resolved in order to
lessen its effect.
• To view ISI in a mathematical form present in
the receiver output, we can consider the
receiver output.
 OQPSK
• Offset quardrature phase-shift keying is a variant of
phase-shift keying modulation using four different values
of the phase to transmit.
• Also called staggered quadrature phase-shift keying.
• Commonly used in high speed wireless transmission
systems, terrestrial mobile communication systems,
wideband satellite communication systems, digital video
broadcasting systems etc.
• Its advantage over QPSK is that due to offset where the
change in the I channel occuring at the midpoints of the Q
channel there is never more than 90 degrees of phase shift
in the output phase of the system unlike the ordinary
QPSK.
 Contd.
• Offset QPSK (OQPSK) is a modified form of QPSK where the
bit waveforms on the I and Q channels are offset or shifted in
phase from each other by one-half of a bit time.
• Offset QPSK, which involves adding a delay to one of two
digital data streams used in the modulation process, reduces
the maximum phase jump to 90°. Eg., Another option is π/4-
QPSK, which reduces the maximum phase jump to 135°
• Preferred due to its reduced degree of instantaneous phase
transitions.
• Disadvantage is that – it introduces a delay of half a symbol
into the demodulation process.
• Thus it increase the temporal efficiency of normal QPSK. It
means the in phase and quadrature phase components of
OQPSK cannot be simultaneously zero.
 π/4 QPSK
• This modulation scheme is obtained by adding
additional π/4 phase shift in the phase of the
carrier of the symbols.
• Here, one QPSK constellation is used to modulate
odd symbol numbers and another offset by to
modulate even symbol numbers.
• Thus resulting in a maximum phase transition of
135 degree in between that of offset QPSK(90
degrees) and non-offset QPSK (180 degrees).
 Contd.
• QPSK and 4-QAM are effectively same.
• QAM relates to a way of changing the amplitude,
or power level, of two signals. QAM is used extensively as a
modulation scheme for digital telecommunication systems, such as in 802.11 Wi-
Fi standards.

• Higher order PSK and QAM would be different.

• OQPSK is preferred-Why? As it has a better
bandwidth efficiency and hence it can be used for
systems with less power since it has a better
channel frequency error.
 Contd.
• QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) is a method of combining two
amplitude modulation (AM) signals into a single channel. This approach helps
double its effective bandwidth.

• QAM is used to achieve high levels of spectrum usage efficiency. This is

accomplished by utilizing both the amplitude and phase components to provide a
form of modulation. In this scenario, the QAM signal comes with two carriers.
Each has the same frequency but differs in phases by 90 degrees, or one-quarter of
a cycle, which is the basis for the term quadrature.
• It conveys two analog message signals, or two digital bit streams, by changing
(modulating) the amplitudes of two carrier waves, using the amplitude-shift
keying (ASK) digital modulation scheme or amplitude modulation (AM) analog
modulation scheme. The two carrier waves are of the same frequency and are out of
phase with each other by 90°, a condition known as orthogonality or quadrature.
The transmitted signal is created by adding the two carrier waves together.
 Continuous phase modulation
• Continuous phase modulation (CPM) is a method for
modulation of data commonly used in wireless modems.
• In coherent digital phase modulation techniques, the carrier
phase abruptly resets to zero at the start of every symbol (e.g.
M-PSK),
• With CPM the carrier phase is modulated in a continuous
manner.
• For instance, with QPSK the carrier instantaneously jumps
from a sine to a cosine (i.e. a 90 degree phase shift) whenever
one of the two message bits of the current symbol differs from
the two message bits of the previous symbol.
 Contd.
• This discontinuity requires a relatively large percentage of the
power to occur outside of the intended band (e.g., high
fractional out-of-band power), leading to poor spectral
efficiency
• CPM is typically implemented as a constant-envelope
waveform, i.e., the transmitted carrier power is constant.
• Therefore, CPM is attractive because the phase continuity
yields high spectral efficiency, and the constant envelope
yields excellent power efficiency. The primary drawback is the
high implementation complexity required for an optimal
receiver.
Continuous-phase frequency-shift keying
• CPFSK is a commonly used variation of frequency-shift
keying (FSK), which is itself a special case of analog
frequency modulation.
• A standard FSK signal does not have continuous phase, as the
modulated waveform switches instantaneously between two
sinusoids with different frequencies.
• The phase of a CPFSK is in fact continuous; this attribute is
desirable for signals that are to be transmitted over a
bandlimited channel, as discontinuities in a signal introduce
wideband frequency components.
 Contd.
• It is never meant that m(t) must be continuous; in fact, most
ideal digital data waveforms contain discontinuities. However,
even a discontinuous message signal will generate a proper
CPFSK signal.
 Minimum Shift Keying
• Minimum shift keying (MSK) is a special type of continuous
phase-frequency shift keying (CPFSK) with h=0.5. A modulation
index of 0.5 corresponds to the minimum frequency spacing that
allows two FSK signals to be coherently orthogonal, and the
name minimum shift keying implies the minimum frequency
separation (i.e. bandwidth) that allows orthogonal detection.
MSK has one of the two possible frequencies over any symbol
interval.
It means the peak frequency deviation is equal to ¼ the bit rate.
 Contd.
• Reason for Minimum Shift Keying, MSK
• It is found that binary data consisting of sharp transitions
between "one" and "zero" states and vice versa potentially
creates signals that have sidebands extending out a long way
from the carrier, and this creates problems for many radio
communications systems, as any sidebands outside the allowed
bandwidth cause interference to adjacent channels and any
radio communications links that may be using them.
 Minimum Shift Keying, MSK basics

• The problem can be overcome in part by filtering the signal,

but is found that the transitions in the data become
progressively less sharp as the level of filtering is increased
and the bandwidth reduced. To overcome this problem GMSK
is often used and this is based on Minimum Shift Keying,
MSK modulation. The advantage of which is what is known as
a continuous phase scheme. Here there are no phase
discontinuities because the frequency changes occur at the
carrier zero crossing points.
 Contd.
• When looking at a plot of a signal using MSK modulation, it
can be seen that the modulating data signal changes the
frequency of the signal and there are no phase discontinuities.
This arises as a result of the unique factor of MSK that the
frequency difference between the logical one and logical zero
states is always equal to half the data rate. This can be
expressed in terms of the modulation index, and it is always
equal to 0.5.
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
• Dividing channel into small sub-bands
• can yield TX rates close to channel capacity
• •Independently coded and modulated;
• •Flat for each sub band -> no ISI.
• •For each subchannel:

If Δ𝑓= 1/T

OFDM is a special case of multichannel mod. where subcarrier

acting in sub-channel are mutually orthogonal