Modulation

In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a
periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal that typically contains information to be
transmitted. Most radio systems in the 20th century used frequency modulation (FM) or amplitude modulation
(AM) for radio broadcast.

A modulator is a device that performs modulation. A demodulator (sometimes detector or demod) is a

device that performs demodulation, the inverse of modulation. A modem (from modulator–demodulator) can
perform both operations.

The aim of analog modulation is to transfer an analog baseband (or lowpass) signal, for example an audio
signal or TV signal, over an analog bandpass channel at a different frequency, for example over a limited radio
frequency band or a cable TV network channel. The aim of digital modulation is to transfer a digital bit
stream over an analog communication channel, for example over the public switched telephone network
(where a bandpass filter limits the frequency range to 300–3400 Hz) or over a limited radio frequency band.
Analog and digital modulation facilitate frequency division multiplexing (FDM), where several low pass
information signals are transferred simultaneously over the same shared physical medium, using separate
passband channels (several different carrier frequencies).

The aim of digital baseband modulation methods, also known as line coding, is to transfer a digital bit
stream over a baseband channel, typically a non-filtered copper wire such as a serial bus or a wired local area
network.

The aim of pulse modulation methods is to transfer a narrowband analog signal, for example, a phone call
over a wideband baseband channel or, in some of the schemes, as a bit stream over another digital transmission
system.

In music synthesizers, modulation may be used to synthesize waveforms with an extensive overtone spectrum
using a small number of oscillators. In this case, the carrier frequency is typically in the same order or much
lower than the modulating waveform (see frequency modulation synthesis or ring modulation synthesis).

Contents
Analog modulation methods
Digital modulation methods
Fundamental digital modulation methods
Modulator and detector principles of operation
List of common digital modulation techniques
Automatic digital modulation recognition (ADMR)
Digital baseband modulation or line coding
Pulse modulation methods
Miscellaneous modulation techniques
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Analog modulation methods

In analog modulation, the modulation is applied continuously in response
to the analog information signal. Common analog modulation techniques
include:

Amplitude modulation (AM) (here the amplitude of the carrier

signal is varied in accordance with the instantaneous
amplitude of the modulating signal)
Double-sideband modulation (DSB)
A low-frequency message signal
Double-sideband modulation with carrier (DSB-WC) (top) may be carried by an AM or
(used on the AM radio broadcasting band)
FM radio wave.
Double-sideband suppressed-carrier transmission
(DSB-SC)
Double-sideband reduced carrier transmission
(DSB-RC)
Single-sideband modulation (SSB, or SSB-AM)
Single-sideband modulation with carrier (SSB-WC)
Single-sideband modulation suppressed carrier
modulation (SSB-SC)
Waterfall plot of a 146.52 MHz radio
Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB, or VSB-AM) carrier, with amplitude modulation by
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) a 1,000 Hz sinusoid. Two strong
sidebands at + and - 1 kHz from the
Angle modulation, which is approximately constant
carrier frequency are shown.
envelope
Frequency modulation (FM) (here the frequency of the
carrier signal is varied in accordance with the
instantaneous amplitude of the modulating signal)
Phase modulation (PM) (here the phase shift of the
carrier signal is varied in accordance with the
instantaneous amplitude of the modulating signal)
Transpositional Modulation (TM), in which the
waveform inflection is modified resulting in a signal A carrier, frequency modulated by a
where each quarter cycle is transposed in the 1,000 Hz sinusoid. The modulation
modulation process. TM is a pseudo-analog index has been adjusted to around
modulation (AM). Where an AM carrier also carries a 2.4, so the carrier frequency has
phase variable phase f(ǿ). TM is f(AM,ǿ) small amplitude. Several strong
sidebands are apparent; in principle
an infinite number are produced in
FM but the higher-order sidebands
are of negligible magnitude.

Digital modulation methods

In digital modulation, an analog carrier signal is modulated by a discrete signal. Digital modulation methods
can be considered as digital-to-analog conversion and the corresponding demodulation or detection as analog-
to-digital conversion. The changes in the carrier signal are chosen from a finite number of M alternative
symbols (the modulation alphabet).

A simple example: A telephone line is designed for

transferring audible sounds, for example, tones, and not
digital bits (zeros and ones). Computers may, however,
communicate over a telephone line by means of modems,
which are representing the digital bits by tones, called
symbols. If there are four alternative symbols
(corresponding to a musical instrument that can generate
four different tones, one at a time), the first symbol may
represent the bit sequence 00, the second 01, the third 10 Schematic of 4 baud, 8 bit/s data
and the fourth 11. If the modem plays a melody consisting link containing arbitrarily chosen
of 1000 tones per second, the symbol rate is 1000 values.
symbols/second, or 1000 baud. Since each tone (i.e.,
symbol) represents a message consisting of two digital bits
in this example, the bit rate is twice the symbol rate, i.e.
2000 bits per second.

According to one definition of digital signal,[1] the modulated signal is a digital signal. According to another
definition,[2] the modulation is a form of digital-to-analog conversion. Most textbooks would consider digital
modulation schemes as a form of digital transmission, synonymous to data transmission; very few would
consider it as analog transmission.

Fundamental digital modulation methods

The most fundamental digital modulation techniques are based on keying:

PSK (phase-shift keying): a finite number of phases are used.

FSK (frequency-shift keying): a finite number of frequencies are used.
ASK (amplitude-shift keying): a finite number of amplitudes are used.
QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation): a finite number of at least two phases and at least two
amplitudes are used.

In QAM, an in-phase signal (or I, with one example being a cosine waveform) and a quadrature phase signal
(or Q, with an example being a sine wave) are amplitude modulated with a finite number of amplitudes and
then summed. It can be seen as a two-channel system, each channel using ASK. The resulting signal is
equivalent to a combination of PSK and ASK.

In all of the above methods, each of these phases, frequencies or amplitudes are assigned a unique pattern of
binary bits. Usually, each phase, frequency or amplitude encodes an equal number of bits. This number of bits
comprises the symbol that is represented by the particular phase, frequency or amplitude.

If the alphabet consists of alternative symbols, each symbol represents a message consisting of N
bits. If the symbol rate (also known as the baud rate) is symbols/second (or baud), the data rate is
bit/second.
For example, with an alphabet consisting of 16 alternative symbols, each symbol represents 4 bits. Thus, the
data rate is four times the baud rate.

In the case of PSK, ASK or QAM, where the carrier frequency of the modulated signal is constant, the
modulation alphabet is often conveniently represented on a constellation diagram, showing the amplitude of
the I signal at the x-axis, and the amplitude of the Q signal at the y-axis, for each symbol.

Modulator and detector principles of operation

PSK and ASK, and sometimes also FSK, are often generated and detected using the principle of QAM. The I
and Q signals can be combined into a complex-valued signal I+jQ (where j is the imaginary unit). The
resulting so called equivalent lowpass signal or equivalent baseband signal is a complex-valued representation
of the real-valued modulated physical signal (the so-called passband signal or RF signal).

These are the general steps used by the modulator to transmit data:

1. Group the incoming data bits into codewords, one for each symbol that will be transmitted.
2. Map the codewords to attributes, for example, amplitudes of the I and Q signals (the equivalent
low pass signal), or frequency or phase values.
3. Adapt pulse shaping or some other filtering to limit the bandwidth and form the spectrum of the
equivalent low pass signal, typically using digital signal processing.
4. Perform digital to analog conversion (DAC) of the I and Q signals (since today all of the above
is normally achieved using digital signal processing, DSP).
5. Generate a high-frequency sine carrier waveform, and perhaps also a cosine quadrature
component. Carry out the modulation, for example by multiplying the sine and cosine waveform
with the I and Q signals, resulting in the equivalent low pass signal being frequency shifted to
the modulated passband signal or RF signal. Sometimes this is achieved using DSP
technology, for example direct digital synthesis using a waveform table, instead of analog
signal processing. In that case, the above DAC step should be done after this step.
6. Amplification and analog bandpass filtering to avoid harmonic distortion and periodic spectrum.

At the receiver side, the demodulator typically performs:

1. Bandpass filtering.
2. Automatic gain control, AGC (to compensate for attenuation, for example fading).
3. Frequency shifting of the RF signal to the equivalent baseband I and Q signals, or to an
intermediate frequency (IF) signal, by multiplying the RF signal with a local oscillator sine wave
and cosine wave frequency (see the superheterodyne receiver principle).
4. Sampling and analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) (sometimes before or instead of the above
point, for example by means of undersampling).
5. Equalization filtering, for example, a matched filter, compensation for multipath propagation,
time spreading, phase distortion and frequency selective fading, to avoid intersymbol
interference and symbol distortion.
6. Detection of the amplitudes of the I and Q signals, or the frequency or phase of the IF signal.
7. Quantization of the amplitudes, frequencies or phases to the nearest allowed symbol values.
8. Mapping of the quantized amplitudes, frequencies or phases to codewords (bit groups).
9. Parallel-to-serial conversion of the codewords into a bit stream.
10. Pass the resultant bit stream on for further processing such as removal of any error-correcting
codes.
As is common to all digital communication systems, the design of both the modulator and demodulator must
be done simultaneously. Digital modulation schemes are possible because the transmitter-receiver pair has prior
knowledge of how data is encoded and represented in the communications system. In all digital
communication systems, both the modulator at the transmitter and the demodulator at the receiver are
structured so that they perform inverse operations.

Asynchronous methods do not require a receiver reference clock signal that is phase synchronized with the
sender carrier signal. In this case, modulation symbols (rather than bits, characters, or data packets) are
asynchronously transferred. The opposite is synchronous modulation.

List of common digital modulation techniques

The most common digital modulation techniques are:

Phase-shift keying (PSK)

Binary PSK (BPSK), using M=2 symbols
Quadrature PSK (QPSK), using M=4 symbols
8PSK, using M=8 symbols
16PSK, using M=16 symbols
Differential PSK (DPSK)
Differential QPSK (DQPSK)
Offset QPSK (OQPSK)
π/4–QPSK
Frequency-shift keying (FSK)
Audio frequency-shift keying (AFSK)
Multi-frequency shift keying (M-ary FSK or MFSK)
Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF)
Amplitude-shift keying (ASK)
On-off keying (OOK), the most common ASK form
M-ary vestigial sideband modulation, for example 8VSB
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), a combination of PSK and ASK
Polar modulation like QAM a combination of PSK and ASK
Continuous phase modulation (CPM) methods
Minimum-shift keying (MSK)
Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK)
Continuous-phase frequency-shift keying (CPFSK)
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation
Discrete multitone (DMT), including adaptive modulation and bit-loading
Wavelet modulation
Trellis coded modulation (TCM), also known as Trellis modulation
Spread-spectrum techniques
Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
Chirp spread spectrum (CSS) according to IEEE 802.15.4a CSS uses pseudo-stochastic
coding
 Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) applies a special scheme for channel release

MSK and GMSK are particular cases of continuous phase modulation. Indeed, MSK is a particular case of the
sub-family of CPM known as continuous-phase frequency shift keying (CPFSK) which is defined by a
rectangular frequency pulse (i.e. a linearly increasing phase pulse) of one-symbol-time duration (total response
signaling).

OFDM is based on the idea of frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), but the multiplexed streams are all
parts of a single original stream. The bit stream is split into several parallel data streams, each transferred over
its own sub-carrier using some conventional digital modulation scheme. The modulated sub-carriers are
summed to form an OFDM signal. This dividing and recombining help with handling channel impairments.
OFDM is considered as a modulation technique rather than a multiplex technique since it transfers one bit
stream over one communication channel using one sequence of so-called OFDM symbols. OFDM can be
extended to multi-user channel access method in the orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA)
and multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) schemes, allowing several users to share the
same physical medium by giving different sub-carriers or spreading codes to different users.

Of the two kinds of RF power amplifier, switching amplifiers (Class D amplifiers) cost less and use less
battery power than linear amplifiers of the same output power. However, they only work with relatively
constant-amplitude-modulation signals such as angle modulation (FSK or PSK) and CDMA, but not with
QAM and OFDM. Nevertheless, even though switching amplifiers are completely unsuitable for normal
QAM constellations, often the QAM modulation principle are used to drive switching amplifiers with these
FM and other waveforms, and sometimes QAM demodulators are used to receive the signals put out by these
switching amplifiers.

Automatic digital modulation recognition (ADMR)

Automatic digital modulation recognition in intelligent communication systems is one of the most important
issues in software defined radio and cognitive radio. According to incremental expanse of intelligent receivers,
automatic modulation recognition becomes a challenging topic in telecommunication systems and computer
engineering. Such systems have many civil and military applications. Moreover, blind recognition of
modulation type is an important problem in commercial systems, especially in software defined radio. Usually
in such systems, there are some extra information for system configuration, but considering blind approaches
in intelligent receivers, we can reduce information overload and increase transmission performance.[3]
Obviously, with no knowledge of the transmitted data and many unknown parameters at the receiver, such as
the signal power, carrier frequency and phase offsets, timing information, etc., blind identification of the
modulation is made fairly difficult. This becomes even more challenging in real-world scenarios with multipath
fading, frequency-selective and time-varying channels.[4]

There are two main approaches to automatic modulation recognition. The first approach uses likelihood-based
methods to assign an input signal to a proper class. Another recent approach is based on feature extraction.

Digital baseband modulation or line coding

The term digital baseband modulation (or digital baseband transmission) is synonymous to line codes. These
are methods to transfer a digital bit stream over an analog baseband channel (a.k.a. lowpass channel) using a
pulse train, i.e. a discrete number of signal levels, by directly modulating the voltage or current on a cable or
serial bus. Common examples are unipolar, non-return-to-zero (NRZ), Manchester and alternate mark
inversion (AMI) codings.[5]
Pulse modulation methods
Pulse modulation schemes aim at transferring a narrowband analog signal over an analog baseband channel as
a two-level signal by modulating a pulse wave. Some pulse modulation schemes also allow the narrowband
analog signal to be transferred as a digital signal (i.e., as a quantized discrete-time signal) with a fixed bit rate,
which can be transferred over an underlying digital transmission system, for example, some line code. These
are not modulation schemes in the conventional sense since they are not channel coding schemes, but should
be considered as source coding schemes, and in some cases analog-to-digital conversion techniques.

Analog-over-analog methods

Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) and Pulse-depth modulation (PDM)
Pulse-position modulation (PPM)

Analog-over-digital methods

Pulse-code modulation (PCM)

Differential PCM (DPCM)
Adaptive DPCM (ADPCM)
Delta modulation (DM or Δ-modulation)
Delta-sigma modulation (∑Δ)
Continuously variable slope delta modulation (CVSDM), also called Adaptive-delta modulation
(ADM)
Pulse-density modulation (PDM)

Miscellaneous modulation techniques

The use of on-off keying to transmit Morse code at radio frequencies is known as continuous
wave (CW) operation.
Adaptive modulation
Space modulation is a method whereby signals are modulated within airspace such as that
used in instrument landing systems.

See also
Channel access methods Mechanically induced modulation
Channel coding Modem
Codec Modulation order
Communications channel Neuromodulation
Demodulation RF modulator
Electrical resonance Ring modulation
Heterodyne Telecommunication
Line code Types of radio emissions

References
 1. "Modulation Methods | Electronics Basics | ROHM" (https://www.rohm.com/electronics-basics/
wireless/modulation-methods). www.rohm.com. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
2. "Digital to Analog Conversion - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics" (https://www.sciencedirect.
com/topics/engineering/digital-to-analog-conversion). www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved
2020-05-15.
3. Valipour, M. Hadi; Homayounpour, M. Mehdi; Mehralian, M. Amin (2012). "Automatic digital
modulation recognition in presence of noise using SVM and PSO". 6th International
Symposium on Telecommunications (IST). pp. 378–382. doi:10.1109/ISTEL.2012.6483016 (htt
ps://doi.org/10.1109%2FISTEL.2012.6483016). ISBN 978-1-4673-2073-3.
4. Dobre, Octavia A., Ali Abdi, Yeheskel Bar-Ness, and Wei Su. Communications, IET 1, no. 2
(2007): 137–156. (2007). "Survey of automatic modulation classification techniques: classical
approaches and new trends" (http://web.njit.edu/~abdi/IEE_COM0176_WithFigures.pdf) (PDF).
IET Communications. 1 (2): 137–156. doi:10.1049/iet-com:20050176 (https://doi.org/10.1049%
2Fiet-com%3A20050176).
5. Ke-Lin Du & M. N. S. Swamy (2010). Wireless Communication Systems: From RF Subsystems
to 4G Enabling Technologies (https://books.google.com/books?id=5dGjKLawsTkC&pg=PA18
8). Cambridge University Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-521-11403-5.

Further reading
Multipliers vs. Modulators (http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/47-06/multip
liers_modulators.pdf) Analog Dialogue, June 2013

External links
Interactive presentation of soft-demapping for AWGN-channel in a web-demo (http://webdemo.i
nue.uni-stuttgart.de/webdemos/02_lectures/communication_3/soft_demapping) Institute of
Telecommunications, University of Stuttgart
Modem (Modulation and Demodulation) (http://ittrap.com/modemmodulation-and-demodulatio
n/)

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