Digital Modulation Techniques

Digital Modulation provides more information capacity, high data security, quicker

system availability with great quality communication. Hence, digital modulation
techniques have a greater demand, for their capacity to convey larger amounts of
data than analog modulation techniques.
There are many types of digital modulation techniques and also their combinations,
depending upon the need. Of them all, we will discuss the prominent ones.

ASK – Amplitude Shift Keying

The amplitude of the resultant output depends upon the input data whether it should
be a zero level or a variation of positive and negative, depending upon the carrier
frequency.

FSK – Frequency Shift Keying

The frequency of the output signal will be either high or low, depending upon the
input data applied.

PSK – Phase Shift Keying

The phase of the output signal gets shifted depending upon the input. These are
mainly of two types, namely Binary Phase Shift Keying BPSKBPSK and Quadrature
Phase Shift Keying QPSKQPSK, according to the number of phase shifts. The other
one is Differential Phase Shift Keying DPSKDPSK which changes the phase
according to the previous value.

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Amplitude Shift Keying ASKASK is a type of Amplitude Modulation which
represents the binary data in the form of variations in the amplitude of a signal.
Any modulated signal has a high frequency carrier. The binary signal when ASK
modulated, gives a zero value for Low input while it gives the carrier
output for High input.
The following figure represents ASK modulated waveform along with its input.

To find the process of obtaining this ASK modulated wave, let us learn about the
working of the ASK modulator.

ASK Modulator
The ASK modulator block diagram comprises of the carrier signal generator, the
binary sequence from the message signal and the band-limited filter. Following is
the block diagram of the ASK Modulator.
The carrier generator, sends a continuous high-frequency carrier. The binary
sequence from the message signal makes the unipolar input to be either High or
Low. The high signal closes the switch, allowing a carrier wave. Hence, the output
will be the carrier signal at high input. When there is low input, the switch opens,
allowing no voltage to appear. Hence, the output will be low.
The band-limiting filter, shapes the pulse depending upon the amplitude and phase
characteristics of the band-limiting filter or the pulse-shaping filter.

ASK Demodulator
There are two types of ASK Demodulation techniques. They are −

 Asynchronous ASK Demodulation/detection

 Synchronous ASK Demodulation/detection
The clock frequency at the transmitter when matches with the clock frequency at the
receiver, it is known as a Synchronous method, as the frequency gets
synchronized. Otherwise, it is known as Asynchronous.

Asynchronous ASK Demodulator

The Asynchronous ASK detector consists of a half-wave rectifier, a low pass filter,
and a comparator. Following is the block diagram for the same.
The modulated ASK signal is given to the half-wave rectifier, which delivers a
positive half output. The low pass filter suppresses the higher frequencies and gives
an envelope detected output from which the comparator delivers a digital output.

Synchronous ASK Demodulator

Synchronous ASK detector consists of a Square law detector, low pass filter, a
comparator, and a voltage limiter. Following is the block diagram for the same.

The ASK modulated input signal is given to the Square law detector. A square law
detector is one whose output voltage is proportional to the square of the amplitude
modulated input voltage. The low pass filter minimizes the higher frequencies. The
comparator and the voltage limiter help to get a clean digital output.
Frequency Shift Keying FSKFSK is the digital modulation technique in which the
frequency of the carrier signal varies according to the digital signal changes. FSK is
a scheme of frequency modulation.
The output of a FSK modulated wave is high in frequency for a binary High input
and is low in frequency for a binary Low input. The binary 1s and 0s are called Mark
and Space frequencies.
The following image is the diagrammatic representation of FSK modulated
waveform along with its input.

To find the process of obtaining this FSK modulated wave, let us know about the
working of a FSK modulator.

FSK Modulator
The FSK modulator block diagram comprises of two oscillators with a clock and the
input binary sequence. Following is its block diagram.
The two oscillators, producing a higher and a lower frequency signals, are
connected to a switch along with an internal clock. To avoid the abrupt phase
discontinuities of the output waveform during the transmission of the message, a
clock is applied to both the oscillators, internally. The binary input sequence is
applied to the transmitter so as to choose the frequencies according to the binary
input.

FSK Demodulator
There are different methods for demodulating a FSK wave. The main methods of
FSK detection are asynchronous detector and synchronous detector. The
synchronous detector is a coherent one, while asynchronous detector is a non-
coherent one.
Asynchronous FSK Detector
The block diagram of Asynchronous FSK detector consists of two band pass filters,
two envelope detectors, and a decision circuit. Following is the diagrammatic
representation.
The FSK signal is passed through the two Band Pass Filters BPFsBPFs, tuned
to Space and Mark frequencies. The output from these two BPFs look like ASK
signal, which is given to the envelope detector. The signal in each envelope
detector is modulated asynchronously.
The decision circuit chooses which output is more likely and selects it from any one
of the envelope detectors. It also re-shapes the waveform to a rectangular one.
Synchronous FSK Detector
The block diagram of Synchronous FSK detector consists of two mixers with local
oscillator circuits, two band pass filters and a decision circuit. Following is the
diagrammatic representation.
The FSK signal input is given to the two mixers with local oscillator circuits. These
two are connected to two band pass filters. These combinations act as
demodulators and the decision circuit chooses which output is more likely and
selects it from any one of the detectors. The two signals have a minimum frequency
separation.
For both of the demodulators, the bandwidth of each of them depends on their bit
rate. This synchronous demodulator is a bit complex than asynchronous type
demodulators.
Phase Shift Keying PSKPSK is the digital modulation technique in which the
phase of the carrier signal is changed by varying the sine and cosine inputs at a
particular time. PSK technique is widely used for wireless LANs, bio-metric,
contactless operations, along with RFID and Bluetooth communications.
PSK is of two types, depending upon the phases the signal gets shifted. They are −

Binary Phase Shift Keying BPSKBPSK

This is also called as 2-phase PSK or Phase Reversal Keying. In this technique, the
sine wave carrier takes two phase reversals such as 0° and 180°.
BPSK is basically a Double Side Band Suppressed
Carrier DSBSCDSBSC modulation scheme, for message being the digital
information.
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying QPSKQPSK
This is the phase shift keying technique, in which the sine wave carrier takes four
phase reversals such as 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°.
If this kind of techniques are further extended, PSK can be done by eight or sixteen
values also, depending upon the requirement.

BPSK Modulator
The block diagram of Binary Phase Shift Keying consists of the balance modulator
which has the carrier sine wave as one input and the binary sequence as the other
input. Following is the diagrammatic representation.
The modulation of BPSK is done using a balance modulator, which multiplies the
two signals applied at the input. For a zero binary input, the phase will be 0° and for
a high input, the phase reversal is of 180°.
Following is the diagrammatic representation of BPSK Modulated output wave
along with its given input.

The output sine wave of the modulator will be the direct input carrier or the
inverted 180°phaseshifted180°phaseshifted input carrier, which is a function of the
data signal.

BPSK Demodulator
The block diagram of BPSK demodulator consists of a mixer with local oscillator
circuit, a bandpass filter, a two-input detector circuit. The diagram is as follows.
By recovering the band-limited message signal, with the help of the mixer circuit
and the band pass filter, the first stage of demodulation gets completed. The base
band signal which is band limited is obtained and this signal is used to regenerate
the binary message bit stream.
In the next stage of demodulation, the bit clock rate is needed at the detector circuit
to produce the original binary message signal. If the bit rate is a sub-multiple of the
carrier frequency, then the bit clock regeneration is simplified. To make the circuit
easily understandable, a decision-making circuit may also be inserted at the
2nd stage of detection.
The Quadrature Phase Shift Keying QPSKQPSK is a variation of BPSK, and it is
also a Double Side Band Suppressed Carrier DSBSCDSBSC modulation scheme,
which sends two bits of digital information at a time, called as bigits.
Instead of the conversion of digital bits into a series of digital stream, it converts
them into bit pairs. This decreases the data bit rate to half, which allows space for
the other users.
QPSK Modulator
The QPSK Modulator uses a bit-splitter, two multipliers with local oscillator, a 2-bit
serial to parallel converter, and a summer circuit. Following is the block diagram for
the same.

At the modulator’s input, the message signal’s even bits (i.e., 2nd bit, 4th bit, 6th bit,
etc.) and odd bits (i.e., 1st bit, 3rd bit, 5th bit, etc.) are separated by the bits splitter
and are multiplied with the same carrier to generate odd BPSK (called as PSKI) and
even BPSK (called as PSKQ). The PSKQ signal is anyhow phase shifted by 90°
before being modulated.
The QPSK waveform for two-bits input is as follows, which shows the modulated
result for different instances of binary inputs.
QPSK Demodulator
The QPSK Demodulator uses two product demodulator circuits with local oscillator,
two band pass filters, two integrator circuits, and a 2-bit parallel to serial converter.
Following is the diagram for the same.

The two product detectors at the input of demodulator simultaneously demodulate

the two BPSK signals. The pair of bits are recovered here from the original data.
These signals after processing, are passed to the parallel to serial converter.
In Differential Phase Shift Keying DPSKDPSK the phase of the modulated signal
is shifted relative to the previous signal element. No reference signal is considered
here. The signal phase follows the high or low state of the previous element. This
DPSK technique doesn’t need a reference oscillator.
The following figure represents the model waveform of DPSK.

It is seen from the above figure that, if the data bit is Low i.e., 0, then the phase of
the signal is not reversed, but continued as it was. If the data is a High i.e., 1, then
the phase of the signal is reversed, as with NRZI, invert on
1 aformofdifferentialencodingaformofdifferentialencoding.
If we observe the above waveform, we can say that the High state represents
an M in the modulating signal and the Low state represents a W in the modulating
signal.

DPSK Modulator
DPSK is a technique of BPSK, in which there is no reference phase signal. Here,
the transmitted signal itself can be used as a reference signal. Following is the
diagram of DPSK Modulator.

DPSK encodes two distinct signals, i.e., the carrier and the modulating signal with
180° phase shift each. The serial data input is given to the XNOR gate and the
output is again fed back to the other input through 1-bit delay. The output of the
XNOR gate along with the carrier signal is given to the balance modulator, to
produce the DPSK modulated signal.

DPSK Demodulator
In DPSK demodulator, the phase of the reversed bit is compared with the phase of
the previous bit. Following is the block diagram of DPSK demodulator.

From the above figure, it is evident that the balance modulator is given the DPSK
signal along with 1-bit delay input. That signal is made to confine to lower
frequencies with the help of LPF. Then it is passed to a shaper circuit, which is a
comparator or a Schmitt trigger circuit, to recover the original binary data as the
output.