Department of Electrical Engineering

EE365L: Communication Systems

Course Instructor: Dr. Muhammad Zubair Dated: 22-06-2021

Lab Instructor: Tawahaa Ahmed Semester: 6th

Class: BSEE-18 Session: Spring-2021

Lab-9 Frequency Modulation using NI USRP

Lab Obtained
Name Roll No Marks VIVA(5) Marks
(10) (15)

Muhammad Hamza Shahid BSEE18078

Checked on: _______________________________

Signature: ________________________________

Adopted from
Introduction to Communication Systems Lab Based Learning with NI USRP and LabVIEW
Communications by Bruce. A Black
9.1 Objectives

9.2 Background

m t
f t

f t fc k f m t , (1)

f k f mp

t
t 2 f d
0
t
(2)
2 f ct 2 k f m d 0.
0
0

g t Ac cos t
t
Ac cos 2 f ct 2 k f m d (3)
0

t
Ac cos 2 f ct 2 f m mp d .
0

t
j2 f m mp d
g t Ac e 0
. (4)
 (5)

(6)

(7)

t
j2 f m mp d
r t Ar e 0
. (8)

8
For those familiar with conventional FM demodulation, this step implements the limiter.
 dx t x n x n 1
. (9)
dt 1

9.3 Pre-Lab

g t
 Complete the program to demodulate the complex array returned by Fetch Rx Data and display
the result. Figure 3 shows an implementation of the FM demodulator, including extracting the
angle, unwrapping, differentiation, and lowpass filtering.

I From Fetch Rx Data�

�------�:J
low cut off li1s5oioofoo
..
....
Butterworth Filter (DBL)

order ""2,-----..____J
Build Waveform

Figure 3. FM Demodulator

Save your receiver in a file whose name includes the letters "FM Rx" and your initials (e.g.,
FMRx_BAB.gvl).

Questions
1. Find the frequency response of the integrator given by Eq. (7). Compare with the frequency
response of an ideal integrator. Is the discrete-time integrator more like an ideal integrator
when the frequency of the input is low or when it is high?

2. Find the frequency response of the differentiator given by Eq. (9). Compare with the frequency
response of an ideal differentiator. Is the discrete-time differentiator more like an ideal
differentiator when the frequency of the input is low or when it is high?

9.4 Lab Procedure

1. Connect a loopback cable and attenuator between the TX 1 and RX 2 connectors. Connect the
USRP to your computer and plug in the power to the USRP. Run LabVIEW and open the
transmitter and receiver that you created in the prelab.

Note that all graphs in this lab are taken on a linear scale (dB on = False).
BFM 2 f B , (10)
B
Inside the transmitter's while loop, create a second modulator, including a second integrator.
Create two front panel controls, "Carrier 1" and "Carrier 2" to set the carrier levels Ac for each
modulator. For simplicity, the two modulators can share a common peak frequency deviation.
Add the two FM baseband signals produced by your modulators together and send the sum to
the Build Waveform function that feeds the USRP Write Tx Data.

Set up your first message generator for three tones at 1 kHz, 2 kHz and 3 kHz. Set up the
second message generator for three tones at 100 Hz, 200 Hz, and 300 Hz. These two message
signals should be easy to distinguish at the receiver. Set the peak frequency deviation to 30,000
Hz.

At this point test your system by setting carrier 1 to 0.9 and carrier 2 to zero. Run the
transmitter and receiver and make sure that the receiver output matches message 1. Next, set
carrier 1 to zero and carrier 2 to 0.9 and make sure that the receiver output matches message 2.

At the receiver, add an FFT Power Spectrum and PSD to view the spectrum of the baseband
output. Label the horizontal axis "Frequency" and set the range to show o to 5000 Hz. It will be
easier to distinguish message 1 from message 2 in the frequency domain than in the time
domain.

Now you are ready to observe the capture effect! Start by setting carrier 1 to 0.4 and carrier 2
to o.6. Run the transmitter and receiver. Take a screenshot of the receiver's baseband output
spectrum. Repeat with carrier 1 set to 0.5 and carrier 2 set to 0.5. Repeat a third time with
carrier 1 set to o.6 and carrier 2 set to 0.4. You should find that in the first and third cases, the
receiver demodulates (captures) only the stronger signal. This is the capture effect: If two FM
signals are received at the same carrier frequency, the receiver will demodulate the stronger
signal, even if the stronger carrier is only slightly stronger than the weaker one.
 Student Lab Report

Q # 1 To obtain the classic textbook FM spectrum, set the message for a single tone at 1 kHz. Run the
transmitter and obtain power spectra of the transmitted signal for peak frequency deviations of 1 kHz, 5
kHz, and 30 kHz. Take a screenshot of the power spectrum for each case. Be sure to scale the horizontal
axis so that each spectrum is visible. Annotate your spectra to show the. [Marks = 3]

At 1kHz at the transmission side:

At the reception side:

At 5kHz at the transmission side:

At 30kHz at the transmission side:

Q # 2 For a more realistic set of FM spectra, set the message for three tones at 1 kHz, 2 kHz, and 3 kHz.
Run the transmitter and obtain power spectra of the transmitted signal for peak frequency deviations of
1 kHz, 5 kHz, and 30 kHz. Take another set of screenshots of the power spectrum for each case. Be sure
to scale the horizontal axis so that each spectrum is visible. [Marks = 3]

For the tune frequency of 2kHz and the frequency deviation of 1kHz:

For the frequency deviation of 5kHz:

For the frequency deviation of 30kHz:

For the tune frequency of 3kHz:

Q # 3 Add a snap short or the transmitter. gvi file and explain it. [Marks = 2]

Firstly, the signal is transmitted from the Open Tx session and passed through the niUSRP
Configure Signal that sets the parameter values. After that, the signal is fed to the Basic
Multitune block where several other parameters are added. Then, the signal goes into the
while loop.

The While Loop side:

In the while loop, the template for the transmitter is added that contains four interface function
along with the message generator. After that, we have added blocks to produce the required
signal and then passed through the Write Tx data block to write it to a particular channel. At the
end, the niUSRP Close Session block closes the session.
Q # 4 Add a snap short or the receiver. gvi file and explain it. [Marks = 2]

At the receiver side, the niUSRP Open Rx Session blocks receives the signal and passes it
through the niUSRP Configure Signal for the initial check. Then the signal is passed through
the niUSRP initiate that sends the parameter values to the while loop that starts the running.

A template is provided in the while loop that contains six interface functions along with the
waveform graph on which our demodulated output signal is shown. The program is completed
by adding the blocks corresponding to the receiver side. The complex array is then returned by
the Fetch Rx Data block that shows the result.