Digital Communication By: Sura Mohammed

Introduction to Pulse Modulation

What is the need for Pulse Modulation?

• Many Signals in Modern Communication Systems are digital

• Reduced distortion and improvement in signal to noise ratios.
• In CW modulation schemes some parameter of modulated wave varies
continuously with message.
• In Analog pulse modulation some parameter of each pulse is modulated
by a particular sample value of the message.

• Pulse modulation is of two types

o Analog Pulse Modulation
▪ Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)
▪ Pulse width Modulation (PWM)
▪ Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)
o Digital Pulse Modulation
▪ Pulse code Modulation (PCM)
▪ Delta Modulation (DM)
Analog Pulse Modulation
Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)

• PAM is the simplest and most basic form of analog pulse modulation.

• In PAM the amplitude of regularly spaced pulses is varied in

proportion to the corresponding sample values of a continuous message
signal, the pulses can be of a rectangular form or other appropriate
shape.
PAM as defined here is somewhat similar to natural sampling where the message
signal is multiplied by a periodic train of rectangular pulses.

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Advantages of PAM

− Simple modulation and demodulation.

− Transmitter and Receiver are very simple and easy to construct.

Disadvantages of PAM

− Wide bandwidth required.

− High noise interference.
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

Uses constant amplitude pulses whose width is proportional to the value of

message signal at the sampling instants. This type is designated as pulse
width modulation (PWM) or pulse duration modulation (PDM) is also called.
At each sampling instant a pulse is generated with fixed amplitude and a
width that is proportional to the sample value of f(t). A minimum pulse width
is assigned to the minimum value of f(t) and a maximum pulse width is
assigned to the maximum value of f(t).

Advantages of PWM

− Noise interference is less due to amplitude has been made constant.

− Signal can be separated very easily at demodulation and noise can also be
separated easily.
− Synchronization between transmitter and receiver is not
required unlike pulse position modulation.

Disadvantages of PWM:

− Power will be variable because of varying in width of pulse. Transmitter

can handle the power even for maximum width of the pulse.
− Bandwidth should be large to use in communication, should be huge even
when compared to the pulse amplitude modulation.

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Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)

Keep both the amplitude and the width of the pulses constant but vary the
pulse position in proportion to the value of message signal at sampling
instant.
This is designated as pulse position modulation (PPM).
In PPM, these are sent as constant width, constant amplitude pulses. The
minimum pulse delay is used to designate the minimum value of f(t) and the
maximum pulse delay is used to designate the maximum value of f(t).

Fig. 1 Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)

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Advantages of PPM:
− Low noise interference when compared to PAM because amplitude and
width of the pulses are made constant during modulation.
− Noise removal and separation is very easy in pulse position modulation.
− Power usage is also very low when compared to other modulations due to
constant pulse amplitude and width.

Disadvantages of PPM:
− Perfect synchronization between transmitter and receiver is required,
which is not always possible.
− Large bandwidth is required for transmission.

Pulse Code Modulation:

Three steps involved in conversion of analog signal to digital signal

• Sampling
• Quantization
• Binary encoding

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Fig. 2 Conversion of Analog Signal to Digital Signal

Note: Before sampling the signal is filtered to limit bandwidth.

Elements of PCM System:

Fig. 3 Elements of PCM System

Sampling:

• Process of converting analog signal into discrete signal.

• Sampling is common in all pulse modulation techniques
• The signal is sampled at regular intervals such that each sample is
proportional to amplitude of signal at that instant
• Analog signal is sampled every 𝑇𝑠 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑠, called sampling interval.
𝑓𝑠=1/𝑇𝑆 is called sampling rate or sampling frequency.
• 𝑓𝑠=2𝑓𝑚 is Min. sampling rate called Nyquist rate. Sampled spectrum
(𝜔) is repeating periodically without overlapping.
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• Original spectrum is centered at 𝜔=0 and having bandwidth of 𝜔𝑚.

Spectrum can be recovered by passing through low pass filter with cut-
off 𝜔𝑚.
• For 𝑓𝑠<2𝑓𝑚 sampled spectrum will overlap and cannot be recovered
back. This is called aliasing.

Sampling methods:

• Ideal – An impulse at each sampling instant.

• Natural – A pulse of Short width with varying amplitude.
• Flat Top – Uses sample and hold, like natural but with single amplitude value.

Fig. 4 Types of Sampling

Sampling of band-pass Signals:

• A band-pass signal of bandwidth 2fm can be completely recovered from its

samples. Min. sampling rate =2×𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ
=2×2𝑓𝑚=4𝑓𝑚

• Range of minimum sampling frequencies is in the range of 2×𝐵𝑊 𝑡𝑜 4×𝐵𝑊

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Quantization
The quantizing of an analog signal is done by discretizing the signal with a number
of quantization levels.

Quantization
is representing the sampled values of the amplitude by a finite set of levels, which
means converting a continuous-amplitude sample into a discrete-time signal
• Both sampling and quantization result in the loss of information.
• The quality of a Quantizer output depends upon the number of
quantization levels used.
The discrete amplitudes of the quantized output are called as representation levels
or reconstruction levels.
The spacing between the two adjacent representation levels is called a quantum or
step-size.
There are two types of Quantization
✓ Uniform Quantization
✓ Non-uniform Quantization.

The type of quantization in which the quantization levels are uniformly spaced is
termed as a Uniform Quantization.
The type of quantization in which the quantization levels are unequal and mostly
the relation between them is logarithmic, is termed as a Non-uniform Quantization

Filters:
Electronic filters are circuits which perform signal processing functions,
specifically to remove unwanted frequency components from the signal.

Types of Filters:
➢ According to elements
Active
✓ Transistor
✓ OP-Amp
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Passive
✓ Resistor (R)
✓ Capacitor (C)
✓ Inductor (L)

➢ According to frequency
1- Low Pass Filter (LPF)
2- High Pass Filter (HPF)
3- Band Pass Filter (BPF)
4- Band Stop Filter (BSF)

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Fig. 5. Filter type

Multiplexing
Multiplexing is the transmission of information (either voice or data) from more
than one source to more than one destination on the same transmission medium.
The most common methods are used
• frequency division multiplexing (FDM)
• time division multiplexing (TDM).
• spatial multiplexing
• Coded multiplexing

Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM):

When Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) technique is used, multiples
signals share the same channel by transmitting at different carrier frequency within
the channel’s bandwidth (i.e. they share the bandwidth of a common
communication channel). We use modulation with separate carrier frequencies
equally spaced over the frequency range.
• FDM is usually used for analog data.
• Some of the commutation systems that use FDM include cable TV (each

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signal gets a 6MHz channel), FM stereo broadcasting (for Left and Right,
and for Radio Data System (RDS)).
Example 1:
Assume that a typical voice signal occupies a bandwidth of 4 kHz, and we need to
transmit three separate voice signals simultaneously. Using Frequency Division
Multiplexing with Amplitude Modulation, choose three carrier frequencies such that
the voice signals can be combined without interfering with each other.
➢ First, we note that the modulated version of each of these signals will
occupy 8 kHz of bandwidth in the frequency domain, since the AM signal
contains two sidebands (a copy and a mirror image of the original signal).
Therefore, the most efficient method will place the signals immediately next
to each other, requiring a total of 24 kHz (i.e. 8 kHz per signal).
➢ Using modulation, we can choose carrier frequencies to space the signals in
a desired 24 kHz range. For example, we could select the following
✓ Assign voice signal 1 to 16 – 24 kHz bandwidth → modulated it with fc1
= 20 kHz
✓ Assign voice signal 2 to 24 – 32 kHz bandwidth →modulated it with fc2
= 28 kHz
✓ Assign voice signal 3 to 32 – 40 kHz bandwidth → modulated it with fc3
= 36 kHz
➢ Finally, combine these three modulated signals and send it via a common
channel. Note that in the case of radio transmission, we can achieve the
multiplexing effect with a single transmitter sending the combined signal or
three different transmitters (e.g. different radio stations) transmitting each of
their respective modulated signals, since they will combine together in free
space.
- The overall process is illustrated in Figure 6.

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Fig. 6. Combining three low bandwidth voice signals into one high bandwidth channel using FDM.

Example 2:
Due to budget cuts, you’re told that you must achieve the same task with only half
the bandwidth! Determine a method to combine the three voice signals into a
channel with a bandwidth of 12 kHz, from 20 to 32
kHz. Show the configuration, using the frequency domain.
- We’ll follow the same process, but we’ll use band-pass filters (BPF) to remove
half of the modulated signals before transmitting. We can do this, because the
lower sideband is just a mirror image of the upper sideband, and so we don’t need
to transmit both of them to communicate the required information.
➢ First, divide the bandwidth of the channel into three separate frequency
ranges: 20 – 24kHz, 24 – 28 kHz, and 28 – 32 kHz.
Then, assign each range to a signal and shift the original signals to assigned ranges.
This is done with modulation with a carrier frequency. For this example,
✓ Assign voice signal 1 to 20 – 24 kHz bandwidth → modulated it with fc1 =
20 kHz
✓ Assign voice signal 2 to 24 – 28 kHz bandwidth → modulated it with fc2 =
24 kHz
✓ Assign voice signal 3 to 28 – 32 kHz bandwidth → modulated it with fc3 =
28 kHz
Then use a band-pass filter (BPF) to remove the lower sideband. For example, in
the figure below the BPF for signal 1 would have a lower cutoff frequency of 20
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kHz and upper cutoff frequency of 24 kHz.

➢ Finally, combine these three modulated signals and send via a common
channel.
➢ This process, known as “Single Sideband Transmission” is illustrated in
Figure 7.

Fig. 7. Combining three low bandwidth voice signals into one high bandwidth channel using FDM
with Band-pass Filters (i.e. “Single Sideband Transmission”).
Time Division Multiplexing (TDM):
When Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) technique is used, multiple signals share
the same channel by taking turn transmitting. Data is broken up into frames and
assigned to time slots. (Like cars merging in a lane). This technique is primarily
used for digital data.
• Each signal uses the entire bandwidth of the channel when transmitting.
• On the receiving end, the demultiplexing process requires synchronization of
the frames. This is often accomplished through a sync pulse.
• To help detecting transmission errors, additional error detection code (i.e.
parity bits) may be added to each frame.

A conceptual illustration of TDM is shown in Figure 8.

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Fig. 8. Conceptual view of TDM.

Example 3: UAV sensor reports (altitude, battery level, speed) are being sent using
TDM. Each sensor sends a 4-bit data packet a time. Assume that the first 3 data
packets from each sensor are shown in the table below, show the data stream in
binary on the channel.

Note that in this figure, the bitstreams are shown in the form with time 1 to the
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right and the first frame to the right, i.e. the order in which they would be received
on the receiver end. However, each individual frame is written
with most significant byte to the left and least significant byte to the right, as usual.
Note also that when the parity bit is generated, the sync bit is not included in the
calculation.

Spatial Multiplexing:
Transmits multiple wireless signals on a common frequency by either using low
power transmissions or carefully controlling radiation patterns to direct the signals
to different locations so they don’t interfere with each other. This technique is also
known as “frequency reuse”. This, for example, is why many radio stations across
the country can transmit at the same frequency, because they are separated far
enough geographically and the transmissions are low power.
Error Detection with Parity
One way to detect bit errors is through a parity code.
❖ For an even-parity code, we add a parity bit such that the total number of 1’s
is even.
❖ For an odd-parity code, we add a parity bit such that the total number of 1’s
is odd.
On the receiving end, the 1’s can be counted to see if they match the parity code. A
mismatch indicates that the signal has suffered a bit error (or an odd number of bit
errors). Note that an even number of bit errors will not be detected by this scheme

Example 4: Determine if a transmission error will be detected in each case below.

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Example 5: Suppose the data signal we want to send is 1001000101001. If we’re

using an even-parity scheme, what would we would to the end of the signal for the
parity bit:
10010001010011
Example 6: You receive the digital signal 10010011011100101010110, and you
know that the sender was using an even-parity scheme. Were there any bit errors?
12 1’s →No errors detected

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