Pulse Communication Systems

& Digital Modulation

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008)

Digital Communication Benefits of Digital Modulation
Over Analog Modulation

In analog modulation, the message signal was

transmitted in its entirety More resistant to noise

Circuits are easier to design

An alternative is to sample the message at
regular intervals and send those samples
instead (by modulating with a carrier) Supports time-domain
multiplexing

If the sample values are digitized to 0s and 1s

before transmission, it results in a digital Digital information is easier to
store and retrieve
modulation scheme. Thus, the message is a
sequence of bits (0s and 1s)
Modern communication systems
usually employ digital modulation
Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 2
Sampling
Sampling
Original
Samples interval
Message
Refers to the process of obtaining 𝑇𝑠
the value of a continuous-time
signal at discrete time instants

Sampling interval: 𝑇𝑠 Duration

between successive samples

Sample No
Sampling frequency: 𝐹𝑠

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 3

 Question: Is it possible to retrieve the original message 𝑚 𝑡 from its samples?
The Sampling Theorem:
It is possible to retrieve a signal 𝑚 𝑡 from its samples, provided
1. 𝑚 𝑡 is bandlimited (i.e., spectrum does not extend up to infinity)
2. The sampling frequency 𝐹𝑠 is such that 𝐹𝑠 2𝑓𝑚, where 𝑓𝑚 is the maximum
frequency component of 𝑚 𝑡
If 𝑚 𝑡 has this Reconstruction formula
spectrum, the sampling 𝑡
|𝑀 𝑓 | frequency should be at 𝑚𝑟 𝑡 𝑚𝑠 𝑛 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐 𝑛
𝑇𝑠
least 20 kilo-samples
per second for perfect 𝑚𝑟 𝑡 = reconstructed signal
reconstruction
𝑚𝑠 𝑛 = the 𝑛-th sample
2𝑓𝑚 is called the Nyquist rate, and the condition
𝑓 𝐹𝑠 2𝑓𝑚 is called the Nyquist criterion
-10kHz 10kHz
Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 4
Pulse Communication Systems Pulsed systems are precursors to
digital communications. In fact, all
Idea: Send pulses (short voltage signals) digital communications are essentially
corresponding to the samples. Pulses are digital pulse communications.
carrier-modulated for wireless transmission
However, we normally refer to PAM,
PWM, PPM, PCM, etc. as pulse
Analog pulse communication systems: The communications, and PSK, FSK,
samples are sent without digitization
QAM, etc. as digital modulations.
(hence can have any real value)
These schemes will be described next.

Digital pulse communication systems: 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒

Samples are quantized and digitized (only Pulses
a finite set of values are possible)
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 5

Analog Pulse Communication Systems 𝑚 𝑡

𝑡
Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM): Pulse
height is proportional to the message sample
PAM

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM): Pulse width is

proportional to the message sample
PWM
Pulse Position Modulation (PPM): Pulse
position corresponds to the message sample

PPM

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 6

Analog-to-Digital Conversion An example of 3-bit (8-level) quantization
Original message Quantized values
For digital modulation, we must convert the
message into a bit sequence

The first step in this process is quantization

The possible signal value range is divided

into 𝐿 levels of size Δ

If the message sample value is nearest to the

Quantization interval Δ
𝑚-th level, then the sample is represented by
the binary representation of the digit 𝑚
Note: 𝑛-bit quantization  2𝑛 levels

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 7

Quantization Noise An illustration of quantization noise

Original message Quantized values

Quantization replaces the actual sample
value with a rough approximation error

Quantization noise (or error) is the difference

between the actual and the quantized value

Clearly, the largest possible error is Δ/2

Larger number of levels (i.e., smaller Δ) give

lower quantization noise, but also needs
more bits per sample hence greater Note: For speech signals, 128-level
transmission rates and bandwidth quantization is typically used

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 8

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) PCM vs. Digital Modulation

In wired systems (e.g., a

In PCM, the bit sequence obtained via sampling followed LAN), we can simply send
by analog-to-digital conversion is transmitted the PCM bits by transmitting
voltage pulses (e.g., a +5V
pulse for bit 1 and -5V pulse
The transmission rate (number of bits transmitted per for bit 0).
second) is 𝑛𝑓𝑠 where
𝑛 = Number of bits per sample In wireless systems, we must
modulate the PCM bits. This
𝑓𝑠 = Sampling frequency forms the basis of digital
modulation schemes

If the message signal has maximum frequency

component 𝑓𝑚 then 𝑓s 2𝑓𝑚 PCM can be thought of as an
information representation
scheme, whereas digital
modulations are information
Also, 𝑛 log 2𝐿, where 𝐿 is the no. of quantization levels transmission schemes
Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 9
Digital Modulation Techniques Well known digital
modulation schemes

Question: How to transmit the PCM bits wirelessly? On-Off Keying (OOK)

How about transmitting a positive pulse for a 1 bit and a Frequency-Shift Keying
negative pulse (or nothing at all) for a zero bit? That won’t (FSK)
work, because the pulses have very low frequency content
(Fourier transform magnitude is large at zero or near zero Phase-Shift Keying
frequency). Transmitting at such low frequencies would (PSK)
require extremely large antennas*
Each has many variants
Solution: Modulate the pulses with a carrier to shift the
frequency spectrum PSK-based schemes
are the most widely
used
[*Antenna size should be approximately half the wavelength]
Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 10
On-Off Keying (OOK)

Transmit a modulated pulse for bit 1

Transmit nothing for bit 0

Mathematically, an OOK symbol* is

A modulation symbol is one transmission unit
of a digitally modulated signal
𝑥 𝑡 2𝐴 𝑖 cos ω𝑐𝑡, for 0 𝑡 𝑇𝑠
where In OOK and many other schemes, one symbol
𝑖 is the information bit (0 or 1) corresponds to one bit. Thus, there are two
possible symbols. These are called binary
𝐴 determines the carrier amplitude modulation schemes.
ω𝑐 is the carrier frequency The 2 term is there because it simplifies the
energy calculation, but may as well be omitted. Also
𝑇𝑠 is the symbol duration the cos term may be replaced with a sin; basically,
all we need is a sinusoid
Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 11
Binary Frequency-Shift Keying (BFSK)

Use carrier frequency ω𝑐0 for bit 0

Use carrier frequency ω𝑐1 for bit 1

Mathematically, a FSK symbol is

𝑥 𝑡 2𝐴 cos ω𝑐𝑖𝑡, for 0 𝑡 𝑇𝑠

where
𝑖 is the information bit (0 or 1)
𝐴 is the carrier amplitude
It can be shown that for proper demodulation,
ω𝑐𝑖 is the carrier frequency
𝜔𝑐0 and 𝜔𝑐1 must satisfy 𝜔𝑐1 𝜔𝑐0 for
𝑇𝑠 is the symbol duration some positive integer 𝑛

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 12

Binary Phase-Shift Keying (BPSK)

Transmit 2𝐴 cos ω𝑐𝑡 for bit 0

Transmit 2𝐴 cos ω𝑐𝑡 1800 for bit 1

But cos ω𝑐𝑡 1800 cos ω𝑐𝑡

Thus, a BPSK symbol is

𝑥 𝑡 2𝐴 1 𝑖 cos ω𝑐𝑡, for 0 𝑡 𝑇𝑠

where 𝑖 is the information bit (0 or 1)

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 13

Bit Rate and Symbol Rate Bandwidth Requirement

Symbol rate 𝑅𝑠 is the number of symbols Recall that the null-to-null bandwidth
sent per second. Clearly, 𝑅𝑠 where of a pulse of duration 𝑇𝑠 seconds is
𝑇𝑠 is the symbol duration 2/𝑇𝑠

The bit rate 𝑅𝑏 is the number of bits sent Since 𝑅𝑠 1/𝑇𝑠 , the symbol rate
per second. For binary modulation (OOK, determines the bandwidth
BFSK, BPSK), each modulation symbol
carries one bit. Hence 𝑅𝑏 𝑅𝑠 But the symbol rate also determines
the bit rate

Thus, larger bandwidth needed to

transmit at higher data rates

Satellite Communication Engineering (EC3L008) 14

10 -1

10 -2

-3
10

10 -4

-5
10

-6
10
0 2 4 6 8 10
Eb/N0 (dB)