Modulation: Modulation Is The Process of Varying One Waveform in Relation To
Modulation: Modulation Is The Process of Varying One Waveform in Relation To
Modulation is the process of varying one waveform in relation to another waveform. In telecommunications, modulation is used to convey a message, or a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and pitch. Often a high-frequency sinusoid waveform is used as carrier signal to convey a lower frequency signal. The three key parameters of a sine wave are its amplitude ("volume"), its phase ("timing") and its frequency ("pitch"), all of which can be modified in accordance with a low frequency information signal to obtain the modulated signal. A device that performs modulation is known as a modulator and a device that performs the inverse operation of modulation is known as a demodulator (sometimes detector or demod). A device that can do both operations is a modem (short for "Modulator-Demodulator").
Aim
The aim of digital modulation is to transfer a digital bit stream over an analog passband channel, for example over the public switched telephone network (where a bandpass filter limits the frequency range to between 300 and 3400 Hz), or over a limited radio frequency band. 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 passband channel, for example a limited radio frequency band or a cable TV network channel. 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. The aim of digital baseband modulation methods, also known as line coding, is to transfer a digital bit
A low-frequency message signal (top) may be carried by an AM or FM radio wave.
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.
Common analog modulation techniques are: Amplitude modulation (AM) (here the amplitude of the modulated signal is varied) Double-sideband modulation (DSB) Double-sideband modulation with unsuppressed carrier (DSB-WC) (used on the AM radio broadcasting band) Double-sideband suppressed-carrier transmission (DSB-SC) Double-sideband reduced carrier transmission (DSB-RC) Single-sideband modulation (SSB, or SSB-AM), SSB with carrier (SSB-WC) SSB suppressed carrier modulation (SSB-SC) Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB, or VSB-AM) Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) Angle modulation Frequency modulation (FM) (here the frequency of the modulated signal is varied) Phase modulation (PM) (here the phase shift of the modulated signal is varied)
These are the most fundamental digital modulation techniques: In the case of PSK, a finite number of phases are used. In the case of FSK, a finite number of frequencies are used. In the case of ASK, a finite number of amplitudes are used. In the case of QAM, a finite number of at least two phases, and at least two amplitudes are used. In QAM, an inphase signal (the I signal, for example a cosine waveform) and a quadrature phase signal (the Q signal, for example a sine wave) are amplitude modulated with a finite number of amplitudes, and 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. If the alphabet consists of M = 2N alternative symbols, each symbol represents a message consisting of N bits. If the symbol rate (also known as the baud rate) is fS symbols/second (or baud), the data rate is NfS 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.
3. 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). 4. Generate a high-frequency sine wave carrier waveform, and perhaps also a cosine quadrature component. Carry out the modulation, for example by multiplying the sine and cosine wave form with the I and Q signals, resulting in that the equivalent low pass signal is frequency shifted into a 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. 5. 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). 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 sinewave and cosine wave frequency (see the superheterodyne receiver principle). 3. Sampling and analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) (Sometimes before or instead of the above point, for example by means of undersampling). 4. 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. 5. 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 errorcorrecting 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 transmitterreceiver pair have
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. Non-coherent modulation methods do not require a receiver reference clock signal that is phase synchronized with the sender carrier wave. In this case, modulation symbols (rather than bits, characters, or data packets) are asynchronously transferred. The opposite is coherent modulation.
OFDM is based on the idea of frequency division multiplexing (FDM), but is utilized as a digital modulation scheme. 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. 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 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 C 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.
schemes, but should be considered as source coding schemes, and in some cases analog-todigital conversion techniques. Analog-over-analog methods: Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) Pulse-width modulation (PWM) Pulse-position modulation (PPM) Analog-over-digital methods: Pulse-code modulation (PCM) Differential PCM (DPCM) Adaptive DPCM (ADPCM) Delta modulation (DM or I-modulation) Sigma-delta modulation (I) Continuously variable slope delta modulation (CVSDM), also called Adaptive-delta modulation (ADM) Pulse-density modulation (PDM)
References
Wikipedia