Modulation Techniques for

Mobile Radio

CS 515
Mobile and Wireless Networking
Ibrahim Korpeoglu
Computer Engineering Department
Bilkent University

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 1

What is modulation

 Modulation is the process of encoding

information from a message source in a
manner suitable for transmission
 It involves translating a baseband message
signal to a bandpass signal at frequencies
that are very high compared to the baseband
frequency.
 Baseband signal is called modulating signal
 Bandpass signal is called modulated signal
CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 2
Modulation Techniques

 Modulation can be done by varying the

 Amplitude
 Phase, or
 Frequency
of a high frequency carrier in accordance with the
amplitude of the message signal.
 Demodulation is the inverse operation:
extracting the baseband message from the
carrier so that it may be processed at the
receiver.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 3

Analog/Digital Modulation

 Analog Modulation
 The input is continues signal
 Used in first generation mobile radio systems
such as AMPS in USA.
 Digital Modulation
 The input is time sequence of symbols or pulses.
 Are used in current and future mobile radio
systems

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 4

Goal of Modulation Techniques

 Modulation is difficult task given the hostile

mobile radio channels
 Small-scale fading and multipath conditions.
 The goal of a modulation scheme is:
 Transport the message signal through the radio
channel with best possible quality
 Occupy least amount of radio (RF) spectrum.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 5

Frequency versus Amplitude
Modulation
 Frequency Modulation (FM)
 Most popular analog modulation technique
 Amplitude of the carrier signal is kept constant (constant envelope
signal), the frequency of carrier is changed according to the
amplitude of the modulating message signal; Hence info is carried
in the phase or frequency of the carrier.
 Has better noise immunity:
 atmospheric or impulse noise cause rapid fluctuations in the amplitude of the
received signal
 Performs better in multipath environment
 Small-scale fading cause amplitude fluctuations as we have seen earlier.
 Can trade bandwidth occupancy for improved noise performance.
 Increasing the bandwith occupied increases the SNR ratio.
 The relationship between received power and quality is non-linear.
 Rapid increase in quality for an increase in received power.
 Resistant to co-channel interference (capture effect).

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 6

 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
 Changes the amplitude of the carrier signal
according to the amplitude of the message signal
 All info is carried in the amplitude of the carrier
 There is a linear relationship between the received
signal quality and received signal power.
 AM systems usually occupy less bandwidth then FM
systems.
 AM carrier signal has time-varying envelope.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 7

Amplitude Modulation
 The amplitude of high-carrier signal is varied
according to the instantaneous amplitude of the
modulating message signal m(t).

m(t) AM Modulator sAM(t)

Carrier Signal : Ac cos( 2f ct )

Modulating Message Signal : m(t )

The AM Signal : s AM (t )  Ac [1  m(t )] cos( 2f ct )

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 8

Modulation Index of AM Signal
For a sinusoidal message signal m(t )  Am cos( 2f mt )

Am
Index is defined as: k
Ac

SAM(t) can also be expressed as:

s AM (t )  Re{ g (t )e j 2f ct }
where g (t )  Ac (1  m(t )]
g(t) is called the complex envelope of AM signal.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 9

AM Modulation/Demodulation
Source Sink
Wireless
Channel

Modulator Demodulator

Baseband Signal Bandpass Signal Original Signal

with frequency with frequency with frequency
fm fc fm
(Modulating Signal) (Modulated Signal)

fc >> fm

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 10

AM Modulation - Example
20

15 1/fmesg
10

-5

-10 1/fc
-15

-20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Message signal : m(t )  2  2 cos(t ) fc 

10
 1.6 Hz
Carrier signal : Ac cos( 2f ct )  4 cos(10t ) 2
1
s AM (t )  Ac [1  m(t )] cos( 2f ct ) f mesg  0.16 Hz
2
AM Signal : s AM (t )  4[1  2  2 cos(t )] cos( 2f c t )

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 11

Angle Modulation

 Angle of the carrier is varied according to the

amplitude of the modulating baseband signal.
 Two classes of angle modulation techniques:
 Frequency Modulation
 Instantanoues frequency of the carrier signal is varied
linearly with message signal m(t)
 Phase Modulation
 The phase q(t) of the carrier signal is varied linearly with the
message signal m(t).

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 12

Angle Modulation
FREQUENCY MODULATION
 t

sFM (t )  Ac cos( 2f c t  q (t )]  Ac cos 2f c t  2k f  m( x)dx 
  
kf is the frequency deviation constant (kHz/V)

If modulation signal is a sinusoid of amplitude Am, frequency fm:

k f Am
sFM (t )  Ac cos( 2f ct  sin( 2f mt )]
fm
PHASE MODULATION
sPM (t )  Ac cos2f ct  kq m(t )
kq is the phase deviation constant

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 13

FM Example:
4

- + - -+

-4 0.5 1 1.5 2
Message signal m(t )  4 cos( 2t )
FM Signal s (t )  cos2 8t  4 sin( 2t )
Carrier Signal cos( 2 8t )

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 14

FM Index
k f Am f
f  
W W
W: the maximum bandwidth of the modulating signal
f: peak frequency deviation of the transmitter.
Am: peak value of the modulating signal

Example: Given m(t) = 4cos(24x103t) as the message signal and

a frequency deviation constant gain (kf) of 10kHz/V;
Compute the peak frequency deviation and modulation index!
Answer: fm=4kHz

f = 10kHz/V * 4V = 40kHz.
f = 40kHz / 4kHz = 10

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 15

Spectra and Bandwidth of FM
Signals
An FM Signal has 98% of the total transmitted power in a RF bandwidth BT

Carson’s Rule

BT  2(  f  1) f m Upper bound

BT  2f Lower bound

Example:
Analog AMPS FM system uses modulation index of Bf = 3 and fm = 4kHz.
Using Carson’s Rule: AMPS has 32kHz upper bound and 24kHz lower
bound on required channnel bandwidth.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 16

FM Demodulator

 Convert from the frequency of the carrier

signal to the amplitude of the message
signal
 FM Detection Techniques
 Slope Detection
 Zero-crossing detection
 Phase-locked discrimination
 Quadrature detection

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 17

Slope Detector
Vin(t) V1(t) V2(t) Vout(t)
Envelope
Limiter Differentiator
Detector

 t

v1 (t )  V1 cos2f c t  q (t )  V1 cos 2f c t  2k f  m( x)dx 
  
 dq 
sin 2f c t  q (t ) 
dv (t )
v2 (t )  1  V1 2f c  
dt  dt 
 d 
vout (t )  V1 2f c  q (t )
 dt 
 V1 2f c  V1 2k f m(t ) Proportional to
the priginal Message Signal

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 18

Digital Modulation

 The input is discrete signals

 Time sequence of pulses or symbols
 Offers many advantages
 Robustness to channel impairments
 Easier multiplexing of variuous sources of information:
voice, data, video.
 Can accommodate digital error-control codes
 Enables encryption of the transferred signals
 More secure link

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 19

Digital Modulation
The modulating signal is respresented as a time-sequence of symbols
or pulses.

Each symbol has m finite states: That means each symbol carries n bits
of information where n = log2m bits/symbol.

...
Modulator
0 1 2 3 T

One symbol
(has m states – voltage levels)
(represents n = log2m bits of information)

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 20

Factors that Influence Choice of
Digital Modulation Techniques
 A desired modulation scheme
 Provides low bit-error rates at low SNRs
 Power efficiecny
 Performs well in multipath and fading conditions
 Occupies minimum RF channel bandwidth
 Bandwidth efficieny
 Is easy and cost-effective to implement
 Depending on the demands of a particular
system or application, tradeoffs are made
when selecting a digital modulation scheme.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 21

Power Efficiency of Modulation

 Power efficiency is the ability of the modulation technique to

preserve fidelity of the message at low power levels.
 Usually in order to obtain good fidelity, the signal power needs
to be increased.
 Tradeoff between fidelity and signal power
 Power efficiency describes how efficient this tradeoff is made

 Eb 
Power Efficiency :  p   required at the receiver input for certain PER
 N0 
Eb: signal energy per bit
N0: noise power spectral density
PER: probability of error

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 22

Bandwidth Efficiency of Modulation

 Ability of a modulation scheme to accommodate

data within a limited bandwidth.
 Bandwidth efficiency reflect how efficiently the
allocated bandwidth is utilized

R
Bandwidth Efficiency :  B  bps/Hz
B
R: the data rate (bps)
B: bandwidth occupied by the modulated RF signal

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 23

Shannon’s Bound
There is a fundamental upper bound on achievable bandwidth efficiency.
Shannon’s theorem gives the relationship between the channel
bandwidth and the maximum data rate that can be transmitted over this
channel considering also the noise present in the channel.

Shannon’s Theorem

C S
 B max   log 2 (1  )
B N
C: channel capacity (maximum data-rate) (bps)
B: RF bandwidth
S/N: signal-to-noise ratio (no unit)

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Tradeoff between BW Efficiency and
Power Efficiency
 There is a tradeoff between bandwidth
efficiency and power efficiency
 Adding error control codes
 Improves the power efficiency
 Reduces the requires received power for a particular bit
error rate
 Decreases the bandwidth efficiency
 Increases the bandwidth occupancy
 M-ary keying modulation
 Increases the bandwidth efficiency
 Decreases the power efficiency
 More power is requires at the receiver

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 25

Example:

 SNR for a wireless channel is 30dB and RF

bandwidth is 200kHz. Compute the theoretical
maximum data rate that can be transmitted over this
channel?
 Answer:
 30 dB 
S  10 
 10  
N
S
C  B log 2 (1  )  2 x105 log 2 (1  1000)  1.99Mbps
N

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 26

Noiseless Channels and Nyquist
Theorem
For a noiseless channel, Nyquist theorem gives the relationship
between the channel bandwidth and maximum data rate that can be
transmitted over this channel.

Nyquist Theorem

C  2B log 2 m
C: channel capacity (bps)
B: RF bandwidth
m: number of finite states in a symbol of transmitted signal

Example: A noiseless channel with 3kHz bandwidth can only transmit

maximum of 6Kbps if the symbols are binary symbols.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 27

Power Spectral Density of Digital
Signals and Bandwith
 What does signal bandwidth mean?
 Answer is based on Power Spectral Density (PSD)
of Signals
 For a random signal w(t), PSD is defined as:
W (f)2 
Pw( f )  lim  T 

T   T
 
WT ( f ) is th fourier transform of wT (t )
 T T
w(t )   t 
wT (t )   2 2
0 elsewhere

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 28

PSD

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 29

Fourier Analysis
Joseph Fourier has shown that any periodic function F(f) with period T,
can be constructed by summing a (possibly infinite) number of sines and
cosines. 
a
F (t ) 0
  an cos( nT t )  bn sin( nT t )
2 n 1

2
T   2f 0
T
Such a decomposition is called Fourier series and the coefficients are
called the Fourier coefficients.

A line graph of the amplitudes of the Fourier series components can be

drawn as a function of frequency. Such a graph is called a spectrum or
frequency spectrum. f0 is called the fundemantal frequency.

The nth term is called nth harmonic. The coefficients of the nth harmonic
are an and bn.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 30

Fourier Analysis
The coefficients can be obtained from the periodic function F(t) as follows:

T
2
a0   F (t )dt
T 0
T
2
an   F (t ) cos n T tdt, n  1,2,...
T 0
T
2
bn   F (t ) sin n T tdt, n  1,2,...
T 0

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 31

Example: A Periodic Function
Find the fourier series of the periodic function f(x), where
One period of f(x) is defined as: f(x) = x, - < x < 

T=2


 0  2



T  2

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Example: Its Fourier Approximation
Domain: [-, ]
4 4
x x

3 1 harmonic
2*sin(x)
3 2 harmonics 2*(sin(x)-sin(2*x)/2)

2 2

1 1

0 0

-1 -1

-2 -2

-3 -3

-4 -4
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

4 4
x x
2*(sin(x)-(sin(2*x)/2)+(sin(3*x)/3)) 2*(sin(x)-(sin(2*x)/2)+(sin(3*x)/3)-(sin(4*x)/4))
3 3 harmonics 3 4 harmonics
2 2

1 1

0 0

-1 -1

-2 -2

-3 -3

-4 -4
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

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Example: Frequency Spectrum
Magnitude : an2  bn2
2.5

For First 10 harmonics

2

1.5

0.5

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Harmonics

Each harmonic corresponds to a frequency that is multiple of the fundamental

frequency

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 34

Complex Form of Fourier Series
By substituting Euler’s Expresssion into Fouries expansion:

e jq  cos q  j sin q
It can be shown that the following is true:

F (t )   n dt
c e jnT t

n  
T
2
1

 jnT t
cn  F (t ) e dt , n  ...  2,1,0,1,2,....
T T

2
cn are the complex Fourier coefficients

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 35

Digital Modulation - Continues
 Line Coding
 Base-band signals are represented as line codes
1 0 1 0 1 0 1
Tb

V
0 Unipolar
Tb NRZ
V
Bipolar
RZ
-V
V
Manchester
-V NRZ

Tb

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 36

Geometric Representation of
Modulation Signal
 Digital Modulation involves
 Choosing a particular signal waveform for transmission for
a particular symbol or signal
 For M possible signals, the set of all signal waveforms are:

S  {s1 (t ), s2 (t ),..., sM (t )}

 For binary modulation, each bit is mapped to a

signal from a set of signal set S that has two signals
 We can view the elements of S as points in vector
space

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 37

Geometric Representation of
Modulation Signal
 Vector space
 We can represented the elements of S as linear combination of
basis signals.
 The number of basis signals are the dimension of the vector space.
 Basis signals are orthogonal to each-other.
 Each basis is normalized to have unit energy:


E   i2 (t )dt  1


i (t ) is the i th basis signal.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 38

Example
2 Eb
s1 (t )  cos( 2f c t ) 0  t  Tb Two signal
Tb waveforms to
be used for
2 Eb
cos( 2f c t ) 0  t  Tb
transmission
s2 (t )  
Tb
2
1 (t )  cos( 2f c t ) The basis signal
Tb Q

S  E  (t ),
b 1 Eb 1 (t )  Eb Eb I

Constellation Diagram
Dimension = 1

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Constellation Diagram

 Properties of Modulation Scheme can be

inferred from Constellation Diagram
 Bandwidth occupied by the modulation increases as the
dimension of the modulated signal increases
 Bandwidth occupied by the modulation decreases as the
signal_points per dimension increases (getting more
dense)
 Probability of bit error is proportional to the distance
between the closest points in the constellation.
 Bit error decreases as the distance increases (sparse).

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 40

Linear Modulation Techniques

 Classify digital modulation techniques as:

 Linear
 The amplitude of the transmitted signal varies linearly with
the modulating digital signal, m(t).
 They usually do not have constant envelope.
 More spectral efficient.
 Poor power efficiency
 Example: QPSK.
 Non-linear

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 41

Binary Phase Shift Keying

 Use alternative sine wave phase to encode bits

 Phases are separated by 180 degrees.
 Simple to implement, inefficient use of bandwidth.
 Very robust, used extensively in satellite communication.

s1 (t )  Ac cos( 2f c  q c ) binary 1

s2 (t )  Ac cos( 2f c  q c   ) binary 0
Q

0 1
State State

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BPSK Example
1 1 0 1 0 1
Data

Carrier

Carrier+ 

BPSK waveform

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 43

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying

 Multilevel Modulation Technique: 2 bits per symbol

 More spectrally efficient, more complex receiver.
 Two times more bandwidth efficient than BPSK
Q

11 State
01 State

00 State 10 State

Phase of Carrier: /4, 2/4, 5/4, 7/4

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 44

4 different waveforms
1.5 cos+sin 1.5 -cos+sin
1 1
0.5 11 0.5 01
0 0
-0.5 -0.5
-1 -1
-1.50 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 -1.50 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

1.5 1.5
1 1 00
10
0.5 0.5
cos-sin -cos-sin
0 0
-0.5 -0.5
-1 -1
-1.50 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 -1.50 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 45

Constant Envelope Modulation

 Amplitude of the carrier is constant,

regardless of the variation in the modulating
signal
 Better immunity to fluctuations due to fading.
 Better random noise immunity
 Power efficient
 They occupy larger bandwidth

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 46

Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)

 The frequency of the carrier is changed according

to the message state (high (1) or low (0)).
s1 (t )  A cos( 2f c  2f )t 0  t  Tb (bit  1)
s2 (t )  A cos( 2f c  2f )t 0  t  Tb (bit  0)

Continues FSK
s(t )  A cos(2f c  q (t ))
t
s(t )  A cos(2f ct  2k f  m( x)dx)


Integral of m(x) is continues.

CS 515 © Ibrahim Korpeoglu 47

FSK Example
Data

1 1 0 1

FSK
Signal

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