WACHEMO UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Introduction to Communication Systems
Code: ECEg3152
Lecture 2
Amplitude (Linear) modulation

Dec. 2022
Outline
 Introduction
 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
 Implementation of AM Modulators and
Demodulators
 Signal Multiplexing
 AM-Radio Broadcasting

2
 Introduction
• The purpose of a communication system is to transmit information-bearing
signals through a communication channel which separating transmitter from
the receiver.
• Information bearing signals are also referred to as baseband signals.
• The term baseband is used to designate the band of frequencies representing
the original signal as delivered by a source of information.
• The proper use of communication channel requires a shift of the range of
baseband frequencies into other frequency ranges suitable for transmission,
and a corresponding shift back to the original frequency range after reception.
• A shift of the range of frequencies in a signal is accomplished by using
modulation, which is defined as the process by which some characteristic of a
carrier is varied in accordance with a modulating wave (signal).
3
 Introduction…
• Modulation is defined as the process by which some characteristic of a carrier wave is varied
in accordance with an information-bearing signal.
• The carrier is needed to facilitate the transportation of the modulated signal across a bandpass
channel from the transmitter to the receiver. A common form of the carrier is a sinusoidal
wave, in which case we speak of a continuous-wave modulation process.
• The baseband signal is referred to as the modulating wave and the result of the modulation
process is referred to as the modulated wave.
• Modulation is performed at the transmitting end of the communication system.
• At the receiving end, we usually require the original baseband signal to be restored.
• This is accomplished by using a process known as demodulation, which is the reverse of the
modulation process.

Fig. Components of a continuous-wave modulation system: (a)transmitter, and (b) receiver. 4

Introduction…
• In amplitude modulation, the amplitude
of the sinusoidal carrier wave is varied
in accordance with the baseband signal.
• In angle modulation, the angle of the
sinusoidal carrier wave is varied in
accordance with the baseband signal.

Fig. Illustrating AM and FM signals produced by a single

tone. (a) Carrier wave. (b) Sinusoidal modulating signal.
(c) Amplitude-modulated signal. (d) Frequency-modulated
signal.

5
Modulation
Modulation is process of changing baseband signals to facilitate the transmission medium
or Process of modifying message signal into suitable form for transmission over channel.
It is activity or process that takes place in Transmitter section of a communication system.
Modulation is the process by which some characteristic (amplitude, frequency, or phase) of
the carrier is changed according to amplitude of the input (baseband signal).
Involves varying some parameter of a carrier wave in accordance with the message signal.
Communication system = Transmitter + Channel + Receiver
The two signals involved in modulation process are: baseband signal and carrier.

Modulating signal = baseband signal

= intelligence signal = information
bearing signal = message signal =
input signal
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Modulation…
• Baseband Signal
• Modulating or baseband signal is LF signal. Example: voice signal (300Hz – 3400Hz).
• are generated by information sources like microphone, camera, type writer etc.
• Transmission of original information whether analogue or digital, directly into
transmission medium is called baseband transmission.
• Real-life examples of baseband signal: voice, audio, music, video, computer data.
• Baseband signal is not suitable for long distance communication because:
• Hardware limitation (eg: requires very long antenna)
• Interference with other waves
• Carrier signal
• Carrier used to carry the signal from one place to other.
• Carrier is a HF signal
• Sine or cosine wave are used as carrier in analog modulation techniques such as AM, FM.
• Real-life examples of carrier signal: Bus, Train, Airplane etc. 7
 Modulation…
• Modulated Signal
• Modulated signal is baseband signal which its original frequency is shifted to
higher frequency to facilitate transmission purposes.
Transmitter modifies the message signal in order to transport information easily from one
place to other. This modification is called modulation.
During this process, Low Frequency (LF) signal changes the High Frequency (HF) signal.
By modulation, baseband signal is translated from Low Frequency (LF) to High Frequency
(HF).
Carrier frequency fc must be greater than modulating frequency fm.
That means modulating signal is at LF and carrier must be HF sinusoidal (sine
wave or cosine wave) signal. Signal resulted from modulation process is called
modulated wave.
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 Objectives of Modulations
• To translate the frequency of the low pass signal to the pass band of the
channel so that the spectrum of the transmitted band pass signal will match the
pass band characteristics of the channel.
• e.g., the speech signal is translated from the low-frequency range (up to 4 kHz) to the
gigahertz range.
• To simplify the structure of the transmitter by employing higher frequencies.
• e.g., the signal using electromagnetic waves at low frequencies requires huge antennas.
• To accommodate for the simultaneous transmission of signals by means of
frequency-division multiplexing.
• To expand the bandwidth of the transmitted signal in order to increase its noise
and interference immunity in transmission over a noisy channel

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Why Modulation?
• Easy transportation of baseband signals (For successful transmission and
reception of baseband signals)
• Long distance communications
• To reduce antenna size.
• To Reduce noise and interference
• By using proper frequency where noise and interference are at minimum
• Increasing power is costly and may damage equipment.
• Frequency Assignment
• For TV and radio broadcasting, each station has a different assigned carrier.
• To allow use of Multiplexing
• Combining several signals for simultaneous transmission on one channel by
placing each signal on different carrier frequency. 10
 Demodulation
The process of re-creating original message signal from a degraded version of
the transmitted signal after propagation through the channel at the receiver.
is the reverse of the modulation process used in the transmitter.
• The receiver cannot re-create the original message signal exactly in
unavoidable presence of noise and distortion in the received signal.
• The resulting degradation in overall system performance is influenced by the
type of modulation scheme used.
• Note that some modulation schemes are less sensitive to the effects of noise
and distortion than others.

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 Types of modulation
Analogue modulations are frequency
translation method caused by
changing the appropriate quantity in a
carrier signal.
Digital modulation is the result of
changing analogue signal into binary
ones by sampling and coding.
• Keying modulations are digital signals subsequently modulated by the frequency
modulation by using one or other analogue method.
• The choice of the type of modulation is based on:
«The amount of bandwidth allocated
«Types of noise & interference that the signal encounters in transmission over the channel
«The electronic devices for signal amplification prior to transmission 12
Classification of analog modulation

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Classification of communication modulation…
Analog Modulation classified into:
A.Continuous-wave modulation: sinusoidal wave is used as the carrier.
Amplitude modulation (AM): When amplitude of the carrier is varied in
accordance with the message signal,
Angle modulation: when angle of the carrier is varied in accordance of
message signal.
Further subdivided into: frequency modulation (FM) and phase modulation
(PM), in which the frequency & phase of the carrier is changed in
accordance with amplitude of modulating signal.
B.Pulse modulation: Carrier consists of a periodic sequence of rectangular pulses.
can itself be of an analogue or digital type.
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Outline
 Introduction to Modulation
 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
 Implementation of AM Modulators and Demodulators
 Signal Multiplexing
 AM-Radio Broadcasting

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 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
•

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 Amplitude Modulation (AM)…
•

17
Amplitude Modulation (AM)…
•

CARRIER USB LSB

18
Amplitude Modulation (AM)…
•

Fig. (a) Spectrum of baseband signal. (b) Spectrum of AM wave. 19

Virtues and Limitations of Amplitude Modulation
• Amplitude modulation is the oldest method of performing modulation.
• Its greatest virtue is the simplicity of implementation:
• In the transmitter, amplitude modulation is accomplished using a nonlinear device.
• In the receiver, amplitude demodulation is also accomplished using a nonlinear device.
• Amplitude modulation suffers from two major limitations:
• Amplitude modulation is wasteful of power.
• Amplitude modulation is wasteful of bandwidth.
• To overcome these limitations, we must make certain modifications:
• Suppress the carrier and modify the sidebands of the AM wave.
• These modifications naturally result in increased system complexity.
• In effect, we trade system complexity for improved use of communication resources.

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Linear Modulation Schemes
•

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Amplitude Modulation (AM)…
Table: Different forms
of linear modulation

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 Double-Sideband Suppressed-Carrier (DSB-SC) AM
•

Fig. (a) Block diagram of product modulator.

The modulated signal s(t) undergoes a phase reversal

whenever the message signal m(t) crosses zero.
 Spectrum of DSB-SC AM Signal
• The upper sideband
• The frequency content of the modulated signal s(t) in the frequency band |f | >
fc
• The lower sideband
• The frequency content of the modulated signal u(t) in the frequency band |f | <
fc
• S(f) contains both upper and lower sidebands, so called double-
sideband (DSB) AM signal
• Either one of the sidebands of S(f ) contains all the frequencies that
are modulated
The in M(f ). signal s(t) does not contain a carrier
component
• All the transmitted power is contained in the modulating signal m(t).
• As long as m(t) does not have any DC component, there is no impulse
in S(f ) at f = fc. i.e., s(t) is so called a suppressed-carrier (SC) signal .

Therefore, s(t) is called a DSB-SC AM signal.

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 Spectrum of DSB-SC AM Signal…
•

(a) Spectrum of baseband signal (b) Spectrum of DSB-SC modulated wave

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Power Content of DSB-SC Signals
Almost the same amplitude; cancel
each other when integrated

The power of m(t)

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 Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals (Coherent Detection)
• Baseband signal m(t) can be uniquely recovered from DSB-SC wave s(t) by first
multiplying s(t) with a locally generated sinusoidal wave & then low-pass filtering the
product.
• Assumed that local oscillator signal is exactly coherent or synchronized, in both frequency
& phase, with carrier wave c(t) used in product modulator to generate s(t).
• This method of demodulation is known as coherent detection or synchronous demodulation.
• It is instructive to derive coherent detection as a special case of the more general
demodulation process using a local oscillator signal of the same frequency but arbitrary
phase difference 𝜙, measured with respect to the carrier wave c(t).

Fig. Coherent detector for demodulating

DSB-SC modulated wave.

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 Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals…
•

28
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals…
•

 Needs a phase-coherent or synchronous demodulator for recovering the

message signal m(t) from the received signal (the phase φ of the locally
generated sinusoid should ideally be equal to 0 (zero)).
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 Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals (2)
No longer a suppressed carrier signal

Fig. Addition of a pilot tone to a DSB-AM signal Fig. Use of a pilot tone to demodulate a DSB-AM signal

• Disadvantage: it requires that a certain portion of the transmitted signal power

must be allocated to the transmission of the pilot.
• By the use of a phase-locked loop, we may generate a phase-locked sinusoidal
carrier from the received signal r(t) without the need of a pilot signal.
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Example
•

31
Example(1)
•

u(t)

 Constant in the frequency range from −5000

Hz to 5000 Hz, and it is zero at other
 The bandwidth of m(t) is W = 5000 Hz, and the bandwidth
frequencies.
of u(t) is 2W = 10 kHz.
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 Conventional Amplitude Modulation
•

Always positive

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 Conventional Amplitude Modulation (1)
• Spectrum of the Conventional AM Signal
modulation index, 0<a<1

will never be overmodulated

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Example
•

The lower sideband

The upper sideband

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 Power for the Conventional AM Signal
 The power in the modulated signal is Therefore,

 For the conventional AM,

This carrier Information-carrying

component does not component, usually much
carry any information smaller than the first component
(because a < 1, |mn(t)| < 1)
where we have assumed that the average of
mnAdvantage:
(t) is zero. easy to be demodulated
 Disadvantage: far less power efficient than the DSB-SC systems

Percentage modulation = ma x 100

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 Demodulation of Conventional DSB-AM Signals
• No need for a synchronous demodulator
• The envelope (amplitude) 1+m(t) > 0. If we rectify the received signal, we eliminate the
negative values without affecting the message signal
• The rectified signal is equal to u(t) when u(t) > 0, and it is equal to zero when u(t) < 0
• The message signal is recovered by passing the rectified signal through a lowpass filter
whose bandwidth matches that of the message signal
• The combination of the rectifier and the lowpass filter is called an envelope detector
 Ideally, the output of the envelope detector is
of the form:
d(t) = g1 + g2m(t)
gain factor due to the
DC component signal demodulator

 The DC component can be eliminated by passing d(t) through a transformer, whose output is

g2m(t).
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 Single-Sideband AM
• In single-sideband modulation, only upper or lower sideband is transmitted.
• We may generate such a modulated wave by using the frequency-discrimination method
that consists of two stages:
• The first stage is a product modulator, which generates a DSB-SC modulated wave.
• The second stage is a band-pass filter, which is designed to pass one of the sidebands
of this modulated wave and suppress the other.
• The nearest frequency component of unwanted sideband is separated from the desired
sideband by twice the lowest frequency component of the message (modulating) signal.
• In designing band-pass filter used in frequency-discriminator for generating SSB-modulated
wave, we must meet the three basic requirements:
• The desired sideband lies inside the passband of the filter.
• The unwanted sideband lies inside the stopband of the filter.
• The filter's transition band, which separates the passband from the stopband, is twice
the lowest frequency component of the message signal. 38
 Single-Sideband AM
•

Hilbert transform
The plus sign indicates the lower sideband, and
the minus sign indicates the upper sideband.
Another method is to employ a filter
that selects either the upper
sideband or the lower sideband of the
DSB AM signal. Correspondingly, the
The Hilbert transform of a
Fourier transformable signal is inverse Hilbert transform
defined by is defined by

39
 Demodulation of SSB-AM Signals
•

reduces the amplitude of the desired signal

m(t)
Use a pilot tone at the carrier frequency for performing synchronous demodulation.
40
 Vestigial-Sideband AM
• In VSB modulation, one of the sidebands is partially suppressed and a vestige of the other sideband is
transmitted to compensate for that suppression.
• For generating a VSB-modulated wave mostly use the frequency discrimination method.
• First, we generate a DSB-SC modulated wave and then pass it through a bandpass filter.
• it is the special design of the band-pass filter that distinguishes VSB modulation from SSB modulation.
• The sideband filter must have an extremely sharp cutoff in the vicinity of the carrier in order to reject the
second sideband.
• The stringent-frequency response requirements on the sideband filter in an SSB-AM system can be
relaxed by allowing vestige.
• Thus, we simplify the design of the sideband filter at the cost of a modest increase in the channel
bandwidth required to transmit the signal.
where + sign is transmission of a vestige of upper sideband
- sign is transmission of a vestige of lower sideband
m’(t) is quadrature component of s(t) obtained by passing message signal m(t) through filter 41
 Vestigial-Sideband AM(1)
 The message signal at the output of the lowpass filter must be undistorted.
• Hence, the VSB-filter characteristic must satisfy the condition

• Transmission bandwidth of VSB modulation is BT=W+f v where W is message bandwidth and fv is width
of vestigial sideband
Odd symmetry about the carrier frequency fc in the frequency range fc − fa < f < fc + fa fa <<W
To avoid distortion of the message signal, the VSB
filter should have a linear phase over its pass band
fc − fa ≦ |f| ≦ fc + W.

Selects the upper sideband and a vestige of the 42

lower sideband
Vestigial-Sideband AM(1)
•

 The signal spectrum at the output of the ideal low pass filter is

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Outline
 Introduction to Modulation
 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
 Implementation of AM Modulators and Demodulators
 Using analog multiplier
 Square law modulator (nonlinear modulator)
 Switching modulator
 Signal Multiplexing
 AM-Radio Broadcasting

44
Implementation of AM Modulators & Demodulators
Power-Law Modulation
Suppose that the nonlinear device has an input–output
(square-law) characteristic of the form
Fig. Voltage –current characteristics of P-N diode

If the input to the nonlinear device is

Fig. Block diagram of power-law AM modulator

Its output is
The output of the band-pass filter with a
bandwidth 2W centered at f = fc yields

conventional AM signal

where 2a2|m(t)|/a1 < 1 by design

45
 Switching Modulator
where Ac >> m(t)
The output across the load resistor is

This switching operation may be viewed mathematically as a

multiplication of the input vi (t) with the switching function s(t), i.e.,

s(t) is a periodic function, it is represented in the Fourier series as

Desired AM-modulated signal is obtained by passing v0(t) through a band-pass filter with the center frequency f = fc
and the bandwidth 2W.
46
conventional AM signal
Balanced Modulator
•

47
Ring Modulator
• The switching of the diodes is controlled by a square wave of frequency fc,
denoted as c(t), which is applied to the center taps of the two transformers.
• When c(t) > 0, the top and bottom diodes conduct, while the two diodes in the
crossarms are off.  m(t) is multiplied by +1
• When c(t) < 0, the diodes in the crossarms of the ring conduct.  m(t) is
multiplied by −1.

 The desired DSB-SC AM signal u(t) is obtained by passing v0(t) through a band pass filter with

the center frequency f = fc and the bandwidth 2W. 48

 Envelope Detector
 Conventional DSB-AM signals are easily demodulated by an envelope detector.
 For good performance of the envelope detector, we should have
RC too large

 Then the capacitor discharges slowly through the resistor and the
output of the envelope detector closely follows the message
signal.t
RC too small
A simple low pass filter

RC: the time constant

49
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals
• The demodulation of a DSB-SC AM signal requires a synchronous demodulator.
• The coherent phase reference is usually generated by means of a phase-locked loop (PLL).
• PLL generates a phase-coherent carrier signal that is mixed with the received signal in a
balanced modulator.
• The output of the balanced modulator is passed through a lowpass filter of bandwidth W
that passes the desired signal and rejects all signal and noise components above W Hz.

50
Demodulation of SSB and VSB Signals
• The demodulation of SSB-AM signals also requires the use of a phase-
coherent reference.
• Generally a small carrier component can be inserted and then transmitted
along with the message.
• In applications such as a TV broadcast, a large carrier component is transmitted along with the
message in the VSB signal (an envelope detector can be used for demodulation).
• A balanced modulator is used to convert the frequency of the bandpass
signal to low pass or baseband.

51
Outline
 Introduction to Modulation
 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
 Implementation of AM Modulators and
Demodulators
 Signal Multiplexing
 AM-Radio Broadcasting

52
 Signal Multiplexing
• Another important signal operation is multiplexing, where a number of independent signals can be
combined into a composite signal suitable for transmission over a common channel. Voice frequency
transmitted over telephone systems, for example, range from 0.3k to 3.1k Hz.
• Multiplexing - combining separate message signals into a composite signal for transmission over a
common channel.
• Multiple message signals can transmit simultaneously by modulating a carrier of a different frequency, where the
minimum separation between two adjacent carriers is either 2W (for DSB AM) or W (for SSB AM).
• To transmit a number of these signals over the same channel, the signals must be kept apart so that
they do not interfere with each other, and thus they can be separated at the receiver end.
• This is accomplished by separating the signals either in frequency or in time.
• Two commonly used methods for signal multiplexing
• Time-division multiplexing (TDD) - the technique of separating the signals in time usually used to transmit digital
information
• Frequency-division multiplexing (FDD) - The technique of separating the signals in frequency, may be used with 53
 Frequency-Division Multiplexing
Each BPF at the receiver is Each demodulated signal is fed
tuned to one of the carrier to LPF that passes the baseband
frequencies and has a message signal and eliminates
bandwidth that is wide enough the double-frequency
to pass the desired signal. components.

The LPF at the

transmitter ensure
that the bandwidth of
the message signals is
limited to W Hz.
In telephone
communications, an FDM
hierarchy is employed
A super-group channel: 4 kHz x 12 x 6
group channel

54
Quadrature-Carrier Multiplexing
•

Resulting in a bandwidth-efficient
communication system that is
comparable in bandwidth
efficiency to SSB AM

Low pass component high-frequency components

55
Similarly, use Accos2πfct for the demodulation of
Outline
 Introduction to Modulation
 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
 Implementation of AM Modulators and
Demodulators
 Signal Multiplexing
 AM-Radio Broadcasting

56
AM-Radio Broadcasting
• Commercial AM-radio broadcasting utilizes the frequency band 535–1605 kHz
for the transmission of voice and music.
• The carrier-frequency allocations range from 540–1600 kHz with 10 kHz
spacing.
• Radio stations employ conventional AM for signal transmission.
• To reduce the cost of implementing the receiver (when there are billions of receivers and
relatively few radio transmitters)
• The baseband-message signal m(t) is limited to a bandwidth of approximately 5 kHz.

57
 Super-heterodyne receiver
• A super-heterodyne receiver consists of a radio-frequency (RF) tuned
amplifier, a mixer, a local oscillator, an intermediate-frequency (IF) amplifier,
an envelope detector, an audio-frequency amplifier, and a loudspeaker.
• Tuning for the desired radio frequency is provided by a variable capacitor,
which simultaneously tunes the RF amplifier and the frequency of the local
oscillator.

Every AM-radio signal is converted to a common IF frequency of fIF = 455 kHz.

• Allows the use of a single-tuned IF amplifier for signals from any radio station in the frequency band.
• The IF amplifier is designed to have a bandwidth of 10 kHz (matching the bandwidth of the
transmitted signal) 58
 Super-heterodyne receiver(1)
• The frequency conversion to IF is performed by the combination of the RF
amplifier and the mixer.
• The frequency of the local oscillator is fLO = fc + fIF i.e., the tuning range of the
local oscillator is 995–2055 kHz.
• We obtain two signal components; one is centered at the difference frequency fIF, and
the second is centered at the sum frequency 2fc + fIF.
• By limiting the bandwidth of the RF amplifier to the range Bc < BRF < 2fIF,
where Bc is the bandwidth of the AM-radio signal (10 kHz), we can reject the
radio signal transmitted at the so-called image frequency fc = fLO+fIF.
• When we mix the local oscillator output cos2πfLOt with the received signals

59
 Super-heterodyne receiver(2)
•

60
Super-heterodyne receiver(3)
• The IF amplifier provides signal rejection from
adjacent channels, and the RF amplifier
provides signal rejection from image channels.
• The output of the IF amplifier is passed through
an envelope detector, which produces the
desired audio-band message signal m(t).
• Automatic volume control (AVC) is provided
by a feedback-control loop, which adjusts the
gain of the IF amplifier based on the power
level of the signal at the envelope detector.
61
Thank You !!!
?
Assignment 2
•

63