LAb 1
LAb 1
LAb 1
A. OBJECTIVES
To describe the ASK (Amplitude Shift Keying) modulation and
demodulation
To examine the noise effect on the connection
B. EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
In this form of modulation the sine carrier takes 2 amplitude values, determined by
the binary data signal. Usually the modulator transmits the carrier when the data bits
is “1”, it completely removes it when the bit is “0” (fig. 1). There are also ASK shapes
called “multi-level”, where the amplitude of the modulated signal takes more than 2
values.
The demodulation can be coherent or non coherent. In this first case, more complex
as concerns the circuits but more effective as against the noise effect, as product
demodulator multiplies the ASK signal by the locally generated carrier. In the second
case the envelope of Ask signal is detected via diode. In both cases the detector is
followed a low pass filter, which removes the residual carrier components, and a
threshold circuit which squares the data signal (fig. 2).
ASK MODULATOR
The block diagram of the ASK modulator is shown in figure 3. The sine carrier (1200
or 1800 Hz) is applied to an input of the balanced modulator 1; a data signal
(Indicated with 1) is connected to the other circuit. The circuit usually carriers out
the balanced modulator function, and multiplies the two signals applied across the
inputs. Unbalancing, though, the circuit with switch SW6 (in position ASK/FSK), it
operates as amplitude modulator generating in this way the ASK signal of figure 1.
The last, then, enters the adder used for FSK/QPSK/QAM modulations, and exits via
a separator stage. The 6db attenuator cuts the signal amplitude into half, and is
activated only with the QAM. To block the operation of the balanced modulator 2 in
ASK mode, the data input of the same modulator must be set on ASK (J3=d).
ASK DEMODULATOR
Set the circuit in ASK mode, with 64 bit pseudocasual data and the
Manchester data coding (J1d-J3d-J4-J5-J6a; SW2=Normal, SW3=64 bit,
SW4=1200, SW6=ASK, SW8=BIT, SW9=READ, ATT=min, NOISE=min)
Push the pushbutton RESET
The value read on the “ERROR COUNTER” display corresponds to the number
of received error bits.
If the no noise is introduced in line, there would not be error bits. Gradually
increases NOISE and observe the error bit reading.
The measurement representing the quality of a data transmission connection
is the Bit Error Rate (BER), defined as the ratio between the error bits and
the total received bits. The BER is usually expressed with multiples of 10. E.g.
BER=3.5-5 means 3 wrong bits every 10000 received bits.
To carry out the BER measurement you can act as follows:
i. Set the deviator to READ and reset the counter pushing RESET
ii. Keep counting activated for a certain laps of time, e.g. 60 seconds. As
in Manchester mode there is a transmission speed of 300 bit/s, in 60
Seconds expire set the deviator to STOP and read the wrong bits.
iii. The ratio between error bits and received bits is the connection error
rate.
Figure 5: Waveform ASK
In case of synchronous connection, the receiver must also supply the Data clock, i.e.
a square wave synchronous to the received data and to the wave-fronts
corresponding to the center of the bit interval. The clock extraction (from the
received data) becomes difficult or impossible if the data signal contains long
sequences of ‘0’ or ‘1’, as, in this case the alternate components would lack
components necessary to the regeneration circuit hooking (usually based on PLL).