S-72.

245 Transmission Methods in

Telecommunication Systems (4 cr)

Linear Carrier Wave Modulation

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 Linear carrier wave (CW) modulation

 Bandpass systems and signals

 Lowpass (LP) equivalents AM
 Amplitude modulation (AM)
 Double-sideband modulation (DSB)
 Modulator techniques DSB
 Suppressed-sideband amplitude
modulation (LSB, USB)
 Detection techniques of linear modulation LSB
– Coherent detection
– Noncoherent detection
USB

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 Baseband and CW communications
carrier

 Baseband communications is used in

– PSTN local loop baseband CW
– PCM communications for instance between exchanges
– (fiber-) optical communication
 Using carrier to shape and shift the frequency spectrum (eg CW
techniques) enable modulation by which several advantages are
obtained
– different radio bands can be used for communications
– wireless communications
– multiplexing techniques become applicable
– exchanging transmission bandwidth to received SNR

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Defining bandpass
signals

 The bandpass signal is band limited

Vbp ( f )  0, f  f c  W  f  f c  W
Vbp ( f )  0,otherwise

 We assume also that (why?)

W  f C
 In telecommunications bandpass signals are used to convey
messages over medium
 In practice, transmitted messages are never
strictly band limited due to
– their nature in frequency domain (Fourier series coefficients
may extend over very large span of frequencies)
– non-ideal filtering 4
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 Example of a bandpass system
 Consider a simple bandpass system: a resonant (tank) circuit
jL / jC
zp  zi  R  z p Vin ( ) H ( )  Vout ( )
jL  1 / jC
H ( )  Vout ( ) / Vin ( )  z p / zi  H ( )  1/[1  jQ( f / f 0  f 0 / f )]

Q  R C / L

 f 0  (2 LC )
1

zp
Tank circuit

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 Bandwidth and Q-factor
 The bandwidth is inversely proportional to Q-factor:

B3 dB  f0 / Q (for the tank circuit: Q  R C / L )

 System design is easier (next slide) if the fractional bandwidth

1/Q=B/f0 is kept relatively small:
0.01  B / f0  0.1
 Some practical examples:

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 Why system design is easier for smaller
fractional bandwidths (FB)?

 Antenna and bandpass amplifier design is difficult for large FB:s:

– one will have “difficult to realize” components or
parameters in circuits as
• too high Q
• too small or large values for capacitors and inductors
 These structures have a bandpass nature because one of their
important elements is the resonant circuit. Making them
broadband means decreasing resistive losses that can be
difficult

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 I-Q (in-phase-quadrature) description for
bandpass signals
 In I-Q presentation bandpass signal carrier and modulation parts
are separated into different terms
vbp (t )  A(t )cos[C t   (t )]
vbp (t )  vi (t ) cos(C t )  vq (t ) sin(C t )
vi (t )  A(t )cos  (t ), vq (t )  A(t )sin  (t )

Bandpass signal
in frequency
domain

Bandpass signal cos(   )  cos( ) cos(  )

in time
dashed line
 sin( ) sin(  )
domain
denotes envelope
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 The phasor description of bandpass signal
 Bandpass signal is conveniently represented by a phasor
rotating at the angular carrier rate  C t   (t ) :

vbp (t )  vi (t )cos(C t )  vq (t )sin(C t )

vi (t )  A(t )cos  (t ), vq (t )  A(t )sin  (t )
vi (t )  0,arctan(vq (t ) / vi (t ))
A(t )  vi (t )  vq (t )  (t )  
2 2

vi (t )  0,   arctan(vq (t ) / vi (t ))

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 vbp (t )  vi (t ) cos( ct )  vq (t )sin( ct )

Lowpass (LP) signal vi (t )  A(t ) cos  (t )
v (t )  A(t )sin  (t )
 q

 Lowpass signal is defined by Vlp ( f ) 1

2
Vi ( f )  jVq ( f ) 
yielding in time domain
vlp (t )  F 1 Vlp ( f )   12 vi (t )  jvq (t ) 
Taking rectangular-polar conversion yields then

vlp (t )  A(t )  cos  (t )  j sin  (t )  / 2

vlp (t )  A(t ) / 2, arg vlp (t )   (t )
vlp (t )  12 A(t )exp j (t )

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 Transforming lowpass signals
and bandpass signals
vbp (t )  A(t )cos[ct   (t )]
vbp  Re A(t )exp[ jct   (t )]
 
 A(t ) 
vbp  2 Re  exp[ j (t )]exp[ j ct ]
 2 
 vlp ( t ) 
vbp  2 Re vlp (t ) exp[ j ct ]
 Physically this means that the lowpass signal is modulated to
the carrier frequency  when it is transformed to bandpass
signal. Bandpass signal can be transformed into lowpass signal
by (tutorials). What is the physical meaning of this?
Vlp ( f )  Vbp ( f  fC )u( f  fC )
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 Amplitude modulation (AM)
 We discuss three linear mod. methods: (1) AM (amplitude
modulation), (2) DSB (double sideband modulation), (3) SSB
(single sideband modulation)
 AM signal:
xC (t )  Ac [1   xm (t )]cos( ct   (t )) 0    1

 Ac cos( ct   (t ))  Ac  xm (t )cos( ct   (t ))  xm (t )  1
Carrier Information carrying part
 (t) is an arbitrary constant. Hence we note that no information
is transmitted via the phase. Assume for instance that (t)=0,
then the LP components are
vi (t )  A(t )cos( (t ))  A(t )  Ac [1   xm (t )]
vq (t )  A(t )sin( (t ))  0

 Also, the carrier component contains no information-> Waste of

power to transmit the unmodulated carrier, but can still be useful
(how?)
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 AM: waveforms and bandwidth
 AM in frequency domain:
xc (t )  Ac [1   xm (t )]cos( ct )
 Ac cos( ct )   xm (t )cos( ct )
Carrier Information carrying part

X c ( f )  Ac ( f  f c ) / 2   Ac X m ( f  f c ) / 2 f  0(for brief notations)

Carrier Information carrying part

 AM bandwidth is twice the message bandwidth W:

v(t )cos( ct   )  12 V ( f  f c )exp j  V ( f  f c )exp  j 

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 AM waveforms

(a): modulation
(b): modulated carrier
with <1
(c): modulated carrier
with >1

Envelope distortion!
(AM signal: xc (t )  Ac [1   xm (t )]cos(ct )) 14
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 AM power efficiency
 AM wave total power consists of the idle carrier part and the
useful signal part:  xc2 (t )   Ac2 cos 2 ( ct ) 
Carrier

(AM signal: xc (t )     2 Ac2 xm2 (t ) cos 2 ( ct ) 

Ac [1   xm (t )]cos( ct )) Power: SX

 Ac2 / 2   2 Ac2 S X / 2
PC 2 PSB
 Assume AC=1, SX=1, then for =1 (the max value) the total
power is
3
PT max  1 / 2  1 / 2
Carrier power
3
Modulation power

 Therefore at least half of the total power is wasted on carrier

 Detection of AM is simple by enveloped detector that is a reason
why AM is still used. Also, sometimes AM makes
system design easier, as in fiber optic
communications 15
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 DSB signals and spectra
 In DSB the wasteful carrier is suppressed:
xc (t )  Ac xm (t )cos(ct )
 The spectra is otherwise identical to AM and the transmission
BW equals again double the message BW
X c ( f )  Ac X m ( f  f c ) / 2, f  0
 In time domain each modulation signal zero crossing produces
phase reversals of the carrier. For DSB, the total power ST and
the power/sideband PSB have the relationship

ST  Ac2 S X / 2  2 PSB  PSB  Ac2 S X / 4( DSB)

 Therefore AM transmitter requires twice the power of DSB

transmitter to produce the same coverage assuming SX=1.
However, in practice SX is usually smaller than 1/2, under which
condition at least four times the DSB power is required for the
AM transmitter for the same coverage
AM: xc (t )  Ac [1   xm (t )]cos(ct ) 16
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 DSB and AM spectra
 AM in frequency domain with xm (t )  Am cos( mt )
X c ( f )  Ac ( f  f c ) / 2   Ac X m ( f  f c ) / 2, f  0 (general expression)
Carrier Information carrying part

X c ( f )  Ac ( f  f c ) / 2   Ac Am ( f c  f m ) / 2 (tone modulation)

 In summary, difference of AM and DSB at frequency domain is

the missing carrier component. Other differences relate to power
efficiency and detection techniques.

(a) DSB spectra, (b) AM spectra

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 AM phasor analysis,tone modulation
 AM and DSB can be inspected also by trigonometric expansion
yielding for instance for AM
xC (t )  AC Am  cos( m t )cos( C t )  AC cos( C t )
AC Am  AA
 cos( C   m )t  C m cos( C   m )t
2 2
 AC cos( C t )
 This has a nice phasor interpretation;
take for instance =2/3, Am=1:

 2 
A(t )  Ac 1  cos  c t 
 3 

2
Am  
3
AM signal: xc (t )  Ac [1   xm (t )]cos( ct )
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A( t )
Helsinki University of Technology, Communications Laboratory, Timo O. Korhonen
 Linear modulators

 Note that AM and DSB systems generate new frequency

components that were not present at the carrier or at the
message.
 Hence modulator must be a nonlinear system
 Both AM and DSB can be generated by
– analog or digital multipliers
– special nonlinear circuits
• based on semiconductor junctions (as diodes, FETs etc.)
• based on analog or digital nonlinear amplifiers as
– log-antilog amplifiers:
v1
p  log v1  log v2 Log
p v1v2
10  v1v2
p
v2 Log
10

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  (a) Product modulator
(b) respective schematic
diagram
=multiplier+adder

(AM signal: xc (t )  Ac [1   xm (t )]cos(ct )) 20

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 Square-law modulator (for AM)
 Square-law modulators are based on nonlinear elements:

(a) functional block diagram, (b) circuit realization 21

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 Balanced modulator (for DSB)
 By using balanced configuration non-idealities on square-law
characteristics can be compensated resulting a high degree of
carrier suppression:

 Note that if the modulating signal has a DC-component, it is not

cancelled out and will appear at the carrier frequency of the
modulator output
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 Synchronous detection
 All linear modulations can be detected by synchronous
detector
 Regenerated, in-phase carrier replica required for signal
regeneration that is used to multiple the received signal
 Consider an universal*, linearly modulated signal:

xc (t )  [ Kc  K  x(t )]cos(ct )  K  xq (t )sin(ct )

 The multiplied signal y(t) is:

xc (t ) ALO cos( ct ) 
ALO
2

[ K c  K  x(t )][1  cos(2 ct ) ]  K  xq (t )sin(2 ct ) 
ALO
 [ K c  K  x(t )]
2

Synchronous
detector
*What are the parameters
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for example for AM or DSB?
Helsinki University of Technology, Communications Laboratory, Timo O. Korhonen
 The envelope detector
 Important motivation for using AM is the possibility to use the
envelope detector that
– has a simple structure (also cheap)
– needs no synchronization
(e.g. no auxiliary, unmodulated
carrier input in receiver)
– no threshold effect (
SNR can be very small and
receiver still works)

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 Envelope detector analyzed
 Assume diode half-wave rectifier used to rectify AM-signal.
Therefore after the diode AM modulation is in effect multiplied
with the half-wave rectified sinusoidal signal w(t)
1 2  1 
vR   A  m(t )  cos  C t    cos  C t  cos3 C t  ...  
2   3 
w( t )
1
vR   A  m(t ) + other higher order terms

 The diode detector is then followed by a lowpass circuit to
remove the higher order terms
 The resulting DC-term may also be blocked by a capacitor
 Note the close resembles of this principle to the synchronous-
detector (why?)
1
cos 2 ( x)  1  cos(2 x) 25
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