Digital Modulation Techniques

The techniques used to modulate digital information so that it can be transmitted via
microwave, satellite or down a cable pair are different to that of analogue
transmission. The data transmitted via satellite or microwave is transmitted as an
analogue signal. The techniques used to transmit analogue signals are used to
transmit digital signals. The problem is to convert the digital signals to a form that
can be treated as an analogue signal that is then in the appropriate form to either be
transmitted down a twisted cable pair or applied to the RF stage where is modulated
to a frequency that can be transmitted via microwave or satellite.

The equipment that is used to convert digital signals into analogue format is a
modem. The word modem is made up of the words “modulator” and “demodulator”.

A modem accepts a serial data stream and converts it into an analogue format that
matches the transmission medium.

There are many different modulation techniques that can be utilised in a modem.
These techniques are:

• Amplitude shift key modulation (ASK)

• Frequency shift key modulation (FSK)
• Binary-phase shift key modulation (BPSK)
• Quadrature-phase shift key modulation (QPSK)
• Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)

List of common digital modulation techniques

The most common digital modulation techniques are:

1. Phase-shift keying (PSK):

a. Binary PSK (BPSK), using M=2 symbols
b. Quadrature PSK (QPSK), using M=4 symbols
c. Differential PSK (DPSK)
2. Frequency-shift keying (FSK):
a. Audio frequency-shift keying (AFSK)
b. Multi-frequency shift keying (M-ary FSK or MFSK)
3. Amplitude-shift keying (ASK)
4. Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) - a combination of PSK and ASK:
5. Wavelet modulation
6. Spread-spectrum techniques:
a. Direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
b. Chirp spread spectrum (CSS) according to IEEE 802.15.4a CSS uses
pseudo-stochastic coding
c. Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) applies a special scheme for
channel release

Phase-shift keying
 Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that
conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference
signal (the carrier wave).

Any digital modulation scheme uses a finite number of distinct signals

to represent digital data. PSK uses a finite number of phases, each
assigned a unique pattern of binary bits. Usually, each phase encodes
an equal number of bits. Each pattern of bits forms the symbol that is
represented by the particular phase. The demodulator, which is
designed specifically for the symbol-set used by the modulator,
determines the phase of the received signal and maps it back to the
symbol it represents, thus recovering the original data.

(a) Binary phase-shift keying (BPSK)

BPSK (also sometimes called PRK, Phase Reversal Keying, or 2PSK) is

the simplest form of phase shift keying (PSK). It uses two phases which
are separated by 180° and so can also be termed 2-PSK. It does not
particularly matter exactly where the constellation points are
positioned, and in this figure they are shown on the real axis, at 0° and
180°. This modulation is the most robust of all the PSKs since it takes
the highest level of noise or distortion to make the demodulator reach
an incorrect decision. It is, however, only able to modulate at 1
bit/symbol (as seen in the figure) and so is unsuitable for high data-
rate applications when bandwidth is limited.

Implementation

Binary data is often conveyed with the following signals:

for binary "0"
for binary "1"
where fc is the frequency of the carrier-wave.
Hence, the signal-space can be represented by the single basis
function
where 1 is represented by and 0 is represented by . This assignment is,
of course, arbitrary.
The use of this basis function is shown at the end of the next section in
a signal timing diagram. The topmost signal is a BPSK-modulated
cosine wave that the BPSK modulator would produce. The bit-stream
that causes this output is shown above the signal (the other parts of
this figure are relevant only to QPSK).

Bit error rate

The bit error rate (BER) of BPSK in AWGN can be calculated as[5]:
or
Since there is only one bit per symbol, this is also the symbol error
rate.

(b) Quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK)

Constellation diagram for QPSK with Gray coding. Each adjacent symbol only differs by
one bit.
Sometimes known as quaternary or quadriphase PSK, 4-PSK, or 4-
QAM[6], QPSK uses four points on the constellation diagram, equispaced
around a circle. With four phases, QPSK can encode two bits per
symbol. Analysis shows that this may be used either to double the data
rate compared to a BPSK system while maintaining the bandwidth of
the signal or to maintain the data-rate of BPSK but halve the bandwidth
needed.
As with BPSK, there are phase ambiguity problems at the receiver and
differentially encoded QPSK is used more often in practice.
Implementation

The implementation of QPSK is more general than that of BPSK and

also indicates the implementation of higher-order PSK. Writing the
symbols in the constellation diagram in terms of the sine and cosine
waves used to transmit them:
This yields the four phases π/4, 3π/4, 5π/4 and 7π/4 as needed.
This results in a two-dimensional signal space with unit basis functions
The first basis function is used as the in-phase component of the signal
and the second as the quadrature component of the signal.
Hence, the signal constellation consists of the signal-space 4 points
The factors of 1/2 indicate that the total power is split equally between
the two carriers.
Comparing these basis functions with that for BPSK shows clearly how
QPSK can be viewed as two independent BPSK signals. Note that the
signal-space points for BPSK do not need to split the symbol (bit)
energy over the two carriers in the scheme shown in the BPSK
constellation diagram.
QPSK systems can be implemented in a number of ways. An illustration
of the major components of the transmitter and receiver structure are
shown below.

Conceptual transmitter structure for QPSK. The binary data stream is split into the in-
phase and quadrature-phase components. These are then separately modulated onto two
orthogonal basis functions. In this implementation, two sinusoids are used. Afterwards,
the two signals are superimposed, and the resulting signal is the QPSK signal. Note the
use of polar non-return-to-zero encoding. These encoders can be placed before for binary
data source, but have been placed after to illustrate the conceptual difference between
digital and analog signals involved with digital modulation.

Receiver structure for QPSK. The matched filters can be replaced with correlators. Each
detection device uses a reference threshold value to determine whether a 1 or 0 is
detected.

Bit error rate

Although QPSK can be viewed as a quaternary modulation, it is easier

to see it as two independently modulated quadrature carriers. With this
interpretation, the even (or odd) bits are used to modulate the in-
phase component of the carrier, while the odd (or even) bits are used
to modulate the quadrature-phase component of the carrier. BPSK is
used on both carriers and they can be independently demodulated.
As a result, the probability of bit-error for QPSK is the same as for
BPSK:
However, in order to achieve the same bit-error probability as BPSK,
QPSK uses twice the power (since two bits are transmitted
simultaneously).
The symbol error rate is given by:
If the signal-to-noise ratio is high (as is necessary for practical QPSK
systems) the probability of symbol error may be approximated:

QPSK signal in the time domain

The modulated signal is shown below for a short segment of a random binary data-
stream. The two carrier waves are a cosine wave and a sine wave, as indicated by the
signal-space analysis above. Here, the odd-numbered bits have been assigned to the in-
phase component and the even-numbered bits to the quadrature component (taking the
first bit as number 1). The total signal — the sum of the two components — is shown at
the bottom. Jumps in phase can be seen as the PSK changes the phase on each component
at the start of each bit-period. The topmost waveform alone matches the description given
for BPSK above.
The binary data that is conveyed by this waveform is: 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0.

• The odd bits, highlighted here, contribute to the in-phase component: 1 1 0 0 0 1 1

0
• The even bits, highlighted here, contribute to the quadrature-phase component: 1
1000110

(c) Differential phase-shift keying (DPSK)

Differential phase shift keying (DPSK) is a common form of phase
modulation that conveys data by changing the phase of the carrier
wave. As mentioned for BPSK and QPSK there is an ambiguity of phase
if the constellation is rotated by some effect in the communications
channel through which the signal passes. This problem can be
overcome by using the data to change rather than set the phase.

For example, in differentially-encoded BPSK a binary '1' may be

transmitted by adding 180° to the current phase and a binary '0' by
adding 0° to the current phase. In differentially-encoded QPSK, the
phase-shifts are 0°, 90°, 180°, -90° corresponding to data '00', '01',
'11', '10'. This kind of encoding may be demodulated in the same way
as for non-differential PSK but the phase ambiguities can be ignored.
Thus, each received symbol is demodulated to one of the M points in
the constellation and a comparator then computes the difference in
phase between this received signal and the preceding one. The
difference encodes the data as described above.

The modulated signal is shown below for both DBPSK and DQPSK as
described above. It is assumed that the signal starts with zero phase,
and so there is a phase shift in both signals at t = 0.
Analysis shows that differential encoding approximately doubles the
error rate compared to ordinary M-PSK but this may be overcome by
only a small increase in Eb / N0. Furthermore, this analysis (and the
graphical results below) are based on a system in which the only
corruption is additive white Gaussian noise. However, there will also be
a physical channel between the transmitter and receiver in the
communication system. This channel will, in general, introduce an
unknown phase-shift to the PSK signal; in these cases the differential
schemes can yield a better error-rate than the ordinary schemes which
rely on precise phase information.

Demodulation

For a signal that has been differentially encoded, there is an obvious

alternative method of demodulation. Instead of demodulating as usual
and ignoring carrier-phase ambiguity, the phase between two
successive received symbols is compared and used to determine what
the data must have been. When differential encoding is used in this
manner, the scheme is known as differential phase-shift keying (DPSK).
Note that this is subtly different to just differentially-encoded PSK
since, upon reception, the received symbols are not decoded one-by-
one to constellation points but are instead compared directly to one
another.
Call the received symbol in the kth timeslot rk and let it have phase φk.
Assume without loss of generality that the phase of the carrier wave is
zero. Denote the AWGN term as nk. Then
.
The decision variable for the k − 1th symbol and the kth symbol is the
phase difference between rk and rk − 1. That is, if rk is projected onto rk
− 1, the decision is taken on the phase of the resultant complex
number:
where superscript * denotes complex conjugation. In the absence of
noise, the phase of this is θk − θk − 1, the phase-shift between the two
received signals which can be used to determine the data transmitted.
The probability of error for DPSK is difficult to calculate in general, but,
in the case of DBPSK it is:
which, when numerically evaluated, is only slightly worse than ordinary
BPSK, particularly at higher Eb / N0 values.
Using DPSK avoids the need for possibly complex carrier-recovery
schemes to provide an accurate phase estimate and can be an
attractive alternative to ordinary PSK.
In optical communications, the data can be modulated onto the phase
of a laser in a differential way. For the case of BPSK for example, the
laser transmits the field unchanged for binary '1', and with reverse
polarity for '0'. In further processing, a photo diode is used to transform
the optical field into an electric current, so the information is changed
back into its original state.
The bit-error rates of DBPSK and DQPSK are compared to their non-
differential counterparts in the graph to the right. For DQPSK though,
the loss in performance compared to ordinary QPSK is larger and the
system designer must balance this against the reduction in complexity.
2. Frequency-shift keying
Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital
information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier wave. The
simplest FSK is binary FSK (BFSK). BFSK literally implies using a couple of discrete
frequencies to transmit binary (0s and 1s) information. With this scheme, the "1" is called
the mark frequency and the "0" is called the space frequency.
Other forms of FSK
Minimum-shift keying

Main article: Minimum-shift keying

Minimum frequency-shift keying or minimum-shift keying (MSK) is a
particularly spectrally efficient form of coherent FSK. In MSK the
difference between the higher and lower frequency is identical to half
the bit rate. Consequently, the waveforms used to represent a 0 and a
1 bit differ by exactly half a carrier period. This is the smallest FSK
modulation index that can be chosen such that the waveforms for 0
and 1 are orthogonal. A variant of MSK called GMSK is used in the GSM
mobile phone standard.
FSK is commonly used in Caller ID and remote metering applications:
see FSK standards for use in Caller ID and remote metering for more
details.

Audio FSK

Audio frequency-shift keying (AFSK) is a modulation technique by

which digital data is represented by changes in the frequency (pitch) of
an audio tone, yielding an encoded signal suitable for transmission via
radio or telephone. Normally, the transmitted audio alternates between
two tones: one, the "mark", represents a binary one; the other, the
"space", represents a binary zero.
AFSK differs from regular frequency-shift keying in performing the
modulation at baseband frequencies. In radio applications, the AFSK-
modulated signal normally is being used to modulate an RF carrier
(using a conventional technique, such as AM or FM) for transmission.
AFSK is not always used for high-speed data communications, since it
is far less efficient in both power and bandwidth than most other
modulation modes. In addition to its simplicity, however, AFSK has the
advantage that encoded signals will pass through AC-coupled links,
including most equipment originally designed to carry music or speech.

3. Amplitude-shift keying
Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is a form of modulation that
represents digital data as variations in the amplitude of a carrier wave.

The amplitude of an analog carrier signal varies in accordance with the

bit stream (modulating signal), keeping frequency and phase constant.
The level of amplitude can be used to represent binary logic 0s and 1s.
We can think of a carrier signal as an ON or OFF switch. In the
modulated signal, logic 0 is represented by the absence of a carrier,
thus giving OFF/ON keying operation and hence the name given.
Like AM, ASK is also linear and sensitive to atmospheric noise,
distortions, propagation conditions on different routes in PSTN, etc.
Both ASK modulation and demodulation processes are relatively
inexpensive. The ASK technique is also commonly used to transmit
digital data over optical fiber. For LED transmitters, binary 1 is
represented by a short pulse of light and binary 0 by the absence of
light. Laser transmitters normally have a fixed "bias" current that
causes the device to emit a low light level. This low level represents
binary 0, while a higher-amplitude lightwave represents binary 1.

Encoding
The simplest and most common form of ASK operates as a switch,
using the presence of a carrier wave to indicate a binary one and its
absence to indicate a binary zero. This type of modulation is called on-
off keying, and is used at radio frequencies to transmit Morse code
(referred to as continuous wave operation).
More sophisticated encoding schemes have been developed which
represent data in groups using additional amplitude levels. For
instance, a four-level encoding scheme can represent two bits with
each shift in amplitude; an eight-level scheme can represent three bits;
and so on. These forms of amplitude-shift keying require a high signal-
to-noise ratio for their recovery, as by their nature much of the signal
is transmitted at reduced power.
Here is a diagram showing the ideal model for a transmission system
using an ASK modulation

It can be divided into three blocks. The first one represents the
transmitter, the second one is a linear model of the effects of the
channel, the third one shows the structure of the receiver. The
following notation is used:

• ht(t) is the carrier signal for the transmission

• hc(t) is the impulse response of the channel
• n(t) is the noise introduced by the channel
• hr(t) is the filter at the receiver
• L is the number of levels that are used for transmission
• Ts is the time between the generation of two symbols

Different symbols are represented with different voltages. If the

maximum allowed value for the voltage is A, then all the possible
values are in the range [-A,A] and they are given by:
the difference between one voltage and the other is:
Considering the picture, the symbols v[n] are generated randomly by
the source S, then the impulse generator creates impulses with an area
of v[n]. These impulses are sent to the filter ht to be sent through the
channel. In other words, for each symbol a different carrier wave is
sent with the relative amplitude.
Out of the transmitter, the signal s(t) can be expressed in the form:
In the receiver, after the filtering through hr (t) the signal is:
where we use the notation:
nr(t) = n(t) * hr(t)
g(t) = ht(t) * hc(t) * hr(t)
where * indicates the convolution between two signals. After the A/D
conversion the signal z[k] can be expressed in the form:
In this relationship, the second term represents the symbol to be
extracted. The others are unwanted: the first one is the effect of noise,
the second one is due to the intersymbol interference.
If the filters are chosen so that g(t) will satisfy the Nyquist ISI criterion,
then there will be no intersymbol interference and the value of the sum
will be zero, so:
z[k] = nr[k] + v[k]g[0]
the transmission will be affected only by noise.

Probability of error

The probability density function to make an error after a certain symbol

has been sent can be modelled by a Gaussian function; the mean value
will be the relative sent value, and its variance will be given by:
where ΦN(f) is the spectral density of the noise within the band and Hr
(f) is the continuous Fourier transform of the impulse response of the
filter hr (f).
The possibility to make an error is given by:
where is the conditional probability of making an error after a symbol vi
has been sent and is the probability of sending a symbol v0.
If the probability of sending any symbol is the same, then:
If we represent all the probability density functions on the same plot
against the possible value of the voltage to be transmitted, we get a
picture like this (the particular case of L=4 is shown):

The possibility of making an error after a single symbol has been sent
is the area of the Gaussian function falling under the other ones. It is
shown in cyan just for one of them. If we call P+ the area under one
side of the Gaussian, the sum of all the areas will be: 2LP + − 2P + .
The total probability of making an error can be expressed in the form:
We have now to calculate the value of P+. In order to do that, we can
move the origin of the reference wherever we want: the area below the
function will not change. We are in a situation like the one shown in the
following picture:

it does not matter which Gaussian function we are considering, the

area we want to calculate will be the same. The value we are looking
for will be given by the following integral:

where erfc() is the complementary error function. Putting all these

results together, the probability to make an error is:
from this formula we can easily understand that the probability to
make an error decreases if the maximum amplitude of the transmitted
signal or the amplification of the system becomes greater; on the other
hand, it increases if the number of levels or the power of noise
becomes greater.

4. Quadrature amplitude
modulation
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is both an analog and a digital modulation
scheme. It conveys two analog message signals, or two digital bit streams, by changing
(modulating) the amplitudes of two carrier waves, using the amplitude-shift keying
(ASK) digital modulation scheme or amplitude modulation (AM) analog modulation
scheme. These two waves, usually sinusoids, are out of phase with each other by 90° and
are thus called quadrature carriers or quadrature components — hence the name of the
scheme. The modulated waves are summed, and the resulting waveform is a combination
of both phase-shift keying (PSK) and amplitude-shift keying, or in the analog case of
phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation. In the digital QAM case, a finite
number of at least two phases, and at least two amplitudes are used. PSK modulators are
often designed using the QAM principle, but are not considered as QAM since the
amplitude of the modulated carrier signal is constant.

Digital QAM
Like all modulation schemes, QAM conveys data by changing some
aspect of a carrier signal, or the carrier wave, (usually a sinusoid) in
response to a data signal. In the case of QAM, the amplitude of two
waves, 90 degrees out-of-phase with each other (in quadrature) are
changed (modulated or keyed) to represent the data signal. Amplitude
modulating two carriers in quadrature can be equivalently viewed as
both amplitude modulating and phase modulating a single carrier.
Phase modulation (analog PM) and phase-shift keying (digital PSK) can
be regarded as a special case of QAM, where the magnitude of the
modulating signal is a constant, with only the phase varying. This can
also be extended to frequency modulation (FM) and frequency-shift
keying (FSK), for these can be regarded as a special case of phase
modulation.

Analog QAM

When transmitting two signals by modulating them with QAM, the transmitted signal
will be of the form:
,
where I(t) and Q(t) are the modulating signals and f0 is the carrier
frequency.
At the receiver, these two modulating signals can be demodulated
using a coherent demodulator. Such a receiver multiplies the received
signal separately with both a cosine and sine signal to produce the
received estimates of I(t) and Q(t) respectively. Because of the
orthogonality property of the carrier signals, it is possible to detect the
modulating signals independently.
In the ideal case I(t) is demodulated by multiplying the transmitted
signal with a cosine signal:
Using standard trigonometric identities, we can write it as:
Low-pass filtering ri(t) removes the high frequency terms (containing
4πf0t), leaving only the I(t) term. This filtered signal is unaffected by
Q(t), showing that the in-phase component can be received
independently of the quadrature component. Similarly, we may
multiply s(t) by a sine wave and then low-pass filter to extract Q(t).
The phase of the received signal is assumed to be known accurately at
the receiver. This issue of carrier synchronization at the receiver must
be handled somehow in QAM systems. The coherent demodulator
needs to be exactly in phase with the received signal, or otherwise the
modulated signals cannot be independently received. For example
analog television systems transmit a burst of the transmitting colour
subcarrier after each horizontal synchronization pulse for reference.
Analog QAM is used in NTSC and PAL television systems, where the I-
and Q-signals carry the components of chroma (colour) information.
"Compatible QAM" or C-QUAM is used in AM stereo radio to carry the
stereo difference information.

Fourier analysis of QAM

In the frequency domain, QAM has a similar spectral pattern to DSB-SC

modulation. Using the properties of the Fourier transform, we find that:

where S(f), MI(f) and MQ(f) are the Fourier transforms (frequency-
domain representations) of s(t), I(t) and Q(t), respectively