Chapter 4: Modulation Techniques
Goals of the Chapter
Review some of the basic modulation schemes used in
wireless and mobile communication
Analog modulation:- used in the 1st generation of cellular system
Digital modulation:- used in the 2nd generation and afterwards
To see the performance of various modulation techniques
in fading channels
Power vs. bandwidth efficiency
2
Overview
Introduction
Digital modulation techniques
Modulation performance in AWGN
Modulation performance in fading channels
3
Block Diagram of Digital Transceiver Block
Information Source Channel
Source Encoder Encoder Modulator
Channel
Information Source Channel Demodulator
Sink Decoder Decoder
4
Descriptions of Transceiver Block Diagram
Information source
Assumption: - Discrete-time discrete amplitude signal
Continuous-time (analog):– apply sampling and quantization
Source encoding: Reducing redundant information in the
source signal
Represents the message with as few binary digits as possible
I.e., data compression
Channel encoding: Adding redundancy to protect data
against transmission errors, i.e., noise, interference, fading
5
Descriptions of Transceiver Block Diagram
Channel: The physical medium that is used to send the
signal from the transmitter to the receiver
In wireless transmission, the channel is the atmosphere
In wired channels: Wire lines, optical fiber s
The transmitted signal is corrupted by additive thermal noise, path
loss and fading
Receiver Blocks: Perform the inverse of the transmitter
operations in order to recover the original analog message
signal
In a practical digital communication receiver, there are also
additional sub-blocks such as channel estimation,
synchronization (frame/frequency/phase), etc…
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Modulation + Demodulation
Modulation is the process of encoding information from a
message source in a manner suitable for transmission
May be done by varying amplitude, phase, frequency, or a
combination of a carrier signal in accordance with the
amplitude of the message (or modulating) signal
Modulation translates a base-band message signal to a
band-pass signal
Analogue and digital modulation (this chapter focuses digital
modulation techniques)
Demodulation: Process of extracting the baseband
message
7
Modulation + Demodulation
8
Some Benefits of Modulation
1. Easy radiation
Antennas operate effectively when antenna size is comparable
to the wavelength
2. Frequency matching
Modulation shifts the spectral of a message signal so as to fit
the frequency band of the channel
3. Multiplexing
Accommodation for simultaneous transmission of several
baseband signals
9
Overview
Introduction
Digital modulation techniques
Types of digital modulation techniques
Power and bandwidth efficiency
Modulation techniques
Modulation performance in fading channels
10
Digital Modulation – Types
Influence one or more of the three parameters of a
sinusoidal signal according to the data sequence to be
transmitted
Amplitude modulation (AM)
Or: Amplitude shift keying
Simple, susceptible to errors
Frequency modulation (FM)
Or: Frequency shift keying
Phase modulation (PM)
Or: Phase shift keying
More complex, more robust
against distortions
11
Advanced Phase Shift Keying
BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying) Q
Bit value 0: sine wave
Bit value 1: inverted sine wave 1 0
I
Very simple PSK
Low spectral efficiency 10 Q 11
Robust, used e.g. in satellite systems
QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) I
2 bits coded as one symbol
Symbol determines shift of sine wave 00 01
Less bandwidth compared to BPSK for A
same rate (Nyquist!)
More complex t
Often also transmission of relative, not
absolute phase shift: DQPSK – Differential 11 10 00 01
QPSK (IS-136, PHS)
12
M-ary PSK
We can further increase the number of bits per symbol by
increase the number of possible phase shifts
This increases the data rate without increasing bandwidth
Example: 8-PSK
13
M-ary PSK …
Example: 16-PSK: We could further increase to 4
bits/symbol using
To demodulate 16-PSK, the receiver must determine the
phase within 11.250
14
Noise Effect
Like all transmissions, the received signal will be degraded
by noise
BPSK receiver makes a decision to determine the phase of a
received signal to determine the corresponding binary signal
15
Noise Effect …
Consider the same noise for 8-PSK
16
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
Combines amplitude and phase modulation
It is possible to code n bits using one symbol
Bit error rate increases with n, but less errors compared to
comparable PSK schemes
Q
0010 Example: 16-QAM (4 bits = 1 symbol)
0001
Symbols 0011 and 0001 have the same
0011 0000 phase φ, but different amplitude a.
φ
a I 0000 and 1000 have different phase, but
1000 same amplitude.
! Used in standard 9600 bit/s modems
17
Hierarchical Modulation
DVB-T: two separate data streams onto a single stream
High Priority (HP) embedded within a Low Priority (LP) stream
Multi carrier system, about 2000 or 8000 carriers
QPSK, 16 QAM, 64QAM
Example: 64QAM Q
Good reception: resolve the entire
64QAM constellation
Poor reception, mobile reception: 10
resolve only QPSK portion I
6 bit per QAM symbol, 2 most
significant determine QPSK
00
HP service coded in QPSK (2 bit), LP
000010 010101
uses remaining 4 bit
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Digital Modulation – Advantages
Greater noise immunity and robustness to channel
impairments
Perform well in multipath and fading conditions
Easier multiplexing of various forms of information (voice,
data, video)
Greater security
Allow signal conditioning and processing techniques
Error-control codes: Detect and/or correct transmission errors
Equalization: to improve the performance of the overall
communication link
Source coding
Encryption
Possible to be implemented completely in software
19
Overview
Introduction
Digital modulation techniques
Types of digital modulation
Power and bandwidth efficiency
Modulation performance in AWGN
Modulation performance in fading channels
20
Digital Modulation – Factors Influencing Choice
Power and energy efficiencies
Provides low BER at low received SNR
Bandwidth efficiency
Occupy a minimum of bandwidth
Easy and cost-effective to implement
Depending on the demands of the particular application,
tradeoffs are made when selecting a digital modulation
Performance measure for a modulation scheme include
Power efficiency
Bandwidth efficiency
21
Power (Energy) Efficiency, P
Describes the ability of a modulation technique to preserve
the fidelity of the digital message at low power levels
Fidelity: an acceptable bit error probability
Often expressed as E N required at the receiver input for a
b
0
certain probability of error (say 10-5)
where
Eb: signal energy per bit and
N0: noise power spectral density
Power efficiency measures how favorably the tradeoff
between fidelity and signal power is made
22
Bandwidth Efficiency, B
Describes the ability of a modulation scheme to
accommodate data within a limited bandwidth & measured
in bps/Hz
Defined as the ratio of the throughput data rate per Hertz in
a given bandwidth, i.e.,
data rate
R (bps)
B
B (Hz) bandwidth
It reflects how efficiently the allocated bandwidth is utilized
System capacity of a digital mobile communication system
is directly related to the bandwidth efficiency of the
modulation scheme
23
Bandwidth Efficiency …
A fundamental upper bound on achievable bandwidth
efficiency is stated by Shannon’s theorem
The theorem states: “For an arbitrarily small probability of
error, the maximum possible bandwidth efficiency is limited by
the noise in the channel”
This capacity is given by
C S
ηBmax log 2 (1 )
B N
where
C is the channel capacity in bps,
B is the RF bandwidth, and
S/N is the signal-to-noise ratio
24
Bandwidth Efficiency …
Example: If the SNR of a wireless communication link is 20
dB and the RF bandwidth is 30 kHz, determine the
maximum theoretical data rate that can be transmitted.
Solution:
SNR=20 dB=100, Bandwidth B=30000 Hz, hence
C = Blog2 (1+S/N) = 30000log2(1+100) = 199.75 kbps
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Bandwidth Efficiency - GSM System
Example: What is the theoretical maximum data rate that
can be supported in a 200 kHz channel for SNR=10 dB
and 30 dB? How does this compare to the GSM standard?
Solution: SNR=10 dB=10, B=200 kHz,
C = Blog2 (1+S/N) = 200000log2(1+10) = 691.886 kbps
GSM data rate is 270.833 kbps, which is about 40 % of the
theoretical limit for 10 dB SNR conditions
Bandwidth efficieny = 270/200 =1.35bits/sec/Hz
For SNR=30 dB=1000, B=200 kHz,
C = Blog2 (1+S/N) = 200000log2(1+1000) = 1.99 Mbps
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Bandwidth Efficiency - IS-54 Systems
IS-54 North American Digital Cellular
Data Rate = 48kb/s, bandwidth = 30kHz
Bandwidth Efficiency = 48/30 =1.6bits/sec/Hz
Modulation: /4 DPSK
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Bandwidth vs. Power Efficiency
In the design of a digital communication system, there is a
tradeoff between bandwidth efficiency and power efficiency
Example:
Adding error coding to a message,
bandwidth efficiency , but reduces the required power for a
particular bit error rate
On the other hand, higher level modulation scheme (M-ary keying),
bandwidth efficiency , but increase the required received power
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Comparison of Modulation Types
Modulation Bandwidth log2(C/B)
Format efficiency C/B
16 PSK 4 2
16 QAM 4 2
8 PSK 3 1.6
4 PSK 2 1
4 QAM 2 1
BFSK 1 0
BPSK 1 0
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Theoretical bandwidth efficiency limits
Modulation formats Bandwidth efficiency
limits
MSK 1 bit/second/Hz
BPSK 1 bit/second/Hz
QPSK 2 bits/second/Hz
8PSK 3 bits/second/Hz
16 QAM 4 bits/second/Hz
32 QAM 5 bits/second/Hz
64 QAM 6 6 bits/second/Hz
256 QAM 8 bits/second/Hz
Note that these figures cannot actually be achieved in
practical radios since they require perfect modulators,
demodulators, filter, and transmission paths
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Overview
Introduction
Digital modulation techniques
Modulation performance in AWGN
Modulation performance in fading channels
31
Modulation – Summary of BER and SER in AWGN
Summary of probability of bit and symbol error formulas
32
M-PSK – Performance over AWGN Channel …
Error rate degrades as
M increases
Spectral efficiency
increases as M
increases
Note: at 16dB, error
rate for 16-PSK is 10-4
33
M-QAM – Performance over AWGN Channel
Power efficiency
decreases with
increasing M, but
not early as fast as
M-PSK
Note: at 12.5, error
rate for 16-QAM
is 10-4
Spectral efficiency
increases as M
increases
34
M-FSK – Performance over AWGN Channel
As M increases,
power efficiency
improves, i.e., less
Eb is required
For M = 2, BFSK
requires 3 dB more
energy/bit to
achieve the same
BER s BPSK
In other words, BPSK
is 3 dB more power
efficient that BFSK
35
Performance Comparison of Various Modulation
Comparison of Various Digital Modulation Schemes
(BER = 10-6)
36
Overview
Introduction
Digital modulation techniques
Modulation performance in AWGN
Modulation performance in fading channel
37
Modulation Performance - Fading Channels
BER gives a good performance indicator
However, it does not provide information about the type of error,
e.g., incident or bursty error
Alternative measure: Outage probability
In fading channel, signals will suffer deep fades which leads to
outage or a complete loss of signal
BER and outage probability can be evaluated using
analytically or simulation
Slow, flat fading channels - easier to analyze
Frequency selective channel - done using simulation
Eb/N0 is used as it provides a good comparison of “power
efficiency” of a modulation scheme
Sometimes called SNR per bit
38
Performance - Slow, Flat Fading Channels
Slow, flat fading channels
Change much slower than the applied modulation
The attenuation and phase shift of the signal is constant over at
least one symbol interval
Flat fading causes multiplicative (gain) variation of
transmitted signal s(t)
The received signal r(t) expressed as
Where (t) is channel gain, (t) is the phase shift of the channel
and n(t) is the Gaussian noise
Coherent or noncoherent matched filters can be used
depending on knowledge of (t)
39
Performance - Slow, Flat Fading Channels …
Error probability in AWGN
Can be viewed as a conditional error probability, where the
condition is that is fixed
The probability of error in fading channel is obtained as
Pe Pe ( X ) p ( X )dX
0
Where Pe(X) is probability of error for an arbitrary modulation at a
specific SNR X= 2Eb/N0 and p(x) is the PDF of X
For Rayleigh fading channels, has Rayleigh distribution
so that 2 and X have a chi-square distribution
1 X
p( X ) exp X 0
Where
Eb 2
is the average SNR
N0
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Performance - Slow, Flat Fading Channels …
For a particular modulation, using the probability of error
scheme in AWGN, the probability of error in slow fading
channel can be evaluated
For coherent BPSK and BFSK
For DPSK and orthogonal noncoherent FSK channels
41
Performance - Slow, Flat Fading Channels …
Error performance of binary modulations in a Rayleigh, flat
fading channels as compared to AWGN
Wireless Communications - Ch. 5 – Modulation
42
Performance - Slow, Flat Fading Channels …
For large values of Eb/N0 (i.e., large values of X) the error
probability equations may be simplified as
Error rate is inversely proportional to
Achieve a diversity order of one
43
Performance - Frequency Selective Channels
Frequency selective fading and time-varying Doppler
spread cause an irreducible BER floor
Because of ISI and spectral spreading
These factors impose bounds on data rate and BER
Simulation is the major tool used to analyze such channels
44
Performance - Frequency Selective Channels …
Irreducible BER for different
modulation with coherent
detection for a channel with
a Gaussian shaped power Worse
delay profile
Normalized rms delay
d = / Ts
BPSK is best
Best
45
Performance - Frequency Selective Channels …
New normalized rms
delay is defined in terms
of bit period instead of
symbol period as
d’ = / Tb
4-level modulations
QPSK, OQPSK, MSK are
better than BPSK
More resistant to delay
spread than BPSK
8-ary keying are less
resistant to 4-ary keying
4-ary keying is used in 3rd
generation networks
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Performance of π/4 DQPSK in Fading and Interference
BER of π/4 DQPSK in a
slow, flat fading channel
corrupted by co-channel
interference and AWGN
fc=850MHz, fs=24ksps,
raised cosine roll-off factor
=0.2
Carrier-to-noise ratio C/N =
(1) 20dB, (2) 30dB (3) 40dB
(4) 50dB (6) infinity
Interference and fading
dominated regions
Note: Irreducible error floor
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π/4 DQPSK Performance in Flat + Doppler Channels
BER vs Eb/N0 for π/4 DQPSK in flat, Rayleigh fading
channel for various mobile speed
Error floor
48
Performance of π/4 DQPSK in ISI + Doppler Channels
10-2 BER is needed for
modem speech coders
to work properly
At /T=0.2, BER is 10-2
and link is unusable
even when the delayed
ray is 10dB below the
main link
For /T=0.1, BER is
below 10-2 even when
the 2nd ray is equal in
power to the 1st
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Background: Criteria for Choosing a Modulation Scheme
50
Modulation Schemes in Current Systems
51
Tradeoffs between BER, power and bandwidth
1. Trade BER performance
for power – fixed data rate
2. Trade data rate for power
– fixed BER
3. Trade BER for data rate –
fixed power
52
Modulation Summary
Phase Shift Keying is often used, as it provides a highly
bandwidth efficient modulation scheme
QPSK, modulation is very robust, but requires some form
of linear amplification
High level M-ary schemes (such as 64-QAM) are very
bandwidth efficient, but more susceptible to noise and
require linear amplification
Coherent reception provides better performance than
differential, but requires a more complex receiver
53
