What is Modulation?

Modulation is the process of superimposing high-frequency carrier

signals with low-frequency message signals resulting in a modulated
wave. In modulation, one of the three parameters of the carrier
wave is changed i.e. amplitude, frequency or phase according to the
amplitude of the message signal at a given time instant. There are
mainly two types of modulation techniques which are
1. Analog Modulation
2. Digital Modulation
What are Digital Modulation Techniques ?
There are mainly three types in Analog Modulation which are
Amplitude Modulation, Frequency Modulation and Phase Modulation.
Here the amplitude, frequency and phase of carrier wave changes
with respect to amplitude of message signal. Whereas in Digital
Modulation a process called as Shift Keying is used.
There are mainly three types of Digital Modulation techniques. They
are :
 Amplitude Shift Keying
 Frequency Shift Keying
 Phase Shift Keying
1.Amplitude Shift Keying
In Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), each symbol in the message signal
gives a unique amplitude to the carrier wave. There are two types of
ASK, Binary and M-ary. In Binary ASK, logic 1 is associated with
certain amplitude of carrier wave e.g. 12V and logic 0 is associated
with different amplitude other than 12V e.g. 0V. In M-ary ASK, a
group of log2M bits are considered together rather than 1 bit at a
time and the amplitude level is associated with this group of bits. If
all such amplitudes are created using a single carrier wave, then it is
called as coherent ASK. If multiple carrier wave each with different
amplitudes are used for modulation then it is called as non-coherent
ASK.
 Amplitude Shift Keying Waveform

2.Frequency Shift Keying

In Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), each symbol in the message signal

gives a unique frequency to the carrier wave. There are two types of
FSK, Binary and M-ary. In Binary FSK, logic 1 is associated with
certain frequency of carrier wave For example, in 16-ary FSK, a
group of 4 bits are considered and are given a respective frequency.
Since there are 16 possible 4 bit binary numbers (2 4), 16 different
frequencies are required for modulation. If all such frequencies are
created using a single carrier wave, then it is called as coherent FSK.
If multiple carrier wave each with different frequencies are used for
modulation then it is called as non-coherent FSK.
 Frequency Shift Keying Waveform

3.Phase Shift Keying

In Phase Shift Keying (PSK), each symbol in the message signal
gives a unique phase shift to the carrier wave. There are two types
of PSK, Binary and M-ary. In Binary PSK, logic 1 is associated with
certain phase shift of carrier wave e.g. 90 ° and logic 0 is associated
with different phase shift other than 90° e.g. 0°. For example, in 16-
ary PSK, a group of 4 bits are considered and are given a respective
phase shift. Since there are 16 possible 4 bit binary numbers (2 4),
16 different phase shifts are required for modulation. If all such
phase shifts are created using a single carrier wave, then it is called
as coherent PSK. If multiple carrier wave each with different phase
shifts are used for modulation then it is called as non-coherent PSK.
 Phase Shift Keying Waveform

3.1 Binary Phase Shift Keying

GENERATION OF BPSK SIGNAL:- The BPSK signal may be generated by

applying carrier signal to a balanced modulator. Here, the baseband signal b(t) is
applied as a modulating signal to the balanced modulator. A NRZ level encoder
converts the binary data sequence into bipolar NRZ signal.
Applications of Digital Modulation Techniques
 Military Communication Systems, where security and accuracy of
the signal plays a crucial role. Digital Modulation can provide
confidential and error free communication.
 Mobile Communication Systems, where the number of users is
daily increasing and Digital Modulation can provide high capacity
and less interference. Long distance communication can be easily
done with the help of Digital Modulation.
 Digital Broadcasting, Digital modulation techniques are used in
digital broadcasting standards such as Digital Audio Broadcasting
(DAB), Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), and Terrestrial Digital
Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) for transmitting audio, video,
and data content efficiently.
 Radar Systems, In radar systems, digital modulation techniques
like phase modulation (PM) and frequency modulation (FM) are
 used for transmitting radar pulses and modulating radar signals
to detect and track objects accurately in various applications such
as air traffic control, weather monitoring, and military
surveillance.
Advantages of Digital Modulation Techniques
 High Immunity to noise: Since the modulated wave consist of
finite collection of amplitude/frequency or phase shifts, changes
occurred in above parameters due to noise, distortion and
dispersion is less as compared to difference in
amplitude/frequency or phase shift between two distinct symbols
 High Security: Since the message signal is digital in Digital
Modulation, encryption techniques can be employed to improve
authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of data. After encrypting
the digital message we can proceed with modulation process for
transmitting the message. Such features are not available in
Analog Modulation as message signal is of analog type.
 Efficient Usage of Bandwidth: By using compression
techniques we can reduce the number of bits of the message
signal without affecting the data content in it. Hence if we
compress the message signal and modulate it then it will take
less bandwidth as compared to modulating the original message
signal.
 High Accuracy of Data: With the help of error detection and
error correction techniques we can find the presence of errors in
the demodulated wave at the receiver side and correct it
accordingly to get the original message signal.
 High Capacity: We can use Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA) instead of Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) in
case of Digital Modulation as frequency or spectrum is limited and
it is not possible to assign certain frequency per user as number
of users is quite high compared to available channels. Hence
capacity can be increased by letting the users access the channel
for certain time period one after the other.