4.

10 Vestigial Sideband Modulation

The SSB modulation is not appropriate way of modulation when the message signal
contains significant components at extremely low frequencies. Because in such cases the
upp<'f and lower sidebands meet at the carrier frequency and it is difficult to isolate one
sideband. To overcome this difficulty the modulation technique known as vestigial
sideband modulation (VSB) is used. In this technique one sideband is passed almost
completely whereas just a trace, or vestige, of the other sideband is retained. This is the
compromise between SSB modulation and DSBSC modulation. The television signals
contain significant components at extremely low frequencies and hence vestigial sideband
modulation is used in television transmission.

4.10.1 Frequency Domain Description

The Fig. 4.13 shows the spectrum of a vestigial sideband (VSB) modulated wave s(t)
along with the message signal m(t). Herc, lower sideband is modified into the vestigial

M(f)

(a) Spectrum of mnuge signet

S(f)

Upper
Vestige sideband
ofLSB

(b) Spectrum of VSB modua.t.dwave

sideband. Specifically, the transmitted vestige of the lower sideband compensates for the
amount removed from the upper sideband. The transmission bandwidth required by the
VSB modulated wave is given by

Bw = WT f.,
where W is the mcs.,.age bandwidth and fv is the width of the vestigial sideband as
shown in the Fig. 4.13. Since f v << W, the VSB requires bandwidth almost equal to SSB
transmission; however it retains the excellent low frequency baseband characteristics of
double side-band modulation. Therefore, VSB transmission is used where transmission of
low frequency component arc important, but the bandwidth required for double-sideband
transmission is unavailable or uneconomical.

4.10.2 Generation of VSB Modulated Wave

We can generate the VSB modulated wave by passing DSBSC modulated wave
through a sideband shaping filter. This is illustrated in Fig. 4.14~ The filter can be designed
to provide desired spectrum of VSB modulated wave. The relation between the transfer
function H(f) of the filter and the spectrum S(f) of the VSB modulated wave s(t) is defined
by

S(f) = ~c (M(f-fc)+M(f+fc)] H(f) ... (18)

where M(f) is the message spectrum.

m(t) DSBSC
Sideband VSB wave
Product
shaping s(t)
modulator
filter

Fig. 4.14
4.10.3 Demodulation of VSB Modulated Wave
The demodulation of VSB modulated wave can be achieved by passing VSB wave s(t)
through a coherent detector and then determining the necessary condition for the detector
output to provide an undistorted version of the original message signal m(t). This is
illustrated in Fig. 4.15. The Fig. 4.15 shows that the signal s(t) is multiplied by the locally
generated sinewave cos(2 n fc t} which is synchronous with the carrier wave
Ac cos(2n fc t) in both frequency and phase. Therefore, we can write,

v(t) = cos (2 7t fc t) s(t) ... {19)

By taking the Fourier transform we get

V(f} = 21 (s(f-fc)+ s(f+fc)] ... (20)

Substitution of equation (18) in equation (20) gives

V(f) = ~c M(f) (H(f-fc)+H(f+fc)]

+ ~c [M(f-2 fc) H(f-fc)+ M(f+2 fc)H(f+ fc)] ... (21)

VSBwave Product v(t) Low pass

s(t) modulator filter vo(I)

~ cos(2fct)

Fig. 4.15
The Fig. 4.16 (a) shows the spectrum of V{f). The second term in equation (21)
represents a VSB wave corresponding to carrier frequency 2 fc. This term is removed by
the low pass filter to produce an output v 0 ( t) as shown in Fig. 4.15. The spectrum of
v 0 ( t) is given by

V0(f) = T
A
M(f) (H(f-fc)+H(f+fc)) ... (22)

The Pig. 4.16 {b) shows the spectrum of V0 (f). To reproduce distortionless original
message signal m(t) at the coherent detector output, we required V0 (f) to be a scaled
version of M(f). To fulfill this requirement the transfer function H(f) must satisfy the
condition given below :

H ( f - fc) + H ( f + fc) = 2 H { fc) ... (23)

where H(fc) is constant. The requirement stated in equation (23) can be satisfied by
using a filter with a frequency response H(f) such as that shown in Fig. 4.16 for position
frequencies.
The Fig. 4.17 shows the normalized response so that H{f) falls to one half at the carrier
frequency fc. The cutoff portion (shaded portion in Fig. 4.17) of this response around (.
exhibits odd symmetry. This means that inside the transition interval defined bv
fc - fv 5. f 5. fc + f.,., the sum of the values of H{f) at any two frequencies equally displaced
above and below f, is unity. Hence A + B = I.
In short, to preserve the baseband spectrum the phase response of sideband filter
should have following properties :
1t must provide odd symmetry about the carrier frequency fc.
It must be linear over the frequency intervals fc - fv 5. IfI 5. fc + fv.

Its value of the frequency fc has to equal to zero or an integer multiple of 2 n

radians.
 V(f)

(a) Spectrum of V(f)

i M(O)(H(-fJ+H(fc:))

(b) Spectrum of V 0(f)

Fig. 4.16

H(f)

1.0 -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - --~r----------r-- . . I \
I \
I \
I \
0.75 I
I
I
I
I I
I \
I \
0.5 I I
I \
I \
I I \

0.25 ' I
I
I
I
I
I
\
\

1 I
I
\
',

Fig. 4.17 Frequency response of sideband shaping filter