Chapter 4: Pulse Modulation

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Chapter Outline
 Pulse modulation
 Pulse code modulation
 Line coding
 Introduction to Digital Modulation

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CW vs pulse modulation
 In amplitude modulation and angle modulation, some parameter of sinusoidal
carrier wave is varied continuously in accordance with the message signal.
 If the carrier consists of (discrete) pulse trains, some parameter of the pulse train is
varied in accordance with the message signal, it is called pulse modulation.

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Sampling Theorem

Analog Sampling Pulse amplitude

signal process modulated (PAM) signal

 Sampling theorem: A band-limited signal with no spectral components

beyond 𝑓𝑚 , can be uniquely determined by values sampled at uniform
intervals of

 The sampling rate, is called the Nyquist rate.

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Sampling Process

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Sampling Process

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Sampling Process

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Sampling Process

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Sampling Process

Sampling Theorem for strictly band - limited signals

1.a signal which is limited to  W  f  W , can be completely
 n 
described by  g ( ) .
 2W 
 n 
2.The signal can be completely recovered from  g ( )
 2W 
Nyquist rate  2W
Nyquist interval  1
2W
When the signal is not band - limited (under sampling)
aliasing occurs .To avoid aliasing, we may limit the
signal bandwidth or have higher sampling rate.

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Sampling

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Aliasing Effect

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Aliasing in time domain
 High frequency signal appearing low frequency, if sampling rate is smaller than Nyquist rate
(i.e,undersampling)

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Aliasing
 To combat the effects of aliasing in practice, we may use two corrective
measures:
1.Prior to sampling, a low-pass anti-alias filter is used to attenuate those high-
frequency components of a message signal that are not essential to the
information being conveyed by the signal.
2. The filtered signal is sampled at a rate slightly higher than the Nyquist rate

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Pulse Modulation
Pulse modulation
 some parameter of a pulse train is varied in accordance with the message signal
 Analog pulse modulation
 pulse Amplitude modulation (PAM)
 pulse duration (width) modulation (PDM)
 Pulse position modulation (PPM)
 Digital pulse modulation
 Pulse code modulation (PCM)

 Pulse-amplitude modulation, acronym PAM, is a form of signal modulation

where the message information is encoded in the amplitude of a series of signal
pulses.

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Pulse Width and Pulse Position Modulation
 In pulse width modulation (PWM), the width of each pulse is made directly
proportional to the amplitude of the information signal.

 In pulse position modulation, constant-width pulses are used, and the position or
time of occurrence of each pulse from some reference time is made directly
proportional to the amplitude of the information signal.

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Pulse Width and Pulse Position Modulation

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Pulse Code Modulation
 PCM is a method of converting an analog signal into a digital signal. (A/D
conversion)
 The amplitude of Analog signal can take any value over a continuous range i.e.
it can take on an infinite values.
 Digital signal amplitude can take on finite values

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Pulse Code Modulation
 PCM consists of three steps to digitize an analog signal:
 Sampling
 Quantization
 encoding

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Pulse Code Modulation, sampling

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Pulse Code Modulation

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Quantization
 Sampling results in a series of pulses of varying amplitude values ranging
between two limits: a min and a max.
 The amplitude values are infinite between the two limits.
 We need to map the infinite amplitude values onto a finite set of known values.
 This is achieved by dividing the distance between min and max into L zones,
each of height 
 = (max − min)/L
 The midpoint of each zone is assigned a value from 0 to L-1 (resulting in L
values)
 Each sample falling in a zone is then approximated to the value of the midpoint.

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Example
 Assume we have a voltage signal with amplitutes Vmin=-20V and Vmax=+20V.
 We want to use L=8 quantization levels.
 Zone width = (20 - -20)/8 = 5
 The 8 zones are: -20 to -15, -15 to -10, -10 to -5, -5 to 0, 0 to +5, +5 to +10, +10
to +15, +15 to +20
 The midpoints are: -17.5, -12.5, -7.5, -2.5, 2.5, 7.5, 12.5, 17.5

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Assigning Codes to Zones
 Each zone is then assigned a binary code.
 The number of bits required to encode the zones, or the number of bits per
sample
 nb = log2 L
 Given our example, nb = 3
 The 8 zone (or level) codes are therefore:
000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, and 111
 Assigning codes to zones:
 000 will refer to zone -20 to -15
 001 to zone -15 to -10, etc.

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Fig. Quantization & coding

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Variance of Quantization Noise
 ∆: gap between quantizing levels (of a uniform quantizer)
 q: Quantization error = a random variable in the range

 If ∆ is sufficiently small it is reasonable to assume that q is uniformly

distributed over this range

 Noise variance, q=e quantization error

,

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Signal-to-Quantization Ratio(SQNR)
 Assume: the encoded symbol has n bits
 the maximum number of quantizing levels is 𝐿 = 2𝑛
 maximum peak-to-peak dynamic range of the quantizer = 2𝑛 ∆
 P: power of the message signal
 𝑚𝑝 = max |𝑚(𝑡)|: maximum absolute value of the message signal

 SQNR at the quantizer output:

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  In dB

 Hence, each extra bit in the encoder adds 6 dB to the output SNR of the
quantizer

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Example
 Sinusoidal message signal: 𝑚(𝑡) = 𝐴𝑚 cos(2𝜋𝑓𝑚 𝑡).

 Average signal power:

 Maximum signal value: 𝑚𝑝 = 𝐴𝑚

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Uniform and Nonuniform Quantization
 Nonuniform quantization uses quantization levels of variable spacing, denser at
small signal amplitudes, broader at large amplitudes

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Nonuniform Quantization
 Companding = Compressing + Expanding
 A practical (and equivalent) solution to nonuniform quantization:
– Compress the signal first
– Quantize it (using a uniform quantizer)
– Transmit it
– Expand it

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Delta Modulation
 Transmits information only to indicate whether the analog signal that is being
encoded goes up or goes down
 The Encoder Outputs are highs or lows that “instruct” whether to go up or down,
respectively
 DM takes advantage of the fact that voice signals do not change abruptly
 The analog signal is quantized by a one-bit ADC
 The shape of the analog signal is transmitted as follows: a "1" indicates that a
positive excursion has occurred since the last sample, and a "0" indicates that a
negative excursion has occurred since the last sample.

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Delta Modulation

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Line Coding
 The bits of PCM, DPCM etc need to be converted into some electrical
signals.
 Line coding encodes the bit stream for transmission through a line, or a
cable.
 Line coding was used former to the wide spread application of channel
coding and modulation techniques.
 Nowadays, it is used for communications between the CPU and
peripherals, and for short-distance baseband communications, such as
the Ethernet.

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Line Coding
On–off signaling,
 symbol 1 is represented by transmitting a pulse of constant amplitude for the duration of the
symbol, and
 symbol 0 is represented by switching off the pulse
b. Nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) signaling,
 symbols 1 and 0 are represented by pulses of equal positive and negative amplitudes
c. Return-to-zero (RZ) signaling,
 symbol 1 is represented by a positive rectangular pulse of half-symbol width,
 and symbol 0 is represented by transmitting no pulse
d. Bipolar return-to-zero (BRZ) signaling,
 uses three amplitude levels
 positive and negative pulses of equal amplitude are used alternately for symbol 1,
 and no pulse is always used for symbol 0.

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Line Coding
 A useful property of BRZ signaling is
 that the power spectrum of the transmitted signal has no dc component and relatively
insignificant low-frequency components for the case when symbols 1 and 0 occur with equal
probability.

e. Manchester Signaling
 symbol 1 is represented by a positive pulse followed by a negative pulse, with both pulses
being of equal amplitude and half-symbol width.
 For symbol 0, the polarities of these two pulses are reversed.
 The Manchester code suppresses the dc component and
 has relatively insignificant low-frequency components, regardless of the signal
statistics.

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Line Coding
 Differential Signaling, in which the information is encoded in terms of signal
transitions
 differential encoding requires the use of a reference bit
 A transition is used to designate symbol 0 in the incoming binary data stream
 No transition is used to designate symbol 1

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Line Coding

Unipolar nonreturn-to-
zero(NRZ)
Polar NRZ

Unipolar RZ

Bipolar RZ ,pseudo
ternary, or AMI (alternate
mark inversion)
Manchester (Split
phase)

Differential Signaling
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Line Coding
 The following are some of the desirable properties of a line code:
 Self-synchronization.
 There is enough timing information built into the code so that bit
synchronizers can be designed to extract the timing or clock signal. A long
series of binary 1’s and 0’s should not cause a problem in time recovery.
 Low probability of bit error.
 Receivers can be designed that will recover the binary data with a low
probability of bit error when the input data signal is corrupted by noise or ISI
 A spectrum that is suitable for the channel.
 For example, if the channel is AC coupled, the PSD of the line code signal should be
negligible at frequencies near zero. In addition,
 the signal bandwidth needs to be sufficiently small compared to the channel bandwidth, so
that ISI will not be a problem

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Line Coding
 Transmission bandwidth. This should be as small as possible.
 Error detection capability. It should be possible to implement this feature easily
by the addition of channel encoders and decoders, or the feature should be
incorporated into the line code.
 Transparency. The data protocol and line code are designed so that every
possible sequence of data is faithfully and transparently received.

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 Digital Modulation Techniques

 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)

 Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
 Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

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 Forms of Digital Modulation

v(t )  V sin( 2ft   )

•If the amplitude, V of the carrier is varied proportional to the
information signal, a digital modulated signal is called Amplitude Shift
Keying (ASK)
•If the frequency, f of the carrier is varied proportional to the
information signal, a digital modulated signal is called Frequency Shift
Keying (FSK)

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Cont’d…
 If the phase, θ of the carrier is varied proportional to the information signal, a
digital modulated signal is called Phase Shift Keying (PSK)

 If both the amplitude and the phase, θ of the carrier are varied proportional to the
information signal, a digital modulated signal is called Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM)

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Digital data, Analog signal

 Amplitude Shift Keying

In ASK, the two binary values are represented by two different amplitudes of the
carrier frequency.
 Commonly, one of the amplitudes is zero

 Frequency Shift Keying

 The most common form of FSK is binary FSK (BFSK), in which the two binary values are
represented by two different frequencies near the carrier frequency

 Phase Shift Keying

In PSK, the phase of the carrier signal is shifted to represent data.

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Digital data, Analog signal(Cont…)

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Pulse Modulation

End of the
Chapter!

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