Digital Modulation

Digital Communications
Engr. Rose Anne Reano, PUP-STB
 Objectives

■ Define electronic communications

■ Define digital modulation and digital radio
■ Define digital communications
■ Define information capacity
■ Define bit, bit rate, baud, and minimum
bandwidth
■ Explain Shannon’s limit for information capacity
■ Explain M-ary encoding
 What is Electronic
Communications?
• Electronic Communications is the
transmission, reception, and processing of
information with the use of electronic
circuits.
 What is Information?

• Information is defined as knowledge or

intelligence that is communicated (i.e.,
transmitted or received) between two or
more points.
 Digital Modulation

• Digital modulation is the transmittal of

digitally modulated analog signals
(carriers) between two or more points in a
communications system.
 Digital Radio

• Digital modulation is sometimes called

digital radio because digitally modulated
signals can be propagated through Earth’s
atmosphere and used in wireless
communications systems.
 Why use Digital Modulation rather
than Analog?

• Ease of processing
• Ease of multiplexing
• Noise immunity
 Digital Communications

Digital
Communications

Digital
Digital Radio
Transmission
 Digital Transmission

Digital transmission systems transport

information in digital form and, therefore,
require a physical facility between the
transmitter and receiver, such as a metallic
wire pair, a coaxial cable, or an optical fiber
cable.
 Digital Radio

• In digital radio systems, relatively high-

frequency analog carriers are modulated
by relatively low frequency digital
information signals and the facility could
be a physical cable, or it could be free
space.
 Analog vs Digital Modulation

Both analog and digital modulation systems use analog

carriers to transport the information through the system.

Type of Modulating Carrier Modulation

Modulation Signal output
Analog Analog Analog Analog

Digital Digital Analog Analog /

Digital
 Analog vs Digital Modulation

However, with analog modulation systems, the

information signal is also analog, whereas with digital
modulation, the information signal is digital.

Type of Modulating Carrier Modulation

Modulation Signal output
Analog Analog Analog Analog

Digital Digital Analog Analog /

Digital
Forms of Digital Modulation

• If the information signal is

digital and the amplitude (V)
of the carrier is varied
proportional to the
information signal, a digitally
modulated signal called
amplitude shift keying (ASK)
is produced.
Forms of Digital Modulation

• If the frequency (f) is

varied proportional to
the information signal,
frequency shift keying
(FSK) is produced.
Forms of Digital Modulation

• If the phase of the

carrier (θ) is varied
proportional to the
information signal,
phase shift keying
(PSK) is produced.
Forms of Digital Modulation

• If both the amplitude

and the phase are
varied proportional to
the information signal,
quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM)
results.
Forms of Digital Modulation

Forms of Digital
Modulation:
1. ASK
2. FSK
3. PSK
4. QAM
 Applications of Digital Modulation

1. relatively low-speed voice-band data communications

modems, such as those found in most personal
computers;
2. high-speed data transmission systems, such as
broadband digital subscriber lines (DSL);
3. digital microwave and satellite communications
systems; and
4. cellular telephone Personal Communications Systems
(PCS).
Digital Radio System
Digital Modulation
 Digital Radio Systems
• Block Diagram of a Digital Radio System
Digital Radio Systems
• In the transmitter, the
precoder performs
level conversion and
then encodes the
incoming data into
groups of bits that
modulate the analog
carrier.
Digital Radio Systems
• The modulated
carrier is shaped
(filtered), amplified,
and then transmitted
through the
transmission medium
to the receiver.
 Digital Radio Systems

• The transmission
medium can be a
metallic cable, optical
fiber cable, Earth’s
atmosphere, or a
combination of two or
more types of
transmission systems.
 Digital Radio Systems
• In the receiver, the
incoming signals are
filtered, amplified, and
then applied to the
demodulator and
decoder circuits, which
extracts the original
source information from
the modulated carrier.
 Digital Radio Systems
• The clock and carrier
recovery circuits recover
the analog carrier and
digital timing (clock)
signals from the
incoming modulated
wave since they are
necessary to perform
the demodulation
process.
 Digital Radio Systems
• The clock and carrier
recovery circuits recover
the analog carrier and
digital timing (clock)
signals from the
incoming modulated
wave since they are
necessary to perform
the demodulation
process.
Information Capacity, Bits,
Bit Rate, Baud and M-ary
Encoding
Digital Modulation
 Information Capacity
• Information theory is a highly theoretical
study of the efficient use of bandwidth to
propagate information through electronic
communications systems.
 Information Capacity
• Information theory can be used to
determine the information capacity of a
data communications system.
 Information Capacity
• Information capacity is a measure of how
much information can be propagated
through a communications system and is a
function of bandwidth and transmission
time.
 Information Capacity
• Information capacity represents the
number of independent symbols that can
be carried through a system in a given unit
of time.
 Information Capacity
• The most basic digital symbol used to
represent information is the binary digit, or
bit.

• Therefore, it is often convenient to express

the information capacity of a system as a
bit rate.
 Information Capacity
• Bit rate is simply the number of bits
transmitted during one second and is
expressed in bits per second (bps).
 Hartley’s Law
• In 1928, R. Hartley of Bell Telephone
Laboratories developed a useful
relationship among bandwidth,
transmission time, and information
capacity.
I∝B xt
where
I information capacity (bits per second)
B bandwidth (hertz)
t transmission time (seconds)
 Hartley’s Law
• Information capacity is a linear function of
bandwidth and transmission time and is
directly proportional to both.

I∝B xt
where
I information capacity (bits per second)
B bandwidth (hertz)
t transmission time (seconds)
 Hartley’s Law
• If either the bandwidth or the transmission
time changes, a directly proportional
change occurs in the information capacity

I∝B xt
where
I information capacity (bits per second)
B bandwidth (hertz)
t transmission time (seconds)
 Hartley’s Law
• The relationship between time, information
capacity, and channel bandwidth is given
by the Hartley’s Law:

I = ktB
where
I - amount of information to be sent
k – Boltzmann’s constant 1.38 10^-23 J/K
t - time available
B – channel bandwidth
 Shannon Limit
• In 1948, mathematician Claude E.
Shannon (also of Bell Telephone
Laboratories) published a paper in the Bell
System Technical Journal relating the
information capacity of a communications
channel to bandwidth and signal-to-noise
ratio.
 Shannon Limit
• The higher the signal-to-noise ratio, the
better the performance and the higher the
information capacity.
Shannon Limit
 Example
• For a standard telephone circuit with a
signal-to-noise power ratio of 1000 and a
bandwidth of 2.7 kHz, the Shannon limit
for information capacity is?
 Example
• For a standard telephone circuit with a
signal-to-noise power ratio of 1000 and a
bandwidth of 2.7 kHz, the Shannon limit
for information capacity is?
 M-ary Encoding
• M-ary is a term derived from the word
binary.

• M simply represents a digit that

corresponds to the number of conditions,
levels, or combinations possible for a
given number of binary variables.
 M-ary Encoding
• It is often advantageous to encode at a
level higher than binary (sometimes
referred to as beyond binary or higher-
than-binary encoding) where there are
more than two conditions possible.
 M-ary Encoding
• The number of bits necessary to produce
a given number of conditions is expressed
mathematically as

N = log2 M

where N = number of bits necessary

M = number of conditions, levels, or combinations possible with
N bits
 M-ary Encoding
• the number of conditions possible with N
bits as
2N = M

where N = number of bits necessary

M = number of conditions, levels, or combinations possible with
N bits
 M-ary Encoding
• For example, with one bit, only 21 = 2
conditions are possible.
• With two bits, 22 = 4 conditions are
possible, with three bits, 23 = 8 conditions
are possible, and so on.
Shannon-Hartley Theorem
 Example
• A telephone line has a bandwidth of 3.2
kHz and a signal-to-noise ratio of 35 dB. A
signal is transmitted down this line using a
four-level code. What is the maximum
theoretical data rate?
 Example
• A telephone line has a bandwidth of 3.2 kHz and a signal-to-noise
ratio of 35 dB. A signal is transmitted down this line using a four-
level code. What is the maximum theoretical data rate?

• Maximum data rate

for a four-level code

• Maximum data rate

for any code
Baud and Minimum
Bandwidth
Digital Modulation
 Baud
• Baud is a term that is often misunderstood
and commonly confused with bit rate (bps)

• Baud, like bit rate, is also a rate of change;

however, baud refers to the rate of change
of a signal on the transmission medium
after encoding and modulation have
occurred.
 Baud
• Bit rate refers to the rate of change of a
digital information signal, which is usually
binary.

• Baud is a unit of transmission rate,

modulation rate, or symbol rate and,
therefore, the terms symbols per second
and baud are often used interchangeably.
Baud
 Baud
• A signaling element is sometimes called a
symbol and could be encoded as a
change in the amplitude, frequency, or
phase.
 Baud
• For example, binary signals are generally
encoded and transmitted one bit at a time
in the form of discrete voltage levels
representing logic 1s (highs) and logic 0s
(lows).
• A baud is also transmitted one at a time;
however, a baud may represent more than
one information bit.
 Baud
• Thus, the baud of a data communications
system may be considerably less than the
bit rate.
 Baud
• In binary systems (such as binary FSK
and binary PSK), baud and bits per
second are equal.

• However, in higher-level systems (such as

QPSK and 8-PSK), bps is always greater
than baud.
 Nyquist Bandwidth
• According to H. Nyquist, binary digital
signals can be propagated through an
ideal noiseless transmission medium at a
rate equal to two times the bandwidth of
the medium.
 Nyquist Bandwidth
• The minimum theoretical bandwidth
necessary to propagate a signal is called
the minimum Nyquist bandwidth or
sometimes the minimum Nyquist
frequency.
 Nyquist Bandwidth
• Thus, fb = 2B, where fb is the bit rate in
bps and B is the ideal Nyquist bandwidth.

• The actual bandwidth necessary to

propagate a given bit rate depends on
several factors, and the ideal bandwidth is
generally used for comparison purposes
only.
 Nyquist Bandwidth
• Using multilevel signaling, the Nyquist
formulation for channel capacity is
fb = 2B log2 M

where fb = channel capacity (bps)

B = minimum Nyquist bandwidth (hertz)
M = number of discrete signal or voltage levels
Nyquist Bandwidth
Nyquist Bandwidth
Nyquist Bandwidth
Nyquist Bandwidth
 Nyquist Bandwidth
• It can be seen that with digital modulation,
the baud and the ideal minimum Nyquist
bandwidth have the same value and are
equal to the bit rate divided by the number
of bits encoded.
• This statement holds true for all forms of
digital modulation except frequency-shift
keying.
Reference Book:
Advanced Electronic
Communications Systems
by Wayne Tomasi

Thank you for listening! ^_^

 Objectives

■ Define electronic communications

■ Define digital modulation and digital radio
■ Define digital communications
■ Define information capacity
■ Define bit, bit rate, baud, and minimum
bandwidth
■ Explain Shannon’s limit for information capacity
■ Explain M-ary encoding
Review Questions
 Question

• Define information capacity.

 Question

• Differentiate Digital Transmission from

Digital Radio.
 Question

• What is the maximum information capacity

of a communication channel having a
bandwidth of 3.5 kHz and a signal-to-noise
ratio of 28 dB?
End of Slide.
Thank you.