Digital Carrier Modulation

Why carrier? i) Antenna for 3 KHz carrier ~ 10 km long

Antenna for 3 GHz carrier ~ 1 cm long
ii) Frequency division multiplexing - Sharing the communication channel

Signal constellation: A graphical representation of the modulated signals.

When the modulated signals are two-dimensional, the x-axis represents (generally)
in-phase component and the y-axis represents quadrature component.

Bandwidth (Spectral) efficiency: The ability of a modulation technique to accommodate

data within a limited bandwidth.

R
B = where B is the bandwidth efficiency (bits/sec/Hz), R is the data bit rate
B
(bits/sec), B is the required bandwidth (Hz). Large B is preferred.

Shannon's channel capacity formula gives the maximum achievable bandwidth efficiency.
C S S
Bmax = = log 1 + or C = log 1 + where C is the Shannon's channel capacity
B N N
S
(bits/sec), is the signal power to noise power ratio.
N

Power efficiency: The ratio of the signal energy per bit (Eb) to the noise power spectral
density (N0) required to achieve a given probability of error (say 10-5 bit error
probability)
Eb
p = . Small p is preferred.
N0

Linear modulation: The amplitude of the modulated (transmitted) signal varies linearly
with the modulating signal. Bandwidth efficient but power inefficient. Ex: ASK, PSK.

Nonlinear modulation: The amplitude of the modulated (transmitted) signal does not
vary linearly with the modulating signal. Power efficient but bandwidth inefficient. Ex:
FSK.

Coherent demodulation: Requires a replica of the carrier signal with the same frequency
and phase. The carrier used for the demodulation (at the receiver) has the same frequency
and phase with the carrier used for the modulation (at the transmitter). PLL can be used
to recover the carrier frequency and phase from the transmitted pilot carrier signal.