PULSE MODULATION

Pulse Modulation is the process of changing a binary pulse signal to represent the
information to be transmitted. It consists of sampling analog information signals and then
converting those samples into discrete pulses & transporting the pulses from source to
destination over a physical transmission medium.

In pulse modulation some parameter of a pulse train is varied in accordance with the
message signal. Broadly pulse modulation can be classified into:

i) Analog Pulse Modulation

ii) Digital Pulse Modulation: The message signal is represented in a form that is
discrete in both time and amplitude. Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) is an example.

ANALOG PULSE MODULATION

In analog pulse modulation information is transmitted in analog form, but the
transmission takes place at discrete times. A periodic pulse train is used as the carrier wave &
some characteristic feature of each pulse (Amplitude, duration or position) is varied in a
continuous manner in accordance with the corresponding sample value of the message signal.
There are 3 types of Analog Pulse Modulation:
i) Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)
ii) Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) or Pulse Duration Modulation (PDM) or Pulse
Length Modulation (PLM)
iii) Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)

ANALOG PULSE MODULATION v/s DIGITAL PULSE MODULATION

Analog pulse modulation systems use sampling process to maintain continuous
amplitude representation of the message signal.

Digital pulse modulation systems use not only the sampling process but also the
quantization process, which is non-reversible. Quantization provides a representation of the
message signal that is discrete in both time and amplitude. Digital pulse modulation makes it
possible to exploit the full power of DSP techniques.

PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION (PAM)

Pulse amplitude modulation is defined as the process of varying the amplitude of the
pulse in proportion to the instantaneous variations of message signal.

GENERATION OF PAM

Let the message signal be given by

𝑣𝑚 = 𝑉𝑚 sin 𝜔𝑚 𝑡

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If x(t) is a periodic signal with period T0, then it should satisfy the definition stated as x(t) =
x(t+T0). The pulse train is a periodic signal with fundamental period T0. Then the information
present in each period of the pulse train is given by

𝑝 = 𝑉𝑝 0≤𝑡≤∆

=0 0 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 𝑇0

where Δ is the width of the pulse.

The Pulse Amplitude Modulated wave in the time domain is obtained by multiplying the
message with the pulse train and is given by

𝑝𝑎 = 𝑝 × 𝑣𝑚

Substituting ‘p’ in the above equation,

𝑝𝑎 = 𝑉𝑝 𝑉𝑚 sin 𝜔𝑚 𝑡 0≤𝑡≤∆

=0 0 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 𝑇0

Figure below shows the message, pulse train and PAM signal. In the figure we can
see that the amplitude of the pulses is varying with respect to the amplitude of analog
modulating signal, like in case of Amplitude Modulation (AM). But the major difference is
that unlike AM, here the carrier wave is a pulse train rather than continuous wave signal.

DEMODULATION OF PAM

PAM stores the message in the baseband itself. They essentially represent the
message information at discrete instants of time as a variation in pulse amplitude. We can
recover the message, that is, reconstruct the approximate version of the continuous time
signal from them when needed as shown in figure.

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 The PAM signal can be passed through a Low Pass Filter which retains essentially the
low frequency message signal and smoothing out the pulse train information.

PULSE WIDTH MODULATION (PWM)

Pulse width modulation (PWM) is defined as the process of varying the width of the
pulse in proportion to the instantaneous variations of message.

GENERATION OF PWM

Let Δ be the width of the pulse in the unmodulated pulse train. In PWM

∆∝ 𝑣𝑚

Mathematically, the width of the pulse in PWM signal is given by

∆𝑚 = ∆(1 + 𝑣𝑚 )

When there is no message (𝑣𝑚 = 0) then the width of the pulse will be equal to the original
width Δ. For positive values of message, the width will be proportionately increasing by
(1 + 𝑣𝑚 ) factor. For negative values of message, the decreases by (1 − 𝑣𝑚 ) factor.

Figure below shows the generation of PWM signal. In this technique the amplitude of
the signal is constant and only the width is varying. PWM technique is similar to frequency
modulation because, by the variation in the width of the pulses, the frequency of the pulses in
the PWM signal shows variation.

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DEMODULATION OF PWM

PWM stores the message in the baseband itself. They essentially represent the
message information at discrete instants of time as a variation in pulse width. The
demodulation of message from PWM is not so simple as the demodulation of PAM, since
visually the message information is not available as amplitude variations. The demodulation
process first converts PWM to PAM and then performs low pass filtering.

PULSE POSITION MODULATION (PPM)

Pulse position modulation (PPM) is defined as the process of varying the position of
the pulse with respect to the instantaneous variations of the message signal.

GENERATION OF PPM

Let tp indicates the timing instant of the leading or trailing edge of the pulse in each period of
the pulse train. In PPM

𝑡𝑝 ∝ 𝑣𝑚

Mathematically, the position of the leading or trailing edge of the pulse (in each period) in
PPM signal is given by

𝑡𝑝 = 𝑓(𝑣𝑚 )

When there is no message, then the position of the leading or trailing edge of the pulse will
be equal to the original position and hence tp = 0. For positive values of message, the position
will be proportionately shifted right by 𝑡𝑝 = 𝑓(𝑣𝑚 ). For negative values of message, the
position will be proportionately shifted by -𝑡𝑝 = −𝑓(𝑣𝑚 ) factor. One way of generating PPM
is to generate PWM and post-process the same to get PPM

The figure below shows the generation of PPM signal. Here the pulse amplitude and
the pulse width are the two constant that does not show variation with the amplitude of the
modulating signal but only the position shows variation.

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DEMODULATION OF PPM

PPM stores the message in the baseband itself. They essentially represent the message
information at discrete instants of time as a variation in pulse position. The demodulation of
message from PPM is not so simple as the demodulation of PAM, since visually the message
information is not available as amplitude variations. The demodulation process first converts
PPM to PAM and then performs low pass filtering.

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 COMPARISON OF PAM, PWM & PPM

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