EEE 309

Communication Systems I

Single-sideband Suppressed carrier

(SSB-SC) Modulation
SSB-SC: Principle Lathi, 4.4

 One sideband is enough to transmit information. Either USB or LSB is transmitted,

So 50% power reduction. As carrier is not transmitted, it will save further.
 Required BW: B Hz (BW requirement is now one half of DSB or DSB-SC)
 Spectral efficiency (SE) is improved by 100%

Transmitter Side: M( f )
(Frequency Domain)
-B -B f

- fc fc f

- fc fc f

- fc fc f
Receiver Side (Frequency Domain):
 Can be detected coherently (synchronously)

-fc fc f
multiplication of a USB signal (Fig. 4. 13c) by cos ct shifts its spectrum to the
left and right by c , yielding the spectrum in Fig. 4. 13e. Low-pass filtering of
this signal yields the desired baseband signal. The case is similar with LSB
signals. Since the demodulation of SSB signals is identical to that of DSB-SC
signals, the transmitters can now utilize only half the DSB-SC signal bandwidth
without any additional cost to the receivers. Since no additional carrier
accompanies the modulated SSB signal, the resulting modulator outputs are
known as suppressed carrier signals (SSB-SC)

- 2fc f
2fc
SSB: Time Domain Representation
A general SSB signal SSB(t) can be expressed as

where the minus sign applies to USB and the plus sign applies to LSB and
 x 
t   j sgn  f 

xh t   H xt    
Hilbert Transform: 1 1
  t  
d  x t * 1
t
X h  f    jX  f sgn  f   H  f X  f 

 j  1.e  j 2 , f  0

Thus, H  f    j sgn  f   
j
 j  1.e 2 , f  0

θh (f)
|H (f)|

f
f

 Thus, a Hilbert transformer is an ideal phase shifter that shifts the phase of every
spectral component by -π/2. Note that an ideal Hilbert phase shifter is unrealizable.
 Difficult to achieve such sharp change in phase response
SSB:

M   f   M  f u  f   M  f  1  sgn  f 
1
2
 M  f   jM h  f 
1
2

M   f   M  f u  f   M  f  1  sgn  f 
1
2
 M  f   jM h  f 
1
2

Note : M h  f    jM  f sgn  f 
 M- (f+fc) M+ (f-fc)
USB
-fc fc f

M+ (f+fc) M- (f-fc)
LSB
-fc fc f

USB  f   M   f  f c   M   f  f c 


1
M  f  f c   M  f  f c   1 M h  f  f c   M h  f  f c 
2 2j

Hence,

Similarly,
Generation of SSB-SC
1. Phase-shift method: requires ideal Hilbert phase shifter

2. Selective filtering method (most commonly used): First, DSB-SC signal is

generated and then passed through a band pass filter for selecting the desired
band. To obtain the USB, the filter should pass all components above frequency fc
unattenuated and completely suppress all components below fc. Such an operation
requires an ideal filter, which is unrealizable.
3. Weaver method: Uses two stages of modulation (SSB using selective filtering)
– first using a smaller carrier frequency fc1 and then again using a higher carrier
frequency fc. Thus achieves a gap of 2fc1 for second stage selective filtering.
SSB-SC: Detection
Demodulation using a coherent detector:
 SSB t  2 cosct  mt  cosct  mh t sin ct 2 cosct
 mt   mt  cos 2ct  mh t sin 2ct 


SSBSC signal with carrier 2c

-2fc 2fc f

 An LPF will suppress unwanted SSB terms and produce m(t)

 Any of the synchronous DSB-SC demodulators can be used for
demodulating SSB-SC signal
 Comparison between AM, DSB-SC and SSB-SC

AM (DSB-WC) DSB-SC SSB-SC

Modulation Simple Simple Costly and Complex

(difficult to generate)
Demodulation Both envelope Coherent detection Coherent detection
detection and => Costly and => Costly and complex
coherent complex
detection
Power Efficiency Max 33 % Better Better
=> Inefficient => Efficient => Efficient
Bandwidth (BW) Twice the signal Twice the signal Equal to the signal BW
Requirement BW BW => Efficient
=> Inefficient => Inefficient
Single-Sideband With Carrier (SSB+C) Modulation
SSB signals with an additional carrier (SSB+C) can be expressed as

Envelope detection:

The phase is not relevant

to envelope detection, so
it is ignored.
m(t) and mh(t) are
equal in amplitude

From Taylor series expansion,

higher order terms are neglected

It is evident that for a large carrier, the SSB + C can be demodulated by an

envelope detector.

 Not power efficient as significantly higher amplitude is required for carrier.

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM): Principle
 SSB signals are difficult to generate
 QAM is an attractive alternative to SSB
 Two base band signals, each of bandwidth B Hz, are sent over the same band of
bandwidth 2B Hz.
 QAM operates by transmitting two DSB signals using carriers of the same
frequency but with a phase difference of π/2.
 QAM is also known as quadrature multiplexing (QM)

QAM modulated signal is the sum of two DSB-SC-Modulated signals.

Both DSB-SC signals occupy the same band.

Synchronous
detector
QAM: Detection
 In-phase (I) Channel
x1 t   2QAM t  cosc t  2m1 t  cosc t  m2 t sin c t cosc t
 m1 t   m1 t  cos 2c t  m2 t sin 2c t
 Quadrature (Q) Channel
x2 t   2QAM t sin c t  2m1 t  cosc t  m2 t sin c t sin c t
 m2 t   m2 t  cos 2c t  m1 t sin 2c t

Synchronous
detector
 Impact of loss of synchronization
 Loss of power
 interference

Output of the I-channel

Thus, in addition to the desired signal m1(t), we also receive signal m2(t) in the upper
receiver branch. A similar phenomenon can be shown for the lower branch. This so-called
co-channel interference is undesirable. In addition, unequal attenuation of the USB and the
LSB during transmission leads to crosstalk or cochannel interference.

Q. Derive the output of the quadrature (Q) channel.

Vestigial Sideband (VSB) Modulation: Principle
 SSB signals are difficult to generate and DSB requires twice the signal bandwidth
 VSB is a compromise between DSB and SSB
 VSB inherits the advantages of DSB and SSB, but avoids their disadvantages at a small cost
 Bandwidth of VSB is little (typically 25%) greater than SSB
 VSB is also known as asymmetric sideband system. One sideband is kept and a gradual
cutoff of another side band .
VSB: Generation and Detection

BPF LPF
Hi(f) Ho(f)

VSB signal generation:

VSB  f   M  f  f c   M  f  f c H i  f 

Coherent detection: et   2VSB t  cosct  VSB  f  f c   VSB  f  f c 

M  f   VSB  f  f c   VSB  f  f c H o  f 

Frequency components 2fc will be suppressed by the LPF

Ho  f  
1
, | f | B
H i  f  fc   H i  f  fc 
VSB: Example 4.7 Lathi, p169
The carrier frequency is 20 kHz. Baseband signal bandwidth is 6 kHz. H i(f) is
shown if fig (a). Determine H0(f) required for distortionless reception.
Hi  f 

Solution: Hi  f  fc   Hi  f  fc 

Ho  f 
VSB Application: Broadcast Television
 Video signal:
 large bandwidth (4.5 MHz) – DSB requires 9 MHz
 contains significant low-frequency component – SSB is not feasible
 The demodulation of the TV signal must be simple and cost effective – envelope detector is
preferred
 So, VSB modulation with the carrier is chosen for TV broadcast

DSB Spectrum

Transmitted
Spectrum
End of AM