ECE6602: Digital Communications

Lecture 10: QAM, PAM, and PSK

Digital Modulation
Different Modulations: Linear & Non-linear, Memoryless & With Memory Mapping from Data to Symbol: Gray Mapping Linear Modulation:
s B ( t ) = a k p( t kT)
k =

s P ( t ) = Re{s B (t )e j2 f c t } = a kc p( t kT) cos(2f c t ) a ks p( t kT) sin(2f c t )

k =
1 T

Baud Rate: Number of Symbols Transmitted Per second = log 2 Bit Rate: Number of Symbols Transmitted Per second = T Power Spectrum: 1 2 B (f ) = aa (Tf ) P(f ) , T + P(f) = p( t )e j2 ft dt ,
aa [m] = E{ a n+ma* n

}, aa (

= + aa [m ]e j2 fm f
m =

Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)

Amplitude shift keying (ASK) signals transmit information in the amplitude of the signals.There are two types of ASK signals
Pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)

s B ( t ) = a k p( t kT) s P ( t ) = a kc p( t kT) cos(2f c t ) a ks p( t kT ) sin( 2f c t )

k = k =

Pulse Amplitude Modulation

a m { A,3A,..., (M 1)A} s m ( t ) = a m p( t ) cos(2f c t )

The Signal Energy is

Em a2 = m Ep 2
T (E p = 0 p 2 ( t )dt , f c T >> 1)

PAM Average Energy

Assuming equally likely symbols, the average symbol energy is 1 M E av = Em M m =1 1 Ep M 2 = am M 2 m =1 1 Ep M = {( 2m 1 M )A}2 M 2 m =1 1 A 2E p M = (4m 2 4(M + 1)m + ( M + 1) 2 ) M 2 m =1 Use the identities
n (n + 1) k = k =1 2 n n (n + 1)(2n + 1) 2 k = k =1 6
n

PAM Average Energy

The average symbol energy is
2 1 A E p M( M 2 1) E av = M 2 3 A 2 E p (M 2 1) = 6 The average energy per bit is

E av E av = k log 2 M The average transmitted power P is given by E b av = E av = PT

PAM Base Function and Signal Vector

The PAM signals can be expressed in terms of signal vectors. Since all the s m ( t ) are linearly dependent (they just differ in a scale factor) there is just one basis function. Using s1 ( t ) = Ap( t ) cos 2f c t We have s1 ( t ) Ap( t ) cos 2f c t 2 0 ( t ) = = = p( t ) cos 2f c t 2E Ep s1 (t ) A p
2

Then

s m (t) =

Ep 2

0 ( t )a m

Hence,

Ep  s m ( t ) sm = am 2

PAM Signal Space Diagram

Signal space diagram for 8-PAM signals.
000 001 011 010 110 111 101 100

-7

-5

-3

-1

+1

+3

+5

+7

Ep 2

The minimum distance is d min = 2E p A = The normalized distance is d min = d min

E av =1

12E av M2 1 12 = M 2 1

With M-ary PAM, the a k take one of M possible valus a k { A,3A,...,(M 1)A}.

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

Quadrature amplitude modulated signals can be thought of as independent amplitude modulation on the inphase and quadrature carrier components. The QAM signal has the form
s( t ) = (a k c p( t kT) cos 2f c t a k s p( t kT) sin 2f c t )
k =

= Re{ a k p( t kT)e j2 f c t }

where

k =

(a k = a kc + ja ks )

{a k c } = inphase information sequence {a k s } = quadrature information sequence

With QAM, the a k c and a k s take on discrete values from the set
a k c , a k s { A,3A,...,(M 1)A}.

QAM Base Function

The transmitted QAM bandpass waveforms are
s m ( t ) = a mc p( t ) cos 2f c t a ms p( t ) sin 2f c t , m = 1,..., M

The complex envelopes, or baseband signal

s m ( t ) = a m p( t ) = (a mc + ja ms ) p(t), m = 1,..., M

QAM signals can be expressed in terms of signal vectors. Since the functions cos 2f c t and sin 2f c t , with f c T >> 1 are orthogonal, we have two basis functions 2 1 ( t ) = p( t ) cos 2f c t Ep
2 (t ) = 2 p( t ) sin 2f c t Ep

QAM Signal Vector

Then
s m (t) = Ep 2 a m c 1 ( t ) + Ep 2 a m s 2 ( t ) , m = 1,..., M , 0 t T

Hence

Ep  s m ( t ) sm = (a m c , a m s ) 2

For the case when M = M 2 , the resulting signal space diagram has a square constellation. In this case the QAM signal can be thought of as 2 PAM signals in quadrature with one-half the average power in each of the quadrature components.

QAM Signal Constellation

Example signal constellation for 16-QAM (M=16, M =4). The minimum distance between QAM signals is
d min = 2E p A
0000 0001 0011 0010

0100 1100 1000

0101 1101 1001

0111 1111 1011

0110 1110 1010

QAM Minimum Distance

The energy in the waveform s m ( t ) is
Em = A2Ep 2 (a 2 c + a 2 s ) m m

The average energy is M 1 A2E p M 2 1 M 2 ams) (M a m c + M E av = Em = M 2 M m =1 m =1 m =1 1 A 2 E p M (M 2 1) 2M = M 2 3 A 2 E p (M 1) (M = M 2 ) = 3 The minimum distance and the normalized minimum distance between signals in terms of the average energy is
d min = 2E p A = 6E av , d min = d min M 1
E av =1

6 M 1

Phase Shift Keying (PSK)

Phase shift keyed (PSK) signals transmit information in the phase of the signals. The transmitted band pass waveform is m 1 s P ( t ) = A p( t kT) cos(2f c t + k ) k {2 , m = 1,..., M} M k = The baseband signal/complex envolope
s B ( t ) = A e jk p( t kT)
k =

During any given baud interval, the waveform s(t) can take on one of M possible values, i.e. , s m ( t ) = Ap( t ) cos(2f c t + m ) , m = 1,..., M
= Ap( t ) cos m cos 2f c t Ap( t ) sin m sin 2f c t , m = 1,..., M The PSK signals all have equal energy Em = A 2E p 2 for all m E av = A 2E p 2

PSK Base Function and Vector Form

As in the case of QAM, we can express the s m in terms of the orthogonal basis functions 2 1 ( t ) = p( t ) cos 2f c t Ep
2 (t ) = s m (t ) = Ep 2 2 p( t ) sin 2f c t Ep Ep 2 A sin m 2 ( t )

A cos m 1 ( t ) +

and
Ep  sm = A(cos m , sin m ) 2

PSK Minimum Distance

Example of 8-PSK signal constellation (M=8). The minimum distance between any two signals is
d min = 2 EP A sin = 2 E av sin , d min = 2 sin , 2 M M M 1 ( t )
010

Ep 2
001

011

110

101

000

2 (t)

111

100

Summary of PAM, QAM, and PSK

Baseband and Passband Signals
s B ( t ) = a k p( t kT ) s P ( t ) = a kc p( t kT ) cos(2f c t ) a ks p( t kT ) sin( 2f c t )
k =

k =

PAM PSK QAM

a k is real, that is, a kc = a k , and a ks = 0

a kc = cos( k ) a ks = sin( k ) a kc and a ks are random, PAM and PSK are special cases of QAM

Summary of PAM, QAM, and PSK

Which is which? PAM, PSK, or QAM?