Digital Transmission

Through AWGN Channel

Reference: Proakis and Salehi, “Fundamentals of
Communication Systems”, Ch. 8, 2nd ed. (2014)
 GEOMETRIC REPRESENTATION OF SIGNAL
WAVEFORMS
Binary modulation: The modulator maps each
information bit to be transmitted into one of two
possible distinct signal waveforms, say s₁(t) or s₂(t).

Nonbinary (M-ary) Modulation: The modulator

may transmit k bits (k > 1) at a time by employing M = 2ᵏ
distinct signal waveforms, say sm(t), 1 ≤ m ≤M.

Develop a vector representation of such digital signal waveforms

provides a compact characterization of signal sets for transmitting
digital information over a channel, and it simplifies the analysis of
their performance.
Gram-Schmidt Orthogonalization Procedure

Suppose a set of M signal waveforms Sm (t), 1 ≤ m≤ M,

which are to be used for transmitting information over
a communication channel.
From the set of M waveforms, construct a set of N≤M
orthonormal waveforms, where N is the dimension of
the signal space.

The first waveform

s₁(t) is assumed to have energy ε₁.

The second waveform

possess unit energy

In general, the orthogonalization of the kth function leads to
Example

(a) Original signal set

(b) Orthonormal waveforms
 The M signals {sm(t)} can be expressed as a
linear combinations of the {ψn(t)}.
Each signal waveform may be represented by the vector

or equivalently, as a point in N-dimensional signal

space with coordinates {smi , i =1, 2, . . . , N}. The
energy of the mth signal waveform is simply the
square of the length of the vector or, equivalently, the
square of the Euclidean distance from the origin to
the point in the N-dimensional space.

Inner product
Example: From the previous example
The set of basis functions {ψn(t)} obtained by the
Gram-Schmidt procedure is not unique

Alternate set of basis functions

 BINARY MODULATION SCHEMES

Binary Antipodal Signaling

The information bit 1 is represented by a pulse
p(t) of duration T, and the information bit 0 is
represented by -p(t).

Example:
Binary PAM signals.
A rectangular pulse
of unit amplitude and
duration Tb.

Unit energy basis

function for binary
PAM
Geometric representation of binary PAM
 Example of Binary antipodal signals

Unit energy basis function for the antipodal signals

Binary Amplitude-Shift Keying
Binary ASK is a special case of binary antipodal signaling
in which two baseband signals ±p(t) are used to
amplitude modulate a sinusoidal carrier signal cos 2Πfct
Binary Orthogonal Signaling

s₁(t) and s₂(t) have equal energy εb and are

orthogonal
Geometric representation of binary orthogonal
signal waveforms.
Binary Pulse Position Modulation
Two o pulses are employed that are different
only in their location

Signal pulses in binary PPM (orthogonal signals)

Two orthonormal basis functions for binary
PPM signals.
Binary Frequency-Shift Keying

k₁ and k₂ =distinct
positive integer
 Binary FSK signal waveforms

Spectral characteristics of binary PPM (left) and FSK

(right) signals
 OPTIMUM RECEIVER FOR BINARY MODULATED
SIGNALS IN ADDITIVE WHITE GAUSSIAN NOISE

Additive White Gaussian Noise Channel

Model for the received signal passed through an AWGN channel

 Receiver for digitally modulated signals

Correlation-Type Demodulator

Binary Antipodal Signals

 Cross correlator for binary antipodal signals

The conditional probability density functions of the correlator

output for binary antipodal signaling.
Binary Orthogonal Signals

Correlation-type demodulator for binary

orthogonal signals
 The conditional probability density functions of the outputs
(y1, y2) from the cross correlators of two orthogonal signals.
Matched-Filter-Type Demodulator
Binary Antipodal Signals
•Pass the received signal r(t) through a linear
time-invariant filter with impulse response

The output of the filter at t = Tb is exactly the

same as the output obtained with cross
correlator
 Signal s(t) and filter matched to s(t)

Binary Orthogonal Signals

•Two linear time-invariant filters are employed
•The correlation-type demodulator and the matched-
filter-type demodulate yield identical outputs at t = Tb.
Properties of the Matched Filter
If a signal s(t) is corrupted by AWGN, the filter with
the impulse response matched to s(t) maximizes the
output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

Note that the output SNR from the matched filter depends on the
energy of the waveform s(t) but not on the detailedcharacteristics
of s(t). This is another interesting property of the matched filter.
The Performance of the Optimum Detector
for Binary Signals
The average probability of error for equiprobable messages

Binary antipodal Binary orthogonal

 For the same error
probability P2, the
binary antipodal signals
require a factor of two
(3 dB) less signal energy
than orthogonal signals.

Probability of error for binary signals

 M-ARY DIGITAL MODULATION

Relationship between the symbol interval and

the bit interval
The input sequence to the modulator is subdivided into
k-bit blocks, called symbols, and each of the M =
symbols is associated with a corresponding signal
waveform from the set {sm(t), m = 1 , 2, .. , M}.
The channel is assumed to corrupt the signal by the
addition of white Gaussian noise. The received signal

The Signal Demodulator

The receiver is subdivided into two parts: the signal
demodulator and the detector. The function of the signal
demodulator is to convert the received waveform r(t)
into an N –dimensional vector
N is the dimension
of the transmitted
signal waveforms
The function of the detector is to decide which of the
M possible signal waveforms was transmitted based on
observation of the vector y.

The M-ary signal waveforms (each is N-dimensional)

ψk(t) and k = 1, 2, . . . , N are N orthonormal basis

waveforms that span the N-dimensional signal space.
Correlation-type demodulator
Matched-filter-type demodulator
Example: 4-PAM Signalling

PDFs for M = 4 received PAM signals in additive

white Gaussian noise
The Optimum Detector
Design a signal detector that makes a decision on the
transmitted signal in each signal interval based on the
observation of the vector y in each interval, such that
the probability of a correct decision is maximized.

Decision rule is based on the computation of the

posterior probabilities
The receiver chooses the Sm
that maximizes
This decision criterion is called the maximum a
posteriori probability (MAP) criterion.

Bayes's rule

conditional PDF of the

observed vector given Sm
P(sm) = Priori probability of the mth signal being
transmitted

When the priori probabilities P(sm) are all equal,

P(sm) = 1 / M for all M.

The decision rule based on finding the signal that

maximizes

is equivalent to finding the signal that maximizes

 The conditional PDF

is usually called the likelihood function. The decision

criterion based on the maximum of
over the M signals is called the maximum-likelihood
(ML) criterion.

We observe that a detector based on the MAP

criterion and one that is based on the criterion
make the same decisions, as long as the a
priori probabilities P(sm) are all equal; in other
words, the signals {sm} are equiprobable.
M-ARY PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION

normalized
version of p(t)

p(t) is a lowpass pulse signal of duration T

p(t) = gT(t) for a rectangular pulse shape

Rectangular pulse gT(t) and basis function ψ(t)
for M-ary PAM.

M = 4 PAM signal waveforms

In order to minimize the average transmitted energy
and to avoid transmitting signals with a DC
component, we want to select the M signal amplitudes
to be symmetric about the origin and equally spaced

The average energy

Example of M = 4 PAM signal waveforms
Carrier-Modulated PAM (M-ary ASK)
(for Bandpass Channels)
The transmitted signal waveforms

m = 1, 2, ... ,M.

Amplitude modulation of the sinusoidal carrier

Spectra of (a) baseband and (b)DSB-SC
amplitude-modulated signal
Demodulation and Detection of Amplitude-
Modulated PAM Signals
The transmitted signal

The received signal

Cross correlating the received signal r(t) with the
basis function

The average probability of error

Probability of a symbol error for PAM
 PHASE-SHIFT KEYING

where p(t) is a baseband signal of duration T and ɸm

is determined by the transmitted message.
Example of a four-phase PSK
(quadrature PSK (QPSK)) signal)
Block diagram of a digital-phase modulator
Geometric Representation of PSK Signals

The digital phase-modulated signals can be

represented geometrically as two-dimensional vectors
with components
PSK signal constellations
Demodulation and Detection of PSK Signals

The received signal may be correlated with the two

basic functions
For binary-phase
Modulation, the
error probability

The symbol error probability for M = 4

P4
Probability of a symbol error for PSK signals
 Differential Phase Encoding
(Differential Phase –Shift Keying)
In differential encoding, the information is conveyed by
phase shifts between any two successive signal
intervals. For example, in binary-phase modulation, the
information bit 1 may be transmitted by shifting the
phase of the carrier by 180° relative to the previous
carrier phase, while the information bit 0 is transmitted
by a zero-phase shift relative to the phase in the
preceding signaling interval. In four-phase modulation,
the relative phase shifts between successive intervals
are 0°, 90°, 1 80°, and 270°, corresponding to the
information bits 00, 0 1 , 1 1, and 10, respectively.
Block diagram of a DPSK demodulator
Probability of error for binary PSK and DPSK
 QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE-
MODULATED DIGITAL SIGNALS
Impress separate information bits on each of the
quadrature carriers

M = 16 QAM signal constellation

Functional block diagram of a modulator for QAM
Probability of a symbol error for QAM
SNR ADVANTAGE (in dB) OF M -ARY QAM OVER
M-ARY PSK
1- Probability of Error for DPSK

2- Probability of Error for QAM