Lecture 13 - Analog Communication (II)

James Barnes (James.Barnes@colostate.edu)

Spring 2008

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 1 / 12

 Outline

● QAM: quadrature amplitude modulation

● SSB: single sideband
● Lab suggestions

Reference:

● Tretter Chapters 5-8 (On e-reserve),

● Haykin, Communication Systems, Third Edition

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 2 / 12

 QAM Basics

● QAM=”Quadrature Amplitude Modulation”

● QAM is both a generic term which encompasses AM, FM, DSB-SC, and
SSB (”linear modulation techniques”) and a specific technique for sending
two independent messages over one carrier.
● For AM and SSB with pilot signal, the receiver oscillator can be derived
from s(t); for DSB-SC and SSB without pilot signal, the receiver oscillator
must be independently created.

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 3 / 12

 QAM Modulator/Demodulator

● A picture of QAM commonly used in analog communication is given below.

There is an alternate picture which is more useful and common in DSP,
which will be shown later.
● For this representation, using the othogonality of sin(.) and cos(.), it is
straightforward to show that the outputs of the LPF blocks are proportional
to x(t) and y(t) as shown in the figure.

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 4 / 12

 Modulation Types

● For AM, x(t) = Ac [1 + ka m(t)], y(t) = 0.

● For DSB-SC, x(t) = Ac m(t), y(t) = 0.

● For SSB, x(t) = m(t), ˆ

y(t) = m(t).
● For QAM modulation, x(t) and y(t) can be independent signals, called
in-phase and quadrature respectively.
● For FM, x(t) = cos(φ(t)), y(t) = sin(φ(t)).

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 5 / 12

 Complex Baseband Representation of
Passband Signals

● We can picture x(t) and y(t) as being real and imaginary components of a
complex baseband signal z(t) = x(t) + jy(t).
● z(t) can be transformed into a real passband signal and vice-versa. This is
modulation and de-modulation.
● With independent x(t) and y(t), the modulated passband signal will be
similar to DSB-SC in bandwidth utilization, but we will send two
independent channels in the same bandwidth.

● ˆ
If x(t) and y(t) are not independent, but instead y(t) = ±x(t), ˆ≡ Hilbert
tranform, then we can send one channel in either the upper sideband or
lower sideband only (SSB), thus using half the bandwidth of DSB-SC and
power of DSB-SC.

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 6 / 12

 Modulation of Complex Baseband Signal

● Let w(t) = z(t)ejωc t , where ωc is the carrier frequency. We know from the
Modulation Theorem that W (ω) = Z(ω − ωc ). W has only a positive
frequency component (is an ”analytic signal”) and spans a bandwidth of 2B,
which is the bandwidth of z(t).
● We can form a real passband signal by converting w(t) to real:
s(t) = 21 [w(t) + w(t)], where w(t) is the complex conjugate of w(t). Can
easily show that s(t) = z(t)ejωc t + z(t)e−jωc t = x(t)cos(ωc t) − y(t)sin(ωc t).

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 7 / 12

 Demodulation of Complex Baseband Signal

● Assume the received signal is s(t) (no channel distortion).

● First put s(t) through a ”phase splitter” filter φ(t) ↔F T Φ(jω) = u(ω), where
u(ω) is a frequency step function. The phase splitter discards the negative
frequency term in s(t) and we recover w(t) = z(t)ejωc t .
● Next multiply w(t) by a locally-generated complex exponential e−jωc t to
recover z(t).

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 8 / 12

 Recovering Carrier

We cannot regenerate the carrier using the quadrature component, as with the
Costas receiver. There are two strategies for dealing with this:

1. Free-running at the carrier frequency, with some phase error (distortion).

This is tolerable for many applications (voice).
2. Add small DC component to m(t) – ”pilot tone”. This requires that m(t) be
passband (no DC component). Then
s(t) = x(t)cos(ωc t) − y(t)sin(ωc t) + p cos(ωc t). This produces a small
carrier signal which can be locked onto by a PLL or amplified to create the
”local oscillator” signal.

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 9 / 12

 SSB Modulation

● To achieve SSB, the only difference is that we generate the complex

baseband signal from a real baseband signal m(t) by passing through a
ˆ which
phase splitter. This creates an analytic signal z(t) = m(t) ± j m(t)
has only positive or negative frequency components. This is the positive or
negative pre-envelope. When multiplied by ejωc t and converted to real, s(t)
will have only upper or lower sideband components, depending on the sign
in z(t).
● De-modulation in principle is the same as before.

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 10 / 12

 Practical: Creating a Phase Splitter

● Remember that H(jω) = −jsgn(ω) is the Hilbert Transform. There are cof
files for various orders of Hilbert Transformers in the lab support files.
● How do you multiply by j?

r(t) = s(t) + w(t) = s(t) + jdž(t)

-j sgn(Z )
j

Phase Splitter: ) ( jZ )

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 11 / 12

 Practical: QAM Receiver using Pilot Tone

Re[·] BPF DAC x(t)

received
signal
-j sgn(Ȧ) x
nto
Hilbert Transformer Im[·] BPF DAC y(t)

1 r Baseband Filters
That Remove DC
1  2r cos(Z c to ) z 1  r 2 z  2 Components

In-phase
Carrier
1  r cos(Z c to ) z 1

Quadrature
Carrier
r sin(Z c to ) z 1

Bandpass Carrier Recovery Filters

Colorado State University Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering ECE423 – 12 / 12