PULSE MODULATION

The process of transmitting signals in the form of

pulses (discontinuous signals) by using special
techniques.

The Chapter includes:

• Pulse Amplitude
Modulation
• Pulse Width Modulation
• Pulse Position
Modulation
• Pulse Code Modulation

Created by C. Mani, Principal, K V No.1, AFS, Jalahalli West, Bangalore

 Pulse Modulation

Analog Pulse Modulation Digital Pulse Modulation

Pulse Amplitude (PAM) Pulse Code (PCM)

Pulse Width (PWM) Delta (DM)

Pulse Position (PPM)

Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM):

* The signal is sampled at regular intervals such that each sample
is proportional to the amplitude of the signal at that sampling
instant. This technique is called “sampling”.
* For minimum distortion, the sampling rate should be more than
twice the signal frequency.
 Pulse Amplitude Modulator
Analog AND PAM FM
Pulse Shaping PAM - FM
Signal Gate Network Modulator

Pulses at sampling frequency HF Carrier Oscillator

Analog Signal

Amplitude Modulated
Pulses
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM or PLM or PDM):
* In this type, the amplitude is maintained constant but the duration
or length or width of each pulse is varied in accordance with
instantaneous value of the analog signal.
* The negative side of the signal is brought to the positive side by
adding a fixed d.c. voltage.

Analog Signal

Width Modulated Pulses

Pulse Position Modulation (PPM):
* In this type, the sampled waveform has fixed amplitude and
width whereas the position of each pulse is varied as per
instantaneous value of the analog signal.

* PPM signal is further modification of a PWM signal. It has

positive thin pulses (zero time or width) corresponding to the
starting edge of a PWM pulse and negative thin pulses
corresponding to the ending edge of a pulse.

* This wave can be

further amended
PWM by eliminating the
whole positive
narrow pulses.
The remaining
PPM pulse is called
clipped PPM.
PAM, PWM and PPM at a glance:

Analog Signal

Amplitude Modulated Pulses

Width Modulated Pulses

Position Modulated Pulses

 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM):
* Analog signal is converted into digital signal by using a digital
code.
* Analog to digital converter employs two techniques:

1. Sampling: The process of generating pulses of zero width

and of amplitude equal to the instantaneous amplitude of the
analog signal. The no. of pulses per second is called
“sampling rate”.

2. Quantization: The process of dividing the maximum value

of the analog signal into a fixed no. of levels in order to
convert the PAM into a Binary Code.
The levels obtained are called “quanization levels”.

* A digital signal is described by its ‘bit rate’ whereas analog

signal is described by its ‘frequency range’.

* Bit rate = sampling rate x no. of bits / sample

 V
o
Sampling,
l Quantization
t
a
and Coding
g
e

Time
7 111
L 6 110 B
e 5 101 i C
v 4 100 n o
e 3 011 a d
l 2 010 e
1 001 r
s y s
0 000

Time
V
o 010101110111110101010
l
t
a
g
e

Time
 Merits of Digital Communication:
1. Digital signals are very easy to receive. The receiver has to just detect
whether the pulse is low or high.
2. AM & FM signals become corrupted over much short distances as
compared to digital signals. In digital signals, the original signal can be
reproduced accurately.
3. The signals lose power as they travel, which is called attenuation. When
AM and FM signals are amplified, the noise also get amplified. But the
digital signals can be cleaned up to restore the quality and amplified by
the regenerators.
4. The noise may change the shape of the pulses but not the pattern of the
pulses.
5. AM and FM signals can be received by any one by suitable receiver. But
digital signals can be coded so that only the person, who is intended for,
can receive them.
6. AM and FM transmitters are ‘real time systems’. i.e. they can be received
only at the time of transmission. But digital signals can be stored at the
receiving end.
7. The digital signals can be stored, or used to produce a display on a
computer monitor or converted back into analog signal to drive a loud
speaker.

END
Digital Communications I:
Modulation and Coding Course

Term 3 – 2008
Catharina Logothetis
Lecture 2
Last time, we talked about:

 Important features of digital communication

systems
 Some basic concepts and definitions such as
as signal classification, spectral density,
random process, linear systems and signal
bandwidth.

Lecture 2 11
Today, we are going to talk about:

 The first important step in any DCS:

 Transforming the information source to a form

compatible with a digital system

Lecture 2 12
 Formatting and transmission of baseband signal

Digital info.

Textual Format
source info.
Pulse
Analog Transmit
Sample Quantize Encode modulate
info.

Pulse
Bit stream waveforms Channel
Format
Analog
info. Low-pass
Decode Demodulate/
filter Receive
Textual Detect
sink
info.

Digital info.

Lecture 2 13
Format analog signals
 To transform an analog waveform into a form
that is compatible with a digital
communication system, the following steps
are taken:
1. Sampling
2. Quantization and encoding
3. Baseband transmission

Lecture 2 14
Sampling

Time domain Frequency domain

xs (t ) = xδ (t ) × x(t ) X s ( f ) = Xδ ( f ) ∗ X ( f )
x(t )
| X( f )|

xδ (t ) | Xδ ( f ) |

xs (t )
| Xs( f ) |

Lecture 2 15
Aliasing effect

LP filter

Nyquist rate

aliasing

Lecture 2 16
Sampling theorem

Analog Sampling Pulse amplitude

signal process modulated (PAM) signal

 Sampling theorem: A bandlimited signal

with no spectral components beyond , can
be uniquely determined by values sampled at
uniform intervals of

 The sampling rate, is

called Nyquist rate.

Lecture 2 17
 Quantization
 Amplitude quantizing: Mapping samples of a continuous
amplitude waveform to a finite set of amplitudes.

Out

In
Average quantization noise power
Quantized

Signal peak power

values

Signal power to average

quantization noise power

Lecture 2 18
Encoding (PCM)

 A uniform linear quantizer is called Pulse Code

Modulation (PCM).
 Pulse code modulation (PCM): Encoding the quantized
signals into a digital word (PCM word or codeword).
 Each quantized sample is digitally encoded into an l bits
codeword where L in the number of quantization levels and

Lecture 2 19
 Quantization example
amplitude
x(t)
111 3.1867

110 2.2762 Quant. levels

101 1.3657

100 0.4552

011 -0.4552 boundaries

010 -1.3657

001 -2.2762 x(nTs): sampled values

xq(nTs): quantized values
000 -3.1867
Ts: sampling time
PCM t
codeword 110 110 111 110 100 010 011 100 100 011 PCM sequence

Lecture 2 20
Quantization error
 Quantizing error: The difference between the input and
output of a quantizer e(t ) = xˆ (t ) − x(t )

Process of quantizing noise

Qauntizer
Model of quantizing noise
y = q (x)
AGC x(t ) xˆ (t )
x(t ) xˆ (t )
x
e(t )

+
e(t ) =
xˆ (t ) − x(t )

Lecture 2 21
Quantization error …
 Quantizing error:
 Granular or linear errors happen for inputs within the dynamic
range of quantizer
 Saturation errors happen for inputs outside the dynamic
range of quantizer
 Saturation errors are larger than linear errors
 Saturation errors can be avoided by proper tuning of AGC
 Quantization noise variance:

∞
σ = E{[ x − q( x)] } = ∫ e 2 ( x) p( x)dx = σ Lin
2
q
2 2
+ σ Sat
2
−∞
L / 2 −1
ql2 q2
σ 2
Lin =2∑ p ( xl )ql Uniform q. σ 2
Lin =
l =0 12 12

Lecture 2 22
Uniform and non-uniform quant.
 Uniform (linear) quantizing:
 No assumption about amplitude statistics and correlation
properties of the input.
 Not using the user-related specifications
 Robust to small changes in input statistic by not finely tuned to a
specific set of input parameters
 Simple implementation
 Application of linear quantizer:
 Signal processing, graphic and display applications, process
control applications
 Non-uniform quantizing:
 Using the input statistics to tune quantizer parameters
 Larger SNR than uniform quantizing with same number of levels
 Non-uniform intervals in the dynamic range with same quantization
noise variance
 Application of non-uniform quantizer:
 Commonly used for speech

Lecture 2 23
 Non-uniform quantization
 It is achieved by uniformly quantizing the “compressed” signal.
 At the receiver, an inverse compression characteristic, called
“expansion” is employed to avoid signal distortion.

compression+expansion companding

y = C (x) x̂
x(t ) y (t ) yˆ (t ) xˆ (t )

x ŷ
Compress Qauntize Expand
Transmitter Channel Receiver
Lecture 2 24
Statistics of speech amplitudes
 In speech, weak signals are more frequent than strong ones.

Probability density function 1.0

0.5

0.0
1.0 2.0 3.0
Normalized magnitude of speech signal
S
 Using equal step sizes (uniform quantizer) gives low   for weak
 N q
signals and high   for strong signals.
S
 N q
 Adjusting the step size of the quantizer by taking into account the speech statistics
improves the SNR for the input range.

Lecture 2 25
Baseband transmission

 To transmit information through physical

channels, PCM sequences (codewords) are
transformed to pulses (waveforms).
 Each waveform carries a symbol from a set of size M.
 Each transmit symbol represents k = log 2 M bits of
the PCM words.
 PCM waveforms (line codes) are used for binary
symbols (M=2).
 M-ary pulse modulation are used for non-binary
symbols (M>2).

Lecture 2 26
 PCM waveforms

 PCM waveforms category:

 Nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ)  Phase encoded
 Return-to-zero (RZ)  Multilevel binary

+V 1 0 1 1 0 +V 1 0 1 1 0
NRZ-L -V Manchester -V

Unipolar-RZ +V Miller +V
0 -V
+V +V
Bipolar-RZ 0 Dicode NRZ 0
-V -V
0 T 2T 3T 4T 5T 0 T 2T 3T 4T 5T

Lecture 2 27
PCM waveforms …
 Criteria for comparing and selecting PCM
waveforms:
 Spectral characteristics (power spectral density and
bandwidth efficiency)
 Bit synchronization capability
 Error detection capability
 Interference and noise immunity
 Implementation cost and complexity

Lecture 2 28
Spectra of PCM waveforms

Lecture 2 29
M-ary pulse modulation

 M-ary pulse modulations category:

 M-ary pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)
 M-ary pulse-position modulation (PPM)
 M-ary pulse-duration modulation (PDM)
 M-ary PAM is a multi-level signaling where each
symbol takes one of the M allowable amplitude levels,
each representing k = log 2 Mbits of PCM words.
 For a given data rate, M-ary PAM (M>2) requires less
bandwidth than binary PCM.
 For a given average pulse power, binary PCM is easier
to detect than M-ary PAM (M>2).

Lecture 2 30
PAM example

Lecture 2 31