COMPUTER NETWORKS

ASSIGNMENT I

M.SANDILYA 201201109

Digital and Analog Modulations In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the carrier signal(high frequency signal), with a modulating signal that typically contains information to be transmitted. In telecommunications, modulation is the process of conveying a message signal, for example a digital bit stream or an analog audio signal, inside another signal that can be physically transmitted. Modulation of a sine waveform transforms a baseband message signal into a passband signal. Advantages of Modulation:

With the help of modulation, we can increase the quality of reception. We can also decrease the height of the antenna. Avoid mixing of different frequency signals and increase the range of communication i.e. without modulation, we can transmit the message up to 100 meters and with modulation, we can transmit the message up to 150 meters. Allow the flexibility for adjusting the bandwidth.

The aim of analog modulation is to transfer an analog baseband (or lowpass) signal, for example an audio signal or TV signal, over an analog bandpass channel at a different frequency, for example over a limited radio frequency band or a cable TV network channel. The aim of digital modulation is to transfer a digital bit stream over an analog bandpass channel, for example over the public switched telephone network (where a bandpass filter limits the frequency range to 3003400 Hz), or over a limited radio frequency band. Analog Modulation : In analog modulation, the modulation is applied continuously in response to the analog information signal. There are three basic types of analog modulations. 1. AM or Amplitude Modulation 2. PM or Phase Modulation 3. FM or Frequency Modulation

1. Frequency Modulation: The process of carrier signal frequency is varied according to the message signal or modulation signal frequency by keeping the amplitude constant is called frequency modulation.

Advantages of Frequency Modulation:

Frequency modulation has more noise resistivity when compared to other modulation techniques. Thats why they are mainly used in broadcasting and radio communications. And we are all well aware that radio communication use mainly frequency modulation for transmission. We know that noise will occur mainly to the amplitude of the signal. In frequency modulation, amplitude is made constant and only frequency is varied, so we can easily find out the noise in the amplitude by using a limiter. The frequency modulation is having greater resistance to rapid signal strength variation, which we will use in FM radios even while we are travelling and frequency modulation is also mainly used in mobile communication purposes.

Disadvantages of Frequency Modulation:

In the transmission section, we dont need any special equipment but in the reception, we need more complicated demodulators for demodulating the carrier signal from message or modulating signal. Frequency modulation cannot be used to find out the speed and velocity of a moving object. Static interferences are more when compared to phase modulation. Outside

interference is one of the biggest disadvantages in the frequency modulation. There may be mixing because of nearby radio stations, pagers, construction walkie-talkies etc. 2. Phase Modulation: In the phase modulation, we vary the carrier signal in accordance with the phase of the modulating signal or message signal by keeping the frequency constant. If the amplitude of message or modulating signal is huge then the phase shift will also be greater. Advantages and Disadvantages of Phase Modulation:

The main advantage of phase modulation is that it has less interference from static, which is why we use this type of modulation in finding out the speed or velocity of a moving object. In frequency modulation, we cannot find out the velocity of moving object. The main disadvantage is phase ambiguity comes if we increase the phase modulation index, and data loss is more and we need special equipment like frequency multiplier for increasing the phase modulation index.

Amplitude Modulation: In the amplitude modulation, amplitude of carrier signal wave is varied in accordance with the modulating or message signal by keeping the phase and frequency of the signals constant. The carrier signal frequency would be greater than the modulating signal frequency. Amplitude modulation is first type of modulation used for transmitting messages for long distances by the mankind.

Advantages of Amplitude Modulation:

Because of amplitude modulation wavelength, AM signals can propagate longer distances. For amplitude modulation, we use simple and low cost circuit; we dont need any special equipment and complex circuits that are used in frequency modulation.

Disadvantages of Amplitude Modulation:

Adding of noise for amplitude modulated signal will be more when compared to frequency modulated signals. Data loss is also more in amplitude modulation due to noise addition. Demodulators cannot reproduce the exact message signal or modulating signal due to noise. More power is required during modulation because Amplitude modulated signal frequency should be double than modulating signal or message signal frequency. Due to this reason more power is required for amplitude modulation.

Digital Modulation :

Firstly, what do we mean by digital modulation? Typically the objective of a digital Communication system is to transport digital data between two or more nodes. In radio Communications this is usually achieved by adjusting a physical characteristic of a sinusoidal Carrier, either the frequency, phase, amplitude or a combination thereof. This is performed in real systems with a modulator at the transmitting end to impose the physical change to the carrier and a demodulator at the receiving end to detect the resultant modulation on reception. Frequency Shift Keyed (FSK) As previously stated applying modulation in wireless communications involves modifying the phase or amplitude, or both, of a sinusoidal carrier. One of the simplest, and widest used system, is frequency modulation. This exists in a great variety of forms, as will be discussed later, but in essence involves making a change to the frequency of the carrier to represent a different level. The generic name for this family of modulation is Frequency Shift Keying (FSK). FSK has the advantage of being very simple to generate, simple to demodulate and due to the constant amplitude can utilise a non-linear PA. Significant disadvantages, however, are the poor spectral efficiency and BER performance. This precludes its use in this basic form from cellular and even cordless systems. Phase Shift Keyed (PSK) An alternative to imposing the modulation onto the carrier by varying the instantaneous frequency is to modulate the phase. This can be achieved simply by defining a relative phase shift from the carrier, usually equi-distant for each required state. Therefore a two level phase modulated system, such as Binary Phase Shift Keying, has two relative phase shifts from the carrier, + or 90. Typically this technique will lead to an improved BER performance compared to MSK. The resulting signal will, however, probably not be constant

amplitude and not be very spectrally efficient due to the rapid phase discontinuities. Some additional filtering will be required to limit the spectral occupancy. Phase modulation requires coherent generation and as such if an IQ modulation technique is employed this filtering can be performed at baseband. Amplitude shift keying (ASK) Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is a form of amplitude modulation that represents digital data as variations in the amplitude of a carrier wave. In an ASK system, binary symbol 1 is represented by transmitting carrier wave of fixed amplitude and fixed frequency for the bit duration T seconds. Any digital modulation scheme uses a finite number of distinct signals to represent digital data. ASK uses a finite number of amplitudes, each assigned a unique pattern of binary digits. Usually, each amplitude encodes an equal number of bits. Each pattern of bits forms the symbol that is represented by the particular amplitude. The demodulator, which is designed specifically for the symbol-set used by the modulator, determines the amplitude of the received signal and maps it back to the symbol it represents, thus recovering the original data. Frequency and phase of the carrier are kept constant.

Advantages and Disadvantages : In general digital is more advantages than analog modulation. The advantages of digital modulation over analog modulation are Digital modulation can easily detect and correct noise Security is more Digital modulation can traverse a long distance Advantages of Digital Modulation Techniques: Easy to modulate. One can achieve close to the theoretical limit of information transfer within a given band. Disadvantages of Digital Modulation Techniques: Square waves and sharp "1/"0" edges of the carrier produce harmonics which must be removed or interference with adjacent bands will result. The receiver must have some form of synchronization with the transmitter to decode the digital information (synchronization wastes bandwidth).

References: Modulation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation) Amplitude modulation Frequency modulation