Chapter 6

Passband Data Transmission

Introduction
In baseband pulse transmission, a data stream represented
in the form of a discrete pulse-amplitude modulated (PAM)
signal is transmitted directly over a low-pass channel.
In digital passband transmission, on the other hand, the
incoming data stream is modulated onto a carrier (usually
sinusoidal) with fixed frequency limits imposed by a band-
pass channel of interest.
The communication channel used for passband data
transmission may be a microwave radio link, a satellite
channel, or the like.
Introduction
The modulation process making the transmission possible
involves switching (keying) amplitude, frequency, or phase
of a sinusoidal carrier in some fashion in accordance with
the incoming data.
there are three basic signaling schemes, and they are
known as amplitude shift-keying (ASK), frequency-shift
keying (FSK), and phase-shift keying (PSK).
They may be viewed as special cases of amplitude
modulation, frequency modulation, and phase modulation,
respectively.
Figure 6.1 illustrates these three methods of modulation for
the case of a source supplying binary data.
Figure 6.1
Illustrative waveforms for the three basic forms of signaling
binary information. (a) Amplitude-shift keying. (b) Phase-shift
keying. (c) Frequency-shift keying with continuous phase.
Hierarchy Of Digital Modulation Techniques
Digital modulation techniques may be classified into
coherent and noncoherent techniques, depending on
whether the receiver is equipped with a phase-recovery
circuit or not.
The phase-recovery circuit ensures that the oscillator
supplying the locally generated carrier wave in the receiver
is synchronized (in both frequency and phase) to the
oscillator supplying the carrier wave used to originally
modulate the incoming data stream in the transmitter.
In an M-ary signaling scheme, we may send any one of M
possible signals during each signaling interval of duration
T.
Hierarchy Of Digital Modulation Techniques
In passband data transmission these signals are generated by changing
the amplitude, phase, or frequency of a sinusoidal carrier in M discrete
steps.
Thus we have M-ary ASK, M-ary PSK, and M-ary FSK digital
modulation schemes.
Another way of generating M-ary signals is to combine different
methods of modulation into a hybrid form.
For example, we may combine discrete changes in both the amplitude
and phase of a carrier to produce M-ary amplitude-phase keying
(APK).
M-ary signaling schemes are preferred over binary signaling schemes
for transmitting digital information over band-pass channels when the
requirement is to conserve bandwidth at the expense of increased
power.
Hierarchy Of Digital Modulation Techniques
To illustrate the bandwidth-conservation capability of M-ary
signaling schemes, consider the transmission of information
consisting of a binary sequence with bit duration T
b
.
If we were to transmit this information by means of binary PSK,
for example, we would require a bandwidth that is inversely
proportional to T
b
.
However, if we take blocks of n bits and use an M-ary PSK
scheme with M = 2
n
and symbol duration T = nT
b
, the bandwidth
required is proportional to 1/nT
b
.
This shows that the use of M-ary PSK enables a reduction in
transmission bandwidth by the factor n = log
2
M over binary
PSK.
Passband Transmission Model
In a functional sense, we may model a passband data
transmission system as shown in Figure 6.2.
First, there is assumed to exist a message source that emits
one symbol every T seconds, with the symbols belonging
to an alphabet of M symbols, which we denote by m
1
, m
2
, .
. . , m
M
.
The a priori probabilities P(m
1
), P(m
2
), . . . , P(m
M
) specify
the message source output.
When the M symbols of the alphabet are equally likely, we
write
Figure 6.2
Functional model of passband data
transmission system.
Passband Transmission Model
The M-ary output of the message source is presented to a
signal transmission encoder, producing a corresponding
vector s
i
made up of N real elements, one such set for each
of the M symbols of the source alphabet.
With the vector s
i
as input, the modulator then constructs a
distinct signal s
i
(t) of duration T seconds as the
representation of the symbol m
i
generated by the message
source.
The signal s
i
(t) is necessarily an energy signal, as shown
by
Passband Transmission Model
The bandpass communication channel, coupling the transmitter
to the receiver, is assumed to have two characteristics:
1. The channel is linear, with a bandwidth that is wide enough to
accommodate the transmission of the modulated signal s
i
(t) with
negligible or no distortion.
2. The channel noise w(t) is the sample function of a white Gaussian
noise process of zero mean and power spectral density N
o
/2.
The receiver, which consists of a detector followed by a signal
transmission decoder, performs two functions:
1. It reverses the operations performed in the transmitter,
2. It minimizes the effect of channel noise on the estimate computed
for the transmitted symbol m
i
.
m
Coherent Phase-Shift Keying
Binary Phase-shift Keying
ln a coherent binary PSK system, the pair of signals s
1
(t)
and s
2
(t) used to represent binary symbols 1 and 0,
respectively, is defined by




where 0 t T
b
, and E
b
is the transmitted signal energy
per bit.
Binary Phase-shift Keying
To ensure that each transmitted bit contains an integral
number of cycles of the carrier wave, the carrier frequency
f
c
is chosen equal to n
c
/T
b
for some fixed integer n
c
.
A pair of sinusoidal waves that differ only in a relative
phase-shift of 180 degrees, as defined in the last equations
are referred to as antipodal signals.
From this pair of equations it is clear that, in the case of
binary PSK, there is only one basis function of unit energy,
namely,
Binary Phase-shift Keying
Then we may express the transmitted signals s
1
(t) and s
2
(t)
in terms of
1
(t) as follows:



A coherent binary PSK system is therefore characterized
by having a signal space that is one-dimensional (i.e., N =
1), with a signal constellation consisting of two message
points (i.e., M = 2).
Binary Phase-shift Keying
The coordinates of the message points are






Figure 6.3 displays the signal-space diagram for binary
PSK.
This figure also includes two inserts showing example
waveforms of antipodal signals representing s
1
(t) and s
2
(t).





Figure 6.3
Signal-space diagram for coherent binary PSK system. The
waveforms depicting the transmitted signals s
1
(t) and s
2
(t),
displayed in the inserts, assume n
c
2.
Error Probability of Binary PSK
The average probability of symbol error or, equivalently,
the bit error rate for coherent binary PSK is (assuming
equiprobable symbols)



As we increase the transmitted signal energy per bit, E
b
,
for a specified noise spectral density N
o
, the message
points corresponding to symbols 1 and 0 move further
apart, and the average probability of error P
e
is
correspondingly reduced in accordance with the equation.


Generation and Detection of Coherent
Binary PSK Signals
To generate a binary PSK signal, we have to represent the
input binary sequence in polar form with symbols 1 and 0
represented by constant amplitude levels of +E
b
, and -
E
b
, respectively.
This signal transmission encoding is performed by a polar
nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) level encoder.
The resulting binary wave and a sinusoidal carrier
1
(t),
whose frequency f
c
= (n
c
/T
b
) for some fixed integer n
c
, are
applied to a product modulator, as in Figure 6.4a.
The desired PSK wave is obtained at the modulator output.
Figure 6.4
Block diagrams for (a) binary PSK transmitter
and (b) coherent binary PSK receiver.
Generation and Detection of Coherent
Binary PSK Signals
To detect the original binary sequence of 1s and 0s, we
apply the noisy PSK signal x(t) (at the channel output) to a
correlator, which is also supplied with a locally generated
coherent reference signal
1
(t), as in Figure 6.4b.
The correlator output, x
l
, is compared with a threshold of
zero volts.
If x
l
> 0, the receiver decides in favor of symbol 1.
On the other hand, if x
l
< 0, it decides in favor of symbol 0.
If x
l
is exactly zero, the receiver makes a random guess in
favor of 0 or 1.
Power Spectra of Binary PSK Signals
From the modulator of Figure 6.4a, we see that the
complex envelope of a binary PSK wave consists of an in-
phase component only.
Furthermore, depending on whether we have symbol 1 or
symbol 0 at the modulator input during the signaling
interval, we find that this in-phase component equals +g(t)
or -g(t), respectively, where g(t) is the symbol shaping
function defined by
Power Spectra of Binary PSK Signals
We assume that the input binary wave is random, with
symbols 1 and 0 equally likely and the symbols transmitted
during the different time slots being statistically
independent.
Hence, the baseband power spectral density of a binary
PSK signal equals



This power spectrum falls off as the inverse square of
frequency, as shown in Figure 6.5.
Figure 6.5
Power spectra of binary PSK and FSK signals.