Chapter-4 : pulse modulation systems

Part I

Prepared by:
Solomon F.
 Introduction Pulse modulation
Pulse modulation :
• Defined as a modulation system in which some parameter of a train of
pulse is varied in accordance with the instantaneous value of the
modulating signal.
• A Pulse shape is formed by a rapid or sudden transient change
from a baseline value to a higher or lower level value. Such a the
signal can be termed as Pulse Signal
• In this system, waveforms are sampled at regular intervals and
information is transmitted through the sampling rate.
• The parameters of the pulses which may be varied are :
 amplitude,
 width (or duration),
 position and time etc.
 Con’t

• The AM, FM and PM systems are called CW (continuous wave)

modulation systems, in which some parameter (amplitude, frequency,
phase) of a continuous high frequency carrier wave is varied in
accordance to the modulating signal.
• But in pulse modulation systems, instead of a continuous wave, a train
of pulse is employed and some parameter of the pulse is varied in
accordance with the instantaneous value of the modulating signal.
• pulse modulation systems divided into two
 Analog Pulse Modulation (APM)
 Digital Pulse Modulation (DPM)
 Con’t


• Types of pulse modulation
1. PAM
2. PWM Analog Pulse Modulation
3. PPM
4. PCM
5. DM  Digital Pulse Modulation

• Key advantages of pulse modulation

 The pulses are quite short as compared to the time in between, so
a pulse modulated wave remains off most of the time.
 The time interval between the pulses may be filled with sample
values from other messages, so we can send many messages at a
time on a pulse communication system.
 Con’t
 One of the chief advantages of pulse modulation is that if we combine
pulse modulation with continuous modulation (AM, FM, PM), we can
obtain “multi channel” communication system, a desirable feature for
“data transmission”.
• In generally in pulse modulation the signal is: Sampling, Quantizing
and Encoding
Digital info.
Textual Format
source info. Pulse
Analog Sample Quantize Encode Transmit
modulate
info.
Pulse Channel
Bit stream
Format waveforms
Analog Low-pass
info. Decode Demodulate/
filter Receive
sink Textual Detect
info.
Digital info.
 Sampling and sampling Theorem
• Sampling :The process of measuring the instantaneous values
of continuous-time signal in a discrete form.
• Sampling is common in all pulse modulation techniques.
• To discretize the signals, the gap between the samples should
be fixed. That gap can be termed as a sampling period Ts.
• Sampling frequency is the reciprocal of the sampling period

➢ This sampling frequency, can be simply called as Sampling rate.

➢ The sampling rate denotes the number of samples taken per

second

5/30/2019 Introduction to communication 4

 Nyquist Rate
➢ Suppose that a signal is band-limited with no frequency components
higher than W Hertz.
➢ That means, W is the highest frequency. For such a signal, for
effective reproduction of the original signal, the sampling rate should
be twice the highest frequency.
Which means,

➢ This rate of sampling is called as Nyquist rate.

5/30/2019 Introduction to communication 5

 Con’t
1. Sampling at fs < 2fm(max)
• When the sampling rate is less than the minimum value, therefore,
under sampling and distortion will occurs. This distortion is called
aliasing.

Figure 4.3 Sampling at fs < 2fm(max)

 Con’t
2) sampling at fs> 2fm(max)
• This sampling rate creates a guard band between fm(max) and the
lowest frequency component (fs-fm(max)) of the sampling harmonics.
• Therefore a more practical LPF can be used to restore the modulating
signal.

Figure: Sampling at fs> 2fm(max)

 Sampling theorem
Analog Sampling Pulse amplitude
signal process modulated (PAM) signal
 Sampling Theorem

➢ The sampling theorem states that, “a signal can be exactly

reproduced if it is sampled at the rate fs which is greater than
twice the maximum frequency W.
➢ consider a band-limited signal, i.e., a signal whose value is non-
zero between some –W and W Hertz.

5/30/2019 Introduction to communication 7

 Con’t
• Suppose we are interested in reproducing the waveform over a T0-sec
interval, the minimum number of samples that are needed to
reconstruct the waveform is:
Aliasing effect
• can be eliminated by using an anti-aliasing filter prior to sampling and
using a sampling rate slightly higher than Nyquist rate (fs=2fm).
g(t) Anti- Sampler g (kTs )
aliasing
FilteLPfilter
r

Nyquist rate

aliasing
 Spectrum of a Impulse Sampled Waveform

• The spectrum for the impulse-sampled waveform ws(t) can be

evaluated by substituting the Fourier series of the (periodic) impulse
train into above Eq. to get
• By taking the Fourier transform of both sides of this equation, we get
 Con’t

• The spectrum of the impulse sampled signal is the spectrum of the un

sampled signal that is repeated every fs Hz, where fs is the sampling
frequency (samples/sec).

• This is quite significant for digital signal processing (DSP).

• This technique of impulse sampling maybe be used to translate the
spectrum of a signal to another frequency band that is centered on
some harmonic of the sampling frequency.
 Sampling methods

5/30/2019 Introduction to communication 11

 Practical Sampling Rates
◼ Speech
- Telephone quality speech has a bandwidth of 4
kHz (actually 300 to 3300Hz)
- Most digital telephone systems are sampled at
8000 samples/sec
◼ Audio:
- The highest frequency the human ear can hear is
approximately 15kHz
- CD quality audio are sampled at rate of 44,000
samples/sec
◼ Video
- The human eye requires samples at a rate of at
least 20 frames/sec to achieve smooth motion

5/30/2019 Introduction to communication 12

 Con’t

Example 2
• Telephone companies digitize voice by assuming
frequency of 4000 Hz. The sampling rate therefore is a maximum
per second 8000 samples

• A complex low-pass signal has a bandwidth of 200 kHz. What is the

minimum sampling rate for this signal?
 ANALOG PULSE MODULATION (APM)
• In APM, the carrier signal is in the form of pulse waveform, and the
modulated signal is the characteristic of: amplitude, width or position
is changed according to the modulating/audio signal.
• Types of APM techniques:
 Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM),
 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and
 Pulse Position Modulation (PPM).
Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)
• The simplest form of pulse modulation
• The amplitude of a constant width, constant position pulse (carrier
signal) is varied according to the amplitude of the modulating signal.
Con’t
 1. . Pulse Amplitude Modulation Systems (PAM)

➢ A modulation system in which amplitude of discrete carrier signal

changes in accordance with the instantaneous amplitude of
modulating signal(message signal) keeping width and position of
carrier constant is called as PAM.

5/30/2019 Introduction to communication 14

 Con’t
PAM- Multiplexing
• Consider the following figure illustrating the use of sampling
principle for the purpose of time-division multiplexing (TDM)

• At the transmitting end, a number of band limited Signals are

connected to the contact point of a rotary switch.
 Con’t
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
• The technique of varying the width of the constant amplitude pulse
proportional to the amplitude of the modulation signal.
• Is a Pulse Duration Modulation (PDM) or pulse length modulation (PLM)
Advantage of PWM
• Noise is less in PWM as the amplitude is constant. But PAM is noisy
• The signal and noise separation is easy
• Not require synchronization b/n transmitter and receiver.
Disadvantage
• Large BW is required for PWM as compared to PAM
• The transmitter should be able to handle more power (equal to the power of
the max. width pulse)
 Con’t
Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)
• Amplitude and width of the carrier pulse are kept constant while position
of each pulse with respect to the position of a reference pulse is varied in
accordance to the message signal.

Advantage of PPM
• As amplitude and width is kept constant, the transmitter handles
constant power.
• It is less noisy b/c of constant amplitude
• Signal and noise separation is easy
5/30/2019 Introduction to communication 21
 Con’t
• Due to constant pulse width and amplitude the transmitted power for
each pulse is the same.
Disadvantage
• It needs synchronization b/n transmitter and receiver.
• Large BW is required as compared to PAM
Comparison of PAM, PWM and PPM
 Application Pulse modulation
• PAM is used as an intermediate form of modulation with PSK, QAM,
and PCM, although it is seldom used by itself.
• PWM and PPM are used in special-purpose communications systems
mainly for the military but are seldom used for commercial digital
transmission systems.
• PCM is by far the most prevalent form of pulse modulation.

Chapter-5 : pulse code modulation systems

Part II