Lab 4 - Communication Systems. Amplitude
Lab 4 - Communication Systems. Amplitude
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
ASK MODULATION
Contributors list:
Sanzhar Askaruly ID 201100549
Yernar Bainazar ID 201102372
Date:
23rd of April, 2015
LESSON 978: ASK MODULATION
Introduction
The aim of this laboratory is to describe the ASK (Amplitude Shift Keying) modulation and
demodulation. We are also to carry out an ASK connection, with and without Manchester data coding.
And finally the noise effect on the connection is to be examined.
Equipment used:
• Oscilloscope
Theory
Amplitude shift keying - ASK - in the context of digital communications is a modulation process, which
imparts to a sinusoid two or more discrete amplitude levels. These are related to the number of levels
adopted by the digital message.
For a binary message sequence there are two levels, one of which is typically zero.
Thus the modulated waveform consists of bursts of a sinusoid. Figure 1 illustrates a binary ASK signal
(lower), together with the binary sequence which initiated it (upper). Neither signal has been band
limited.
There are sharp discontinuities shown at the transition points. These result in the signal having an
unnecessarily wide bandwidth. Bandlimiting is generally introduced before transmission, in which case
these discontinuities would be ‘rounded off’. The bandlimiting may be applied to the digital message, or
the modulated signal itself.
The data rate is often made a sub-multiple of the carrier frequency. This has been done in the waveform
of Figure 1.
One of the disadvantages of ASK, compared with FSK and PSK, for example, is that it has not got a
constant envelope. This makes its processing (eg, power amplification) more difficult, since linearity
becomes an important factor. However, it does make for ease of demodulation with an envelope detector.
Figure 2: the two stages of the demodulation process
It is apparent from Figures 1 and 2 that the ASK signal has a well defined envelope.
With bandlimiting of the transmitted ASK neither of these demodulation methods (envelope detection or
synchronous demodulation) would recover the original binary sequence; instead, their outputs would be a
bandlimited version. Thus further processing - by some sort of decision-making circuitry for example -
would be necessary.
Modulation
978.2 EXERCISES
Figure 3. TP 23.
Q6 The following statements are referred to the ASK modulation. Which of them is true ?
ASNWER: 2) the carrier is a sine-wave, which is transmitted with data bits "1" and reset with data bits
"0"; the modulation can be carried out with a balanced modulator; the carrier must be regenerated in the
receiver if a coherent demodulator is used; it is actually used not much for low speed data transmission
systems
Q7 The following statements are referred to ASK modulation. Which of them is false ?
ASNWER: 1) the square-wave carrier takes 2 or more amplitude values; the demodulation can be
differential or absolute; it is used for data transmissions at speeds over 9600 bit/s; it is slightly affected by
noise
Theory
Figure below shows the block diagram of the mathematical implementation of 4-PSK.
At the input of the modulator, the digital data’s even bits (i.e., bits 0,2,4 and so on) are stripped from the
data stream by a “bit-splitter” and are multiplied with a carrier to generate a BPSK signal (called PSKI).
At the same time, the data’s odd bits (i.e., bits 1,3,5 and so on) are stripped from the data stream and are
multiplied with the same carrier to generate a second BPSK signal (called PSKQ). However, the PSKQ
signal’s carrier is phase shifted by 90o before being modulated.
The two BPSK signals are then simply added together for transmission and, as they have the same carrier
frequency, they occupy the same portion of the radio frequency spectrum. While this suggests that the
two sets of signals would be irretrievably mixed, the required 90o of phase separation between the
carriers allows the sidebands to be separated by the receiver using phase discrimination.
Each adjacent symbol only differs by one bit, sometimes known as quaternary or quadriphase PSK or 4-
PSK, or 4-QAM. QPSK uses four points on the constellation diagram, equispaced around a circle. With
four phases, QPSK can encode two bits per symbol shown in the diagram to minimize the BER- twice the
rate of BPSK. Analysis shows that this may be used either to double the data rate compared to a BPSK
system while maintaining the bandwidth of the signal or to maintain the data rate of BPSK but half the
bandwidth needed. The implementation of QPSK is more general than that of BPSK and also indicates
the implementation of higher order PSK. Writing the symbols in the constellation diagram in terms of
sine and cosine waves used to transmit them. This yields the four phases π/4, 3π/4, 5π/4 and 7π/4 as
needed. This results in a two dimensional signal space with unit basis functions. The first basis function is
used as the in-phase component of the signal and the second as the quadrature component of the signal.
Hence the signal constellation consists of the signal- space 4 points.
Figure below shows the block diagram of the mathematical implementation of QPSK demodulation.
Figure 3. QPSK demodulation.
It is to be noticed that the arrangement uses two product detectors to simultaneously demodulate the two
BPSK signals. This simultaneously recovers the pairs of bits in the original data. The two signals are
cleaned-up using a comparator or some other signal conditioners then the bits are put back in order using
a 2-bit parallel to serial converter.
Modulation
Set the circuit in 4-PSK absolute mode, with 24-bit data source and without data coding (connect J1b-J3c-
J4-J5-J6c; set SW2=Normal, SW3=24_bit, SW4=1200, SW5=1200/90°, SW6=QPSK Then, set a cyclic
data sequence 11.00.01.10 (this facilitates the identification of the phases on the wave-form detected by
the oscilloscope), and push START. In addition, connect the oscilloscope to TP4 and TP16 and examine
the Data signal and the 4-PSK signal. Adjust the PHASE to obtain phase shifts of the carrier at
0/90/180/270°. You get wave-forms similar to those of fig.981.6
981.2 EXERCISES
Q1 Examine the wave-forms on TP4, TP6 and TP7. What can you say ?
ANSWER: 3) there is the signal “I” across TP6 and the signal “Q” across TP7 both supplied by the Dibit
generator. Considering the input data signal (TP4) divided into pair of bits, the signal “I” takes the value
of the first bit of the pair and the signal “Q” takes the value of the second bit
Figure 3. TP 3 for 0, 90, 180 ad 270 phases.
Figure 4. TP 6.
Figure 5. TP 7.
ANSWER: 4) the modulated carrier takes 4 phase values. Each phase is a transmitted symbol. There is a
determinate phase (symbol) for each pair of bits. The symbol transmission speed (Baud) is half the data
transmission speed (bit/s)
Figure 6. TP16 (blue), TP20 (yellow)
Q3 Examine the wave-forms across TP14 and TP15. What can you state ?
ANSWER: 1) TP14 is the output of the modulator 1, TP15 the output of the modulator 2. There is a 2-
PSK signal across TP14, a FSK signal across TP15. The sum of the two produces a 4-PSK signal
982.2 Exercises
Q1 How are the regenerated carriers examined across TP21 and TP22?
ANSWER: 5) in TP9, after the circuit recombining the Dibit (signals “I” and “Q”) into bit flow.
Q3 The data received in TP9 are not correct. Which is the reason why?
It was checked and measured that no signal in Q, while I operates, other operates too
Q4 The received data are not correct in TP9. Which is the reason why?
ANSWER: 5) the low pass filter of the channel “I” supplies no signal
ANSWER: 3) the noise causes amplitude and phase variations of the 4-PSK signal. The phase variation
moves the points sideways, the amplitude variation moves the points diagonally
Conclusion
As it was mentioned in the introduction, the aim of this laboratory was to describe the ASK (Amplitude
Shift Keying) modulation and demodulation. There is also ASK connection, with and without Manchester
data coding, performed. Finally the noise effect on the connection was examined. In conclusion, this
laboratory helped us to learn more about ASK modulation, by obtaining the figures with the help of
oscilloscope.