CENTRE FOR LEARNING

TRANSMISSION MODULE 2
RADIO TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS

CHAPTER 1: RADIO TRANSMISSION PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER 2: ANALOGUE RADIO EQUIPMENT

CHAPTER 3: DIGITAL RADIO EQUIPMENT

CHAPTER 4: IP RADIO
INTRODUCTION

Developing an understanding of radio communications begins with the comprehension of basic

electromagnetic radiation.

Radio waves belong to the electromagnetic radiation family, which includes x-ray, ultraviolet,
and visible light — forms of energy we use every day. Much like the gentle waves that form
when a stone is tossed into a still lake, radio signals radiate outward, or propagate, from a
transmitting antenna. However, unlike water waves, radio waves propagate at the speed of
light. We characterize a radio wave in terms of its amplitude, frequency, and wavelength
(Figure 1-1).

Radio wave amplitude, or strength, can be visualized as its height/the distance between its
peak and its lowest point. Amplitude, which is measured in volts, is usually expressed by
engineers in terms of an average value called root-mean-square, or RMS.

The frequency of a radio wave is the number of repetitions or cycles it completes in a given
period of time. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz); one hertz equals one cycle per second.
Thousands of hertz are expressed as kilohertz (kHz), and millions of hertz as megahertz (MHz).
You would typically see a frequency of 2,182,000 hertz, for example, written as 2,182 kHz or
2.182 MHz.
Radio wavelength is the distance between crests of a wave. The product of wavelength and
frequency is a constant that is equal to the speed of propagation. Thus, as the frequency
increases, wavelength decreases, and vice versa.

Radio waves propagate at the speed of light (300 million meters per second), one can easily
determine the wavelength in meters for any frequency by dividing 300 million by the frequency
in megahertz. So, the wavelength of a 10-MHz wave is 30 meters, determined by dividing 300
by 10.

THE RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM

In the radio frequency spectrum (Figure 1-2), the usable frequency range for radio waves
extends from about 20 kHz (just above sound waves) to above 30,000 MHz. A wavelength at 20
kHz is 15 kilometers long. At 30,000 MHz, the wavelength is only 1 centimeter.

The HF band is defined as the frequency range of 3 to 30 MHz. In practice, most HF radios use
the spectrum from 1.6 to 30 MHz. Most long-haul communications in this band take place
between 4 and 18 MHz. Higher frequencies (18 to 30 MHz) may also be available from time to
time, depending on ionospheric conditions and the time of day.

In the early days of radio, HF frequencies were called short wave because their wavelengths (10
to 100 meters) were shorter than those of commercial broadcast stations. The term is still
applied to long-distance radio communications.
The High Frequency (HF) Band

The HF band is defined as the frequency range of 3 to 30MHz. In practice, most HF radios use
the spectrum from 1.6 to 30MHz. Most long-haul communications in this band take place
between 4 and 18MHz.

VERY HIGH FREQUENCY (VHF) BAND

The VHF frequency band is defined as the frequency range from 30 to 300MHz. From the
previous discussion about the relationship between frequency and wavelength, it should be
noted that VHF wavelengths vary from 10-meters at the low end to one meter at the high end.
This means that the size of antennas and tuning components used in VHF radio are much
smaller and lighter than those of HF radios.

ULTRA HIGH FREQUENCY (UHF) BAND

The UHF band goes from 300 MHz to 2450MHz. The wavelengths associated with 300 to 512
MHz range from one meter to 0.58 meters (58 centimeters). The very small antennas required
for these wavelengths make them ideal for use on high-speed aircraft.

FREQUENCY ALLOCATIONS AND MODULATION

Within the HF spectrum, groups of frequencies are allocated to specific radio services such as
aviation, maritime, military, government, broadcast, or amateur (Figure 1-3). Frequencies are
further regulated according to transmission type: emergency, broadcast, voice, Morse code,
facsimile, and data. Frequency allocations are governed by international treaty and national
licensing authorities. In Zimbabwe we have POTRAZ.
The allocation of a frequency is just the beginning of radio communications. By itself, a radio
wave conveys no information. It’s simply a rhythmic stream of continuous waves (CW).

When we modulate radio waves to carry information, we refer to them as carriers. To convey
information, a carrier must be varied so that its properties such as its amplitude, frequency, or
phase (the measurement of a complete wave cycle) are changed, or modulated, by the
information signal (modulating signal).

The simplest method of modulating a carrier is by turning it on and off by means of a telegraph
key. On-off keying, using Morse code, was the only method of conveying wireless messages in
the early days of radio.

Today’s common methods for radio communications include amplitude modulation (AM),
which varies the strength of the carrier in direct proportion to changes in the intensity of a
source such as the human voice (Figure 1-4a). In other words, information is contained in
amplitude variations.
The AM process creates a carrier and a pair of duplicate sidebands — nearby frequencies above
and below the carrier (Figure 1-4b). AM is a relatively inefficient form of modulation, since the
carrier must be continually generated. The majority of the power in an AM signal is consumed
by the carrier that carries no information, with the rest going to the information carrying
sidebands.
In a more efficient technique, single sideband (SSB), the carrier and one of the sidebands are
suppressed (Figure 1-4c). Only the remaining sideband, upper (USB) or lower (LSB), is
transmitted. An SSB signal needs only half the bandwidth of an AM signal and is produced only
when a modulating signal is present. Thus, SSB systems are more efficient both in the use of the
spectrum, which must accommodate many users, and of transmitter power. All the transmitted
power goes into the information-carrying sideband.
Frequency modulation (FM) is a technique in which the carrier’s frequency varies in response to
changes in the modulating signal. For a variety of technical reasons, conventional FM generally
produces a cleaner signal than AM, but uses much more bandwidth than AM. Narrowband FM,
which is sometimes used in HF radio, provides an improvement in bandwidth utilization, but
only at the cost of signal quality.

Other schemes support the transmission of data over HF channels, including shifting the
frequency or phase of the signal. We will cover these techniques in digital radio transmission.

RADIO WAVE PROPAGATION

Propagation describes how radio signals radiate outward from a transmitting source. The action
is simple to imagine for radio waves that travel in a straight line. The true path radio waves
take, however, is often more complex.
There are two basic modes of propagation: ground waves and sky waves. As their names imply,
ground waves travel along the surface of the earth, while sky waves “bounce” back to earth.
Figure 1-5 shows the different propagation paths for HF radio waves.

Ground waves consist of three components: surface waves, direct waves, and ground-reflected
waves. Surface waves travel along the surface of the earth, reaching beyond the horizon.
Eventually, surface wave energy is absorbed by the earth. The effective range of surface waves
is largely determined by the frequency and conductivity of the surface over which the waves
travel. Absorption increases with frequency.

Transmitted radio signals, which use a carrier traveling as a surface wave, are dependent on
transmitter power, receiver sensitivity, antenna characteristics, and the type of path traveled.
For a given complement of equipment, the range may extend from 200 to 250 miles over a
conductive, all-sea-water path. Over arid, rocky, non-conductive terrain, however, the range
may drop to less than 20 miles, even with the same equipment.

Direct waves travel in a straight line, becoming weaker as distance increases. They may be bent,
or refracted, by the atmosphere, which extends their useful range slightly beyond the horizon.
Transmitting and receiving antennas must be able to “see” each other for communications to
take place, so antenna height is critical in determining range. Because of this, direct waves are
sometimes known as line-of-sight (LOS) waves.

Ground-reflected waves are the portion of the propagated wave that is reflected from the
surface of the earth between the transmitter and receiver.

Sky waves make beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) communications possible. At certain frequencies,
radio waves are refracted (or bent), returning to earth hundreds or thousands of miles away.
Depending on frequency, time of day, and atmospheric conditions, a signal can bounce several
times before reaching a receiver. Using sky waves can be tricky, since the ionosphere is
constantly changing.

ELEMENTS IN AN HF RADIO SYSTEM

The primary components in an HF radio system fall into three groups: transmitters, receivers,
and antennas. In many modern radio sets, the transmitter and receiver are contained in a single
unit called a transceiver. In large, fixed systems, transmitting stations and receiving stations are
customarily at separate locations, often controlled from a remote third site.

TRANSMITTER GROUP

Although transmitters may vary widely in their configuration, they all consist of an exciter and
power amplifier. A simplified diagram of a typical HF transmitter is shown in Figure 3-1. The
exciter synthesizes a carrier, which has one of its properties such as amplitude, frequency, or
phase being modified (modulated) by a lower frequency signal derived from a source of
information such as a microphone. The resulting signal is converted to the frequency that is to
be transmitted. The power amplifier boosts the output power of the signal to the desired
wattage for transmission before sending it through a cable to the transmitting antenna. The
transmitter may also contain filters that are used to “clean up” its output. A band-pass filter
removes noise, spurious signals, and harmonics generated in the exciter, or output frequency
harmonics coming from the power amplifier. This process reduces interference with adjacent
communications channels.
RECEIVER GROUP

All modern HF receiving systems include an RF input filter/amplifier, a series of frequency

converters and intermediate frequency (IF) amplifiers, a demodulator, and a local oscillator
frequency synthesizer (see Figure 3-2). To function, the receiver selects a desired signal,
amplifies it to a suitable level, and recovers the information through the process of
demodulation, in which the original modulating signal is recovered from a modulating carrier.
In order to filter out noise and undesired signals, the RF input stage sometimes incorporates a
tunable pre-selector (a band-pass filter). The filtered signal is then amplified and converted to
another frequency for further processing. But the filtering process does not end here. Typically,
the received signal is filtered and amplified again at several different intermediate frequencies.
The amplification provided in these stages is a variable that depends on the strength of the
received signal.

In order to output voice or data, for example, the demodulator produces an audio-frequency
(baseband) signal that interfaces with additional equipment. Also, because the strength of the
input signal may not be constant, the demodulator stage produces a voltage proportional to the
level of the RF input signal. To compensate for changes in the signal, the voltage is fed back to
the RF and IF amplifiers for automatic gain control (AGC), to maintain a constant input to the
demodulator.

THE ANTENNA GROUP

The antenna is one of the most critical elements in a radio circuit. Here, we will look at typical
antenna types and their applications.

Antenna Characteristics and Parameters

Some of the most commonly used terms to describe antennas are impedance, gain, radiation
pattern, take-off angle, and polarization.
Every antenna has input impedance, which represents the load to be applied to the transmitter.
This impedance depends upon many factors, such as antenna design, frequency of operation,
and location of the antenna with respect to surrounding objects. The basic challenge in radio
communications is finding ways to get the most power possible, where and when you need it,
to generate and transmit signals. Most transmitters are designed to provide maximum output
power and efficiency into a 50Ω load. Some antennas, such as log periodic antennas, can
provide a

50Ω load to the transmitter over a wide range of frequencies. These antennas can generally be
connected directly to the transmitter. Other antennas, such as dipoles, whips, and long-wire
antennas, have impedances that vary widely with frequency and the surrounding environment.
In these cases, an antenna tuner or coupler is used. This device is inserted between the
transmitter and antenna to modify the characteristics of the load presented to the transmitter
so that maximum power may be transferred from the transmitter to the antenna.

The gain of an antenna is a measure of its directivity which is its ability to focus the energy it
radiates in a particular direction. The gain may be determined by comparing the level of signal
received from it against the level that would be received from an isotropic antenna, which
radiates equally in all directions. Gain can be expressed in dBi; the higher this number, the
greater the directivity of the antenna. Transmitting antenna gain directly affects transmitter
power requirements. If, for example, an omnidirectional antenna were replaced by a directional
antenna with a gain of 10 dBi, a 100-watt transmitter would produce the same effective
radiated power as a 1-kW transmitter and omnidirectional antenna.

In addition to gain, radio users must understand the radiation pattern of an antenna for optimal
signal transmission. Radiation pattern is determined by an antenna’s design and is strongly
influenced by its location with respect to the ground. It may also be affected by its proximity to
nearby objects such as buildings and trees. In most antennas, the pattern is not uniform, but is
characterized by lobes (areas of strong radiation) and nulls (areas of weak radiation). These
patterns are generally represented graphically in terms of plots in the vertical and horizontal
planes (Figure 3-3), which show antenna gain as a function of elevation angle (vertical pattern)
and azimuth angle (horizontal plot). The radiation patterns are frequency dependent, so plots
at different frequencies are required to fully characterize the radiation pattern of an antenna.
The orientation of an antenna with respect to the ground determines its polarization. Most HF
antennas are either vertically or horizontally polarized. A vertically polarized antenna produces
low take-off angles and is therefore suitable for ground waves and for long-haul sky wave links.
The main drawback of vertical antennas is their sensitivity to ground conductivity and locally
generated noise. It is necessary to use a grounding screen to get the best results. A horizontally
polarized antenna radiates at higher take-off angles and is suitable for shorter range
communications, out to about 400 miles. By adjusting the height of the antenna above ground,
it is possible to increase gain at lower take-off angles for longer-range sky wave performance.
Horizontally polarized antennas are largely independent of ground conductivity, and are less
affected by local noise than vertical antennas.

For ground wave propagation, the transmitting and receiving antennas should have the same
polarization for best results. For sky wave propagation, the polarization of the antennas need
not be the same, since the polarization of the signal will change during ionospheric refraction.
DIGITAL RADIO COMMUNIOCATION

The baseband input signal to the radio will be digital in nature (binary digits 1s and 0s).

ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS DATA

The transmission of data occurs in either an asynchronous or a synchronous mode, as defined

below.

In asynchronous data transmission, each character has a start and stop bit (Figure 5-1). The
start bit prepares the data receiver to accept the character. The stop bit brings the data
receiver back to an idle state. bits. This type of system typically uses a preamble (a known
sequence of bits, sent at the start of a message, that the receiver uses to synchronize to its
internal clock) to alert the data receiver that a message is coming.

Asynchronous systems eliminate the need for complex synchronization circuits, but at the cost
of higher overhead than synchronous systems. The stop and start bits increase the length of a
character by 25 percent, from 8 to 10 bits.

HF MODEMS

A conventional voice radio cannot transmit data directly. Data digital voltage levels must be
converted to audio, using a device called a modulator, which applies the audio to the
transmitter.
The simplest modems employ FSK to encode binary data (0s and 1s) (see Figure 5-2). The input
to the modulator is a digital signal that takes one of two possible voltage levels. The output of
the modulator is an RF signal that is one of two possible tones. FSK systems are limited to data
rates less than 75 bps due to the effects of multipath propagation.

Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) is similar to FSK except that it is the amplitude of the carrier that is
modulated rather than the frequency.

Higher rates are possible with more modern Phase Shift Keying (PSK) modulation methods and
advanced coding schemes. PSK is described later in this chapter. Other methods such as
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) will also be discussed in detail later.

Conversely, at the receiver, a demodulator converts audio back to digital voltage levels.

PHASE SHIFT KEYING (PSK)

PSK is similar to FSK, shown in Figure 5-2, except that it is the phase of the carrier rather than
the frequency that is modulated.

Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK)

The simplest form of PSK is called Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) shown in Figure 5-4. Figure
5-4a shows a reference wave covering two bit periods. Figure 5-4b shows the wave after
modulation with a (0) bit and a (1) bit. Notice that the signal corresponding to the second bit (1)
is an upside-down version of the reference waveform. This portion of the signal is 180° with
respect to the reference waveform. Notice also that the transition from the first bit to the
second is abrupt. This sudden phase discontinuity creates a burst of noise sidebands referred to
as “splatter.” This noise causes inter-symbol interference which severely limits the data rate
that this simple form of PSK can deliver.

M-ary PSK

There are many forms of PSK. BPSK is modulated with just two phases of the carrier. Another
term for BPSK is 2-ary PSK. In this case M=2. Figure 5-5 shows a diagram that represents M-ary
PSK by showing vectors that represent the phase angles associated with the most common
types of M-ary PSK modulation.
BPSK is represented by two arrows facing away from each other at a 180° angle. Each of the
two phases of BPSK can represent only one bit of information, either a (0) or a (1).

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), or 4-ary PSK, is shown with four arrows arranged around
a circle so that each is 45° apart. Since there are four phase states used in this modulation, each
of these phases can represent two bits of information. Going clockwise around the circle, these
bits are (00), (01), (10), and (11). This multi-bit representation per phase is the key to faster
data rates, because each phase represents two bits rather than just one.

The figure also shows 8-ary PSK modulation, in which each phase represents three bits. Finally,
16-ary PSK is shown. Each phase represents four bits of information. On a non-noisy radio
channel, 16-ary PSK has a data rate that is four times faster than BPSK because each
modulation phase state represents four times as many bits.

Continuous Phase QPSK

Figure 5-6a shows what the waveforms of QPSK look like for each of the four possible
modulation states of (00), (10), (10), and (11). Each of these bit pairs represents a code symbol.
Figure 5-6b shows a QPSK waveform covering two symbol periods in which the symbols change
from (00) to (10). Notice that although this requires a 180° shift, there is no sudden
discontinuity in the waveform. This is because a transition period equal to half of the symbol
period has been taken to gradually change the phase. Although this slows down the data rate,
the extra time is made up by the decrease in discontinuity noise (splatter) and attendant inter-
symbol interference.

Noise Margin

The problem with PSK waveforms with M = to 8 or 16 is that the difference in phase between
each modulation state is very small. For example, in 8-ary and 16-ary PSK, the phase difference
between the (0000) and (0001) symbols is only 45° and 22.5°, respectively. The noise margin is
only half of those values because any noise that would make the signal appear to be half way
between the true values would yield a doubtful decision. Thus the noise margin for 8-ary and
16-ary PSK is only 22.5° and 12.5°, respectively. In a noisy radio channel, such a narrow phase
difference is much harder to detect than the 90° noise margin of the two possible phase states
in BPSK for the symbols (0) and (1). So, although 16-ary PSK can be four times as fast as

BPSK in a perfect channel, it may be totally unreadable in a noisy channel. The phase difference
between adjacent phase states in a PSK scheme is called its “noise margin”. The greater this
noise margin, the more immune to noise this symbol transition is. BPSK may be slow, but it is
very robust in a noisy channel.
 CHAPTER 2

ANALOGUE RADIO

MICROWAVE RADIO TRANSMITTER

INTRODUCTION

In this module, we will learn about the main elements that are contained in an analog
microwave transmitter. We will first start with the block diagram of a FM radio transmitter and
then analyze the function of each block. The block diagram of a typical microwave radio
transmitter is shown in Fig below.

The block A represents the interface unit normally known as the baseband (BB) unit. In this unit
the level adjustment for the baseband signal (sometimes also sub-baseband signal) can be
done. The level adjusting attenuators are accessible from the front of this unit.

The input power or level to this unit is defined by the CCIR since it is an interface point. They
are as follows:

CHANNELS INPUT LEVEL (dBr)

300 -42
600 -45 or -42
960 -45 or -42
1260 -37
1800 -37

The block B is the FM modulator or BB to IF converter unit. The IF frequency is again defined by
the CCIR and has the centre frequency as follows:

a. Systems up to 120 channels 35MHz

 b. Systems from 120 to 1800 channels, TV as well as satellite links from 12 to 1872
channels. 70MHz
c. Systems with 2700 channels or more 140MHz

Block C represents the phase equalizer which compensates group delay in the signal path. The
input and output · signals in this unit is still the IF signals centered on one of the 3 values
previously given according to the radio system capacity.

The IF signals then passes to block D where the conversion of the IF signals to RF (radio
frequency) signals is done. The converter D is a mixer with a band-pass filter which selects only
one of the two sidebands. The RF centre frequency is defined by the Local Oscillator (LO)
frequency. In some radios the LO frequency is not generated by a crystal but by a voltage
controlled oscillator (VCO) as shown by block H in Fig above.

The RF signal is amplified in the RF-amplifier block E to attain the high RF power. Some
transmitters may use a frequency multiplier stage shown by the dotted block F to raise the RF
frequency to the actual RF frequency to be transmitted by the radio.

Block G represents the channel band-pass filter which allows only a specific RF band to pass to
the antenna. This filter is important because the antenna can carry traffic from more than one
transmitter simultaneously.

In order to provide a stable LO frequency, a VCO is used in conjunction with a phase lock loop
(PLL) system. The PLL is a method of attaining automatic frequency control (AFC). The principle
of PLL will be dealt later in detail.

INTERFACE UNIT

The baseband is the aggregate signal that is to be transmitted by the radio. The BB signal may
be a multiplex telephone signal or it may be a TV signal with sound channels. The BB unit for
telephony and TV are different.

For example, a BB signal for 960 telephone channels starts from 60 KHz and ends with 4087
KHz. So the amplifier in the BB unit is designed to limit the band of amplification to 60 to 4087
KHz. Now the video signals in TV lies in the band 30 Hz to 6MHz. So the amplifier for video
signals must give a flat response from 10Hz to 5MHz.

Also, the emphasis circuit contained in the interface unit is different from that for telephony
than for TV.

A blocks schematic of a typical interface unit for telephony is shown in Fig below. These blocks
show the most important elements contained in such a unit.
As seen from Fig above the interface unit consists of three main elements namely, the variable
attenuator (a), the fixed gain amplifier (b) and the pre-emphasis network (c). The variable
attenuator allows the level of the BB signal to be correctly adjusted. These attenuators are
accessible from outside and levels can normally be varied from 0 to 7.5 dB in steps of 0.5 dB.

The fixed gain amplifier is just for amplifying the BB signal to ensure operation with specified
level. It is normally band limited to the band of frequencies according to channel capacity of the
system.

Since in FM systems noise increases with the frequency in a triangular manner, i.e. at higher
signal frequency the noise is higher, pre-emphasis network is used to attenuate the signal at
lower frequencies and to raise the signal level at higher frequencies. This will give a more or
less constant signal to noise ratio (S/N) throughout the whole signal band.

When pre-emphasis is used in the transmitting end, then a de-emphasis (network that has a
characteristic exactly opposite to that of the pre-emphasis) has to be used at the receiving end
of the baseband.

FM MODULATOR

The purpose of the modulator is to convert the BB signal (also Pilot and sub-baseband signals)
into a frequency modulated signal. FM signals are less prone to external noise than AM signals.

The microwave radio modulator must have a very linear characteristic over the maximum
required deviations below and above the centre carrier frequency which is 35 MHz or 70 MHz
or 140 MHz depending upon the channel capacity of the radio.

In Zimbabwe radios with channel capacities between 300 to 1800 channels are used presently,
therefore the IF of 70 MHz centre frequency is used.
The varactor diodes are biased by the +12V and -12V sources respectively through the
respective potentiometers in such a way that when there is no baseband signal, the two
oscillators. are oscillating at 577 and 507 MHz respectively.

These two Signals are mixed in the mixer to give the difference signal of 70MHz. The
stabilization of the oscillator frequencies due to temperature changes etc. is done by the AFC
DC voltage which also biases the two varactor diodes. Note that the varactor diodes are both
negatively biased, thus they act as variable capacitors.

CONVERTER

The purpose of the converter is to translate the FM modulated BB signal to a higher band in the
microwave spectrum.

In principle, the converter is a single sideband mixer. The carrier for the mixer is the local
oscillator frequency which is amplitude modulated by the FM IF signal. In the mixer only one of
the sidebands is selected by the band-pass following the mixer in the converter unit.
Because the converter operates at microwave frequency, its design differs from conventional
mixers working at relatively low frequencies. A typical converter circuit for microwave
frequencies is shown in Fig below.

The above shown mixer uses a hybrid ring and reactive components (such as L1 ,C2 ,C1) in
micro strip technique. Because of the properties, of a hybrid ring, arms 1 and 3 are decoupled
from each other while both the LO signal & the IF signal are impressed in the diodes to give the
desired sidebands of modulation. The required side bands is selected by the RF filter.

Note that this circuit could work as a RF to IF converter also if the RF signal was fed at the IF
input and the filter replaced by a LC filter tuned to the IF.

The mixer shown above are normally used in the frequency range around 2 GHz. Mixers used in
the 5 to 8 GHz range consist of diode(s) placed in waveguide cavities.

RF AMPLIFIER

The selected RF signal from the mixer must be amplified to attain the transmitted power levels.
The transmitted power in terrestrial radio links are in the order of 300mW to about 3Watts.
This power is of course the power coming out of the transmitter and not the effective radiated
power (ERP) transmitted by the antenna, which takes into account the high gain of a microwave
antenna.
The RF amplifier consists of a number of power amplifier stages since the gain of
semiconductors are very limited by the very high frequency.

Normally, the RF amplification is done below the frequency of about 3 GHz and a multiplier
stage is used to raise the transmitting frequency to the required value.

FREQUENCY MULTIPLIER

Frequency multipliers using varactor diode are quite common in microwave. Normally, 2X, 3X
and 4X multipliers are used. A circuit for 3X multiplier is shown in Fig below and it operates as
follows:

The first band-pass filter is tuned to the input frequency f1, the middle band-pass filter (idler
circuit) is tuned to twice the input frequency and the third band-pass filter is tuned to the 3rd
harmonic of f1.

The input signal passes through the first band-pass filter and drives the varactor diode which
gives rise to harmonics of f1 (input frequency). The idler circuit which is tuned to the second
Harmonic of f1 selects 2f1. The varactor diode at the same time acts as a mixer and produces
the frequency 3f1 (2f1 + f1).The output filter is tuned to 3f1 so the output frequency is 3 times
the input frequency.

BRANCHING FILTER

Branching filters are waveguide or coaxial filters of the band-pass type with a narrow
bandwidth. These filters enable two or more transmitters (or receivers) operating at different
frequencies to be connected to a single antenna for transmission (or reception).
Branching filters are constructed as a series of cavity filters by tuning screws or similar devices.
They have a passband of about ±30 MHz from the centre frequency (transmitting or Receiving
RF frequency).

VOLTAGE CONTROLLED OSCILLATOR

The voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is a circuit whose output frequency is directly
proportional to its input control voltage.

The- main element in a VCO working on microwave frequency is the varactor diode. The control
voltage is applied to the varactor diode which changes its capacitance and tunes the oscillator.

VCO operates in conjunction with a phase lock loop circuit to maintain the stability of its output
frequency.

During phase-lock, the VCO's output frequency will be exactly, equal to the loop's input
frequency, except for a constant finite phase difference. The phase difference is proportional to
the average or dc voltage of the input control voltage.

Voltage controlled oscillator block diagram. Ko is the conversion gain (Hz/V).

The varactor diode forms part of the tank circuit and is either in parallel or series to the input
capacitance of the resonant circuit.

If the input capacitance of the tuned circuit is Cin, and the capacitance of the varactor diode is
Cv, then the tuning range of the VCO is given by:

Equation 1: when Cv is parallel to Cin

( )
√
( )
Equation 2: when Cv is in series with Cin

MICROWAVE RADIO RECEIVER

The FM radio receiver is shown below. The details of the block diagram will be explained in detail.

The RF signal from the antenna is selected by the branching filter (A) and is passed to the down
converter (B). This RF Signal modulates the local oscillator, signal from the local oscillator
assembly comprising the VCO (I), the phase lock loop circuit (J) and the frequency multiplier (H),
in the down converter (B).

The modulation products are passed to the low pass filter and preamplifier (C) which selects
and amplifies the IF signal with center frequency of 70MHz. The LO frequency is either 70 MHz
below or above the RF center frequency.

In (D) the IF signal undergoes phase equalization and then is fed to the IF filter (E) which limits
the noise in the received IF band and is then passed to the main variable gain amplifier which
keeps the IF output amplitude constant for input variation of 55 to 60 dB. This variable gain
amplifier must compensate for fading loss of the received RF signal, which may vary by 55 dB in
worst propagation conditions. Normally radio links (terrestrial) are designed to work with a
received RF power between -30 dBm and -85 dBm to -90 dBm. Therefore the fading margin is
about 55 to 60 dB. The lowest power (received) that still can make the system operate (e.g. -85
dBm or -90 dBm depending upon the manufacturer) is called the "threshold power". If the
received power is larger than this value, the receiver will go into "squelch operation". This
means that the receiver will cut off since -there will be a lot of noise in the signal band. This
squelch is especially necessary for telegraph or data working since the noise will affect these
systems considerably.

The main variable gain amplifier will change its gain in accordance with the received power to
keep its of output voltage constant since the information is not contained in the amplitude but
in the frequency shift (FM system). The IF output of the receiver is an interface point, its power
is defined by the CCIR to be +5.2 dBm. The variable gain amplifier (IF main amplifier) is shown
by block (F).
The, automatic gain (AGC) control signal is derived from the output of (F). The output voltage is
rectified and then amplified in a DC amplifier and fed back to the variable gain amplifier to
control its gain. The AGC loop is formed by the rectifier unit (K), the amplifier unit (L) and the
main variable amplifier unit (F) in our diagram. It is not essential that the AGO-voltage controls
the gain of the main amplifier only, it may control also other amplifiers which are preceding the
main variable gain amplifier also.

The IF signal is finally passed to the discriminator unit whose main function is to convert the FM
signal to the original signal. The discriminator unit contains limiter stages as well as the FM
demodulator and perhaps an amplifier stage. The amplitude limiters are rewired to ensure that
no AM is in the FM signal before FM demodulation. The discriminator unit is represented by
block (G)

The baseband signal (BB) is processed in the BB amplifier unit (which is not shown in the block
diagram) that follows the demodulator unit. In the BB amplifier unit there will be BB selection
filter, de-emphasis network and BB amplifier as well as an output attenuator which is used to
adjust the received level of the BB signal.

TRANSMISSION LINES FOR MICROWAVE

Basically three types of transmission lines are used for microwave.

a. Coaxial cable – Normally used below 1 GHz and as short sections at higher frequencies.
b. Wave guide – Normally used above 1 GHz. Waveguides have low losses and are either
of the rectangular, circular or elliptical types.
c. Strip line – used especially in microwave circuits or as connectors between circuits.

Fig below shows the three basic types of the microwave transmission lines. The arrows show
the electrical field in the conductors.
The propagation of the waves in the microwave frequency is based on the electro-magnetic
theory which states that the electrical field (E) and the magnetic field (H) are perpendicular to
each other and the direction of wave propagation is also perpendicular to E and H.

In the coaxial cable the wave propagates in the so called transversal electro-magnetic (TEM)
mode. In the wave-guide the wave can propagate in various modes of two types namely, (TE)
mn and/or (TM) mn modes. The TE and TM stand for transverse electric and transverse
magnetic respectively. The index mn stands for, the mode designation with integral numbers
for m and n. E.g. TE10. TE11, TM11 , TM12 etc.

The field patterns for a rectangular waveguide, coaxial cable and a circular waveguide of
particular dimensions are shown in Fig below. In this figure the cutoff frequency of the various
modes for the given dimension of the transmission lines are shown.
For example, for the rectangular waveguide with the dimension of 0.9" x 0.4" the lowest
frequency which the wave guide can propagate is 6.6 GHz in the TE mode. The same waveguide
also can propagate TE20 mode ft6m 13.1 GHz onwards.

PASSIVE MICROWAVE COMPONENTS

Conventional lumped elements such as inductors, resistors, capacitors etc. cannot be used in
microwave because of the very high frequency. Elements specific for microwave have been
developed over the years. Some of these elements have very special properties which have no
replacement in the conventional elements.

1. Coupling of waves into wave guide

Energy travelling down a conventional transmission line e.g. a coaxial cable may be
transferred to a waveguide by terminating the transmission line in an antenna structure,
which, instead of radiating the energy into free space, is mounted inside the waveguide.

Below are diagrams showing some methods of coupling a signal into the wave guide.

2. WAVEGUIDE CONNECTORS
In order to connect pieces or sections of waveguides connectors are required. These
connectors are called "flanges". Fig below shows two types of flanges for rectangular
waveguides. The choke flange is far superior to the normal flange for connecting
waveguides.
 In the choke flanges the two waveguide sections are connected very accurately and so
the reflection of the travelling wave is very very small. If normal flanges are to be used,
then the connection must be performed very accurately in order to keep reflections to a
low value.

3. Terminations
A termination is a waveguide section which contains lossy material to absorb undesired
waves such as reflections from incident waves. In order to absorb undesired waves the
lossy material inside the guide is tapered to match to the intrinsic impedance of the
wave guide. In other words, terminations are just matched loads.

4. BENDS AND TWISTS

Rigid waveguides are straight. If during installation the direction of waveguide has to be
changed then a "bend" is required. Bends come in different angles and 900 bends are
the most commonly used.

For rectangular waveguides there are two types of bends called the "H-plane bend and
E-plane bend ". Both types are shown in Fig below. In order to preserve the cross
sectional continuity of the waveguide the radius of bending must be greater than twice
the guide wavelength. In this case the transmitted waves will avoid reflections due to
bending. It must be noted that the polarization of the wave does not change in a bend.
Polarization means the direction of the electrostatic field. If the direction of the E-fields
is parallel to the earth plane, then we say that the wave is horizontally polarized. If the
E-fields are perpendicular to the plane of the earth, then we say the wave is vertically
polarized.
If the direction of polarization is to be changed, (e.g. from a vertical to horizontal
polarization) then a "twist" is necessary. The diagram below shows a twist
5. combiners
It is often necessary to combine two or more microwave signals. The signals may be at
the same frequency (e.g. when the output of two solid state oscillators are combined to
double the power) or of different frequencies e.g. in a mixer.

The simplest way of combining or dividing microwave signals is with a T-connection of

two transmission lines. The disadvantage of the simple T-combiner is that it provides no
isolation between the two input ports. A better combiner is the hybrid combiner which
provides isolation between input ports

6. circulators and isolators

Circulators and isolators use the non-reciprocal properties of ferrites to allow
microwave propagation in one direction only.
Fig above shows the schematic of a Y-junction circulator which is the most commonly
used in microwave communication. Power fed into port 1 will go out of port 2 but will
not enter port 3. Similarly, power fed to port 2 will leave port 3 but not out of port 1.
The arrow in the circulator shows the direction in which the power will circulate.

The operation of the circulator is shown in Fig below.

Suppose that there is a 180o phase shift between the ports in the counter-clockwise
direction of propagation and no phase shift in the clockwise direction of propagation of
the microwave power. If power is applied to port 1, it would equally divide in a
clockwise and counter-clockwise direction.
The signal from port 1 reaches port 2 in the clockwise direction after travelling 3600
since there is no phase shift in this direction. Because of the 180 0 phase shift between
each port in the counter-clockwise direction, the counter-clockwise signal from port 1
reaches port 2 after 3600 ( 180° due to distance and 180° due to phase shift). The two
signals (or power) add in phase at port 2 and so the full power at port 1 reaches port 2
and can come out of port 2.

In contrast, the counter-clockwise travelling power from port 1 reaches port 3 after a
total phase shift of 720° (360° due to distance travelled and 360° due to phase shift , i.e.
180° between ports 1 and 2, and 1800 between ports 2 and 3). On the other hand, the
clockwise signal from port 1 reaches port 3 after a phase shift of only 180° due to
distance travelled only. The two signals are 180° out of phase at port 3 and so cancel
each other. Therefore, no signal can come out of port 3.

The same reasoning applies to signal fed at port 2 and port 3. It will be seen that signal
fed to port 2 can go out of port 3 but not out of port 1 and the signal applied to port 3
can come out of port 1 but not out of port 2.

Because of this unidirectional propagation property of a circulator, a circulator can be

used for many different application in a microwave system.

Isolator
An isolator is a microwave device that can propagate power in one direction but not in
the reverse direction.

Let us see how a circulator can be used to make an isolator. If the circulator in has the
port 3 properly terminated by a matched termination, the circulator now acts an
isolator as shown below.

Power fed at port 1 will come out of port 2, but power entering port 2 will not reach
port 1 since it will be absorbed by the termination at port 3.Such a device is used as a
matching element for reflection matching, which is of utmost importance in
 communication systems. Incident power fed at port 1 will leave port 2, but reflected
power entering port 2 will not reach port 1.

Circulators are used in communication for the following functions:

 As a matching device between two microwave elements. For this function a
circulator is used as an isolator.
 To connect a transmitter and receiver to a common antenna. This is illustrated in
Fig below

 To connect two or more transmitters (working on different frequencies) or two

or more receivers (working on different frequencies, to a single antenna. In this
case the circulators in conjunction with the band pass filters operate as a
multiplexer.

7. MICROWAVE FILTERS
 Microwave filters are constructed by connecting together a series of microwave cavities
in a manner similar to the way low frequency filters are formed by connecting together
a series of LC resonant circuits.

Fig below shows a fixed tuned band pass filter. The filter is formed by a series of
obstacles (tuning screws) in the wave-guide which divide the waveguide up into a series
of cavities.

Microwave filters of the low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and band-stop types are
available and constructed with the principles.

FREQUENCY DIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION

Microwave radio relaying systems are designed to operate with an availability of at least 99.9%.
In order to achieve this target inspite of system failure due to fading of signal or failure of any
component of the link, some means of protection must be provided. The most commonly, used
protection system is the frequency diversity system.

Experience has shown that fading effect is frequency dependent, which means that if a severe
fading takes place for a frequency the same amount of fading does not take place for a
frequency f2 which is some Mega-Hertz apart from f1. Thus frequency diversity is an excellent
means for protection against circuit losses.

Unfortunately, frequency diversity requires duplication of the transmitter and receiver chains,
and hence increases the cost of the system. However, in a Station where a number of
transceivers are operating through a single antenna, duplication of each transceiver is not
necessary and so the cost will be reduced. In this case a standby transceiver can be
automatically switched to resume traffic from a transceiver that has failed in the group.

Accordingly diversity systems from (1+1) to (n+1) exist. A the system (1+1) mean that is one
stand-by transceiver for one traffic bearing channel (radio channel). The system (n+1) means
that there is one stand-by transceiver for n traffic bearing channels. In this system, if any one of
the traffic bearing channels fails the stand-by bearer will automatically carry the traffic in the
failed channel. Maximum value of n =7.

At repeater stations where BB is not extracted or inserted, then an IF switching is done with
extraction and insertion of the service channel (sub-baseband) only.

FREQUENCY DIVERSITY WITH IF SWITCHING (1+1) SYSTEM

Fig below shows a typical block schematic for a (1+1) diversity system for IF switching. In this
case the modems for baseband are not required. This would be a typical case for a repeater
station.

R1 and. R2 are the two receivers up to IF level and T1, T2 are the two transmitter up to IF level
(without BB modem and BB interface units). In most modern radios, the transmitter and
receiver contain only IF input and output respectively. D is the discriminator and filter unit
which selects and discriminates the continuity pilot and the SBB signals only. QD is the quality
detector which controls the IF and SBB switches.

The same information is received by the two receivers working at different RF frequencies and
brings the signals to the IF level. The IF signals go to two different paths, namely, one to the IF
electronic switch and the other to the discriminator units (D).

In D the continuity pilot signal and the sub-baseband signal is demodulated and filtered and
they are sent to their respective inputs namely the pilot to the quality detector (QD) and the
SBB to the SBB switch.
The quality detector processes the pilot signal according to the criteria used in the specific
switching unit. These criteria could be:

a. Pilot level received below a set threshold

b. Noise level received above a preset threshold
c. Noise comparison between the two received signals etc.

These criteria are processed in a logic circuit whose output selects the receiver to be switched
for further transmission. The selected IF is fed to both the transmitter via a hybrid which splits
the selected received IF signal. Simultaneously, the same logic circuit also selects the SBB signal
pertaining to the same receiver.

The SBB to be inserted is fed to both of the transmitters. The continuity pilot must also be sent
to both of the transmitters for the diversity operation of the next hop.

The switching unit is designed to work on switching criteria on a priority basis. Normally this is
done by appropriate strappings inside the unit.

FREQUENCY DIVERSITY WITH BASEBANB SWITCHING (1+1) SYSTEM

Baseband switching is similar to the IF switching except that the selection is done at the
baseband level.

Baseband switching is required at terminal stations where BB is extracted and inserted. Fig
below shows the block diagram for BB switching in a 1+1 system.

The BB signal is split into two equal parts by the hybrid and is then fed to its respective
modulator and then to the transmitter. The SBB signal undergoes the same process.

The aggregate signal including the pilot is transmitted by the same antenna at two different
frequencies F1 and F2. These RF bearers (F1 and F2) are received by their respective receivers
at the receiving terminal station.
The BB, SBB and the pilot signals are demodulated. The BB and SBB signals reach their
respective switches while the pilot is processed in the Quality Detector and logic unit. In the
quality detector, the pilot level is compared with a reference level after the pilot signal has
been rectified. Furthermore, a narrow band around the pilot (but excluding the pilot) is filtered
and the noise in this band is processed and compared with the reference signal for noise.

The output of the level and noise comparators forms the basis for selecting the better of the
two received signals. These outputs are processed in the logic unit and the logic circuit then
selects the baseband and sub-baseband signals from one of the two radios.

In any switching it there will be possibility far forced selection. This means that irrespective of
the quality of the received signal, a switch will make possible to select any of the two BB (also
SBB) signals. This facility is provided for performing maintenance on the radios without
interrupting the traffic.

MULTILINE SWITCHING

The (1+1) switching is costly since transmitting and receiving equipment are duplicated.

In cases where a station contains a number of RF channels using different information or traffic
(e.g. one radio transmitting TP signals while another TV signals), a multi-line switching system
becomes economical.

In the multiline switching system there is generally one (also 2 is possible) stand-by channel for
a number of (not exceeding 7) traffic bearing channels. Thus equipment duplication per channel
is avoided.

Let us first analyze the differences between a (1+1) and multi-line switching:

1+1 system Multi-line system

Same information transmitted over both Only one type of information transmitted over
radios one radio
Switching necessary only on the receive side Switching necessary on both the receiving and
transmitting sides
Backward signalling from receiving end to the Backward signalling from receiving end to the
transmitting end not necessary transmitting end necessary
Forward confirmation signalling from Forward confirmation signalling from
transmitting side to receiving side not transmitting side to receiving side is necessary
necessary
TERMS USED IN MULTILINE SWITCHING

1. FSK (Frequency Shift Keying): Is a method of FM transmission or reception in which the

carrier frequency is shifted below or above its nominal value by a fixed amount
depending upon the input signal (digital logic state).

The frequency shift depends upon the speed of transmission expressed in Baud. For
example, for 50 Baud (50 bits/sec) the shift is 30 Hz from the carrier centre frequency
while for 100 Baud, the shift is 60 Hz from the carrier centre frequency

FSK is extensively used for remote control signalling. In most applications the carrier
centre frequency does not exist only the two shift tones one lower than the carrier and
the other higher than the carrier exist. But in special cases even the carrier or centre
frequency may exist. This depends upon the circuit used.

2. CONTINUITY PILOT: It is a Pilot tone sent from the transmission side of the radio link to
the receiving side to monitor the quality of the BB level in a radio link. The value of the
pilot is defined by the CCIR and depends upon the capacity of link and the type of traffic
used in the radio link. The values are as follows:

RADIO CAPACITY (channels) CONTINUITY PILOT (KHz)

120 607
300 1499
600 3200 or 8500
960 4715 or 8500
1260 8500 or 6199
1800 9023
2700 13627
TV 8500 or 9023

3. QUALITY DETECTOR: It is an equipment in the receiving side of the radio which analyses
the level of the continuity pilot and in some cases the noise in a specified narrow band
and gives appropriate output signals in a digital form so that the logic units can process
these signals.
4. TELE-SIGNALLING: Is the sending or receiving of coded signals from the transmitting end
to the remote receiving end and vice versa.

For switching systems in radio links, the telesignalling is carried out in the sub-baseband
by the help of codes in the form m of FSK tones. It is the receiving end of the radio link
 that detects failure or degradation in the link and initiates the transmission of "specific
request code" to the transmitting end and waits for the "confirmation code" from the
transmitting end. The transmitting end receives the request code from the remote
station, evaluates it and after switching to the stand-by the requested bearer, transmits
the confirmation code to the receiving end. The receiving end switches only after the
confirmation code is received. The FSK tones for "request codes" and confirmation
codes are different since different FSK channels are used for these purposes.

5. FREEZING: means the blocking of any switching at one or both ends of the radio link.

6. PRIORITY BEARER: It is normally the bearer 1 unless any other bearer has been
manually set for priority. Unless an occasional TV is being used in the stand-by bearer or
the standby bearer is being used for a failed or degraded bearer, the priority bearer is
sent always in parallel with the stand-by bearer.

Should in this case however, the priority bearer be neither faulty nor degraded, and any
of the other bearer happen to fail or be degraded, the stand-by-bearer will switch to the
non-priority failed or degraded bearer. However, if the priority degrade or fail, the
stand-by will now transmit the priority bearer in parallel irrespective of the condition of
the other bearers.

Occasional TV transmission has the least priority.

7. MAINTENANCE MODE: Provision is also provided for doing routine or fault maintenance
on a particular bearer. This mode can be selected by a manual switch. In this case the BB
signal from this bearer will be switched to the stand-by bearer and the signalling is done
by one FSK channel designated for this use.

(3 + 1) MULTI-LINE SWITCHING SYSTEM

A general block diagram of a (3+1) switching system between two terminal A and B is shown in
Fig below. This diagram shows the principle of BB switching only.
B1, B2, B3 and Stand-by stand for the bearer (radio channel) 1, bearer 2, bearer 3 and stand-by
bearer respectively. Each bearer has its own transmitting frequency which will be received by
its respective receiver.

In the transmitting side each BB is split into two equal power or signal to create two paths one
going to its own radio channel and the other to the paralleling switch which is controlled by the
TX LOGIC.

Also the occasional TV input is available at the paralleling switch for sending TV signal from time
to time from the terminal A to B (only unidirectional). As shown in the drawing only the BB1 is
paralleled which means that BB1 is sent on bearer B1 as well as the stand-by bearer.

Continuity pilot (e.g. frequency 9023 KHz for 1800 channel telephony or TV) is being sent
through all the bearers with a defined level from the transmitters.

In the receiving side, a quality detector is connected to each demodulator for processing the
quality of the received continuity pilot.
The pilot level and noise around it are monitored by the quality-detector (QD). For example, the
quality detector may monitor 3 criteria such as

a. received pilot level 3 dB or more below the nominal level or loss of pilot
b. Signal to Noise ratio S/N below e.g. 45 dB or
c. S/N below 35 dB. In case (a) and (c) the QD concludes link failure while in case (b) it
concludes degradation of the link.

The respective reports to the RX LOGIC unit its finding in the form of digital codes. The QD of
the stand-by receiver does not report to the main RX LOGIC directly but through the stand-by
logic unit. This is because the stand-by must know not only about its transmission quality but
also what precisely is being transmitted in the stand-by channel.

The individual signals (digital) from the QDs and the stand-by logic unit are processed in the RX
LOG unit and it initiates the commands

If for example, bearer 2 is faulty, the QD of bearer 2 detects the fault and gives this information
to the RX LOGIC. This unit evaluates this information as well as the information from other QDs
and stand-by logic. After verifying that the stand-by channel can be used for transmitting
bearer2, the logic unit sends paralleling request code via the three FSK transmitters in the
receiving side. Three specific tones corresponding to the specific request are sent towards the
transmitting end A via the SBB and simultaneously waits for the confirmation code to arrive in a
predetermined timing Cycle.

These tones are received by the three FSK receivers at station A (transmitting side) and they
report their finding to the TX LOGIC which processes this information. The TX LOG then
commands the paralleling switch to parallel the stand-by to BB2 signal and at the same time
commands the 2 FSK transmitters in the transmitting side to send the confirmation code.

The confirmation code is received by the two FSK receivers at the receiving end and these
provide the confirmation statement to the RX LOG which then controls the BB selection switch
in the receiving end so that the BB2 is taken from the stand-by receiver.
 Chapter 3

DIGITAL RADIO

PDH DIGITAL RADIO

INTRODUCTION

As networks became more digitized, the combination of the time division multiplex (PCM),
time-division switching and digital radio is more economical than the corresponding analog
facilities. Some of the advantages of Digital Microwave Radio (DMR) are:

1. The transmission performance is almost independent of the number of repeaters and

therefore system length.
2. Ease of interface with optical fiber, digital satellite and digital switching systems.
3. The possibility of efficient simultaneous transmission of digital data information, etc.

COMPARISON OF A DIGITAL RADIO TO ANALOGUE RADIO

Fig below is a simplified block diagram showing the major differences between analog and
digital microwave radio. At the IF frequency and above, the two systems are very similar. The
major differences lie in :

1. The composition of the baseband.

2. The modulation techniques.
3. The service channel transmission (not shown in block diagrams).

Two frequently used Digital Microwave Radio ( DMR ) transceiver block diagrams are shown in
Figs below
In the transmitter (Tx) of the heterodyne transceiver the digital baseband modulates an IF
oscillator. This modulated IF wave is up-converted by a mixer and RF local oscillator (LO) to the
desired RF frequency. At the receive end the modulated signal is down converted to an IF
frequency and in most systems is coherently demodulated. For coherent demodulation it is
essential to obtain the exact carrier frequency and phase of the modulated signal. Finally, the
demodulated signal is restored to its original format in the regenerator.

In the direct RF modulation process, shown in Fig below, the digital information directly
modulates the RF signal without the use of any IF stages.

TO improve the reliability of digital microwave systems it is customary to use PROTECTION

SWITCHING and DIVERSITY system configurations. A typical 1 + 1 terminal station having one
main channel and one protection (or diversity) channel is illustrated in Fig below.
The digital source signal is split into two twin paths by a highly reliable hybrid (H) unit. The two
Signals modulate separate carriers and are fed to two RF transmitters.

RF Signals are connected via RF circulators to cross polarization filters which provide the
combined polarization diversity signal to the transmit antenna system.

In the receiver, the RF signals are down-converted to the IF frequency, demodulated and
regenerated. The switch circuits select the output signal that shows the best performance.

Most digital microwave systems use regenerative repeaters. A transceiver is considered to be

regenerative if the signal goes through a complete demodulation regeneration modulation
process. Regenerators are suitable for interfacing with PCM multiplex equipment and thus for
data insert and drop locations.

Heterodyne equipment can also be used in non-regenerative IF stations. These repeaters, as in

are simpler and less expensive than regenerative repeaters but have the disadvantage that the
noise and signal distortions accumulate from repeater to repeater. In REGENERATLVE repeaters
the noise and distortion is largely removed in the regeneration process and so there is NO
NOISE ACCUMULATION.
There is, however, a form of noise known as JITTER, which can become a problem on long
distance links. Jittering is a pulse position noise observed as small variations of the pulse zero
crossing points from their precise positions as shown by the fig below. The maximum link length
is usually limited by JITTER.
COMPOSITION OF THE BASEBAND

The baseband of a digital microwave radio is a digital bit stream at 8Mbs/s, 34Mb/s or
140Mb/s. The primary PCM output is a 2Mb/s signal coming either directly from an SPC switch
or from the output of a multiplexer. The higher order multiplexer outputs are indicated in the
hierarchy diagram of Fig below.

FREQUENCY BANDS

The CCIR recommended frequency allocations are shown in the fig below.

In addition to the usual frequency bands allocated to the analog radio transmission, the DMR is
also now being used in the ku-band range. Although there is a problem with rain attenuation in
this frequency band, there are other compensating advantages. For example, for short hops (10
to 25km), low capacity (120ch), manufacturers are now making DMR equipment at 15GHz,
18GHz and 23GHz. The antennas are only 1m or less in diameter. The RF down conversion is
done in a box attached to the back of the antenna. The antenna and the box are mounted on a
single pole and a coaxial cable takes the IF signal into a building for baseband extraction.

The arrangement for 140Mb/s DMR system is in the 3.9, 6.7, 11.2, 13.0, and 15.0 GHz
frequency bands as designated by the CCIR.

In the lower bands at 3.9, 4.7, 6.7, 11.2 GHz, adjacent channels have 40MHz spacing. In addition
they are usually operated on orthogonal polarization (at 90 o to each other). The minimum
frequency spacing on a channel branching chain is 80MHz. in the upper bands at 13 and 15GHz,
the CCIR recommends a channel spacing of 28MHz with total of eight channel pairs.

In addition to the above configurations, due to improvement in antenna technology, DMRs can
be operated in the COCHANNEL mode. This means two channels use the same frequency and
are transmitted on the same antenna using orthogonal polarizations (horizontal and vertical
polarizations). Obviously the isolation between the two polarizations must be very high, at least
30dB. This is called CROSS-POLARIZATION DISCRIMINATION (XPD).

DMR LINKS

System gain

RELIABILITY

Availability is a measure of system reliability. Ideally, all systems should have an availability of
100%. This would mean the system is never out of service all of the year, every year. Obviously
this is not possible, but the system should have the highest availability possible.

For example

1. Availability of 0% means 100% outage time- outage per day=24hrs/per month=720hrs

2. Availability of 50% means 50% outage time- outage per day=12hrs/ per month=360hrs
3. Availability of 95% means 5% outage time- outage per day=1.2hrs/ per month=36hrs
4. Availability of 99% means 1% outage time- outage per day=14.4mins/ per month=2hrs
5. Availability of 99.9% means 0.1% outage time- outage per day=1.44m/ per month=43m

The system becomes unavailable for three main reasons:

1. Human caused faults e.g. due to improper maintenance or inadequate equipment

design.
2. Disasters such as earthquakes, fires, terrorism etc.
3. Other non-human induced faults such as weather or atmospheric conditions.

Item 1 can be minimized by good engineering and technician practices.

Item 2 is almost unavoidable, but fortunately the occurrence is very small and has a small effect
on total availability even though the effects can be temporarily devastating.

Item 3 can be minimized by good equipment design which can counter the effect caused by
some atmospheric effects known as MULTIPATH FADING.

BIT ERROR RATE – BER

Bit error rate, BER is used to quantify a channel carrying data by counting the rate of errors in a
data string. It is used in telecommunications, networks and radio systems. Bit error rate, BER is
a key parameter that is used in assessing systems that transmit digital data from one location to
another.
Systems for which bit error rate, BER is applicable include radio data links as well as fibre optic
data systems, Ethernet, or any system that transmits data over a network of some form where
noise, interference, and phase jitter may cause degradation of the digital signal.

Although there are some differences in the way these systems work and the way in which bit
error rate is affected, the basics of bit error rate itself are still the same.

When data is transmitted over a data link, there is a possibility of errors being introduced into
the system. If errors are introduced into the data, then the integrity of the system may be
compromised. As a result, it is necessary to assess the performance of the system, and bit error
rate, BER, provides an ideal way in which this can be achieved.

Unlike many other forms of assessment, bit error rate, BER assesses the full end to end
performance of a system including the transmitter, receiver and the medium between the two.
In this way, bit error rate, BER enables the actual performance of a system in operation to be
tested, rather than testing the component parts and hoping that they will operate satisfactorily
when in place.

As the name implies, a bit error rate is defined as the rate at which errors occur in a
transmission system. This can be directly translated into the number of errors that occur in a
string of a stated number of bits. The definition of bit error rate can be translated into a simple
formula:

Bit error rate is equal to the number of bit errors divided by the total number of bits sent

If the medium between the transmitter and receiver is good and the signal to noise ratio is high,
then the bit error rate will be very small - possibly insignificant and having no noticeable effect
on the overall system However if noise can be detected, then there is chance that the bit error
rate will need to be considered.

The main reasons for the degradation of a data channel and the corresponding bit error rate,
BER is noise and changes to the propagation path (where radio signal paths are used). Both
effects have a random element to them, the noise following a Gaussian probability function
while the propagation model follows a Rayleigh model. This means that analysis of the channel
characteristics are normally undertaken using statistical analysis techniques.
For fibre optic systems, bit errors mainly result from imperfections in the components used to
make the link. These include the optical driver, receiver, connectors and the fibre itself. Bit
errors may also be introduced as a result of optical dispersion and attenuation that may be
present. Also noise may be introduced in the optical receiver itself. Typically these may be
photodiodes and amplifiers which need to respond to very small changes and as a result there
may be high noise levels present.

Another contributory factor for bit errors is any phase jitter that may be present in the system
as this can alter the sampling of the data.

1. 1 X 10-3 – 1 bit in 1000 bits has been affected. Severe errors

2. 1 X 10-6 – 1 bit in 1000000 bits has been affected. Poor BER
3. 1 X 10-9 – 1 bit in 1000000000 bits has been affected. Good BER
4. 1 X 10-3 – 1 bit in 1000000000000 bits has been affected. Perfect BER

BER and Eb/No

Signal to noise ratios and Eb/No figures are parameters that are more associated with radio
links and radio communications systems. In terms of this, the bit error rate, BER, can also be
defined in terms of the probability of error or POE. The determine this, three other variables
are used. They are the error function, erf, the energy in one bit, Eb, and the noise power
spectral density (which is the noise power in a 1 Hz bandwidth), No.

It should be noted that each different type of modulation has its own value for the error
function. This is because each type of modulation performs differently in the presence of noise.
In particular, higher order modulation schemes (e.g. 64QAM, etc) that are able to carry higher
data rates are not as robust in the presence of noise. Lower order modulation formats (e.g.
BPSK, QPSK, etc.) offer lower data rates but are more robust.

The energy per bit, Eb, can be determined by dividing the carrier power by the bit rate and is a
measure of energy with the dimensions of Joules. No is a power per Hertz and therefore this
has the dimensions of power (joules per second) divided by seconds). Looking at the
dimensions of the ratio Eb/No all the dimensions cancel out to give a dimensionless ratio. It is
important to note that POE is proportional to Eb/No and is a form of signal to noise ratio.

FACTORS AFFECTING BIT ERROR RATE, BER

It can be seen from using Eb/No, that the bit error rate, BER can be affected by a number of
factors. By manipulating the variables that can be controlled it is possible to optimise a system
to provide the performance levels that are required. This is normally undertaken in the design
stages of a data transmission system so that the performance parameters can be adjusted at
the initial design concept stages.

 Interference: The interference levels present in a system are generally set by

external factors and cannot be changed by the system design. However it is
possible to set the bandwidth of the system. By reducing the bandwidth the level
of interference can be reduced. However reducing the bandwidth limits the data
throughput that can be achieved.
 Increase transmitter power: It is also possible to increase the power level of the
system so that the power per bit is increased. This has to be balanced against
factors including the interference levels to other users and the impact of
increasing the power output on the size of the power amplifier and overall
power consumption and battery life, etc.
 Lower order modulation: Lower order modulation schemes can be used, but
this is at the expense of data throughput.
 Reduce bandwidth: Another approach that can be adopted to reduce the bit
error rate is to reduce the bandwidth. Lower levels of noise will be received and
therefore the signal to noise ratio will improve. Again this results in a reduction
of the data throughput attainable.

It is necessary to balance all the available factors to achieve a satisfactory bit error rate.
Normally it is not possible to achieve all the requirements and some trade-offs are required.
However, even with a bit error rate below what is ideally required, further trade-offs can be
made in terms of the levels of error correction that are introduced into the data being
transmitted. Although more redundant data has to be sent with higher levels of error
correction, this can help mask the effects of any bit errors that occur, thereby improving the
overall bit error rate.

MULTIPATH FADING

The atmosphere through which microwaves propagate is not constant. The refractive index
(which affects the microwave propagation) varies with altitude, depending upon the
temperature pressure, humidity and convection (turbulence).
Energy from the main lobe of the antenna can be dispersed by these atmospheric variations
and follow multiple paths from transmitter to receiver.

Fig 2.4 illustrates a simplified picture of two rays from the transmitter which follow different
paths to the receiver because altitude variations in the refractive index. As the path lengths of
two signals are different, there will be a phase difference between the two signals on arrival. If
this phase different is lucky enough to be zero then there is no problem. However, usually, the
phase shift is not zero and some destructive interference takes place. In the worst case of 180
degrees between signals, complete cancelation takes place and the transmitted signal is lost.

This reduction of the received signal below its free space value as a result of atmospheric
destruction interference is a phenomenon known as MULTIPATH FADING.

MULTIPATH FADING IS A FREQUENCY SELECTIVE FADING

Most often, this type of fading occurs in very still wind condition, when the weather is hot and
humid. It has been found that fading activity most frequently occurs after sundown and shortly
after sundown. At mid‐day the thermal air currents usually disturb the atmosphere so that the
layers that cause multipath fading have a lower probability of forming.
The time during which a signal fades bellow a given level L is called the DURATION OF THE
FADE. Fig 2.5 shows an example of a deep multipath fade.

A multipath fade can be as deep as 40 to 50 dB .In general, the average duration of fade does
not depend on the frequency, but is proportional to ”L” the depth of the fade. Fig 2.6 indicates
the average time duration of a 40 dB fade to be approximately 4 seconds.
CROSS‐POLAR DISCRIMINATION DURING FADING

Using one antenna for two channels is now common practice. One channel is placed on the
antenna in a horizontal polarization and the other in the vertical polarization. Obviously, the
cross‐polarization discrimination must be maximized i.e. interference between channels
minimized. During fading conditions, the cross‐polarization discrimination can be severely
reduced, causing interference between channels. In the case of very unfavorable hops, a
CROSSPOLARIZATION INTERFERENCE CANCELER (XPIC) may be necessary.

INTERFERENCE

Each receiver in a digital radio relay network is exposed to a number of interference signals
which can degrade the transmission quality. The main sources of interference are;

1. INTRA‐SYSTEM INTERFERENCE
 Noise
 Imperfections
  Echo
2. INTER‐CHANNEL INTERFERENCE
 Adjacent Channel
 Cochannel Cross‐polarization
 Transmitter Or Receiver
 Spurious Emission
3. INTER‐HOP INTERFERENCE
 Front‐To‐Back
 Over reach
4. EXTRA‐SYSTEM INTERFERENCE
 Satellite systems
 Radar
 Other Radio Systems

Intra‐System Interference

This type of interference is generated within a radio channel by thermal receiver noise, system
imperfections and echo distortions. Good system design ensures that imperfections do not
introduce significant degradation. However, echo distortion caused by reflection from building
terrain and due to double reflection within the R.F path (antenna, feeder) cannot be neglected
in higher order QAM systems. Echo delay causes interference which increases as the delay
increases. Ground reflection cause echo delays in the region of 0.1 to 1 ns. Reflections near the
antenna or from distant buildings are usually > 1 ns and can cause severe echo interference.
Transversal equalizers (as described later) help to improve the situation. Echoes caused by
double reflection in the waveguide feeder cause very long delays of 100 ns or more. The only
countermeasure against this problem is to ensure it does not occur. In other words, good
return loss (VSWR) is essential.

Inter-channel Interference

Inter-channel Interference between microwave transmission frequency bands is described by

the diagram in Fig 2.7. Adjacent channel interference can be either:

 Cross‐polar
 Co‐polar

Co-channel interference can only be cross-polar.

For adjacent channels, the co‐polar interference can be suppressed by filtering and adjacent
channel cross‐polarization interference is not usually a problem with today’s antennas. Fig. 2.8
is a graph of the co‐channel interference for various S/N values. The noise introduced by one
channel into the other is due to inadequate cross polarization discrimination of the antennas
and the S/N values are effectively the cross‐polarization discrimination values for channels
operating at the same output power level.
This type of interference can be more serious than adjacent channel interference and the value
of S/N should be better than 25dB and preferably 30Db. For example, at a received power level
of ‐70Db, a S/N = infinity would give a BER = 10 ‐10. At S/N = 30db the BER would degrade to =
2x10‐5.

INTER-HOP INTERFERENCE

This type of interference can occur because of front to back or nodal interference from
adjacent hops and by OVERREACH interference. The signal to interference ratio S/I are
determined by the angular discrimination of antennas and can decrease during fading. Careful
route and frequency planning is necessary to keep the degradation smaller than 1dB. Some
examples of the above intra-system inter-channel and inter hop sources of interference are
shown in fig .2.9.
 1. Co-channel Or Adjacent Channel Signal From A Different Hop Direction
2. Opposite Hop Front –To‐ Back Reception
3. Adjacent Chanel (Same Hop)
4. Cross Polarization(Same Hop)
5. Front –To‐ Back –Radiation
6. Overreach Terrain Reflection

EXTRA SYSTEM INTERFERENCE

This interference can be caused by other digital or analogue channel using the same RF or by
out‐of-band emission from other radio systems e.g. radar. It is important to remember that the
nature of digital radio is such that the spectrum of the transmitted band is completely full. In
other words the energy is spread evenly across the band .This is different from the analogy
radio signal which has its energy concentrated in the idle of the band with a smaller portion of
the energy in the sideband. This means the ANALOG radio is susceptible to interference from
the DIGITAL RADIO. This is an adjacent channel type of interference, which can be a problem for
high capacity systems, i.e. if a 1800 channel analog radio is adjacent to a 1920 channel (140
Mb/s) digital radio.

When planning new microwave links a very important aspect of this planning is the frequency
coordination to ensure there is no interference with existing or future proposed frequencies
DIGITAL MODULATION

Bandwidth Efficiency

Analog microwave radio has the capability to transmit 1800 voice channels in a 30 MHz
bandwidth in the 6 GHz band. In order to use the microwave spectrum efficiency, it is desirable
for digital microwave radio system to be able to transmit at least a similar number of voice
channels within a similar RF bandwidth.

BANDWIDTH EFFICIENCY is the number of transmitted BITS PER SECOND PER HERTZ (b/s/Hz). In
the digital hierarchy, 140Mb/s contains 1920 channels. If the bandwidth efficiency is 1 b/s/Hz
then a transmission bandwidth of 140 MHz would be required. As this is an excessive value,
some techniques must be applied to improve the bandwidth efficiency. This is done during the
modulation process.

There are several modulation techniques. Broadly speaking, they can be categorised as
following:

 Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)

 Phase Shift Keying (FSK)
 A mixture of Phase and Amplitude modulation. (Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation, (QAM)

Before discussing each type of modulation in detail, it is necessary to briefly discuss the effects
of FILTERS used in the modulation process on the bandwidth of efficiency of a digital signal.

PULSE TRANSMISSION MTHROUGH A LOW PASS OR BANDPASS FILTER

In relation to bandwidth is the subject of passing pulses through a low pass or band-pass filter.
This occurs during the modulation or up-conversion processes. As a pulse is composed of a
fundamental frequency and an infinite series of harmonic frequencies, then passing a pulse
through a low pass or band-pass filter is going to eliminate some components of the pulse. This
results in a output pulse having very “rounded” corners instead of sharp, right angled corners.
Eventually, if the cut‐off frequency of the low pas filter ( or upper cut‐off frequency of the
band-pass filter) reaches a low enough values then the pulses becomes so rounded that they do
not reach their full amplitude.

The NYQUIST THEOREM states that if pulse is transmitted at a rate of fs bits/s, then it will attain
the full transmitted value if passed through a low pass filter having bandwidth, fs/2 Hz.
This is the minimum filtering requirement for pulse transmission without performance
degradation i.e.NO INTERSYMBOL INTERFERENCE. Fig. 3.1 illustrates how this IDEAL Nyquist
filter allows pulses to reach their maximum amplitude. Unfortunately, this type of idea Nyquist
filter does not exist. If it did exist it would therefore have an infinite cost.
The filter characteristic for transmission of impulses (approximately the same as for very
narrow pulse) is shown in Fig.3.2. The value of α=0 is the ideal filter case. A more practical value
of α=0.3 requires a bandwidth of 30% in excess of the Nyquist bandwidth. This means that
instead of transmission at an ideal rate of 2bits/second/hertz, the rate is 2/1.3 =1.54b/s/hz
Fig.3.1 also shows the output response for this type of non‐ideal filter. At the sampling instants
the signal does not always reach its maximum value. Thus, the imperfect filter introduces inter-
symbol interference. Many type of complex filter have recently been designed to overcome the
inter-symbol interference problem without significantly reducing the bandwidth efficiency.

SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE FILTER (SAW)

This type of filter has recently been introduced into DMR equipment .It has some qualities
which allow to be designed very close to the ideal Nyquist filter. SAW filter have cosine roll‐off
characteristic and "saddle'' shape pass band characteristic.Fig.3.3 shows a typical frequency
response for a SAW filter.
PULSE AMPLITUDE MODULATION (PAM)

To improve the bandwidth efficiency there are several modulation techniques available. Firstly,
pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is a simple way of improving bandwidth efficiency. Fig 3.4
shows a conversion from binary NRZ to multi-level PAM signals. Here, a 2-level NRZ signal is
converted to 4-levels. Each 4-level symbol contains 2 bits of information. By the Nyquist
theorem, it is theoretically possible to transmit, without inter-symbol interference,
2symbols/s/Hz. As each symbol contains 2 bits of information, then 4‐level PAM should ideally
be able to transmit 4b/s/Hz.

Each 8‐level PAM contains 3 bits of information ideally allowing a transmission rate of 6 b/s/Hz.
In fig 3.5, the probability of the occurrence of errors is plotted versus S/N for several levels of
PAM.
Unfortunately, the error performance (BER) of digital amplitude modulation is inferior to other
forms of digital modulation. However, there is a very important use of amplitude modulation
combined with phase modulation .This is called QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE MODULATION
(QAM).Its use in digital microwave radio systems will be discussed in detail later.
PHASE SHIFT KEYED (PSK) MODULATION

This category of modulation is widely used in DMR today. There are several levels of PSK. The
simplest is 2‐phase PSK as shown in fig 3.6a.
In this type of modulation the incoming bit stream is given a phase reversal of 180 degrees
every time a 1change to a 0 or vice-versa. Fig 3.6b shows the waveform changing between 0
and 180 degrees.

2‐PHASE SHIFT KEYING

The next level of PSK is 4‐phase, otherwise known as quadrature or quaternary PSK (QPSK). As
indicated in fig 3.7 (a), the incoming bit stream is divided into 2 parallel bit streams by a SERIAL
TO PARALLEL CONVERTER.
These 2 bit streams are known as the In-phase (I) and the Quadrature phase (Q) bit streams.
The transmit oscillator generates the unmodulated carrier frequency, which is passed through a
0° and 90° phase splitter. The I and Q baseband NRZ bit streams are then time domain
multiplied (i.e. mixed with) the carrier signals. The summed output is then passed through a
band pass filter resulting in the waveform of fig 3.7 (b). The phase diagram shows that there are
4 phase states, 90° apart from each other at 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°.

4‐PHASE SHIFT KEYING

The next level as in fig 3.8. is 8‐PSK.

Here the incoming bit stream is divided into 3 before the carrier is modulated. The output
waveform has 8 states, spaced 45° apart. Each time the level is raised, the theoretical
bandwidth efficiency is increased. i.e.

2‐PSK ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐> 1b/s/Hz

4‐PSK‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐>2b/s/Hz

8‐PSK‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐>3b/s/Hz

QUADRATURE AMPLITUDE MODULATION (QAM)

The next level, 16‐PSk, is not used very much in preference; a modulation having both PSK and
Amplitude modulation has evolved. The reason for this is improved error performance QAM
can be viewed as an extension of PSK .In the special case of 4‐QAM where 2 amplitude levels
are used as input to a 2‐PSK modulator, the system is identical to 4‐PSK. However, higher level
QAM systems are distinctly different from the higher level PSK system.

Fig 3.9 shows a 16‐QAM modulator/demodulation together with the representative waveforms.
Fig 3.10 shows the signal state‐space diagram for 4 amplitude levels introduced to each
quadrature channel of the modulator to produce 16‐QAM .The SIGNAL STATE SPACE DIAGRAM
is often referred to as the CONSTELLATION DIAGRAM. Notice by comparing this to the 16‐SPK
signal that the 16‐QAM signal does not have a constant envelope .The 16‐PSK does have a
constant envelope.

COMPARISON OF MODULATION TECHNIQUE

The error performance of any digital modulation system is fundamentally related to the
distance between points in the signal state‐space diagram. Fig 3.11 illustrates how the distance
between points is the same for 2‐phase as for 4‐phase shift key modulation. The next level, 8-
PSK , has points more closely spaced, so the error performance is more expected to be worse
than 2 or 4‐PSK.The reason for this is simply that as the points become closer together , the
noise causes the points to become located over an area around the points (as in fig
3.12).overlapping of the point to indicate interference, which causes errors.

This constellation representation has a very useful application in maintenance methods as

discussed later.

FIG. 3.11 illustrates how the distance between points is the same for 2‐ phase as for 4‐phase
shift key modulation. The next level, 8‐PSK, has points more closely spaced, so the error
performance is expected to be worse than 2 or 4 PSK. The reason this is simply that as the
points become closer together, noise causes the points to be located over an area around the
points instead of exactly at the points (as in FIG 3.12).Overlapping of the points indicates
interference , which causes errors.

This constellation representation has a very useful application in maintenance methods as

discussed later.
It is quite evident that for 16‐QAM the distance between the points is greater than for 16‐PSK,
thus providing better error performance .This is true even though the frequency spectrum of a
16-QAM signal is identical to that of a 16-PSK signal .Notice, as indicated in FIG 3.11 that PSK is
A DOUBLE SIDEBAND SUPRESSED CARRIER (DSB‐SC) MODULATION.

FIG 3.12 shows how the noise affects the constellation states. Eventually, if the noise level is
too high, the constellation state start to overlap [FIG 3.12(b)].This causes errors to occur.

FIG 3.13 is a comparison of the error rates for several QAM modulation systems. For a required
BER, the signal to noise ratio must be increased significantly as the level of modulation
increases.
FIG.3.14 is a comparison of all the types of modulation mentioned so far. The probability of
error is plotted against the carrier to noise ratio (C/N). THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS GRAPH IS TO
POINT OUT THAT TO IMPROVE THE BANDWIDTH EFFICIENCY BY THE HIGHER LEVEL OF
MODULATION, A GREATER SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO IS REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN A GOOD BER
e.g. 10‐9 .
This is further highlighted by the comparison table of Fig. 3.15.

Fig. 3.16 PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF SEVERAL MODULATION TECHNIQUES finally, the

improvement of bandwidth efficiency at the expense of C/N is shown in Fig 3.16.The Shannon
limit shown here is a theoretical maximum value. Of course, the practical systems always fall
short of the theoretical values.
DEMODULATION

Demodulation is the inverse process of modulation .This obvious statement is not so simple in
reality .For example, a transmitted 16 QAM signal is a suppressed carrier signal. The reinsertion
of a locally generated carrier is necessary for recovery of the transmitted information. This
means that the inserted carrier must have the same phase and frequency as the transmitted
carrier. This is usually done by a circuit known as the COSTAS LOOP.

THE COSTAS LOOP

The Costas loop is an extension of the famous “phase lock loop” (PLL) method of carrier
recovery and demodulation has been used extensively in analog microwave radio circuits for
establishing:

 A stable oscillator frequency

 Carrier recovery of a transmitted double sideband suppressed carrier (DSB‐SC),
 Demodulation

To refresh the memory, the PLL circuit of Fig 3.17 has an output that on to the input reference
signal and then tracks any changes that occur in the input signal.
The phase lock is done by using the phase comparator to compare the phase of the output
signal with the phase of the input reference. The phase difference produces an error voltage
which is used to modify the frequency (and therefore phase) of the VCO. As this error voltage
tracks the phase or frequency of the input reference signal it effectively modulates the input
reference signal. An equation can be derived for the error voltage required to maintain phase
lock, i.e.:

Where

K is a constant

( ) is the phase error

The phase lock loop circuit is applicable to both analog and digital demodulation. For an analog
2‐PSK signal, the circuit for Costas loop is shown in Fig 3.18.
One can see that this is nearly an extension of the PLL concept. The loop filters are included to
remove the harmonic frequency terms. The input to the loop filter (i.e. error voltage ) is found
to be:

Where C is a constant

This result only differs from the basic PLL equation by the fact that the Costas loop error voltage
is 0 for a phase difference of 0 and 180 degrees instead of just 0 degrees as for the basic PLL.
This means that the phase lock can occur for two different phase angles between the VCO and
the input signal. Data can therefore appear in the upper or lower half of the circuit depending
upon the angle on which the loop locks. The output data is a faithful reproduction of the
modulated transmitted signal.

The main difference between analog and digital costa loop is that the multiplier in the feedback
loop is replaced by an EX‐OR gate for the digital 2‐PSK circuit. 4‐PSK (often called QPSK) requires
a slightly more elaborate Costas loop for demodulation as indicated in Fig 3.19. As a 16‐QAM
signal requires the demodulation of a 4‐PSK prior to demodulation of the PAM signal, the
Costas loop is widely used in 16-QAM demodulators.

During the modulation process, a 140MHz VCO is used to produce the 16‐QAM signal. The VCO
can be very conveniently used as a means of transmitting a sub‐baseband (SBB) signal. The SSB
signal which contains two channels of information is transmitted by FREQUENCY MODULATING
the 140MHz VCO. At the receiving end, the SSB signal is recovered by a modified Costas loop
circuit.