You are on page 1of 14

KKKL 3174 COMMUNICATION THEORY

Group 6 : Advance Technology of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)


Advantage and Performance
Group Members :
1. Mohamad Azlan bin Azman

A141709

2. Iza Rozwan Iskandar bin Zakaria

A141204

3. Muhammad Fadhli bin Juhat

A141596

4. Muhammad Ruzaini Shahrin Bin Mohd Radzi

A141743

5. Nor Fadzleena binti Suhaimi

A141519

6. Nurul Fatin binti Nordin

A141015

Lecturers Name :
Dr. Norhana binti Arsad

Date of submission

: 1st December 2014

CONTENT

1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

3.0 APPLICATION OF QAM

4.0 COMPARISON OF QAM

4.1 CONSTELLATION DIAGRAM

4.2 QAM BITS PER SYMBOL

12

4.3 QAM NOISE MARGIN

12

5.0 CONCLUSION

13

6.0 REFERENCES

14

1.0

INTRODUCTION

We can see that many modern fixed microwave communication systems are based on the
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). It is widely used in many modern communication
systems because it offers advantages over other forms of data modulation such as PSK, although
many forms of data modulation operate alongside each other. QAM or quadrature amplitude
modulation is a digital modulation technique by combining the amplitude modulation and phase
modulation.
The main idea of this type of modulation is to use both phase and amplitude modulation
to try and get more information through a channel of a given bandwidth. The technique QAM, to
be specified, a system of modulation in which data or signal is transferred by modulating the
amplitude of two separate carrier waves, mostly sinusoidal which are out of phase by 90 degrees
(sine and cosine).The phase difference of 90 degrees between the carriers is referred as the term
quadrature which,we know the sine and cosine are 90 degree out of phase.
The used of QAM is motivated by the fact that a straight amplitude modulation signal i.e.
double sideband with a suppressed carrier occupies twice the bandwidth of the modulating signal
which the available frequency spectrum is wasted. The balance is restored by placing two
independent double sideband suppressed carrier signals in the same spectrum as one ordinary
double sideband suppressed the carrier signal. QAM involves sending digital information by
periodically adjusting the phase and amplitude of a sinusoidal electromagnetic wave. Each
combination of phase and amplitude is called a symbol and represents a digital bit stream.
QAM may exist in what may be termed either analog or digital formats. The multiple
analog signals are allowed to be carried on a single carrier by using the analog versions of QAM.
The other versions of QAM is digital formats of QAM or also often known as Quantized QAM.
The quantized QAM are being increasingly used for data communications systems.
QAM is the most widely used form of conventional data modulation. However, in most
practical communications systems, FSK and BPSK modulation operate alongside QAM. This is
to enable the system to dynamically adjust to link conditions and requirements such as signal
level, noise, the data rate required, and so on. QAM is much more complex scheme than any
ordinary amplitude modulation (AM). Until recently, its main applications have been in data
3

transmission and in color television. A variety of communication protocols implement QAM.


Current protocols such as 802.11b wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi) and digital video broadcast (DVB).

2.0

ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is both an analog and a digital modulation scheme. An
optimal non-uniform QAM constellation is designed to be adaptive to the actual probability
distribution of the received symbols. Both analytical results and simulation results show that
non-uniform constellations are superior to uniform constellations in the presence of phase noise.
QAM schemes are also proposed for future broadband wireless communication systems.
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) is a form of modulation that uses two carriers offset
in phase by 90 degrees and can be varies the symbol rates to increase throughput. But there is
pros and cons when using Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM).
Here are some of the advantages that we obtained by using Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM). Firstly it will transmit more bits per symbol when moving to the higher
order formats since there are more points within the constellation. Then, it will increase the
efficiency of transmission for radio communications systems by utilizing both amplitude and
phase variations. In addition, an attractive alternative to Single Side Band Suppressed Carrier
(SSB-SC). The sharp cutoff band-pass filters are not required. Bandwidth Efficiency because it
transmit two signals (each of bandwidth B) at 2B. Improve bit-error-rate performance because
QAM assigned more bandwidth and larger amount of signal power. Power efficiency of QAM
can be improved by using non-uniform constellations in the presence of phase noise (to avoid
performance degradation). Finally it also have good spectral characteristics because QAM are
made of combination of Phase Shift Keying (PSK) and Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)

Other than that, there are also some of the disadvantages by using Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM). That is, more susceptible to noise because the states are closer together so
that a lower level of noise is needed to move the signal to a different decision point. Then, linear
amplifiers are less efficient and consume more power so that it will be less attractive for mobile
applications. After that, when we compared with SSB, QAM is more exacting in terms of the
4

carrier frequency and phase or the requirement for a distortion-less transmission medium. It also
requires coherent demodulation with exact phase and frequency. QAM also will encounters a
performance degradation when using a nonlinear amplifiers. Apart from that, it will increase the
complexity of the receiver because of the minimum distance criterion is are not suitable for
received symbols detection of non-uniform constellations. It also are not energy efficient since it
have to transmitted by linear amplifiers for more spectral efficiency.
Comparison of various type of modulation
SUMMARY OF TYPES OF MODULATION WITH DATA CAPACITIES
MODULATION

BITS PER
SYMBOL

ERROR MARGIN

COMPLEXITY

OOK

1/2

0.5

Low

BPSK

Medium

QPSK

1 / 2

0.71

Medium

16 QAM

2 / 6

0.23

High

64QAM

2 / 14

0.1

High

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) : System Block Diagram

3.0

APPLICATION OF QAM

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) may exist in what may be termed either analogue or
digital formats. QAM is used in many radio communications and data delivery applications.
However some specific variants of QAM are used in some specific applications and standards.
Analogue QAM:
The analogue versions of QAM are typically used to allow multiple analogue signals to
be carried on a single carrier. In the analog television system, it is used in Phase Alternating Line
(PAL) and National Television System Committee (NTSC) television systems, where the
different channels provided by QAM enable it to carry the components of chroma or color
information.
In radio applications, a system known as Compatible Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(C-QUAM) is used for AM stereo radio. C-QUAM uses QAM to encode the stereo separation
signal. This extra signal is then stripped down in such a way that it is compatible with the
envelope detector of older receivers. Here the different channels enable the two channels
required for stereo to be carried on the single carrier.
Digital QAM:
Digital formats of QAM are often referred to as "Quantized QAM" and they are
being increasingly used for data communications often within radio communications systems.
Radio communications systems from cellular technology as in the case of LTE through wireless
systems including, WiMAX, 3G (WCDMA/HSDPA) and Wi-Fi 802.11 use a variety of forms
of QAM, and the use of QAM will only increase within the field of radio communications.
Higher-level QAM is used in fixed terrestrial microwave digital radio, digital video
broadcast cable, and modems. Similarly, 64-QAM and 256-QAM can be implemented. The more
the number of states, the higher the data rate that can be supported within a given bandwidth, at
the expense of higher probability of channel error.
For domestic broadcast applications, 64 QAM and 256 QAM are often used in digital
cable television and cable modem applications. In fact, 16 QAM and 64 QAM are currently used
6

for digital terrestrial television using DVB - Digital Video Broadcasting. In the US, 64 QAM and
256 QAM are the mandated modulation schemes for digital cable as standardized by the SCTE
in the standard ANSI/SCTE 07 2000.
For communication systems designed to achieve very high levels of efficiency usually
employ very dense QAM constellations. For example current Home-plug AV2 500-Mbit power
line Ethernet devices use 1024-QAM and 4096-QAM, as well as future devices using ITU-T
G.hn standard for networking over existing home wiring (coaxial cable, phone lines and power
lines), 4096-QAM provides 12 bits/symbol. Another example is VDSL2 technology for copper
twisted pairs, whose constellation size goes up to 32768 points.
In wireless communicating, ultra-high capacity Microwave Backhaul Systems also use
1024-QAM. This system is very often used by a telephone company as a connection between the
cell tower and the rest of the world begins with a backhaul link to the core of the Internet service
provider's network. With 1024-QAM, Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM), and XPIC,
Vendors can obtain Gigabit capacity in a single 56 MHz channel.
For wideband satellite communication systems, modified signal constellation QAM is
used. Its constant envelops combats with non-linearity of the satellite channel. Besides, 16-QAM
modulation systems are used for satellite communications. But the fact is that when the
modulation level increases, the constant envelop M-ary PSK modulation systems are inferior to
the QAM systems. On the other hand, QAM suffers more distortion in the non-linear satellite
communications channels. QAM is suitable for geostationary orbit satellite channel with only
Gaussian impairments because of being amplitude and phase modulated signal.

4.0

COMPARISON OF 8-QAM, 16-QAM, 32-QAM, 64-QAM

A constellation diagram is a representation of a signal modulated by a digital modulation scheme


such as quadrature amplitude modulation or phase-shift keying. The signal as a twodimensional scatter diagram in the complex plane at symbol sampling instants is displayed. In
abstract, it represents the possible symbols that may be selected by a given modulation scheme as
points in the complex plane. To recognize the type of interference and distortion in a signal,
measured constellation diagrams can be used.
By representing a transmitted symbol as a complex number and modulating
a cosine and sine carrier signal with the real and imaginary parts (respectively), the symbol can
be sent with two carriers on the same frequency. They are often referred to as quadrature carriers.
A coherent detector is able to independently demodulate these carriers. This principle of using
two independently modulated carriers is the foundation of quadrature modulation. In pure phase
modulation, the phase of the modulating symbol is the phase of the carrier itself.
As the symbols are represented as complex numbers, they can be visualized as points on
the complex plane. The real and imaginary axis are often called the in phase, or I-axis, and
the quadrature, or Q-axis, respectively. Plotting several symbols in a scatter diagram produces
the constellation diagram. The points on a constellation diagram are called constellation points.
They are a set of modulation symbols which comprise the modulation alphabet.
Also a diagram of the ideal positions, signal space diagram, in a modulation scheme can
be called a constellation diagram. In this sense the constellation is not a scatter diagram but a
representation of the scheme itself.

4.1 Constellation diagrams for a variety of formats of modulation

BPSK

QPSK

8 QAM

16 QAM

10

32 QAM

64 QAM

11

4.2 QAM bits per symbol


The advantage of using QAM is that it is a higher order form of modulation and as a result it is
able to carry more bits of information per symbol. By selecting a higher order format of QAM,
the data rate of a link can be increased.
Summary of the bit rates of different forms of QAM and PSK.
MODULATION

BITS PER SYMBOL

SYMBOL RATE

BPSK

1 x bit rate

QPSK

1/2 bit rate

8PSK

1/3 bit rate

16QAM

1/4 bit rate

32QAM

1/5 bit rate

64QAM

1/6 bit rate

4.3 QAM noise margin


While higher order modulation rates are able to offer much faster data rates and higher levels of
spectral efficiency for the radio communications system, this comes at a price. The higher order
modulation schemes are considerably less resilient to noise and interference.
As a result of this, many radio communications systems now use dynamic adaptive
modulation techniques. They sense the channel conditions and adapt the modulation scheme to
obtain the highest data rate for the given conditions. As signal to noise ratios decrease errors will
increase along with re-sends of the data, thereby slowing throughput. By reverting to a lower
order modulation scheme the link can be made more reliable with fewer data errors and re-sends.

12

5.0

CONCLUSION

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) can be said as one of the preferable techniques in data
transmission as it can allows multiple signals to be carried on a single carrier and also exist in
either analog or digital format. As compare to other type of signal modulation, QAM can offer
more advantages over disadvantages and the main advantages is it can transmit more bits of data
in one transmission. For the analog type of signals, QAM is widely used in television systems
and radio communication (AM stereo radio). On the other hand, digital formats of QAM is use in
the cellular technology, terrestrial microwave digital radio, digital video broadcast cable, digital
cable television and many more of application depends on the level of QAM itself. It shows that
QAM is one of the famous signal modulation.

13

6.0

REFERENCES

L. Hanzo, S.X. Ng, T. Keller, W.T. Webb. Quadrature Amplitude Modulation:


From Basics to Adaptive Trellis-Coded, Turbo-Equalized and Space-Time Coded
OFDM, CDMA and MC-CDMA Systems.
Ian Poole. What is QAM - Quadrature Amplitude Modulation?
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/rf-technology-design/quadratureamplitude-modulation-qam/what-is-qam-tutorial.php
M.S. Richer et al. 2006. The ATSC digital television system.
http://www.uta.edu/faculty/krrao/dip/Courses/EE4330/comparison%20of%20mod
ulation%20methods.pdf
Ali Muqaibel. Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/EE/muqaibel/Courses/EE370%20Communication%20
Engineering%20I/notes/Ch4%20Amplitude%20Modulation/4%20QAM.pdf
Chi Zhang. 2006. A Comparative Study of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation and
Continuous Phase Modulation.
http://etd.nd.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-12102006195114/unrestricted/ZhangC122006.pdf
Gary Croke. 2013. 8 Questions You Need Answered about Higher-Order QAM Usage.
http://blog.aviatnetworks.com/2013/02/22/8-questions-you-need-answered-abouthigher-order-qam-usage

14

You might also like