EE 370: Dr.
Wajih Abu-Al-Saud
Chap. VI: Sampling & Pulse Code Mod.
Lect. 32
Application of Sampling in TDM
If we have multiple BASEBAND signals that we would like to transmit over the same
channel such as a coaxial cable or a wireless channel, one method of being able to transmit
all channels and yet being able to extract each channel at the receiver without interference
between the different signals is to modulate each channel at a different frequency. It is
obvious in this case that the different channels are sharing the same transmission time (all
are transmitted at the same time) but they divide the frequency band (because each has its
own transmission band that resulted from modulating each at a different frequency). These
channels are said to be Frequency Division Multiplexed (FDM). This is the process that is
used for transmitting multiple radio channels in the AM or FM bands and multiple TV
channels over a satellite. In many cases, we would like to transmit multiple signals over
the same communication channels without modulating the signals first. Therefore, we
have to use timedivision multiplexing (TDM). TDM is a process in which different
signals that have the same frequency are transmitted over the same channel. These signals
instead of being multiplexed in frequency, they are multiplexed in time. One method for
performing TDM is to sample the different signals at the same rate but at different time
instants and the samples of the different signals are interleaved (placed in a sequence).
Consider for example the three signals represent by the dashed lines shown below.
EE 370: Dr. Wajih Abu-Al-Saud
Chap. VI: Sampling & Pulse Code Mod.
Lect. 32
The signal containing the samples of the different original signals is a TDM signal. This
signal can be transmitted over a channel and the received samples can be DE
INTERLEAVED (samples are separated to create the original signals). It is clear that
TDM cannot be performed for continuous time signals.
Pulse Modulated Signals
Since ideal delta function cannot be implemented in practice, representing samples of
signals in terms of delta functions is only theoretical. Therefore, one practical method for
representing samples is using pulses (rect functions) instead of impulses (delta functions).
There are three main types using which we represent the information carried by a
EE 370: Dr. Wajih Abu-Al-Saud Chap. VI: Sampling & Pulse Code Mod.
Lect. 32
sequence of samples (three types of pulse modulations). Notice that the term modulation
here is not used in the sense of modulation that we used in the previous chapters, which
the frequency of a signal is shifted to a higher frequency for transmission. The term
modulation here is used to specify the process in which the information signal modifies
some parameter of a sequence of pulses. This parameter is used to transmit the desired
information.
Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM): in this modulation scheme, the information
is carrier in the amplitude (or height) of the pulses. This is the most logical pulse
modulation method. The following shows an example of PAM. Notice that the
width of the different pulses is exactly the same and that the pulses are always
centered at the sampling instants (or may start at the sampling instants), but there
centers are always separated by the sampling period Ts.
PulseWidth Modulation (PWM): in this modulation, the information is carrier
in the width (or duration) of the pulses. The following shows an example of
PWM. Notice that the height (amplitude) of the different pulses is exactly the
same and that the pulses are always centered at the sampling instants and
separated by the sampling period Ts.
gPWM(t)
Ts
EE 370: Dr. Wajih Abu-Al-Saud Chap. VI: Sampling & Pulse Code Mod.
Lect. 32
PulsePosition Modulation (PPM): in this modulation, the information is carrier
in the position of the pulses. The following shows an example of PPM. Notice
that the height (amplitude) and width of the different pulses is exactly the same.
Here the pulses are not centered at sampling instants.
gPPM(t)
Ts
Comment: Each of the above pulse modulation methods has advantages and
disadvantages. For example, the advantage of PPM and PWD over PAM is
that they have constant amplitude. For transmissions over channels that
change with time (called timevarying channels) the gain of the channels may
change, and therefore the height of the pulses may change not because they
were amplitude modulated, but because the power received as different pulses
were transmitted was varying because of the distance. If the transmitted pulses
originally had constant height as it is the case for PPM and PWM, even if the
received pulses had varying amplitudes, the varying amplitude has no effect
on the receiver. This is generally not possible if PAM was used. On the other
hand, it is clear that if the amplitude of the original continuous-time signal
suddenly became large, the width of pulses in PWM may either increase to
overlap with adjacent pulses or collapse to become zero. In this case, the
receiver may get confused on what the original continuous-time signal was. A
similar problem may occur in PPM where pulses that were generated later
could precede pulses that were generated first because of high amplitude of
the input continuous-time signal.
