CT 214 Analog and Digital Communications

Lab # 8: Bandwidth Estimation and Demodulation of

Frequency Modulated (FM) Signals
Guidelines:
Pre lab preparation: Please try to read the relevant portions of Chapter 5 in the
textbook.
1. Aim: The purpose of this lab is to understand the behavior of tone modulated FM signals with
respect to the modulation index , verify the accuracy of transmission bandwidth estimate of an
FM signal calculated using Carsons rule and nally demodulate the FM signal via the FM-AM
conversion method.
2. Introduction: Frequency modulation (FM) is an instance of angle or non-linear modulation.
In this, the message signal modulates the instantaneous phase of an high frequency carrier. As
we have seen during the course of our discussion on FM in lectures, FM is much more superior
to AM in terms of power eciency and noise immunity. These benets come at the expense of
increased transmission bandwidth (BW) in comparison with AM. Despite not being BW ecient,
FM is widely used in radio broadcast owing to its ability to provide crystal clear sound quality.
In this lab, we shall focus on the behavior of tone modulated FM signals, followed by verication
of transmission BW computed using Carsons rule and demodulation of FM signals.
3. Procedure:
(a) Tone modulated FM: For this part, you may assume the message signal to be cos(2
50 t) and the carrier frequency to be 500 Hz. The modulation index can be taken to be
0.1, 1 and 5 respectively.
i. For every value of mentioned above generate the corresponding FM signal and plot
it.
ii. For every value of mentioned above plot the spectrum of the corresponding FM signal.
What do you notice? Compare the magnitude of the corresponding spectral lines with
the theoretical ones.
(b) Verication of Carsons rule: For this part you may assume the message signal to be
50 Sinc
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(100t). You may assume the peak frequency deviation to be 150 Hz.
i. Estimate the transmission bandwidth of the corresponding FM signal using Carsons
rule.
ii. Next generate the corresponding FM signal using a carrier of frequency 500 Hz and pass
it through an ideal bandpass lter centered at 500 Hz and whose bandwidth equal to the
transmission bandwidth estimated in the step immediately above. Plot the bandpass
lter output signal and its spectrum. From the output is Carsons rule good enough to
estimate the transmission bandwidth of an FM signal?
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(c) FM demodulation based on the FM-AM conversion method: For this part you may
assume the message signal to be any time-limited signal. You may assume the (essential)
bandwidth of the message signal to be 100 Hz. The carrier frequency can be taken to be
400 Hz. The peak frequency deviation of the corresponding FM signal can be assumed to
be 100 Hz.
i. Plot the corresponding FM signal and its magnitude spectrum.
ii. Demodulate the FM signal by using a combination of bandpass dierentiator and an
envelope detector. Plot the corresponding output signal after passing through the dif-
ferentiator and envelope detector respectively. Compare the nal demodulated output
signal with that of the original message signal.
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