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Quadratureamplitudemodulation(QAM)isbothananalogandadigitalmodulationscheme.Itconveystwo
analogmessagesignals,ortwodigitalbitstreams,bychanging(modulating)theamplitudesoftwocarrier
waves,usingtheamplitudeshiftkeying(ASK)digitalmodulationschemeoramplitudemodulation(AM)
analogmodulationscheme.Thetwocarrierwavesofthesamefrequency,usuallysinusoids,areoutofphase
witheachotherby90andarethuscalledquadraturecarriersorquadraturecomponentshencethenameof
thescheme.Themodulatedwavesaresummed,andthefinalwaveformisacombinationofbothphaseshift
keying(PSK)andamplitudeshiftkeying(ASK),or,intheanalogcase,ofphasemodulation(PM)and
amplitudemodulation.InthedigitalQAMcase,afinitenumberofatleasttwophasesandatleasttwo
amplitudesareused.PSKmodulatorsareoftendesignedusingtheQAMprinciple,butarenotconsideredas
QAMsincetheamplitudeofthemodulatedcarriersignalisconstant.QAMisusedextensivelyasamodulation
schemefordigitaltelecommunicationsystems.ArbitrarilyhighspectralefficienciescanbeachievedwithQAM
bysettingasuitableconstellationsize,limitedonlybythenoiselevelandlinearityofthecommunications
channel.[1]
QAMisbeingusedinopticalfibersystemsasbitratesincreaseQAM16andQAM64canbeopticallyemulated
witha3pathinterferometer.[2][3]
Contents
1 Introduction
2 AnalogQAM
2.1 FourieranalysisofQAM
3 QuantizedQAM
3.1 Idealstructure
3.1.1 Transmitter
3.1.2 Receiver
4 QuantizedQAMperformance
4.1 RectangularQAM
4.1.1 OddkQAM
4.2 NonrectangularQAM
4.3 HierarchicalQAM
4.4 MutualInformationwithAWGN
5 Interferenceandnoise
6 Seealso
7 References
8 Externallinks
Introduction
Likeallmodulationschemes,QAMconveysdatabychangingsomeaspectofacarriersignal,orthecarrier
wave,(usuallyasinusoid)inresponsetoadatasignal.InthecaseofQAM,theamplitudeoftwowavesofthe
samefrequency,90outofphasewitheachother(inquadrature)arechanged(modulatedorkeyed)torepresent
thedatasignal.Amplitudemodulatingtwocarriersinquadraturecanbeequivalentlyviewedasbothamplitude
modulatingandphasemodulatingasinglecarrier.
Phasemodulation(analogPM)andphaseshiftkeying(digitalPSK)canberegardedasaspecialcaseofQAM,
wherethemagnitudeofthemodulatingsignalisaconstant,withonlythephasevarying.Thiscanalsobe
extendedtofrequencymodulation(FM)andfrequencyshiftkeying(FSK),forthesecanberegardedasaspecial
caseofphasemodulation.
AnalogQAM
WhentransmittingtwosignalsbymodulatingthemwithQAM,the
transmittedsignalwillbeoftheform:
Atthereceiver,thesetwomodulatingsignalscanbedemodulatedusinga
coherentdemodulator.Suchareceivermultipliesthereceivedsignal
separatelywithbothacosineandsinesignaltoproducethereceived AnalogQAM:measuredPAL
estimatesof and respectively.Becauseoftheorthogonalityproperty colourbarsignalonavector
analyserscreen.
ofthecarriersignals,itispossibletodetectthemodulatingsignals
independently.
Intheidealcase isdemodulatedbymultiplyingthetransmittedsignalwithacosinesignal:
Usingstandardtrigonometricidentities,wecanwriteitas:
Lowpassfiltering removesthehighfrequencyterms(containing ),leavingonlythe term.This
filteredsignalisunaffectedby ,showingthattheinphasecomponentcanbereceivedindependentlyofthe
quadraturecomponent.Similarly,wemaymultiply byasinewaveandthenlowpassfiltertoextract .
AnalogQAMsuffersfromthesameproblemasSinglesidebandmodulation:theexactphaseofthecarrieris
requiredforcorrectdemodulationatthereceiver.Ifthedemodulatingphaseisevenalittleoff,itresultsin
crosstalkbetweenthemodulatedsignals.Thisissueofcarriersynchronizationatthereceivermustbehandled
somehowinQAMsystems.Thecoherentdemodulatorneedstobeexactlyinphasewiththereceivedsignal,or
otherwisethemodulatedsignalscannotbeindependentlyreceived.Thisisachievedtypicallybytransmittinga
burstsubcarrieroraPilotsignal.
AnalogQAMisusedin:
NTSCandPALanalogColortelevisionsystems,wheretheIandQsignalscarrythecomponentsof
chroma(colour)information.TheQAMcarrierphaseisrecoveredfromaspecialColorbursttransmitted
atthebeginningofeachscanline.
CQUAM("CompatibleQAM")isusedinAMstereoradiotocarrythestereodifferenceinformation.
FourieranalysisofQAM
Inthefrequencydomain,QAMhasasimilarspectralpatterntoDSBSCmodulation.Usingthepropertiesofthe
Fouriertransform,wefindthat:
whereS(f),MI(f)andMQ(f)aretheFouriertransforms(frequencydomainrepresentations)ofs(t),I(t)andQ(t),
respectively.
QuantizedQAM
Asinmanydigitalmodulationschemes,theconstellationdiagramis
usefulforQAM.InQAM,theconstellationpointsareusuallyarranged
inasquaregridwithequalverticalandhorizontalspacing,although
otherconfigurationsarepossible(e.g.CrossQAM).Sinceindigital
telecommunicationsthedataisusuallybinary,thenumberofpointsin
thegridisusuallyapowerof2(2,4,8,).SinceQAMisusually
square,someofthesearerarethemostcommonformsare16QAM,
64QAMand256QAM.Bymovingtoahigherorderconstellation,itis
possibletotransmitmorebitspersymbol.However,ifthemeanenergy
oftheconstellationistoremainthesame(bywayofmakingafair Digital16QAMwithexample
comparison),thepointsmustbeclosertogetherandarethusmore constellationpoints
susceptibletonoiseandothercorruptionthisresultsinahigherbiterror