Amplitude-shift keying

Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is a form of amplitude

modulation that represents digital data as variations in the
amplitude of a carrier wave. In an ASK system, the binary
symbol 1 is represented by transmitting a xed-amplitude
carrier wave and xed frequency for a bit duration of T ASK diagram
seconds. If the signal value is 1 then the carrier signal
will be transmitted; otherwise, a signal value of 0 will be
used:
transmitted.
Any digital modulation scheme uses a nite number of
distinct signals to represent digital data. ASK uses a nite number of amplitudes, each assigned a unique pattern of binary digits. Usually, each amplitude encodes
an equal number of bits. Each pattern of bits forms the
symbol that is represented by the particular amplitude.
The demodulator, which is designed specically for the
symbol-set used by the modulator, determines the amplitude of the received signal and maps it back to the symbol
it represents, thus recovering the original data. Frequency
and phase of the carrier are kept constant.

ht is the carrier signal for the transmission

hc is the impulse response of the channel
n is the noise introduced by the channel
hr is the lter at the receiver
L is the number of levels that are used for transmission
T is the time between the generation of two symbols

Like AM, ASK is also linear and sensitive to atmospheric

noise, distortions, propagation conditions on dierent
routes in PSTN, etc. Both ASK modulation and demodulation processes are relatively inexpensive. The ASK
technique is also commonly used to transmit digital data
over optical ber. For LED transmitters, binary 1 is represented by a short pulse of light and binary 0 by the absence of light. Laser transmitters normally have a xed
bias current that causes the device to emit a low light
level. This low level represents binary 0, while a higheramplitude lightwave represents binary 1.

Dierent symbols are represented with dierent voltages.

If the maximum allowed value for the voltage is A, then
all the possible values are in the range [A, A] and they
are given by:
vi =

2A
L1 i

A;

i = 0, 1, . . . , L 1

the dierence between one voltage and the other is:

=

2A
L1

Considering the picture, the symbols v[n] are generated

randomly by the source S, then the impulse generator creThe simplest and most common form of ASK operates as ates impulses with an area of v[n]. These impulses are
a switch, using the presence of a carrier wave to indicate sent to the lter ht to be sent through the channel. In
a binary one and its absence to indicate a binary zero. other words, for each symbol a dierent carrier wave is
This type of modulation is called on-o keying (OOK), sent with the relative amplitude.
and is used at radio frequencies to transmit Morse code Out of the transmitter, the signal s(t) can be expressed in
(referred to as continuous wave operation),
the form:
More sophisticated encoding schemes have been devel- s(t) =
n= v[n] ht (t nTs )
oped which represent data in groups using additional amplitude levels. For instance, a four-level encoding scheme In the receiver, after the ltering through hr (t) the signal
can represent two bits with each shift in amplitude; an is:
eight-level scheme can represent three bits; and so on. z(t) = nr (t) +
n= v[n] g(t nTs )
These forms of amplitude-shift keying require a high
signal-to-noise ratio for their recovery, as by their nature where we use the notation:
much of the signal is transmitted at reduced power.
nr (t) = n(t) hr (f )
ASK system can be divided into three blocks. The rst g(t) = ht (t) hc (f ) hr (t)
one represents the transmitter, the second one is a linear
where * indicates the convolution between two signals.
model of the eects of the channel, the third one shows
After the A/D conversion the signal z[k] can be expressed
the structure of the receiver. The following notation is
in the form:
1

z[k] = nr [k] + v[k]g[0] +

n=k

EXTERNAL LINKS

v[n]g[k n]

In this relationship, the second term represents the symbol

to be extracted. The others are unwanted: the rst one is
the eect of noise, the third one is due to the intersymbol
interference.
If the lters are chosen so that g(t) will satisfy the Nyquist
ISI criterion, then there will be no intersymbol interference and the value of the sum will be zero, so:
z[k] = nr [k] + v[k]g[0]
the transmission will be aected only by noise.

Probability of error

it does not matter which Gaussian function we are considering, the area we want to calculate will be the same. The
value we are looking for will be given by the following
integral:
2
(
)

x2
Ag(0)
1
P + = Ag(0) 2
e 2N dx = 12 erfc 2(L1)
L1

where erfc() is the complementary error function. Putting

The probability density function of having an error of a all these results together, the probability to make an error
given size can be modelled by a Gaussian function; the is:
(
)
(
)
mean value will be the relative sent value, and its variance Pe = 1 1 erfc Ag(0)
L
2(L1)N
will be given by:
from this formula we can easily understand that the prob +
2
N
= N (f ) |Hr (f )|2 df
ability to make an error decreases if the maximum ampliwhere N (f ) is the spectral density of the noise within tude of the transmitted signal or the amplication of the
the band and Hr (f) is the continuous Fourier transform system becomes greater; on the other hand, it increases
if the number of levels or the power of noise becomes
of the impulse response of the lter hr (f).
greater.
The probability of making an error is given by:
This relationship is valid when there is no intersymbol inPe = Pe|H0 PH0 +Pe|H1 PH1 + +Pe|HL1 PHL1
terference, i.e. g(t) is a Nyquist function.
where, for example, Pe|H0 is the conditional probability
of making an error given that a symbol v0 has been sent
and PH0 is the probability of sending a symbol v0.
2 See also
If the probability of sending any symbol is the same, then:
PHi =

1
L

If we represent all the probability density functions on the

same plot against the possible value of the voltage to be
transmitted, we get a picture like this (the particular case
of L = 4 is shown):

The probability of making an error after a single symbol

has been sent is the area of the Gaussian function falling
under the functions for the other symbols. It is shown in
cyan for just one of them. If we call P+ the area under
one side of the Gaussian, the sum of all the areas will be:
2 L P^+ - 2 P^+. The total probability of making an error
can be expressed in the form:
)
(
Pe = 2 1 L1 P +
We have now to calculate the value of P+. In order to do
that, we can move the origin of the reference wherever we
want: the area below the function will not change. We are
in a situation like the one shown in the following picture:

Frequency-shift keying (FSK)

3 External links
Calculating the Sensitivity of an Amplitude Shift
Keying (ASK) Receiver

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