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Performance of Digital Modulation
over
Wireless Channels
We now consider the performance of the digital modulation techniques discussed in the previous
chapter when used over AWGN channels and channels with flat-fading. There are two performance
criteria of interest: the probability of error, defined relative to either symbol or bit errors, and the
outage probability, defined as the probability that the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio falls below a
given threshold. Flat-fading can cause a dramatic increase in either the average bit-error-rate or the
signal outage probability. Wireless channels may also exhibit frequency selective fading and Doppler
shift. Frequency-selective fading gives rise to intersymbol interference (ISI), which causes an
irreducible error floor in the received signal. Doppler causes spectral broadening, which leads to
adjacent channel interference (typically small at reasonable user velocities), and also to an irreducible
error floor in signals with differential phase encoding (e.g. DPSK), since the phase reference of the
previous symbol partially decorrelates over a symbol time. This chapter describes the impact on digital
modulation performance of noise, flat-fading, frequency-selective fading, and Doppler.
6.1 AWGN Channels
In this section we defifine the signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) and its relation to energy-per-bit
(Eb) and energy
per-symbol (Es). We then examine the error probability on AWGN channels for different
modulation techniques
as parameterized by these energy metrics. Our analysis uses the signal space concepts of Chapter
5.1
6.1.1 Signal-to-Noise Power Ratio and Bit/Symbol Energy
In an AWGN channel the modulated signal s(t) = {u(t)ej2πfct} has noise n(t) added to it prior to
reception.
The noise n(t) is a white Gaussian random process with mean zero and power spectral density
N0/2. The received
signal is thus r(t) = s(t) + n(t).
We defifine the received signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) as the ratio of the received signal
power Pr to the
power of the noise within the bandwidth of the transmitted signal s(t). The received power Pr is
determined by
the transmitted power and the path loss, shadowing, and multipath fading, as described in
Chapters 2-3. The noise
power is determined by the bandwidth of the transmitted signal and the spectral properties of n(t).
Specififically, if
the bandwidth of the complex envelope u(t) of s(t) is B then the bandwidth of the transmitted
signal s(t) is 2B.
Since the noise n(t) has uniform power spectral density N0/2, the total noise power within the
bandwidth 2B is N = N0/2 × 2B = N0B. So the received SNR is given by
In systems with interference, we often use the received signal-to-interference-

plus-noise power ratio (SINR) in
place of SNR for calculating error probability. If the interference statistics
approximate those of Gaussian noise
then this is a reasonable approximation. The received SINR is given by
where PI is the average power of the interference.
The SNR is often expressed in terms of the signal energy per bit Eb or per symbol Es as
where Ts is the symbol time and Tb is the bit time (for binary modulation Ts = Tb and Es = Eb). For
data
pulses with Ts = 1/B, e.g. raised cosine pulses with β = 1, we have SNR = Es/N0 for multilevel signaling
and SNR = Eb/N0 for binary signaling. For general pulses, Ts = k/B for some constant k, in which case
k · SNR = Es/N0.
The quantities γs = Es/N0 and γb = Eb/N0 are sometimes called the SNR per symbol and the SNR per
bit, respectively. For performance specification, we are interested in the bit error probability Pb as a
function of
γb. However, for M-aray signaling (e.g. MPAM and MPSK), the bit error probability depends on both
the symbol
error probability and the mapping of bits to symbols. Thus, we typically compute the symbol error
probability Ps
as a function of γs based on the signal space concepts of Chapter 5.1 and then obtain Pb as a function
of γb using an
exact or approximate conversion. The approximate conversion typically assumes that the symbol
energy is divided
equally among all bits, and that Gray encoding is used so that at reasonable SNRs, one symbol error
corresponds
to exactly one bit error. These assumptions for M-aray signaling lead to the approximations
and
6.1.2 Error Probability for BPSK and QPSK

We first consider BPSK modulation with coherent detection and perfect recovery of the carrier
frequency and
phase. With binary modulation each symbol corresponds to one bit, so the symbol and bit error rates
are the same.
The transmitted signal is s1(t) = Ag(t) cos(2πfct) to sent a 0 bit and s2(t) = −Ag(t) cos(2πfct) to send a 1
bit.
From (5.46) we have that the probability of error is
From Chapter 5, dmin = ||s1 − s0|| = ||A − (−A)|| = 2A. Let us now relate A to the energy-per-bit. We
have
from (5.56). Thus, the signal constellation for BPSK in terms of energy-per-bit is given by s0 =
√Eb and
s1 = −√Eb. This yields the minimum distance dmin = 2A = 2√Eb. Substituting this into (6.4) yields
QPSK modulation consists of BPSK modulation on both the in-phase and quadrature components
of the
signal. With perfect phase and carrier recovery, the received signal components corresponding to
each of these
branches are orthogonal. Therefore, the bit error probability on each branch is the same as for
BPSK:
Pb =
Q(
√2γb). The symbol error probability equals the probability that either branch has a bit error:
Since the symbol energy is split between the in-phase and quadrature branches, we have
γs = 2γb. Substituting
this into (6.7) yields Ps is terms of γs as
From Section 5.1.5, the union bound (5.40) on Ps for QPSK is
Writing this in terms of γs = 2γb = A2/N0 yields
The closed form bound (5.44) becomes
Using the fact that the minimum distance between constellation points is dmin = √2A2, we get the
nearest
neighbor approximation

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Performance of Digital Modulation

In systems with interference, we often use the received signal-to-interference-

6.1.2 Error Probability for BPSK and QPSK

From Section 5.1.5, the union bound (5.40) on Ps for QPSK is

Writing this in terms of γs = 2γb = A2/N0 yields

The closed form bound (5.44) becomes

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