688 COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
USB LSB LSB USB
Spectral impulse
due to carrier
Spectral impulse
due to carrier
Lower sideband (LSB)
Amplitude spectrum
Amplitude spectrum
Upper sideband (USB)
0 ω
0
1
2
−ωc ωc ω
1
(a)
(b)
Figure 15.2.2Spectral behavior.(a)Informa-
tion-signal spectrum.(b)Corresponding AM
signal spectrum.
Ac cos 2πfct
Nonlinear
device
such as a
P–N diode
Bandpass
filter tuned
to fc
x(t)
Message signal Conventional
+ DSB AM signal
Figure 15.2.3Block diagram of power-law modulation.
LetsAM(t) of Equation (15.2.3) be a voltage representing the wave that excites the transmitting
station’s antenna, which is assumed to represent a resistive impedanceR 0 to the transmitter that
feeds it. The power insAM(t) is found by
PAM=
sAM^2 (t)
R 0
=Pc+Pf=
1
2 R 0
[
A^2 c+f^2 (t)
]
(15.2.5)
in which the overbar represents the time average, andf(t) is assumed to have no dc component,
as is the usual case.Pc=A^2 c/ 2 R 0 is the power in the carrier, andPf=f^2 (t)/ 2 R 0 is the added
power caused by modulation.Pfis called the useful power, since only this power caused by the
message contributes toward message quality.Pc, the carrier power, is not useful power in the
sense that it carries no information. However, it is important to the receiver’s ability to recover
the message with low-cost circuitry.Modulation efficiencyηAMof the transmitted signal is defined
as the ratio of the useful power to the total power,
ηAM=
Pf
Pc+Pf
=
f^2 (t)
A^2 c+f^2 (t)
(15.2.6)
Whenf(t) is a square wave of peak amplitudeAc, the largest possible value ofηAMequal to 0.5,
or 50%, occurs. Whenf(t) is a sinusoid,ηAM≤ 1 /3, as shown in Example 15.2.1. For practical
audio (voice and music) messages, efficiency could be less than^1 / 3.