Modulation refers to the representation of digital information in terms of analog waveforms that can be transmitted over physical channels. A simple example is depicted in Figure 2.1, where a sequence of bits is translated into a waveform. The original information may be in the form of bits taking the values 0 and 1. These bits are translated into symbols using a bit-to-symbol map, which in this case could be as simple as mapping the bit 0 to the symbol +1, and the bit 1 to the symbol −1. These symbols are then mapped to an analog waveform by multiplying with translates of a transmit waveform (a rectangular pulse in the example shown): this is an example of linear modulation, to be discussed in detail in Section 2.5. For the bit-to-symbol map just described, the bitstream encoded into the analog waveform shown in Figure 2.1 is 01100010100.

While a rectangular timelimited transmit waveform is shown in the example of Figure 2.1, in practice, the analog waveforms employed for modulation are often constrained in the frequency domain. Such constraints arise either from the physical characteristics of the communication medium, or from external factors such as government regulation of spectrum usage. Thus, we typically classify channels, and the signals transmitted over them, in terms of the frequency bands they occupy. In this chapter, we discuss some important modulation techniques, after first reviewing some basic concepts regarding frequency domain characterization of signals and systems.