FDM, TDM

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM ( TC-306), SPRING, 2022 3

Basic Terms
Multiplexing
When several communication channels are needed between the same two points for either multiple access
or channel diversity (i.e., message redundancy), significant economies may be realized by sending all the
messages on one transmission facility—a process called multiplexing.
Applications of multiplexing range from the telephone network to wireless cell phones, wireless networks,
FM stereo, and space-probe telemetry systems.
Three basic multiplexing techniques are frequency division multiplexing (FDM), time-division
multiplexing (TDM), and code division multiplexing.
 An objective of these techniques is to enable multiple users to share a channel, and hence they are
referred to as frequency-divison multiple access (FDMA), time-division multiple access (TDMA), and
code-division multiple access (CDMA).
Multiplexing can serve two purposes: First, it enables several users to share a channel resource. Second,
with the appropriate redundancy using frequency, code, time, or spatial diversity, we can improve the
reliability of a message reaching its destination.
 Multiplexing
 Frequency Division Multiplexing:
 The principle of FDM is illustrated in Figure 7.2–1a, where several input messages (three
are shown) individually modulate the subcarriers fc1, fc2, and so forth, after passing through
LPFs to limit the message bandwidths.
 The subcarrier modulation as SSB is used, but any of the CW modulation techniques could
be employed, or a mixture of them. The modulated signals are then summed to produce the
baseband signal, with spectrum Xb(f) as shown in Fig. 7.2–1b.
Multiplexing (1)
Multiplexing (2)
 Assuming that the subcarrier frequencies are properly chosen, the multiplexing operation has assigned a
slot in the frequency domain for each of the individual messages in modulated form, hence the name
frequency-division multiplexing.
The baseband signal may then be transmitted directly or used to modulate a transmitted carrier of
frequency fc and produce bandpass signal.
Message recovery or demodulation of FDM is accomplished in three steps portrayed by Fig. 7.2–2.
First, the carrier demodulator reproduces the baseband signal xb(t). Then the modulated subcarriers are
separated by a bank of bandpass filters in parallel, following which the messages are individually detected.
The major practical problem of FDM is crosstalk, the unwanted coupling of one message into another.
Intelligible crosstalk (cross-modulation) arises primarily because of nonlinearities in the system which
cause one message signal to appear as modulation on another subcarrier.
Hence, negative feedback is used to minimize amplifier nonlinearity in FDM systems.
Multiplexing (3)
Multiplexing (4)
Unintelligible crosstalk may come from nonlinear effects or from imperfect spectral separation
by the filter bank.
To reduce the latter, the modulated message spectra are spaced out in frequency by guard bands
into which the filter transition regions can be fitted.
For example, the guard band marked in Fig. 7.2–1b is of width fc2-(fc1+W1).
The net baseband bandwidth is therefore the sum of the modulated message bandwidths plus the
guard bands.
The commercial AM or FM broadcast bands are everyday examples of FDMA, where several
broadcasters can transmit simultaneously in the same band, but at slightly different frequencies.
TDM Basics
Multiplexing (5)
Time Division Multiplexing:
 A sampled waveform is “off” most of the time, leaving the time between samples available
for other purposes.
 Sample values from several different signals can be interleaved into a single waveform. This
is the principle of time-division multiplexing (TDM).
The simplified system in Fig. 7.2–7 demonstrates the essential features of time division
multiplexing. Several input signals are pre-filtered by the bank of input LPFs and sampled
sequentially. The rotating sampling switch or commutator at the transmitter extracts one
sample from each input per revolution. Hence, its output is a PAM waveform that contains the
individual samples periodically interleaved in time.
A similar rotary switch at the receiver, called a decommutator or distributor, separates the
samples and distributes them to another bank of LPFs for reconstruction of the individual
messages.
Multiplexing (6)
Multiplexing (7)
If all inputs have the same message bandwidth W, the commutator should rotate at the rate fs ≥
2W so that successive samples from any one input are spaced by Ts = 1/fs ≤ 1/2W. The time
interval Ts containing one sample from each input is called a frame. If there are M input channels,
the pulse-to-pulse spacing within a frame is Ts/M = 1/Mfs. Thus, the total number of pulses per
second will be:
r=Mf s≥ 2MW
which represents the pulse rate or signaling rate of the TDM signal.
Multiplexing (8)
TDM systems require careful synchronization between commutator and decommutator.
Synchronization is a critical consideration in TDM, because each pulse must be distributed to the
correct output line at the appropriate time.
A popular brute-force synchronization technique devotes one time slot per frame to a distinctive marker
pulse or non-pulse, as illustrated in Fig. 7.2–9. These markers establish the frame frequency fs at the
receiver, but the number of signal channels is reduced to M-1.
Other synchronization methods involve auxiliary pilot tones or the statistical properties of the TDM
signal itself.
Multiplexing (9)
Multiplexing (10)

Synchronous TDM
Multiplexing (11)
Difference B/W FDM and TDM
Differences b/w Multiplexing and
Multiple Access