Constant Envelope Modulation ---------------------------------Definition : Many practical mobile radio communications systems use nonlinear modulation meth ods,

where the amplitude of the carrier is constant, regardless of the variation in the modulating signal. eg : FSK, GFSK, MSK, GMSK Advantages : The constant envelope family of modulations has the advantage of satisfying a n umber of conditions, some of which are: 1) Power efficient Class C amplifiers can be used without introducing degradatio n in the spectrum occupancy of the transmitted signal. Reason :- Amplifiers work by changing a signal's amplitude, either increasing or decreasing it. To increase a signal's power is to increase its amplitude. A non -linear amplifier (Class C) changes the signal amplitude by differing amount dep ending on the instantaneous amplitude of the signal. The more the amplitude of a signal varies, the more non-linear amplification occurs and this results in a d istorted signal. 2) Low out-of-band radiation of the order of -60 dB to -70 dB can be achieved. 3)Limiter-discriminator detection can be used, which simplifies receiver design and provides high immunity against random FM noise and signal fluctuations due t o Rayleigh fading. MSK -----Minimum shift keying (MSK) is an important concept to learn in digital communica tions. It is a form of continuous phase frequency shift keying . In minimum phas e shift keying, two key concepts are used. (a) The frequency separation of the sinusoidals used for representing bits 1's a nd 0's are , where is the symbol period. (b) It is ensured that the resulting waveform is phase continuous. Motivation of continuous phase In a previous post (here), we have understood that the minimum frequency separat ion for two sinusoidals having zero phase difference to be orthogonal is , where is the symbol period. However, it can be observed that at each symbol boundary , there is a phase discontinuity. The presence of phase discontinuities can resu lt in large spectral side lobes outside the desired bandwidth. Hence the need fo r having a frequency modulated signal which is phase continuous. block diagram http://www.dsplog.com/2009/06/16/msk-transmitter-receiver/