A review of multiple amplitude-phase digital signals

This paper reviews the data rate, error rate, and signal-to-noise ratio relationship for various uncoded M-ary digital amplitude modulation (AM), phase modulation (PM), and combined AM-PM systems. These signal systems have the common virtue that expanding the number of possible signals to be transmitted increases the data rate but not the bandwidth. A general treatment of the error rate of M-ary digital AM-PM permits development of a simple yet accurate expression which approximates the increase in average signal-to-noise ratio (over that of binary phase shift keying) required for constant error performance. This equation provides insight into why arrays differ in their signal-to-noise ratio requirements.