What is Modulation?

Modulation is a process through which audio, video, image or text information is added to an electrical or optical carrier signal to be transmitted over a telecommunication or electronic medium. 

Modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal that typically contains information to be transmitted. Most radio systems in the 20th century used frequency modulation (FM) or amplitude modulation (AM) for radio broadcast. 

Modulation enables the transfer of information on an electrical signal to a receiving device that demodulates the signal to extract the blended information.

Need for Modulation:

Baseband signals are incompatible for direct transmission. For such a signal, to travel longer distances, its strength must be increased by modulating with a high frequency carrier wave, which doesn’t affect the parameters of the modulating signal.

Modulator used for modulation and demodulator used for demodulating signals in its original form. A modem is a common example of a modulation technique in which the data is modulated with electrical signals and transmitted over telephone lines. It is later demodulated to receive the data.

There are basically two methods of modulations:

1.Analog Modulations Method

2.Digital Modulations Method