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In
telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
and
signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...
, baseband is the range of frequencies occupied by a
signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...
that has not been modulated to higher frequencies. Baseband signals typically originate from
transducer A transducer is a device that Energy transformation, converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another. Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, M ...
s, converting some other variable into an electrical signal. For example, the electronic output of a microphone is a baseband signal that is analogous to the applied voice audio. In conventional analog
radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...
, the baseband
audio signal An audio signal is a representation of sound, typically using either a changing level of electrical voltage for analog signals or a series of binary numbers for Digital signal (signal processing), digital signals. Audio signals have frequencies i ...
is used to modulate an RF carrier signal of a much higher frequency. A baseband signal may have frequency components going all the way down to the DC bias, or at least it will have a high ratio bandwidth. A modulated baseband signal is called a passband signal. This occupies a higher range of frequencies and has a lower ratio and fractional bandwidth.


Various uses


Baseband signal

A ''baseband signal'' or ''lowpass signal'' is a signal that can include frequencies that are very near zero, by comparison with its highest frequency (for example, a sound waveform can be considered as a baseband signal, whereas a radio signal or any other modulated signal is not). A ''baseband bandwidth'' is equal to the highest frequency of a signal or system, or an upper bound on such frequencies, for example the upper cut-off frequency of a
low-pass filter A low-pass filter is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a selected cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filt ...
. By contrast,
passband A passband is the range of frequency, frequencies or wavelengths that can pass through a Filter (signal processing), filter. For example, a radio receiver contains a bandpass filter to select the frequency of the desired radio signal out of all t ...
bandwidth is the difference between a highest frequency and a nonzero lowest frequency.


Baseband channel

A ''baseband channel'' or ''lowpass channel'' (or ''system'', or ''network'') is a
communication channel A communication channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking. A channel is used for infor ...
that can transfer frequencies that are very near zero. Examples are serial cables and
local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, campus, or building, and has its network equipment and interconnects locally managed. LANs facilitate the distribution of da ...
s (LANs), as opposed to
passband A passband is the range of frequency, frequencies or wavelengths that can pass through a Filter (signal processing), filter. For example, a radio receiver contains a bandpass filter to select the frequency of the desired radio signal out of all t ...
channels such as radio frequency channels and passband filtered wires of the analog telephone network. Frequency division multiplexing (FDM) allows an analog telephone wire to carry a baseband telephone call, concurrently as one or several carrier-modulated telephone calls.


Digital baseband transmission

Digital baseband transmission, also known as
line coding In telecommunications, a line code is a pattern of voltage, current, or photons used to represent digital data transmitted down a communication channel or written to a storage medium. This repertoire of signals is usually called a constrained ...
, aims at transferring a digital bit stream over baseband channel, typically an unfiltered wire, contrary to
passband A passband is the range of frequency, frequencies or wavelengths that can pass through a Filter (signal processing), filter. For example, a radio receiver contains a bandpass filter to select the frequency of the desired radio signal out of all t ...
transmission, also known as ''carrier-modulated'' transmission. Passband transmission makes communication possible over a bandpass filtered channel, such as the telephone network local-loop or a band-limited wireless channel.


Baseband transmission in Ethernet

The word "BASE" in Ethernet physical layer standards, for example 10BASE5, 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-SX, implies baseband digital transmission (i.e. that a
line code In telecommunications, a line code is a pattern of voltage, current, or photons used to represent digital data transmission (telecommunications), transmitted down a communication channel or written to a storage medium. This repertoire of signal ...
and an unfiltered wire are used).IEEE 802.3 ''1.2.3 Physical layer and media notation''


Baseband processor

A baseband processor also known as BP or BBP is used to process the down-converted digital signal to retrieve essential data for a wireless digital system. The baseband processing block in GNSS receivers is responsible for providing observable data: that is, code pseudo-ranges and carrier phase measurements, as well as navigation data.


Equivalent baseband signal

An ''equivalent baseband signal'' or ''equivalent lowpass signal'' is a complex valued representation of the modulated physical signal (the so-called
passband A passband is the range of frequency, frequencies or wavelengths that can pass through a Filter (signal processing), filter. For example, a radio receiver contains a bandpass filter to select the frequency of the desired radio signal out of all t ...
signal or RF signal). It is a concept within analog and digital modulation methods for (passband) signals with constant or varying
carrier frequency In telecommunications, a carrier wave, carrier signal, or just carrier, is a periodic waveform (usually sinusoidal) that conveys information through a process called ''modulation''. One or more of the wave's properties, such as amplitude or fre ...
(for example ASK, PSK QAM, and FSK). The equivalent baseband signal is Z(t)=I(t)+jQ(t)\, where I(t) is the inphase signal, Q(t) the quadrature phase signal, and j the
imaginary unit The imaginary unit or unit imaginary number () is a mathematical constant that is a solution to the quadratic equation Although there is no real number with this property, can be used to extend the real numbers to what are called complex num ...
. This signal is sometimes called '' IQ data''. In a digital modulation method, the I(t) and Q(t) signals of each modulation symbol are evident from the constellation diagram. The frequency spectrum of this signal includes negative as well as positive frequencies. The physical passband signal corresponds to :I(t)\cos(\omega t) - Q(t)\sin(\omega t) = \mathrm\\, where \omega is the carrier
angular frequency In physics, angular frequency (symbol ''ω''), also called angular speed and angular rate, is a scalar measure of the angle rate (the angle per unit time) or the temporal rate of change of the phase argument of a sinusoidal waveform or sine ...
in rad/s.Proakis, John G. ''Digital Communications'', 4th edition. McGraw-Hill, 2001. p150


Modulation

A signal at baseband is often used to modulate a higher frequency
carrier signal In telecommunications, a carrier wave, carrier signal, or just carrier, is a periodic waveform (usually sinusoidal) that conveys information through a process called ''modulation''. One or more of the wave's properties, such as amplitude or frequ ...
in order that it may be transmitted via radio. Modulation results in shifting the signal up to much higher frequencies (radio frequencies, or RF) than it originally spanned. A key consequence of the usual double-sideband
amplitude modulation Amplitude modulation (AM) is a signal modulation technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting messages with a radio wave. In amplitude modulation, the instantaneous amplitude of the wave is varied in proportion t ...
(AM) is that the range of frequencies the signal spans (its spectral bandwidth) is doubled. Thus, the RF bandwidth of a signal (measured from the lowest frequency as opposed to 0 Hz) is twice its baseband bandwidth. Steps may be taken to reduce this effect, such as
single-sideband modulation In radio communications, single-sideband modulation (SSB) or single-sideband suppressed-carrier modulation (SSB-SC) is a type of signal modulation used to transmit information, such as an audio signal, by radio waves. A refinement of amplitu ...
. Conversely, some transmission schemes such as
frequency modulation Frequency modulation (FM) is a signal modulation technique used in electronic communication, originally for transmitting messages with a radio wave. In frequency modulation a carrier wave is varied in its instantaneous frequency in proporti ...
use even more bandwidth. The figure below shows AM modulation:


See also

*
Complex envelope In mathematics and signal processing, an analytic signal is a complex-valued function that has no negative frequency components.  The real and imaginary parts of an analytic signal are real-valued functions related to each other by the Hilbe ...
*
Broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...
* In-phase and quadrature components *
Narrowband Narrowband signals are signals that occupy a narrow range of frequencies or that have a small fractional bandwidth. In the audio spectrum, ''narrowband sounds'' are sounds that occupy a narrow range of frequencies. In telephony, narrowband is ...
*
Wideband In communications, a system is wideband when the message bandwidth significantly exceeds the coherence bandwidth of the channel. Some communication links have such a high data rate that they are forced to use a wide bandwidth; other links ma ...


References

{{Authority control Computer network technology Signal processing