What is MSK, Minimum Shift Keying Modulation

- overview, information and tutorial about the basics of what is minimum shift keying, MSK, a form of modulation used for radio communications applications, and in particular for digital forms of radio communications.

This phase modulation, PM tutorial includes:

Minimum shift keying, MSK, is a form of is a type of continuous-phase frequency-shift keying, that is used in a number of applications. A variant of MSK modulation, known as Gaussian filtered Minimum Shift Keying, GMSK, is used for a number of radio communications applications including being used in the GSM cellular telecommunications system. In addition to this MSK has advantages over other forms of PSK and as a result it is used in a number of radio communications systems.

Reason for Minimum Shift Keying, MSK

It is found that binary data consisting of sharp transitions between "one" and "zero" states and vice versa potentially creates signals that have sidebands extending out a long way from the carrier, and this creates problems for many radio communications systems, as any sidebands outside the allowed bandwidth cause interference to adjacent channels and any radio communications links that may be using them.

Minimum Shift Keying, MSK basics

The problem can be overcome in part by filtering the signal, but is found that the transitions in the data become progressively less sharp as the level of filtering is increased and the bandwidth reduced. To overcome this problem GMSK is often used and this is based on Minimum Shift Keying, MSK modulation. The advantage of which is what is known as a continuous phase scheme. Here there are no phase discontinuities because the frequency changes occur at the carrier zero crossing points.

When looking at a plot of a signal using MSK modulation, it can be seen that the modulating data signal changes the frequency of the signal and there are no phase discontinuities. This arises as a result of the unique factor of MSK that the frequency difference between the logical one and logical zero states is always equal to half the data rate. This can be expressed in terms of the modulation index, and it is always equal to 0.5.

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