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Baseband is a signal that has a near-zero frequency range (or, a narrow frequency "bandwidth") from close to zero hertz up to a higher cut-off frequency.[i] An example of a baseband signal would be the audio signal output of a microphone, or a single musical note or synthesized tone.

Morse code transmissions have utilized trivial baseband signals since the invention of continuous wave radio transmitters in the early 20th century. Similarly, in modern digital telecommunications and signal processing, only baseband signals are transmitted.[2]

In conventional analog radio broadcasting, however, the baseband audio signal is used, after processing, to modulate a separate RF carrier signal at a much higher frequency.

Baseband can be synonymous with lowpass or non-modulated, and is differentiated from passband, carrier-modulated, intermediate frequency, or radio frequency (RF).

Various uses

Baseband signal


A baseband bandwidth is equal to the highest frequency of a signal or system, or an upper bound on such frequencies,[4] for example the upper cut-off frequency of a low-pass filter. By contrast, passband bandwidth is the difference between a highest frequency and a nonzero lowest frequency.

Baseband channel


Digital baseband transmission

Digital baseband transmission, also known as line coding,[6] aims at transferring a digital bit stream over baseband channel, typically an unfiltered wire, contrary to passband transmission, also known as carrier-modulated transmission.[7] 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


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 the wireless digital system. The baseband processing block in GNSS receivers is usually responsible for providing observable data: code pseudo-ranges and carrier phase measurements, as well as navigation data.[]

Equivalent baseband signal

An equivalent baseband signal or equivalent lowpass signal is--in analog and digital modulation methods for (passband) signals with constant or varying carrier frequency (for example ASK, PSK QAM, and FSK)--a complex valued representation of the modulated physical signal (the so-called passband signal or RF signal). The equivalent baseband signal is where is the inphase signal, the quadrature phase signal, and the imaginary unit. In a digital modulation method, the and 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

where is the carrier angular frequency in rad/s.[10]



The figure shows what happens with AM modulation:


See also


  1. ^ or, more formally, a baseband has a spectral magnitude that is nonzero only for frequencies in the vicinity of the origin (termed f=0) and negligible elsewhere.[1]


  8. ^ IEEE 802.3 1.2.3 Physical layer and media notation
  9. ^ "IEEE Get Program". standards.ieee.org. IEEE. Retrieved 2017.




Music Scenes