Patent ID: 7912378

Claim:
A system operable to modulate a signal according to phase-shift keying (PSK) modulation, comprising: one or more phase modulators, the one or more phase modulators comprising one or more fractional phase modulators, a fractional phase modulator comprising: a splitter operable to split a communication signal to yield a first communication signal having a first amplitude and a second communication signal having a second amplitude, the ratio of the first amplitude and the second amplitude corresponding to a phase shift; a phase shifter coupled to the splitter and operable to phase shift at least one of the first communication signal and the second communication signal; a first modulator coupled to the splitter and operable to modulate the first communication signal at a constant phase; a second modulator coupled to the splitter and operable to modulate the second communication signal at a plurality of phases corresponding to the phase shift to encode data; and a coupler coupled to the first modulator and the second modulator and operable to couple the first communication signal and the second communication signal.