The following are some formulae to calculate the required bandwidth for many kinds of common modulation techniques:

  • Amplitude Modulation: 2 * Signal Frequency
  • Single Sideband Modulation: 1 * Signal Frequency
  • Vestigial Sideband Modulation: 1.20 to 1.30 * Signal Frequency
  • Narrowband Frequency Modulation: 2 * Signal Frequency
  • Wideband Frequency Modulation: 2 * Modulation Ratio * Signal Frequency
  • Pulse Amplitude Modulation: 0.5 * Pulse Frequency
  • From this, it can be seen that pulse amplitude modulation is the most bandwidth efficient. However, it cannot carry analog data. Single sideband modulation is the most bandwidth efficient for analog data, and wideband frequency modulation is the least. Even though it uses a lot of bandwidth, wideband frequency modulation has superior noise resistance, making it a good choice for some applications.