Say you have the following 8QAM constellation diagram:
Say, you want to send the sequence:
001 110 101 000 001
How would you draw the function/wave containing the symbols?
My problem in understanding this is:
I know you use amplitude and phase shifting for defining symbols. Each symbol has a complex function like this:
$$g(t) = A \times e^{i(ft + \phi)}$$
($A$ = amplitude, $f$ = frequency, $\phi$ = phase)
You have one function for each of the possible symbols. But how do you draw the sequence of symbols (or even one symbol)? Isn't $e^{ix} = \mathrm{cos}(x) + i \times \mathrm{sin}(x)$ ? Do I draw the real part or the imaginary part?
Thanks!