ETI 2413

Digital Communication Principles

By

Isaac Warutumo

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Prerequisites

ETI2404 Signals and Communications I

Purpose

The aim of this course is to enable the student to;

1. Understand the operation of A/D converters
2. Appreciate the importance of wave shaping in digital communications
3. Know the characteristics of various digital modulations schemes
4. Understand the effects of noise in digital communications

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the student should be able to;

2

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

1. Describe the operation of A/D converters
2. Calculate bandwidth requirements in digital communications
3. Compute data transmission rates in the presence of noise

Course Description

Principles of analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue converters

Digital signals: quantization, digitization, transmission and recognition
techniques.
Detection techniques of digital signals from noise: Baseband analysis,
filtering and pulse-shaping.
Effects of inter-symbol interference.

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Performance of various modulation schemes: M-array, amplitude shift,
frequency shift, continuous Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Quaternary
Phase Shift Keying (QPSK), Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK),
differential phase shift keying (DPSK) with noise and ideal filters.
Circuit realization for binary, quaternary, differential continuous phase
shift keying and differential phase shift keying modems.
Errors in digital communication systems: types, sources and
measurements.
Digital spread-spectrum system: Direct Sequence Code Division
Multiplexing Access (DS-CDMA), Frequency Hoping Spread Spectrum
(FHSS).
Advanced modulation techniques: Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM), Ultra Wideband (UWB)
4

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Application to communication systems.
Digital receivers

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Digital transmission of Analogue Data

A digital signal is superior to an analog signal because it is more robust to
noise and can easily be recovered, corrected and amplified. For this
reason, the tendency today is to change an analog signal to digital data

Figure 1: General communication scenario

6

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

PCM consists of three steps to digitize an analog signal:
Sampling
Quantization
Binary encoding
Before we sample, we have to filter the signal to limit the maximum
frequency of the signal as it affects the sampling rate.
Filtering should ensure that we do not distort the signal, i.e. remove high
frequency components that affect the signal shape.

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Figure 2: Digitization Process

An analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) converts a continuous (analogue)
signal to binary digital data.
Analog signals are continuous, with infinite values in a given range.
8

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Digital signals have discrete values such as on/off or 0/1.
Limitations of analog signals
o Analog signals pick up noise as they are being amplified.
o Analog signals are difficult to store.
o Analog systems are more expensive in relation to digital systems.
Advantages of digital systems (signals)
o Noise can be reduced by converting analog signals in 0s and 1s.
o Binary signals of 0s/1s can be easily stored in memory.
o Technology for fabricating digital systems has become so advanced
that they can be produced at low cost.
The major limitation of a digital system is how accurately it represents
the analog signals after conversion.
A typical system that converts signals from analog to digital and back to
analog includes:
9

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

o A transducer that converts non-electrical signals into electrical signals
o An A/D converter that converts analog signals into digital signals
o A digital processor that processes digital data (signals)
o A D/A converter that converts digital signals into equivalent analog
signals
o A transducer that converts electrical signals into real life nonelectrical signals (sound, pressure, and video)

10

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Figure 3: system that converts signals from analog to digital and

back to analog

11

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

A/D Converter
In order to change an analog signal to digital, the input analog signal is
sampled at a high rate of speed.
The amplitude at each of those sampled moments is converted into a
number equivalent this is called quantization.
These numbers are simply the combinations of the 0s and 1s used in
computer language this called encoding.

12

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Figure 4: A typical A/D converter

13

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Sampler
Sampling is the first stage of the ADC process
Analog signal is sampled every TS seconds.
Ts is referred to as the sampling interval.
fs = 1/Ts is called the sampling rate or sampling frequency.
There are 3 sampling methods:
o Ideal - an impulse at each sampling instant
o Natural - a pulse of short width with varying amplitude
o Flattop - sample and hold, like natural but with single amplitude value
The process is referred to as pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and the
outcome is a signal with analog (non integer) values

14

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Figure 5: Different sampling Methods

15

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

The analogue signal is sampled at regular intervals. To ensure regular
sampling, an accurate clock is needed. The sampling rate is determined
according of the sampling theorem which states that: an analogue signal that has no frequency components higher than fm Hz can be
uniquely represented by a sampled signal if the samples are made at a rate of f 0
samples per second where f 2 f
The original signal can be recovered from the sampled signal by passing it
through a low pass filter (LPF), whose bandwidth fB is given f f f2 Hz
0

The frequency f 2 f is called.The Nyquist frequency or Nyquist rate

The output of the sampler are sampled values at the sampling instants,
hence discrete
0

16

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Quantizer
This device maps the sampled analog signal to discrete values which are
incremented stepwise
For an analog signal which has a maximum value of l volts and a minimum
of a Volts, the analog signal is mapped in Q stepped discrete values
For such a signal, the step size

la
Q

(1)

In digital communications, the number of quantization steps is chosen such

that
Q 2q

17

Isaac Warutumo

(2)
September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Where q is an integer which represents the number of binary digits used to
encode a single sample
Figure 6 shows a typical signal at the output of the quantizer

Figure 6: Quantized signal

18

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

As can be seen in figure 6, the quantized value is held constant over the
sampling period T.
The quantized value is not always equal to the sampled value and this
absolute difference is called Quantization error.
The signal power to quantization noise power is given as

s
Q2 1
N

(3)

Where Q= number of quantization steps,

When expressed in dB,

s
(dB) 10log(Q 2 1)
N
19

Isaac Warutumo

(4)
September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Quantization Error

When a signal is quantized, we introduce an error - the coded signal is an

approximation of the actual amplitude value.
The difference between actual and coded value (midpoint) is referred to as
the quantization error.
The more zones, the smaller which results in smaller errors.
BUT, the more zones the more bits required to encode the samples ->
higher bit rate

Quantization Error and SN QR

Signals with lower amplitude values will suffer more from quantization
error as the error range: /2, is fixed for all signal levels.
20

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Non linear quantization is used to alleviate this problem. Goal is to keep
SNQR fixed for all sample values.
Two approaches:
o The quantization levels follow a logarithmic curve. Smaller s at
lower amplitudes and larger s at higher amplitudes.
o Companding: The sample values are compressed at the sender into
logarithmic zones, and then expanded at the receiver. The zones are
fixed in height.***research more***

Bit rate and bandwidth requirements of PCM

The bit rate of a PCM signal can be calculated form the number of bits per
sample x the sampling rate
Bit rate nb x f s q f s
21

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

The bandwidth required to transmit this signal depends on the type of line
encoding used (discussed later).
A digitized signal will always need more bandwidth than the original
analog signal. Price we pay for robustness and other features of digital
transmission.
Example:We have a low-pass analog signal of 4 kHz. If we send the analog
signal, we need a channel with a minimum bandwidth of 4 kHz. If we
digitize the signal and send 8 bits per sample, we need a channel with a
minimum bandwidth of 8 4 kHz = 32 kHz.

PCM Encoder
This device converts the step value to a binary number for transmission.
22

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

The number of bits to encode the binary number is obtained from
equation (2) above as
q log 2 Q

(5)

For example, for a system with Q=8, the binary digits per sample
q log 2 8 3
The output of the PCM encoder is binary data, which can be stored in a
computer file.
In this way, analog signal data can be handled as any other data stored in a
computer.

23

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Figure 7: different quantization levels

24

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Example

Given that an analog signal has a minimum value of 0V, a maximum value
of 4V, and the number of quantization steps is 8, draw a table showing step
number, binary PCM codes for the step and the value of voltage
represented by the PCM code
40
0.5V
Step size
8

The number of bits per PCM code is q log 2 8 3

Step
0
number
Binary 000
25

001

010

011

100

101

110

111

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Code
Voltage 0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

Quantization rules
(i) Quantization step size
la

(6)

Where l is the highest analog value, a is the minimum analog value

And Q is the number of quantization steps
(ii) the quantized value
xq ( kT ) mi if xi (t ) xs (kT ) xi 1 (t )

26

Isaac Warutumo

(7)

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Where mi is the quantized ith step value, xi (t ) is the analog scale value,
xi (t ) a i and xs (kT ) is the analogue sampled scale value
mi a 2 i

(8)

Or

mi

27

Isaac Warutumo

xi xi 1
2

(9)

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Figure 8: Analog Signal and its quantized signal

28

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Figure 8 above illustrates an analogue signal x (t ) , the sample values
xs (kT ) , as well as the quantized values xq (kT ) according to the
quantization rules above.
The number of quantization steps Q=8
The quantized values xq (kT ) m i always lie within the analog range
because xq mi xQ
The quantization error is given by
Qerror xs (kT ) xq (k )
and Qerror
where step size

29

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

At the receiver, the quantized signal can be recovered from the received
PCM encoded data because the maximum and minimum values b and a are
known.
The original analog signal corrupted by noise can then be recovered by
passing the reconstructed quantized signal through a low pass filter (LPF)
as shown in

Figure 9: reconstruction of the analog signal

30

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Example

The range of an analog signal is 0-4V. 8 quantization steps are used. Table 1
below shows the sampled values at the sampling instants
Table 1: Sampled signal
Time (mS)
0 1
2 3 4 5 6 7
Sampled value (V) 0.1 1.2 2.1 2.7 3.3 3.8 3.4 2.3
a) Calculate the transmitted PCM code for each sample
b) Sketch on the same scale the quantized signal and the approximated analog
signal

31

Isaac Warutumo

Solution

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

l a 40
Quantization step size

0.5
Q
8

Analog scale xi a i where i is the step number

Quantized scale mi a 2 i
The quantized value xq ( kT ) mi if xi (t ) xs (kT ) xi 1 (t )
The quantized step number i
calculated for each sample

and the quantized value xq (kT ) are

---to do ---

32

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

Time
0
(mS)
Sampled 0.1
value (V)
L
0

mi

1.2

2.1

2.7

3.3

3.8

3.4

2.3

0.25

1.25

2.25

2.75

3.25

3.75

3.75

2.25

xq(kT)

0.25

1.25

2.25

2.75

3.25

3.75

3.75

2.25

PCM (i)

000

010

100

101

110

111

111

100

33

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

--to dodraw the sketch

Quiz

Explain the seeming backward rotation of the wheels of a forward-moving

car in a movie
A complex low-pass signal has a bandwidth of 200 kHz. What is the
minimum sampling rate for this signal?
A complex bandpass signal has a bandwidth of 200 kHz. What is the
minimum sampling rate for this signal?

34

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014

ETI 2413 Digital Communication Principles

We want to digitize the human voice. What is the bit rate, assuming 8 bits
per sample? ( Make a realistic assumption regarding the highest frequency
of the human voice)
The end

35

Isaac Warutumo

September 22, 2014