EEE 309 Communication Theory

Semester: January 2016

Dr. Md. Farhad Hossain

Associate Professor
Department of EEE, BUET

Email: mfarhadhossain@eee.buet.ac.bd
Office: ECE 331, ECE Building
 Part 05

Pulse Code Modulation 
Pulse Code Modulation
(PCM)
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 Advantages of Digital Communication
 Digital systems are less sensitive to noise and signal distortion. For long transmission line, the signal 
may be regenerated effectively error‐free at different points along the path.
 With digital systems, it is easier to integrate different services, e.g., video and the accompanying 
soundtrack into the same transmission scheme
soundtrack, into the same transmission scheme.
 The transmission scheme can be relatively independent of the source
 Circuitry for digital signals is easier to repeat and digital circuits are less sensitive to physical effects 
such as vibration and temperature
p
 Digital signals are simpler to characterize and typically do not have the same amplitude range and 
variability as analog signals. This makes the associated hardware design easier.
 Various media sharing strategies (known as multiplexing) are more easily implemented with digital 
t
transmission strategies
i i t t i
 Source coding techniques can be used for removing redundancy from digital transmission
 Error‐control coding can be used for adding redundancy, which can be used to detect and correct 
errors at the receiver side
errors at the receiver side 
 Digital communication systems can be made highly secure by exploiting powerful encryption algorithms
 Digital communication systems are inherently more efficient than analog communication systems in 
the tradeoff between transmission bandwidth and signal‐to‐noise ratio
 Various channel compensation techniques, such as, channel estimation and equalization, are easier to 
implement 
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 Sampling (1)
 Sampling is an operation that is basic to digital signal processing and digital communications
 Through the use of sampling process, an analog signal is converted into a corresponding 
q p y p y
sequence of samples that are usually spaced uniformly in time

Message

Sampling Signal

T  f   f s
s    f  nf 
s
n  

Sampled Signal

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 Sampling (2)
Two types of practical sampling:
 Natural Sampling
 Flat‐top sampling
Fl t t li

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 Sampling (3)
Frequency Domain:

or,

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 Sampling (4)
fs > 2W:

fs = 2W:

fs < 2W:

Aliasing

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 Sampling Theorem
 Sampling theorem is a fundamental bridge between continuous signals (analog
domain) and discrete signals (digital domain)
 It only applies to a class of mathematical functions whose Fourier transforms are
zero outside of a finite region of frequencies

Nyquist Sampling Theorem / Nyquist-Shanon Sampling Theorem:

A signal whose bandwidth is limited to W Hz can be reconstructed exactly
(without any error) from its samples uniformly taken at a rate fs ≥ 2W Hz

fs = Sampling frequency
fs = 2W: Nyquist frequency / Nyquist rate / Minimum sampling frequency

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 Antialiasing Filter

 All practical signals are time-limited, i.e., non band-limited => Aliasing inevitable
 To limit aliasing
aliasing, use antialiasing filter (LPF) before sampling

Original Antialiasing Reconstruction Reconstructed

Sample
Signal
i l fil
filter Filter
il Signal
i l

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 Reconstruction Filter
fs = 2W:

Ideal LPF
‐ 1/2W 1/2W
characteristic:

(interpolation filter /
interpolation function)

Ts = 1/2W

(interpolation formula)

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 Quantization (1)
It is the process of transforming the sample amplitude m(nTS) of a baseband signal at time t = nTS
into a discrete amplitude v(nTS) taken from a finite set of possible levels

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 Quantization (2)
Quantizer characteristic:

kth interval:
Here, k = 1, 2, 3, … , L
L = Number of representation levels
(Number of intervals)
mk: Decision levels / Decision thresholds
vk: Representation levels / Reconstruction levels / Quantization Levels
Δ=|vk +1 – vk | = |mk +1 – mk|: Step-size / quantum

Quantizer output equals to vk if the input signal sample m belongs to the interval Ik (rounding)

v  vk if m  I k (R di )
(Rounding)

v  vk if vk  m  vk 1 (Truncation)
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 Quantization(3): Two types
Mid‐tread quantization Mid‐rise quantization

Representation/
Reconstruction/
Quantization
Q
levels

Mid‐tread quantizer: 
q Mid‐rise quantizer: 
Reconstruction value is exactly zero Decision threshold value is exactly zero

Signal Range (Dynamic range) and Quantizer Range: Could be same or different
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 Quantization(4): Example
For the following sequence {1.2, -0.2, -0.5, 0.4, 0.89,1.3} quantize it using a
uniform quantizer of rounding type and write the quantized sequence.
Quantizer range is (-1.5,1.5) with 4 levels.

Solution:

Yellow dots indicate the decision thresholds (boundaries between separate

quantization intervals). Red dots indicate the reconstruction levels (middle of each
interval).

Thus, 1.2 fall between 0.75 and 1.5, and hence is quantized to 1.125.

Quantized sequence:
{1.125, -0.375, -0.375, 0.375, 1.125, 1.125}
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 Quantization(5): Two types

Uniform quantization Non‐uniform quantization 15
 Quantization Error for Uniform Quantization (1)
Quantization error (noise)
q = m – v => Q = M – V

 Q is a RV variable of zero mean in the

range [– Δ/2, Δ/2]
 If Δ is sufficientlyy small, Q can be
assumed a uniform RV with zero mean

fQ(q)
1/Δ
Quantization noise power
/2
2
   q f Q q dq 
2
Q
2
– Δ/2 0 Δ/2
 / 2
12
q

P 12 P
12P
Signal-to-nose-ratio (SNR):SNR   P = Average power of m(t)
 Q2 2
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 Quantization Error for Uniform Quantization (2)
Suppose m(t) of continuous amplitude in the range [‐mmax, mmax]:
2mmax 2mmax R = Number of bits for presenting each level (bits/sample)
 
L 2R
 3P  2 R  3P 
SNR   2 2 SNRdB  6.02 R  10 log 2 
 mmax   mmax 
 Each additional bit increases the SNR by 6.02 dB and 
a corresponding increase in required channel BW

Special case: 
m(t) is a sinusoidal signal with amplitude equal to mmax
3
SNR   2 2 R SNRdB  6 R  1.8
2

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 Non-Uniform Quantization

 SNR of weak signals is much lower than that of strong signal
SNR of weak signals is much lower than that of strong signal
 Instantaneous SNR is also lower for the smaller amplitudes compared to that of the 
larger amplitudes
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 Non-Uniform Quantization
‐ Step size increases as the separation from the origin of the input–output amplitude 
characteristic is increased
‐ First Compression and then uniform quantization
and then uniform quantization

‐ Achieve more even SNR over the 
dynamic range using fewer bits (e.g., 
8 bits instead of 13/14 bits)

Receiver side: Expansion required
Compression + Expansion = Companding
di
Rx
Tx
Original Uniform Original
Compression Reconstruction Expansion
Signal Quantization Signal
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 Non-Uniform Quantization
 The compression here occurs in the amplitude values
 Compression in amplitudes means that the amplitudes of the compressed signal
are more closelyy spaced
p in comparison
p to the original
g signal
g
 To do so, the compressor boosts the small amplitudes by a large amount. However,
the large amplitude values receive very small gain and the maximum value remains
the same

Compressor Input Compressor Output
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 Non-Uniform Quantization
μ‐Law: Used in North America, Japan (μ = 255 is mostly used)

 More uniform SNR is achieved over a larger dynamic range
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 Non-Uniform Quantization
A‐Law:  Used in Europe and many other countries
A = 87.6 is mostly used and comparable to μ = 255

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 Encoding
 Each quantized samples is encoded into a code word
 Each element in a code word is called code element

Binary code:
 Each code element is either of two distinct
values, customarily denoted as 0 and 1
 Binary symbol withstands a relatively high
level of noise and also easy to regenerate
 Each binary code word consists of R bits and
hence, this code can represent 2R distinct
numbers (i.e.,
(i e at best R bit quantizer can be
used)

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
In PCM, a message signal is represented by a sequence of coded pulses, which is accomplished
by representing the signal in discrete form in both time and amplitude

Transmitter

Three basic operations in a PCM Transmitter:
‐ Sampling
‐ Quantization
‐ Encoding

Transmission 
Path

Receiver

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 Differential PCM (DPCM)
 When a signal is sampled at a rate slightly higher than the Nyquist rate, there exists a
high degree correlation between adjacent samples, i.e., in an average sense, the signal
does not change rapidly from one sample to the next
 When these highly correlated samples are encoded as in a standard PCM system
system, the
resulting encoded signal contains redundant information implying that symbols that are not
absolutely essential to the transmission of information are generated
 DPCM removes this redundancy y before encodingg byy taking
g the difference between the
actual sample m(nTS) and its predicted value m̂nTS 
 The quantized version of the prediction error e(nTS) are encoded instead of encoding
the samples of the original signal
 This will result in much smaller quantization intervals leading to less quantization noise
and much higher SNR
Transmitter

Prediction error
enTS   mnTS   mˆ nTS 

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 Predictor for DPCM:
Liner predictor of order p:
Transversal filter (tapped-delay-line filter) used as a linear predictor

p
m̂nTS    wk mq n  k TS 
k 1

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 Differential PCM (DPCM)

T
Transmitter
itt

eq nTS 
m' nTS 

Receiver
m̂nTS  m ' nnTS   mˆ nnTS   eq nnTS 

Reconstruction error  mnTS   m ' nTS   enTS   eq nTS   qnTS 

= Quantization error
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 Delta Modulation (DM) … (1)
 DM encodes the difference between the current sample and the previous sample using just one bit
 Correlation between samples are increased by oversampling (i.e., at a rate much higher, typically 4 times 
higher than the Nyquist rate)
 DM involves the generation of the staircase approximation of the oversampled version of message
DM involves the generation of the staircase approximation of the oversampled version of message
 The difference between the input and the approximation is quantized into only two levels:   
 1‐bit version of DPCM (i.e., 2‐level quantization) requiring less bandwidth than that of DPCM and PCM

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 Delta Modulation (DM)…(2)
Transmitter

 

Receiver

‐ Digital equivalent of integration
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 Predictor for DM

Note:
(1) DPCM uses a higher order filter.
(2) DM uses a 1st order (p=1) predictor with w1 = 1. Thus, the predicted output is the previous sample.
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 Delta Modulation (DM)…(3)
Two types of quantization error:
(1) Slope overload distortion/noise (2) Granular noise

mq(t)

eq(nTS)

Comments:
(1) For avoiding slope overload distortion: larger Δ is desired

(2) For avoiding granular noise: smaller Δ is desired

 An optimal step size (Δ) has to be chosen for minimum overall noise
Example:  f
mt   Am cos mt | m t  |max  m Am    fs  Am max  s
Ts m
 fs
 A   
r  2  800
r
m max Voice
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 Line Coding (1)
 PCM, DPCM and DM are different strategies for source
encoding, which converts an analog signal into digital form

 Once a binary sequence of 1s and 0s is produced, the

sequence is transformed into electrical pulses or
waveforms for transmission over a channel and this is
known as line coding

 Multi-level line coding is possible

Or NRZ-L

Various line coding 
(binary) methods:

Or RZ-AMI

(f) Split-phase
or Manchester
(0 means transition)
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 Line Coding (2)
Book:
Polar NRZ / Digital Communications:
Fundamentals and Applications
- Bernard Sklar

Applications:
 Polar NRZ / NRZ-L: Digital
g logic
g circuits
 NRZ-M/NRZ-S: Magnetic tap recording
 RZ line codes: Base band transmission and magnetic recording (e.g., Bipolar RZ / RZ-AMI
is used for telephone system)
 Manchester Coding: Magnetic recording, optical communications and satellite telemetry

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 Line Coding (3)
Desired properties (i.e., design criteria) for line coding:
 Transmission bandwidth: should be as small as possible
 Noise immunity: should be immune to noise
 Power efficiency: for a given bandwidth and given error probability, transmission power
requirement should be as small as possible
 Error detection and correction capability: should be possible to detect and correct errors
 Favorable power spectral density (PSD): should have zero PSD at zero (i.e., DC)
frequency, otherwise the ac coupling and the transformers used in communication systems
would block the DC component
 Adequate timing information / self-clocking: should carry the timing or clock information
which can be used for self-synchronization
 Transparency: should be possible to transmit a digital signal correctly regardless of the
patterns of 1’s and 0’s (by preventing long string of 0s and 1s)

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