Digital Communications

Reference:
Communication Electronics
2nd Edition
Louis E. Frenzel
Digital Communications
Data refers to information to be communicated

Digital communication was originally limited to the transmission

of data between computers.
Benefits of Digital Communication
Noise Immunity
At the receiver, circuits can be set up so that the noise is clipped off. A
threshold circuit made with a line receiver circuit, an op amp
comparator, or a Schmitt trigger will trigger above or below the
thresholds to which it is set. If the thresholds are set carefully, only the
logic levels will trigger the circuit. Thus, a clean output pulse will be
generated by the circuit. This process is called signal regeneration.
Error Detection and Correction.
Compatibility with Time-Division Multiplexing.

Multiplexing is the process of transmitting two or more signals

simultaneously on a single communication channel
or medium.

There are two types of multiplexing:

frequency-division multiplexing
an analog technique using modulation methods,
and
time-division multiplexing, a digital technique.
 Digital ICs.
Digital Signal Processing (DSP).

Disadvantages of Digital Communication

The bandwidth of a signal can be two or more times greater
than it would be with analog method
Digital communication circuits are usually more complex than
analog circuits. However, although more circuitry is needed to
do the same job, the circuits are usually in IC form, are
inexpensive, and do not require much expertise or attention on
the part of the user.
Parallel and Serial Transmission

Figure 7-2
Parallel data transmission
Parallel Transfer
In parallel data transfers, all the bits of a code word are
transferred simultaneously (see Fig. 7-2).

Multiple parallel lines that carry binary data are usually

referred to as a data bus.

All eight lines are referenced to a common ground wire.

Serial Transfer

Data transfers in communication systems are made

serially;

each bit of a word is transmitted one after another

Figure 7-3 Serial data transmission.
Serial-Parallel Conversion
Because both parallel and serial transmission occur in
computers and other equipment,

there must be techniques for converting between parallel

and serial and vice versa.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
Figure 7-4 Parallel-to-serial and serial-to-parallel data
transfers with shift registers.
A shift register is a sequential logic circuit made up of a number
of flip-flops connected in cascade.

The flip-flops are capable of storing a multibit binary word,

which is usually loaded in parallel into the transmitting register.

The serial data word is then transmitted over the

communication link and is received by another shift register.

These serial-parallel data transfers take place inside the interface

circuits and are referred to as serializer / deserializer (SERDES)
devices.
Data Conversion
The key to digital communication is to convert data in
analog form to digital form

Data must usually be reconverted to analog form for final

consumption by the user; e.g., voice and video must be in
analog form
Basic Principles of Data Conversion
Translating an analog signal to a digital signal is called
analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, digitizing a signal, or
encoding.

The device used to perform this translation is known as an

analog-to-digital (A/D) converter or ADC. A modern A/D
converter is usually a single-chip IC that takes an analog
signal and generates a parallel or serial binary output
Figure 7-5 A/D converter.
Figure 7-6 D/A converter.
The opposite process is called digital-to-analog (D/A)
conversion.

The circuit used to perform this is called a digital-to-

analog (D/A) converter (or DAC) or a decoder.
The input to a D/A converter may be a serial or parallel
binary number, and the output is a proportional analog
voltage level.
Like the A/D converter, a D/A converter is usually a single-
chip IC or a part of a large IC.
A/D Conversion.
An analog signal is a smooth or continuous voltage or
current variation.

It could be a voice signal, a video waveform, or a voltage

representing a variation of some other physical
characteristic such as temperature.

Through A/D conversion these continuously variable

signals are changed to a series of binary numbers
Figure 7-7 Sampling an analog signal.
A/D conversion is a process of sampling or measuring the
analog signal at regular time intervals.

At the times indicated by the vertical dashed lines in Fig.

7-7, the instantaneous value of the analog signal is
measured and a proportional binary number is generated
to represent that sample.

As a result, the continuous analog signal is translated to a

series of discrete binary numbers representing samples.
A key factor in the sampling process is the frequency of
sampling f, which is the reciprocal of the sampling interval
t shown in Fig. 7-7.

To retain the high frequency information in the analog

signal, a sufficient number of samples must be taken so
that the waveform is adequately represented.

It has been found that the minimum sampling frequency

is twice the highest analog frequency content of the
signal.
MSPS
means millions of samples per second.
GSPS
means giga (billions) of samples per second.
SFDR
is spurious free dynamic range.
SNR
refers to signal-to-noise ratio.
For example, if the analog signal contains a maximum
frequency variation of 3000 Hz, the analog wave must be
sampled at a rate of at least twice this, or 6000 Hz.

This minimum sampling frequency is known as the

Nyquist frequency fN. (And fN ≥ 2fm, where fm is the
frequency of the input signal.)

For bandwidth limited signals with upper and lower limits

of f2 and f1, the Nyquist sampling rate is just twice the
bandwidth or 2( f2 - f1).
Assume, e.g., that the output of an FM radio is to be
digitized.

The maximum frequency of the audio in an FM broadcast

is 15 kHz.

To ensure that the highest frequency is represented, the

sampling rate must be twice the highest frequency: f = 2 x
15 kHz = 30 kHz.
But in practice, the sampling rate is made higher, that is, 3
to 10 times higher, or 3 x 15 kHz = 45 kHz to 10 x 15 kHz =
150 kHz.

The sampling rate for compact disk players that store

music signals with frequencies up to about 20 kHz is 44.1
kHz or 48 kHz.
Another important factor in the conversion process is
that, because the analog signal is smooth and continuous,
it represents an infinite number of actual voltage values.

In a practical A/D converter, it is not possible to convert all

analog samples to a precise proportional binary number.

Instead, the A/D converter is capable of representing only

a finite number of voltage values over a specific range.
The samples are converted to a binary number whose
value is close to the actual sample value.

For example, an 8-bit binary number can represent only

256 states, which may be the converted values from an
analog waveform having an infinite number of positive
and negative values between +1 V and -1 V.
Figure 7-8
The A/D converter
divides the input
voltage range into
discrete voltage
increments.
The physical nature of an A/D converter is such that it
divides a voltage range into discrete increments, each of
which is then represented by a binary number.
The analog voltage measured during the sampling process
is assigned to the increment of voltage closest to it.
For example, assume that an A/D converter produces 4
output bits.
With 4 bits, 24 or 16 voltage levels can be represented.
For simplicity, assume an analog voltage range of 0 to 15
V. The A/D converter divides the voltage range as shown
in Fig. 7-8.

The binary number represented by each increment is

indicated.
Note that although there are 16 levels, there are only 15
increments.
The number of levels is 2N and the number of increments
is 2N - 1, where N is the number of bits.
The quantizing error can be reduced, of course, by simply
dividing the analog voltage range into a larger number of
smaller voltage increments.

To represent more voltage increments, a greater number

of bits must be used.

For example, using 12 bits instead of 10 allows the analog

voltage range to produce 212 or 4096 voltage increments.
This more finely divides the analog voltage range and thus
permits the A/D converter to output a proportional binary
number closer to the actual analog value.

The greater the number of bits, the greater the number of

increments over the analog range and the smaller the
quantizing error.
The maximum amount of error can be computed by
dividing the voltage range over which the A/D converter
operates by the number of increments.

Assume a 10-bit A/D converter, with 10 bits, 210 = 1024

voltage levels, or 1024 - 1 = 1023 increments.

Assume that the input voltage range is from 0 to 6 V. The

minimum voltage step increment then is 6/1023 = 5.86 x
10-3 = 5.865 mV.
Quiz No. 2
Identify the Following:
1. DSP
2. Serdes
3. MSPS
4. GSPS
5. SFDR
6. SNR
7. DAC
8. ADC
9. Nyquist Frequency
10. How many binary state can an 8bit ADC have ?
D/A Conversion.
Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
the processing of analog signals by digital methods.

The job of the D/A converter, which receives the binary

numbers sequentially and produces a proportional analog
voltage at the output.
Figure 7-9 A D/A
converter produces
a stepped
approximation of
the original signal.
If these binary numbers are fed to a D/A converter, the
output is a stairstep voltage as shown.

Since the steps are very large, the resulting voltage is only
an approximation to the actual analog signal.

However, the stairsteps can be filtered out by passing the

D/A converter output through a low-pass filter with an
appropriate cutoff frequency.
Example 7-1
An information signal to be transmitted digitally is a
rectangular wave with a period of 71.4 μs.
It has been determined that the wave will be adequately
passed if the bandwidth includes the fourth harmonic
Calculate
(a) the signal frequency,
(b) the fourth harmonic, and
(c) the minimum sampling frequency (Nyquist rate).
If the binary words contain a larger number of bits, the
analog voltage range is divided into smaller increments
and the output step increments will be smaller.

This leads to a closer approximation to the original analog

signal.