Digital Transmission

Line Coding
Line Coding is the process of converting binary data, a sequence of bits, to a digital signal. For example, data, text, number, graphical image, audio and video that are stored in computer memory are all sequence of bits. Line coding converts a sequence of bits to a digital signal.

4.1 Line Coding

Some Characteristics

Line Coding Schemes

Line Coding

Some Characteristics

Signal Levels versus Data Levels

A digital signal can have a limited number of values. However, only some of these values can be used to represent data; rest are used for other purposes as we shall see shortly. Signal Levels: The number of values allowed in a particular signal. Data Levels: The number of values used to represent data.

Line Coding

Some Characteristics

Pulse Rate versus Bit Rate

Pulse Rate: It defines the number of pulses per second. A pulse is the minimum amount of time required to transmit a symbol.

Bit Rate: It defines the number of bits per second.

Relation between the two: If a pulse carries only 1 bit, the pulse rate and the bit rate are the same. If the pulse carries more than 1 bit, then the bit rate is greater than the pulse rate. So we have a formula to calculate bit rate in relation with pulse rate:

Bit Rate = Pulse Rate X log2L

Where L is the number of data levels of the signal.

Line Coding

Some Characteristics

Pulse Rate versus Bit Rate

Example 1
A signal has two data levels with a pulse duration of 1 ms. Calculate the pulse rate and bit rate.

Solution
Pulse Rate = 1/ 10-3= 1000 pulses/s Bit Rate = Pulse Rate x log2 L = 1000 x log2 2 = 1000 bps

Line Coding

Some Characteristics

Pulse Rate versus Bit Rate

Example 2
A signal has four data levels with a pulse duration of 1 ms. Calculate the pulse rate and bit rate.

Solution
Pulse Rate = = 1000 pulses/s Bit Rate = Pulse Rate x log2 L = 1000 x log2 4 = 2000 bps

Line Coding

Some Characteristics

Self-Synchronization

To correctly interpret the signals received from the sender, the receiver's bit intervals must correspond exactly to the senders bit interval. If the receiver clock is faster or slower, the bit intervals are not matched and the receiver might interpret the signals differently than the sender intended. Look at figure below to visualize the problem. The sender sends 10110001, while the receiver receives 110111000011.

Line Coding Example 3

Some Characteristics

Self-Synchronization

In a digital transmission, the receiver clock is 0.1 percent faster than the sender clock. How many extra bits per second does the receiver receive if the data rate is 1 Kbps? How many if the data rate is 1 Mbps?

Solution
At 1 Kbps: 1000 bits sent 1001 bits received1 extra bps At 1 Mbps: 1,000,000 bits sent 1,001,000 bits received1000 extra bps

Line Coding

Some Characteristics

Self-Synchronization

A Self-Synchronizing digital signal includes timing information in the data being transmitted. This can be achieved if there is the signal that alerts the receiver to the beginning, middle, or end of pulse. If the receivers clock is out of synchronization, these alerting points can reset the clock.

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Unipolar Encoding

The polarity of a pulse refers to whether it is positive or negative. Unipolar encoding uses only one voltage level. It is named so because it uses only one polarity. This polarity is assigned to one of the two binary states, usually the 1. the other state, usually the 0, is represented by zero voltage.

Problems: 1) DC component. 2) Lack of synchronization in case of data containing long sequence of0s and 1s.

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Polar Encoding

Polar encoding uses two voltage levels, one positive and one negative. Polar encoding is classified as follows:

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Polar Encoding

Non return to Zero (NRZ): In it, the value of the signal is always either positive or negative. It is classified in two categories as follows: 1) In NRZ-L the level of the signal is dependent upon the state of the bit.

2) In NRZ-I the signal is inverted if a 1 is encountered.

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Polar Encoding

Return to Zero (RZ): It uses three values: positive, negative, and zero. In it signal changes not between bits but during each bit. A one bit is represented by positive-to-zero transition in the halfway of bit and a 0 bit by negative to-zero transition.

Disadvantage: It requires two signal changes to encode 1 bit and therefore occupies more bandwidth.

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Polar Encoding

In Manchester Encoding, The transition at the middle of the bit is used for both synchronization and bit representation.

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Polar Encoding

In Differential Manchester encoding, the transition at the middle of the bit is used only for synchronization. The bit representation is defined by the inversion or non inversion at the beginning of the bit.

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

Bipolar Encoding

In bipolar encoding, we use three levels: positive, zero, and negative. Bipolar alternate mark inversion (AMI): Binary 1 is represented by alternate 1 inversions.

Line Coding

Line Coding Schemes

2B1Q

2B1Q (two binary, one quaternary): uses four voltage levels, each representing two bits.

Block Coding

Block Coding: It was introduced to improve the performance of line coding. Some extra bits are include to:

-Ensure synchronization
-Detect errors

4.2 Block Coding

Steps in Transformation Some Common Block Codes

Block Coding

Steps in Transformation

Step 1 : Division

In this step, the sequence of bits is divided into groups of m bits.

Block Coding

Steps in Transformation

Step 2 : Substitution

In this step, we substitute an m-bit code for an n-bit group, where nm. Therefore we can map some of the n-bit groups to the m-bit groups and some of the n-bit groups remains unused. We choose only those n-bit codes that help us in synchronization and error detection.

Block Coding

Steps in Transformation

Step 3 : Line Coding

Now we can use one of the line coding schemes. Figure below shows whole of the process.

Block Coding
Data

Steps in Transformation
Code Data

4B/5B encoding

Code

0000
0001

11110
01001

1000
1001

10010
10011

0010
0011 0100 0101 0110 0111

10100
10101 01010 01011 01110 01111

1010
1011 1100 1101 1110 1111

10110
10111 11010 11011 11100 11101

Block Coding

Steps in Transformation
Data

4B/5B encoding

Code

Q (Quiet) I (Idle) H (Halt) J (start delimiter) K (start delimiter) T (end delimiter)

00000 11111 00100 11000 10001 01101

S (Set) R (Reset)

11001 00111

4.3 Sampling

Pulse Amplitude Modulation Pulse Code Modulation Sampling Rate: Nyquist Theorem How Many Bits per Sample? Bit Rate

Sampling

If you note carefully, Line and block coding can be used to convert binary data to a digital signal. What if data is analog, such as audio or video? The solution is sampling. The term sampling means measuring the amplitude of the signal at equal intervals.

Sampling Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)

It uses a technique called sample and hold. At a given moment, the signal level is read, then held briefly. The sampled value occurs only instantaneously in the actual waveform, but is generalized over a still short but measurable period in the PAM result.

Problem: PAM converts waveform to a series of pulses, which are still analog.

Sampling Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

PCM modifies the pulses created by PAM to create a completely digital signal. To do so, PCM first quantizes the PAM pulses.
Quantization is a method of assigning integral values in a specific range to sampled instances.

Sampling Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

After that, it is quantized values are converted to binary data with signs as follows:

The binary data is then converted to digital signal by using one of the line coding or block coding technique.

Sampling Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

Let us see the whole process:

Sampling Sampling Rate: Nyquist Theorem

The accuracy of any digital reproduction of an analog signal depends on the number of samples taken. Question is how many samples are sufficient? According to Nyquist theorem, to ensure the accurate reproduction of an original analog signal using PAM, the sampling rate must be at least twice the highest frequency of the originally signal.

Sampling Sampling Rate: Nyquist Theorem

Note: Note that we can always change a band-pass signal to a low-pass signal before sampling to reduce sampling rate.

Sampling Sampling Rate: Nyquist Theorem Example 4

What sampling rate is needed for a signal with a bandwidth of 10,000 Hz (1000 to 11,000 Hz)?

Solution
The sampling rate must be twice the highest frequency in the signal: Sampling rate = 2 x (11,000) = 22,000 samples/s

Sampling How many bits per sample Example 5

A signal is sampled. Each sample requires at least 12 levels of precision (+0 to +5 and -0 to -5). How many bits should be sent for each sample?

Solution
We need 4 bits; 1 bit for the sign and 3 bits for the value. A 3-bit value can represent 23 = 8 levels (000 to 111), which is more than what we need. A 2-bit value is not enough since 22 = 4. A 4-bit value is too much because 24 = 16.

Sampling How many bits per sample Example 6

We want to digitize the human voice. What is the bit rate, assuming 8 bits per sample?

Solution
The human voice normally contains frequencies from 0 to 4000 Hz. Sampling rate = 4000 x 2 = 8000 samples/s Bit rate = sampling rate x number of bits per sample = 8000 x 8 = 64,000 bps = 64 Kbps

4.4 Transmission Mode

Parallel Transmission Serial Transmission

Transmission Mode

Transmission Mode

Parallel Transmission

Transmission Mode

Serial Transmission

Transmission Mode

Serial Transmission

Asynchronous transmission

Note: In asynchronous transmission, we send 1 start bit (0) at the beginning and 1 or more stop bits (1s) at the end of each byte. There may be a gap between each byte.

Transmission Mode

Serial Transmission

Asynchronous transmission

Note: Asynchronous here means asynchronous at the byte level, but the bits are still synchronized; their durations are the same.

Transmission Mode

Serial Transmission

Asynchronous transmission

Transmission Mode

Serial Transmission

Synchronous transmission

Note: In synchronous transmission, we send bits one after another without start/stop bits or gaps. It is the responsibility of the receiver to group the bits.

Transmission Mode

Serial Transmission

Synchronous transmission