LECTURE-4, CASE-2 ANALOGUE DATA, DIGITAL SIGNAL

BSc (Hon), Department of Space Science

Analogue data, such as voice and video, are often digitized to be able to use digital transmission facilities. The
common scheme is pulse code modulation (PCM).

PULSE CODE MODULATION (PCM)

Pulse code modulation is a process in which analog signals are converted to digital form. The analog signal is
represented by a series of pulses and non-pulses (1 or 0 respectively).

PROCESSES IN PCM
The practical implementation of PCM makes use of other processes. The processes are carried out in the order
in which they appear below:
1- Filtering
2- Sampling
3- Quantizing
4- Encoding

1- FILTERING
The first step to convert the signal from analog to digital is to filter out the higher frequency component of the
signal. This makes things easier downstream to convert this signal.

2- SAMPLING
The second step to convert an analog voice signal to a digital voice signal is to sample the Filtered input signal
at a constant sampling frequency. It is accomplished by using a process called pulse amplitude modulation
(PAM). This step uses the original analog signal to modulate the amplitude of a pulse train that has a constant
amplitude and frequency. The pulse train moves at a constant frequency, called the sampling frequency.

The analog voice signal can be sampled at a million times per second or at two to three times per second. A
scientist by the name of Harry Nyquist discovered that the original analog signal can be reconstructed if enough
samples are taken. He determined that if the sampling frequency is at least twice the highest frequency of the
original input analog signal, this signal can be reconstructed by. The Nyquist criterion is stated like this:

Fs > 2(BW)
where
Fs = Sampling frequency
BW = Bandwidth of original analog voice signal
When we sample voice signal that range from 300Hz to 3400 Hz (about 4Khz), the sampling frequency should
be at least 8kHz according to Nyquist criterion.

3- QUANTIZING
Quantization is the process of converting each analog sample value into a discrete value that can be assigned a
unique digital code word. As the input signal samples enter the quantization phase, they are assigned to a
quantization interval. All quantization intervals are equally spaced (uniform quantization) throughout the
dynamic range of the input analog signal.

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Each quantization interval is assigned a discrete value in the form of a binary code word. The standard word
size used is eight bits. If an input analog signal is sampled 8000 times per second and each sample is given a
code word that is eight bits long, then the maximum transmission bit rate for Telephony systems using PCM is
64,000 bits per second.

QUANTIZATION NOISE
Each input sample is assigned a quantization interval that is closest to its amplitude height. If an input sample is
not assigned a quantization interval that matches its actual height, then an error is introduced into the PCM
process. This error is called quantization noise or quantization error. More the quantization levels the less will be
the quantization error.

4- ENCODING
The last process in the PCM is to encode every value occurring after sampling and quantizing of the analogue
signal. Normally we assign 8-bit code for each values when we are applying PCM process to convert voice into
digital form. So there will be 255 quatization levels. The table below shows the 8-bit code and their values in
decimal system.

Pulse-code modulation can be either return-to-zero (RZ) or non-return-to-zero (NRZ).

ADVANTAGES OF PCM
The stream of pulses and non-pulse streams of 1’s and 0’s are not easily affected by interference and noise.
Even in the presence of noise, the presence or absence of a pulse can be easily determined. Since PCM is
digital, a more general reason would be that digital signals are easy to process by cheap standard techniques.
This makes it easier to implement complicated communication systems such as telephone networks (covered
later in this course).

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DISADVANTAGES OF PCM
One disadvantage of PCM is that the signal accuracy is reduced because of the quantizing of the samples.

Below figure shows the effects of sampling rate and quantization levels in the PCM process.