EEE 309 Communication Theory

Semester: July 2015

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

(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.
 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
 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
transmission strategies
 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
 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
sequence of samples that are usually spaced uniformly in time

Message

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

Sampled Signal

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 Sampling (2)
Two types of practical sampling:
 Natural Sampling
 Flat-top sampling

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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, use antialiasing filter (LPF) before sampling

Original Antialiasing Reconstruction Reconstructed

Sample
Signal filter Filter Signal

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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

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
Δ=|vk +1 – vk|: Step-size / quantum

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

v  vk if m  I k
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 Quantization(2): Two types
Mid-tread quantization Mid-rise quantization

Reconstruction
levels

Mid-tread quantizer: Mid-rise quantizer:

Reconstruction value is exactly zero Decision threshold value is exactly zero

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 Quantization(3): Two types

Uniform quantization Non-uniform quantization 13

 Quantization Error for Uniform Quantization (1)
Quantization error (noise)
q = m – v => Q = M – V

 If mean of M is zero and the quantizer is

symmetric, then V is also a RV of zero mean
 Q is also a RV variable of zero mean in the
range [– Δ/2, Δ/2]
 If Δ is sufficiently 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 q
 / 2
12

P 12 P
Signal-to-nose-ratio (SNR): SNR   2 P = Average power of m(t)
 Q2 
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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  2R  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

 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

- 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

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 closely spaced in comparison to the original signal
 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., 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, 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 before encoding by taking 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
mˆ nTS    wk mq n  k TS 
k 1

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 Differential PCM (DPCM)

Transmitter

eq nTS 
m' nTS 

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

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 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
eq  .    

- Digital equivalent of integration

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 Predictor for DM

Transmitter

Note:
(1) DPCM uses a higher order filter.
(2) DM uses a 1st order predictor with w1 = 1. Thus, the predicted output is the previous sample. 28
 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  
m max Voice 
r  2  800
r
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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 logic 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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