Chapter 3:

Pulse Code Modulation

Pulse Code Modulation

Quantizing
Encoding
Analogue to Digital Conversion
Bandwidth of PCM Signals

Huseyin Bilgekul
Eeng360 Communication Systems I
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Eastern Mediterranean University

PULSE CODE MODULATION (PCM)

DEFINITION: Pulse code modulation (PCM) is essentially
analog-to-digital conversion of a special type where the
information contained in the instantaneous samples of an analog
signal is represented by digital words in a serial bit stream.
The advantages of PCM are:
Relatively inexpensive digital circuitry may be used extensively.
PCM signals derived from all types of analog sources may be merged with
data signals and transmitted over a common high-speed digital
communication system.
In long-distance digital telephone systems requiring repeaters, a clean PCM
waveform can be regenerated at the output of each repeater, where the input
consists of a noisy PCM waveform.
The noise performance of a digital system can be superior to that of an
analog system.
The probability of error for the system output can be reduced even further
by the use of appropriate coding techniques.

Sampling, Quantizing, and Encoding

The PCM signal is generated by carrying out three basic operations:

1. Sampling
2. Quantizing
3. Encoding

1.
2.

Sampling operation generates a flat-top PAM signal.

Quantizing operation approximates the analog values by using a
finite number of levels. This operation is considered in 3 steps
a) Uniform Quantizer
b) Quantization Error
c) Quantized PAM signal output

3.

PCM signal is obtained from the quantized PAM signal by encoding

each quantized sample value into a digital word.

Analog to Digital Conversion

The Analog-to-digital Converter (ADC)
performs three functions:

Sampling

Analog
Input
Signal

Makes the signal discrete in time.

If the analog input has a bandwidth
of W Hz, then the minimum sample
frequency such that the signal can be
reconstructed without distortion.

Sample

ADC

Quantization

Quantize

Encode

Digital Output
Signal
111 111 001 010 011 111 011

111
110
101
100
011
010
001
000

Makes the signal discrete in

amplitude.
Round off to one of q discrete levels.

Encode
Maps the quantized values to digital
words that are bits long.
If the (Nyquist) Sampling Theorem is
satisfied, then only quantization introduces
distortion to the system.

Quantization
The output of a sampler is still continuous in amplitude.
Each sample can take on any value e.g. 3.752, 0.001, etc.
The number of possible values is infinite.
To transmit as a digital signal we must restrict the number of
possible values.
Quantization is the process of rounding off a sample according to
some rule.
E.g. suppose we must round to the nearest tenth, then:
3.752 --> 3.8
0.001 --> 0

Illustration of the Quantization Error

PCM TV transmission:

(a) 5-bit resolution;

(a) 8-bit resolution.

Uniform Quantization
Dynamic Range:
(-8, 8)
Output sample
XQ

5
3
1

-8

-6

-4

-2

-1 2

Input sample X
-3
-5
-7

Quantization Characteristic

Example: Uniform =3 bit quantizer

q=8 and XQ = {1,3,5,7}

Most ADCs use uniform

quantizers.
The quantization levels of a
uniform quantizer are
equally spaced apart.
Uniform quantizers are
optimal when the input
distribution is uniform.
When all values within the
Dynamic Range of the
quantizer are equally likely.

Quantization Example
Analogue signal

Sampling TIMING

Quantization levels.
Quantized to 5-levels

Quantization levels
Quantized 10-levels

PCM encoding example

Levels are encoded
using this table

Table: Quantization levels with belonging code words

M=8

Chart 1. Quantization and digitalization of a signal.

Signal is quantized in 11 time points & 8 quantization segments.

Chart 2. Process of restoring a signal.

PCM encoded signal in binary form:
101 111 110 001 010 100 111 100 011 010 101
Total of 33 bits were used to encode a signal

Encoding
The output of the quantizer is one of M possible signal levels.
If we want to use a binary transmission system, then we need to map
each quantized sample into an n bit binary word.

M 2n , n log 2 ( M )
Encoding is the process of representing each quantized sample
by an bit code word.
The mapping is one-to-one so there is no distortion introduced by
encoding.
Some mappings are better than others.
A Gray code gives the best end-to-end performance.
The weakness of Gray codes is poor performance when the sign bit
(MSB) is received in error.

Gray Codes
With gray codes adjacent samples differ only in one bit position.
Example (3 bit quantization):
XQ
+7
+5
+3
+1
-1
-3
-5
-7

Natural coding
111
110
101
100
011
010
001
000

Gray Coding

110
111
101
100
000
001
011
010

With this gray code, a single bit error will result in an amplitude
error of only 2.
Unless the MSB is in error.

Waveforms in a PCM system for M=8

M=8

(a) Quantizer Input output characteristics

(b) Analog Signal, PAM Signal, Quantized PAM Signal

M 2n
(c) Error Signal

(d) PCM Signal

n log 2 ( M )

M is the number of Quantization levels

n is the number of bits per sample

PCM Transmission System

Practical PCM Circuits

Three popular techniques are used to implement the

analog-to-digital converter (ADC) encoding
operation:
1.
2.
3.

The counting or ramp, ( Maxim ICL7126 ADC)

Serial or successive approximation, (AD 570)
Parallel or flash encoders. ( CA3318)

The objective of these circuits is to generate the

PCM word.
Parallel digital output obtained (from one of the
above techniques) needs to be serialized before
sending over a 2-wire channel
This is accomplished by parallel-to-serial
converters [Serial Input-Output (SIO) chip]
UART,USRT and USART are examples for SIOs

Bandwidth of PCM Signals

The spectrum of the PCM signal is not directly related to the spectrum of the
input signal.
The bandwidth of (serial) binary PCM waveforms depends on the bit rate R and
the waveform pulse shape used to represent the data.
The Bit Rate R is
R=nfs
Where n is the number of bits in the PCM word (M=2n) and fs is the sampling rate.
For no aliasing case (fs 2B), the MINIMUM Bandwidth of PCM Bpcm(Min) is:
Bpcm(Min) = R/2 = nfs//2
The Minimum Bandwidth of nfs//2 is obtained only when sin(x)/x pulse is used to
generate the PCM waveform.

For PCM waveform generated by rectangular pulses, the First-null Bandwidth is:
Bpcm = R = nfs