Data Encoding Techniques

Networks: Data Encoding 1

 Digital Data, Analog Signals
[Example – modem]

• Basis for analog signaling is a continuous,

constant-frequency signal known as the
carrier signal.
• Digital data is encoded by modulating one
of the three characteristics of the carrier:
amplitude, frequency, or phase or some
combination of these.

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 Information 1 0 1 1 0 1

+1
(a) Amplitude
Shift
Keying 6T
t
0 T 2T 3T 4T 5T
-1

+1
(b) Frequency
Shift
t
Keying 0 T 2T 3T 4T 5T 6T
-1
+1
(c) Phase
Shift
Keying 0 T 2T 3T 4T 5T 6T t
-1
Copyright ©2000 The McGraw Hill Companies Leon-Garcia & Widjaja: Communication Networks Figure 3.28
Networks: Data Encoding 3
 Modems
• Actually use Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation (QAM)
• Use constellation points where point
determines a specific amplitude and phase.

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 Signal Constellations

Bk
Bk

Ak Ak

4 “levels”/ pulse 16 “levels”/ pulse

2 bits / pulse 4 bits / pulse
2D bits per second 4D bits per second

Note – textbook uses W instead of D in this figure!!

Figure 3.34
Copyright ©2000 The McGraw Hill Companies Leon-Garcia & Widjaja: Communication Networks

Networks: Data Encoding 5

 Digital Data, Digital Signals
[the technique used in a number of LANs]

• Digital signal – is a sequence of discrete,

discontinuous voltage pulses.
• Bit duration :: the time it takes for the
transmitter to emit the bit.
• Issues
– Bit timing
– Recovery from signal
– Noise immunity

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 NRZ ( Non-Return-to-Zero) Codes
• Uses two different voltage levels (one positive and
one negative) as the signal elements for the two
binary digits.
NRZ-L ( Non-Return-to-Zero-Level)
The voltage is constant during the bit interval.

1 ! negative voltage
0 ! positive voltage

Used for short distances between terminal and modem

or terminal and computer.
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 NRZ ( Non-Return-to-Zero) Codes
NRZ-I ( Non-Return-to-Zero-Invert on ones)
The voltage is constant during the bit interval.

1 ! existence of a signal transition at the beginning of the bit time

(either a low-to-high or a high-to-low transition)

0 ! no signal transition at the beginning of the bit time

NRZI is a differential encoding (i.e., the signal is

decoded by comparing the polarity of adjacent signal
elements.
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 Bi –Phase Codes
• Bi- phase codes – require at least one transition per
bit time and may have as many as two transitions.
• " the maximum modulation rate is twice that of
NRZ " greater transmission bandwidth is required.
Advantages:
Synchronization – with a predictable transition per bit
time the receiver can “synch on the transition [self-
clocking]
No d.c. component
Error detection – the absence of an expected transition
can used to detect errors.
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 Manchester encoding
• There is always a mid-bit transition {which is used as a
clocking mechanism}.
• The direction of the mid-bit transition represents the
digital data.

1 ! low-to-high transition textbook is

wrong
0 ! high-to-low transition here!!

Consequently, there may be a second transition at the

beginning of the bit interval.
Used in 802.3 baseband coaxial cable and CSMA/CD twisted
pair.
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Differential Manchester encoding
• mid-bit transition is ONLY for clocking.

1 ! absence of transition at the beginning of the bit interval

0 ! presence of transition at the beginning of the bit interval

Differential Manchester is both differential and bi-phase.

Note – the coding is the opposite convention from NRZI.
Used in 802.5 (token ring) with twisted pair.
* Modulation rate for Manchester and Differential Manchester
is twice the data rate " inefficient encoding for long-
distance applications.
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 Bi-Polar Encoding

1 ! alternating +1/2 , -1/2 voltage

0 ! 0 voltage

• Has the same issues as NRZI for a long

string of 0’s.
• A systemic problem with polar is the
polarity can be backwards.
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 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0
Unipolar
NRZ

Polar NRZ

NRZ-Inverted
(Differential
Encoding)

Bipolar
Encoding

Manchester
Encoding

Manchester
Encoding

Differential
Manchester
Encoding
Copyright ©2000 The McGraw Hill Companies Leon-Garcia & Widjaja: Communication Networks Figure 3.25
 Analog Data, Digital Signals
[Example – PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)]

• The most common technique for using digital

signals to encode analog data is PCM.
Example: To transfer analog voice signals off a
local loop to digital end office within the
phone system, one uses a codec.
Because voice data limited to frequencies below
4kHZ, a codec makes 8000 samples/sec. (i.e.,
125 microsec/sample).

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 (a) (b)
A A A Trunk A
group
B B B MUX MUX B

C C C C

Multiplexing

Copyright ©2000 The McGraw Hill Companies Leon-Garcia & Widjaja: Communication Networks Figure 4.1

Networks: Data Encoding 15

 Frequency-division Multiplexing

(a) Individual signals occupy W Hz

A
f
0 W

B
f
0 W

C
f
0 W
(b) Combined signal fits into channel bandwidth

A B C
f
Copyright ©2000 The McGraw Hill Companies Figure 4.2
Leon-Garcia & Widjaja: Communication Networks

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Frequency-division Multiplexing

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 Time-division Multiplexing

(a) Each signal transmits 1 unit every 3T seconds

A1 A2
t
0T 3T 6T

B1 B2
t
0T 3T 6T

C1 C2
t
0T 3T 6T

(b) Combined signal transmits 1 unit every T seconds

A1 B1 C1 A2 B2 C2
t
0T 1T 2T 3T 4T 5T 6T
Copyright ©2000 The McGraw Hill Companies Leon-Garcia & Widjaja: Communication Networks Figure 4.3
Networks: Data Encoding 18
Time-division Multiplexing

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Statistical Multiplexing
[Concentrator]

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
• Analog signal is sampled.
• Converted to discrete-time continuous-
amplitude signal (Pulse Amplitude Modulation)
• Pulses are quantized and assigned a digital
value.
– A 7-bit sample allows 128 quantizing levels.

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
• PCM uses non-linear encoding, i.e., amplitude spacing
of levels is non-linear
– There is a greater number of quantizing steps for low
amplitude
– This reduces overall signal distortion.
• This introduces quantizing error (or noise).
• PCM pulses are then encoded into a digital bit stream.
• 8000 samples/sec x 7 bits/sample = 56Kbps for a
single voice channel.

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Networks: Data Encoding 23
 PCM
Nonlinear Quantization Levels

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 1 1

2 MUX MUX 2
...

...
22 23 24 b 1 2 ... 24 b
24 frame 24

T1 system

Copyright ©2000 The McGraw Hill Companies Leon-Garcia & Widjaja: Communication Networks Figure 4.4

Networks: Data Encoding 25

 T1 Carrier

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 Delta Modulation (DM)
• The basic idea in delta modulation is to approximate
the derivative of analog signal rather than its
amplitude.
• The analog data is approximated by a staircase
function that moves up or down by one quantization
level at each sampling time. " output of DM is a
single bit.
• PCM preferred because of better SNR characteristics.

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 DCC 6th Ed. W.Stallings

Delta Modulation - example

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