Line Coding

Badgujar Dipak D
 Line Coding

• Converting a string of 1’s and 0’s (digital

data) into a sequence of signals that denote
the 1’s and 0’s.
• For example a high voltage level (+V) could
represent a “1” and a low voltage level (0
or -V) could represent a “0”.

4.2
Line coding and decoding

4.3
 Mapping Data symbols onto
Signal levels
• A data symbol (or element) can consist of a
number of data bits:
– 1 , 0 or
– 11, 10, 01, ……
• A data symbol can be coded into a single signal
element or multiple signal elements
– 1 -> +V, 0 -> -V
– 1 -> +V and -V, 0 -> -V and +V
• The ratio ‘r’ is the number of data elements
carried by a signal element.

4.4
 Relationship between data rate and
signal rate
• The data rate defines the number of bits sent per
sec - bps. It is often referred to the bit rate.
• The signal rate is the number of signal elements
sent in a second and is measured in bauds. It is
also referred to as the modulation rate.
• Goal is to increase the data rate whilst reducing
the baud rate.

4.5
Signal element versus data element
 Data rate and Baud rate

• The baud or signal rate can be expressed

as:
S = c x N x 1/r bauds
where N is data rate
c is the case factor (worst, best & avg.)
Note c = 1/2 for the avg. case as worst case is 1 and best case is 0

r is the ratio between data element & signal

element
4.7
 Considerations for choosing a good signal
element referred to as line encoding

• Baseline wandering - a receiver will evaluate the

average power of the received signal (called the
baseline) and use that to determine the value of
the incoming data elements. If the incoming signal
does not vary over a long period of time, the
baseline will drift and thus cause errors in
detection of incoming data elements.
• A good line encoding scheme will prevent long
runs of fixed amplitude.

4.8
 Line encoding Characteristics
• DC components - when the voltage level
remains constant for long periods of time,
there is an increase in the low frequencies
of the signal. Most channels are bandpass
and may not support the low frequencies.
• This will require the removal of the dc
component of a transmitted signal.

4.9
 Line encoding Characteristics
• Self synchronization - the clocks at the
sender and the receiver must have the
same bit interval.
• If the receiver clock is faster or slower it will
misinterpret the incoming bit stream.

4.11
Effect of lack of synchronization
 Example

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, the receiver receives 1001 bps instead of 1000
bps.

At 1 Mbps, the receiver receives 1,001,000 bps instead of

1,000,000 bps.
 Line encoding Characteristics
• Error detection - errors occur during
transmission due to line impairments.
• Some codes are constructed such that
when an error occurs it can be detected.
For example: a particular signal transition is
not part of the code. When it occurs, the
receiver will know that a symbol error has
occurred.
 Line encoding Characteristics

• Noise and interference - there are line

encoding techniques that make the
transmitted signal “immune” to noise and
interference.
• This means that the signal cannot be
corrupted, it is stronger than error
detection.

4.15
 Line encoding Characteristics

• Complexity - the more robust and resilient

the code, the more complex it is to
implement and the price is often paid in
baud rate or required bandwidth.

4.16
NRZ NRZ,RZ,Biphase(Manchest
er& Differential AMI and pseudo ternary
Manchester)

Multilevel(2B/1Q,8B/6T) Multitransition( MLT-3)

Line coding schemes
 Unipolar
• All signal levels are on one side of the time axis -
either above or below
 Unipolar NRZ scheme
Normalized Power
0.5V2

NRZ – A positive voltage defines 1 bit and 0 volt defines 0 bit

Also know as OOK(On-off Keying)
NRZ - Non Return to Zero scheme is an example of this code. The signal level
does not return to zero at the middle of the bit.

Costiler
The normalized power needed is double of polar NRZ due to this reason
normally not used in data communication
Unipolar NRZ scheme

Adv Disadv
Simplicity Presence of DC level
Doesn’t require a lot of Contains low-frequency
bandwidth components (leads to
drooping)
No clocking component to
synchronize to at receiver
Long string of zeros causes loss
of synchronization
 Polar - NRZ
• The voltages are on both sides of the time axis.
• Polar NRZ scheme can be implemented with two
voltages. E.g. +V for 1 and -V for 0.
• There are two versions:
– NZR - Level (NRZ-L) - positive voltage for one symbol
and negative for the other
– NRZ - Inversion (NRZ-I) - the change or lack of change in
polarity determines the value of a symbol. E.g. a “1”
symbol inverts the polarity a “0” does not.
Polar NRZ-L and NRZ-I schemes
 Example

A system is using NRZ-I to transfer 1-Mbps data. What

are the average signal rate?
Note c = 1/2 for the avg. case as worst case is 1 and best case is 0

Solution
The average signal rate is S= c x N x R = 1/2 x N x 1 =
500 kbaud.
 Polar - NRZ
• Baseline wandering is the problem for both the schemes
• Baseline is twice as severe in NRZ-L if there is long
sequence of 0’s and 1’s in NRZ-L due to this average
signal power becomes skewed. The receiver might has
difficulty discriminating the bit value.
• In NRZ-I the baseline wandering problem occurs only
when a long sequence of 0’s.
• Clock synchronization problem occurs in both the
schemes. More serious in NRZ-L than NRZ-I
• When there is sudden change in polarities in the system
NRZ-L affects more as 0’s are interpreted as 1’s and vice
versa. NRL-I don’t have this problem
• Both signals have an average signal rate of N/2 Bauds
 Polar – Return to Zero

• The main problem with NRZ encoding occurs when the

sender and receiver clocks are not synchronized. The
receiver does not know when one bit has ended and
the next bit is starting.
 Polar – Return to Zero

The Return to Zero (RZ) scheme uses three

voltage values. +, 0, -.
Each signal changes during the bit that
transition in the middle of signal and it
remains over there until the beginning of the
next bit.
 Polar – Return to Zero
• This scheme has more signal transitions (two per
symbol) and therefore requires a wider bandwidth.
• No DC components or baseline wandering.
• More complex as it uses three voltage level hence
more complex to create.
• It has no error detection capability.
• Sudden change in polarities is the problem as 0’s are
interpreted as 1’s and vice versa.
 Polar biphase: Manchester

Manchester coding consists of combining the NRZ-L

and RZ schemes. Every symbol has a level transition in the
middle: from high to low or low to high. Uses only two
voltage levels.
 Manchester
Adv Disadv
No DC component Greater bandwidth required for this
waveform
No signal droop problem No error correction capability
Easy to synchronize to the waveform
Polar biphase: Differential Manchester

Differential Manchester coding consists of

combining the NRZ-I and RZ schemes.
Every symbol has a level transition in the middle.
But the level at the beginning of the symbol is
determined by the symbol value. One symbol causes
a level change the other does not.
 Differential Manchester
• Manchester encoding is a form of binary phase-shift
keying (BPSK).
• It is designed to encode both the clock and the data in a
bit stream.
• This is also referred to “self-synchronizing data steam.”
• Manchester encoding has the disadvantage of requiring
higher frequencies.
• It is used in Ethernet(IEEE 802.3 standard) with lower
data rates.
• Also used for consumer IR protocols and in some RFID
systems.
 In Manchester and differential
Manchester encoding, the transition
at the middle of the bit is used for
synchronization.

The minimum bandwidth of Manchester

and differential Manchester is 2 times
that of NRZ. The is no DC component
and no baseline wandering. None of
these codes has error detection.
Summary of line coding schemes
 Compare
Line Code Simple Bandwidth DC Error Clock Synch
Component Detection?
Unipolar Yes Low Yes NO No
NRZ
Unipolar RZ Yes 2xBW Yes No Yes
Polar Yes Moderate No No No
NRZ
Polar Yes 2xBW No No No
RZ
Manchester No Greater BW No NO No
Diff. No Greater BW No No No
Manchester
• Here OnwardsNot in Syllabus Just
for More Information
Bipolar - AMI and Pseudoternary
■ Code uses 3 voltage levels: - +, 0, -, to
represent the symbols (note not transitions to
zero as in RZ).
■ Voltage level for one symbol is at “0” and the
other alternates between + & -.
■ Bipolar Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI) - the
“0” symbol is represented by zero voltage and
the “1” symbol alternates between +V and
-V.
■ Pseudoternary is the reverse of AMI.
Figure 4.9 Bipolar schemes: AMI and pseudoternary
Bipolar Chs

■ It is a better alternative to NRZ.

■ Has no DC component or baseline
wandering.
■ Has no self synchronization because
long runs of “0”s results in no signal
transitions.
■ No error detection.
Multilevel Schemes

■ In these schemes we increase the number of

data bits per symbol thereby increasing the
bit rate.
■ Since we are dealing with binary data we only
have 2 types of data element a 1 or a 0.
■ We can combine the 2 data elements into a
pattern of “m” elements to create “2m”
symbols.
■ If we have L signal levels, we can use “n”
signal elements to create Ln signal elements.
Code Chs
■ Now we have 2m symbols and Ln signals.
■ If 2m > Ln then we cannot represent the data
elements, we don’t have enough signals.
■ If 2m = Ln then we have an exact mapping of
one symbol on one signal.
■ If 2m < Ln then we have more signals than
symbols and we can choose the signals that
are more distinct to represent the symbols
and therefore have better noise immunity and
error detection as some signals are not valid.
Note

In mBnL schemes, a pattern of m data

elements is encoded as a pattern of n
signal elements in which 2m ≤ Ln.
Representing Multilevel Codes

■ We use the notation mBnL, where m is

the length of the binary pattern, B
represents binary data, n represents the
length of the signal pattern and L the
number of levels.
■ L = B binary, L = T for 3 ternary, L = Q
for 4 quaternary.
Multilevel: 2B1Q scheme
Redundancy

■ In the 2B1Q scheme we have no redundancy

and we see that a DC component is present.
■ If we use a code with redundancy we can
decide to use only “0” or “+” weighted codes
(more +’s than -’s in the signal element) and
invert any code that would create a DC
component. E.g. ‘+00++-’ -> ‘-00--+’
■ Receiver will know when it receives a “-”
weighted code that it should invert it as it
doesn’t represent any valid symbol.
Multilevel: 8B6T scheme
Multilevel using multiple channels
■ In some cases, we split the signal transmission
up and distribute it over several links.
■ The separate segments are transmitted
simultaneously. This reduces the signalling
rate per link -> lower bandwidth.
■ This requires all bits for a code to be stored.
■ xD: means that we use ‘x’ links
■ YYYz: We use ‘z’ levels of modulation where
YYY represents the type of modulation (e.g.
pulse ampl. mod. PAM).
■ Codes are represented as: xD-YYYz
Multilevel: 4D-PAM5 scheme
Multitransition Coding
■ Because of synchronization requirements we force
transitions. This can result in very high bandwidth
requirements -> more transitions than are bits (e.g.
mid bit transition with inversion).
■ Codes can be created that are differential at the bit
level forcing transitions at bit boundaries. This results
in a bandwidth requirement that is equivalent to the
bit rate.
■ In some instances, the bandwidth requirement may
even be lower, due to repetitive patterns resulting in
a periodic signal.
Multitransition: MLT-3 scheme
MLT-3

■ Signal rate is same as NRZ-I

■ But because of the resulting bit pattern,
we have a periodic signal for worst case
bit pattern: 1111
■ This can be approximated as an analog
signal a frequency 1/4 the bit rate!