EEL5718/4598

Line Coding

• Reading Reference: Leon-Garcia textbook

• Section 3.6 Line Coding
• Forouzan - Data Communications and Networking, Chapter 4
 Analog vs. Digital -- Data vs. Signals

x(t)
Digital Data Digital
d(t) = 0 1 0 Signal
x(t)
Encoder
t

S(f)
Digital Data Analog Signal
d(t) = 0 1 0 S(f)
Encoder
f
fc

Analog Data, x(t) Digital Signal

e.g., voice Digital Data

Digitizer

t t Analog Signal

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 Digital Data to Digital Signal Encoding
x(t)

Digital Data Digital Signal

d(t) = 0 1 0 x(t)

Encoder
t

• Digital Data to Digital Signal.

• Allows inexpensive transmission of data.
• Used with digital coding techniques.
• Important Factors:
• Removing DC component, Synchronization, Error
Control
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 Encoding in 10 Base T Ethernet
• Ethernet 10BaseT
• Manchester Encoding
• 100 BaseTX (STP or CAT5)
• MTL-3 signaling scheme and 4B/5B encoding.
• 100BaseT4
• Uses a three-level ternary code called 8B/6T.
• 100BaseFX (Optical Fiber)
• FDDI technology – convert 4B/5B to NRZI
code group streams into optical signals.
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 8B/10B Line Coding
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 Other Examples
• Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART)
• An individual (or part of an) integrated circuit (IC) used for serial
communications over a computer or peripheral device serial port.
• One or more UART peripherals are commonly integrated in
microcontroller chips. Specialized UARTs are used for
automobiles, smart cards and SIMs.
• NRZ Encoding

• Universal Serial Bus (USB)

• An industry standard that specifies the physical interfaces and
protocols for connecting, data transferring and powering of hosts,
such as personal computers, peripherals, e.g., keyboards and
mobile devices, and intermediate hubs.
• NRZI Encoding

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 Considerations for Choosing a Good
Encoding Scheme
• Prevents drift (baseline wandering) that is caused by long
runs of maintaining the same voltage value.
• Removes the dc component of the signal.
• DC elements present problems for systems that can't pass low
frequency or that use electrical coupling.DC offset is a potential
source of clicks, distortion and loss of audio volume.
• Provides synchronization
• Synchronization is the process of timing the serial transmission to
properly identify the data being sent.
• Adds immunity to noise and interference
• Simple implementation to avoid a high-cost implementation,
bandwidth or data rate versus baud rate.

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 Effect of Lack of Synchronization

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 Line Coding Schemes
• Unipolar
• NRZ
• Polar
• Manchester
• Multi-transition
• MLT-3
• Multi-level
• 8B/6T
• Bipolar
• AMI, pseudoternary
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 Line Encoding Schemes

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 Digital Data to Digital Signal
Nonreturn to Zero (NRZ) Encoding

Data Transmitted 0 1 0 1 1 0 0

+5 volts
NRZ
-5 volts

+5 volts
NRZ – Level
(NRZ-L) -5 volts

+5 volts
NRZ Invert on Ones
(NRZI) -5 volts

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 Biphase Encoding

Data Transmitted 0 1 0 1 1 0 0

+5 volts

Manchester Code

-5 volts

+5 volts
Differential Manchester

-5 volts

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 Encoding Schemes for
Fast Ethernet

• Fast Ethernet over optical fiber

• Two optical fibers, one for transmission and one for
reception.
• Converts 4B/5B to NRZI code group streams into
optical signals.

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 4B5B

• Each 4-bit 'nibble' of received data has an extra 5th bit

added.
• The 5-bit patterns can always have two '1's in them even if
the data is all '0's, since a translation occurs to another of the
bit patterns.
• This enables clock synchronizations required for reliable data
transfer.

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 4B5B Encoding

Idle

Start

End

Transmit Error
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 Encoding Schemes for
Fast Ethernet (100BaseT)

• Fast Ethernet over twisted pair

• Two pair of twisted pair, one for transmission and one
for reception.
• Uses MLT-3 signaling scheme along with 4B/5B encoding.
• Uses 8B6T signaling scheme

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 MLT-3

• MLT-3 involves using the pattern 1, 0, -1, 0.

• If the next data signal is a '0‘, then there is no transition – the next
output bit is the same as last time.
• If the next data signal is a '1' , then the output 'transitions' to the next
bit in the pattern e.g.:
• If the last output bit was a '-1', and the input bit is a '1', then the next output is a '0'.
• If the last output bit was a ‘0’ and the input bit is a ‘1’, and the previous non-zero
value was ‘1’, then the next output is a ‘-1’.
• There is an issue with this, in that you can end up with a series of '0's
or '1's which forces the local circuitry to count the bits using its own
free running clock rather than have clock synchronization from the
transmit source.
• To resolve this issue, intermediate 4B5B encoding takes
place before MLT-3 encoding.

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 Multilevel Binary Encoding

Data Transmitted 0 1 0 1 1 0 0

+5 volts

MLT-3

-5 volts

+5 volts

-5 volts

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 8B6T

• 8 data bits (0,1) represented as six ternary signals (-V, 0, +V)

• Original carrier is first run at ¾ speed of the data rate
3/4 (6/8) wave transitions per bit
• 8-bit data pattern with two voltage levels 0 (0 volts), 1 (V volts)
• Converted into a 6-bit pattern using 3 levels:
-V, 0 and V volts,
• Unique 6T code.
• Example:
• 0000 0000 uses the code +-00+- and
• 0000 1110 uses the code -+0-0+.
• The rules for the symbols are that there must be at least two
voltage transitions (to maintain synch) and the average DC
voltage must be zero (this is called 'DC balance‘)
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 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.
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 Signal Element versus Data Element

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 Data Rate (R) vs. Modulation Rate (D)

Data Transmitted 0 1 0 1 1 0 0

+5 volts

-5 volts

R R
D  [baud ]
L log 2 M
b – data bit D – Modulation Rate (Baud Rate)
tb– bit period M – number of different signal elements
R – Data Rate L – number of bits per signal element

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 Example

• What is the baud rate needed to produce100BASET

Ethernet?

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 Scrambling Techniques

• Some codes, such as the biphase codes, require

a high signaling rate relative to the data rate.
• Other codes lose synchronization when long
strings of zeroes are transmitted.
• Scrambling fills in additional signaling sequences
to provide desirable effects, such as:
• Inserting transitions to maintain synchronization.
• Removing a DC component.
• Allowing error detection capabilities.

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 Scrambling using Bipolar AMI

• Bipolar – AMI Code loses synchronization when

a long string of zeroes is transmitted.
• “Bipolar with 8-zeroes substitution” (B8ZS)
amends Bipolar-AMI with the following rules:
• If an octet of zeroes follows a positive voltage pulse,
then encode the eight zeroes as 000+-0-+.
• If an octet of zeroes follows a negative voltage pulse,
then encode the eight zeroes as 000-+0+-.
• These two signal patterns are not allowed to be used
in normal transmission sequences.

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 Bipolar AMI Scrambling Example

• Draw the signal pattern for the B8ZS scrambling

the given of Bipolar AMI data.
1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Data Transmitted
+5 volts
Bipolar AMI
-5 volts

+5 volts
B8ZS
-5 volts

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 Analog vs. Digital -- Data vs. Signals

x(t)
Digital Data Digital
d(t) = 0 1 0 Signal
x(t)
Encoder
t

S(f)
Digital Data Analog Signal
d(t) = 0 1 0 S(f)
Encoder
f
fc

Analog Data, x(t) Digital Signal

e.g., voice Digital Data

Digitizer

t t Analog Signal

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 Summary

• Communication systems have many

opportunities for improvement and
optimization.
• At the physical layer, a well-designed
signal representation can increase
capacity, reduce interference, provide
synchronization and provide to balance
the dc component in a signal.

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