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Spectrum for PAM

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Sources of Digital Communication Systems

In digital communication systems, the information is always assumed to be generated in the

form of binary data with values of 0 or 1. The origin of the digital binary information to be
transmitted over digital communication systems may be an analog signal such as an audio
signal or an analog picture that have been sampled and quantized and then converted to a
PCM signal. The origin of the digital binary information may also be digital data in the form
of text. In any case, the purpose of this chapter is to study the transmission of the information
in the form of a digital binary signal.
Line Coding

Given some binary information, the binary bits are not transmit through the channel as 1’s
and 0’s but is used to generate a voltage signal that represents the information we would like
to transmit. There are different forms of signals (called Line Codes) that can be used to
represent the information. The terms Return to Zero (RZ) and Non–Return to Zero (NRZ)
will be used in describing these signal.
1. On–Off (NRZ): In this form of line codes, a bit of 1 is represented by some
positive voltage (+5 volts for example) and a bit of 0 by 0 volts (justifying calling
this signal On–Off). The pulses corresponding to binary 1 remain at the positive
voltage for the whole duration of the bit period (it does not return to zero at any
time during the bit period justifying calling this line code NRZ).

2. Polar (NRZ): In this line codes, a bit of 1 is represented by some positive voltage
(+5 volts for example) and a bit of 0 is represented by negative of that voltage (so
it would be –5 volts). The pulses corresponding to binary 1 and binary 0 remain at
the positive and negative voltages, respectively, for the whole duration of the bit
period (they do not return to zero). The advantage of this line code over the On–
Off (NRZ) is that it has zero–DC value when the number of binary 1’s is equal to
the number of binary 0’s. A line code with zero–DC is desired in some
applications that require that the transmitted signal to have no DC.
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3. On–Off (RZ): In this line codes, a bit of 1 is represented by some positive voltage
(+5 volts for example) for half of the bit period and zero in the other half of the bit
period and a bit of 0 is represented by zero for the whole bit period. This is why
this line code is a return–to–zero line code (because any pulse corresponding to
binary 1 always returns back to zero). The advantage of this line code over the
previous line codes is that a long sequence of ones always has transitions at the
center of each bit and therefore bit synchronization becomes easy for long
sequences of ones. Long sequence of zeros is still difficult to be synchronized.

4. Polar (RZ): In this line code, a bit of 1 is represented by some positive voltage
(+5 volts for example) for half of the bit period and zero in the other half of the bit
period and a bit of 0 is represented by the negative of that voltage for half of the
period and zero for the other half. The advantage of this line code over the
previous ones is that long sequences of ones or zeros have transitions at the center
of each bit and therefore bit synchronization becomes easy for long sequences of
ones or zeros. Also, this line code has zero DC when the number of ones and zeros
is the same.

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5. Bi-Phase (Manchester): The problem with the upper line codes is that they either
have non-zero average or they do not provide sufficient information that allows
the transmitter and receiver to synchronize with each other. So, if there is a long
sequence of 0s or long sequence of 1s, the receiver and transmitter may loose
synchronization. The Polar (RZ) solves these problems but it is a three level
signal (the signal takes one of three levels (+5, 0, or – 5). A transistor that is
working a switch has only two states (On  saturation, and Off  cutoff). So,
we can get all the advantages of the different line codes yet use a line code that
has two levels only. The way the Biphase, or Manchester, code is constructed is
that a bit of 0 is represented by a 0V signal for half the bit period and +5V for the
second half, while a bit of 1 is represented by a +5V signal for half the bit period
and 0V for the second half. So, while all the codes transmit the information in the
level of the signal, this line code actually transmits the information in the
transitions that occur in the middle of each bit. This is illustrated by the arrows in
the middle of each bit period. A transition going up in this case means a bit of
zero and transition going down is a bit of 1. To get an average of zero, we can use
the two levels of +5V and -5V. Note that while the average of some line codes is
zero when the number of zeros is equal to ones, this is not a necessary condition
for the Manchester line code to have zero average since each bit whither it is 0 or
1 has half of its duration at -5V and the other half at +5.

6. Bipolar (RZ): In this line code, a bit of 0 is represented by zero volts for the
whole bit period. A bit of 1 is represented by some positive voltage (+5 volts for
example) for half of the bit period and zero in the other half of the bit period.
However, the next bit of one (wither it is the next bit or 1000 bits later is

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represented by the negative of the voltage for half of the bit period and zero for
the second half. So, the bits of 1’s are represented by alternating positive and
negative pulses. This insures that the DC value of the signal is always zero even if
we have non–equal number of ones and zeros.

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