Chapter 5: Pulse Code Modulation

Introduction
o Analog modulation : We have seen that analog modulation techniques
can be classified as
o Continuous wave modulation (AM,FM and PM)
o Pulse modulation (PAM, PPM and PWM)
o They all modulate the analog signal; un sampled(CW) or
sampled(PW)
o But using analog signal has main challenge in noisy conditions
o Analog systems use amplifiers to avoid attenuation, which amplify the effect of
noises too
o Digital systems use regenerators instead of amplifiers and this has a
great role in noise reduction
o Digital systems also provide another advantages such as; security,
flexibility, multiplexing, lower cost, higher capacity etc.
o Hence digital modulation techniques will be described in this chapter
o PCM and Delta modulation
Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 2
Pulse Code Modulator system
o We have seen that sampling a bandlimited signal at or above the
Nyquist sampling rate does not destroy any information content and
fully characterizes the band limited signal.
o Hence a low pass filter known as anti aliasing filter is used before
sampling to band limit the message signal which ideally requires infinite
band width
o A system transmitting these sampled values of the bandlimited signal is
called a sampled data or pulse modulation system.
o In modern communication systems, these sampled signals are often
quantized and coded before transmission. We have pulse code
modulation (PCM).
o Generally PCM adds quantization and encoding to pulse modulation
systems

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 3

Pulse Code Modulator system elements - @Transmitter

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 4

Pulse Code Modulator system
o The sampling is done at a rate higher than the Nyquist rate to allow for
some guard-band.
o The sampled values then enter a scalar quantizer. The quantizer is
either a uniform quantizer, which results in a uniform PCM system, or a
nonuniform quantizer.
o The choice of the quantizer is based on the characteristics of the
source output.
o Uniform Quantizer
samples is
o In uniform PCM, it is assumed that the range of the input
[ Xmin,Xmax] and the number of quantization levels N is b power
of 2, where b is number of bits per quantization level
o From this, the length of each quantization region is given by
delta=(Xmax-Xmin)/N

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 5

 x(t)

0
t

Consider the analog Signal x(t).

 x[n]

0
n

The signal is first sampled

3

0
n
3

0
n
3

0
Sample n
3

0
And Hold n
3

0
n
 Assign Closest
Level
3

0
n
3

0
n
3

0
n
3

0
n
3

0
n
3

0
n
 x(t) Original Signal

0
t
 x~(t)
Quantized Signal

0
t
It is quite apparent that the quantized signal is not exactly
the same as the original analog signal. There is a fair degree
of quantization error here. However; as the number of
quantization levels is increased the quantization error is
reduced and the quantized signal gets closer and closer to
the original signal
 x~(t)
Quantized Signal

0
t
It is quite apparent that the quantized signal is not exactly
the same as the original analog signal. There is a fair degree
of quantization error here. However; as the number of
quantization levels is increased the quantization error is
reduced and the quantized signal gets closer and closer to
the original signal
Uniform quantization – Quantization error

Uniform PCM
o The power of quantization noise becomes

o The signal to quantization ratio becomes

o SNRQ=power of the meaning full signal /
o Example: if signal power =0.5w and delta=0.1, SNRQ in dB?
Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 22
Non-uniform quantization
o Non-uniform Quantizer: As long as the statistics of the input signal are
close to the uniform distribution, uniform PCM works fine.
o However, in coding of certain signals such as speech, the input
distribution is far from being uniformly distributed.
o Therefore, it makes sense to design a non-uniform quantizer
o The usual method for performing nonuniform quantization is to first
pass the samples through a nonlinear element that compresses the large
amplitudes (reduces dynamic range of the signal) and then perform a
uniform quantization on the output.
o At the receiving end, the inverse (expansion) of this nonlinear
operation is applied to obtain the sampled value.
o This technique is called companding (comp ressing-exp anding).

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 23

Non-uniform quantization…

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 24

Encoding
o Encoding is the process of representing the quantized signal with
combination of bits
o One allowed quantization level which is represented by
combination of bits is called a codeword or character
o While the bits are called the symbols
o The data rate(capacity) becomes
o C=bits per sample*samples per second
o ex; If 3 bits are used to represent each level and fs=2Hz; C=6bps

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 25

 Each quantization level corresponds to a unique
combination of bits. The analog signal is transmitted/ stored
as a stream of bits and reconstructed when required.
3

0
n
00 01 10 11 10 01 00

Sem. II, 2017/18

Encoding…
r

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 27

Line codes
o Is the method used to represent the digital information on
the media. A pattern to represent 1s and 0s, of the digital
signal on the transmission link
o Common types of line encoding methods used in
communication are
o Unipolar line coding
o Bipolar line coding
o Polar line coding
o Manchester line coding

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 28

 Line codes-Unipolar
o Two voltage states with one of them being 0 volts

Unipolar NRZ line code

Unipolar RZ line code

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 29

Line codes-Unipolar
o Works well inside machines where the signal path is short.
But unsuitable for long distances due to the stray
capacitance in the transmission media
o On long transmission paths, the constant level shift from 0
volts to ,say, 5 volts causes the stray capacitor to charge
up. Parallel running cables or wires are susceptible to stray
capacitor
o Also have synchronization problems between transmitter
and receiver clock oscillator.
o The problem will occur when there is a long series of 1s
and 0s.

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 30

Line codes-Polar
o Symmetrical around 0 volts
o One of the bits is represented by +V held for a time T while
the other is represented by –V held for the same time T
o Similar problems with unipolar encoding

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 31

Line codes-Bipolar
o Has 3 voltage levels.
o 0 is represented by 0 volt level
o 1 is represented by alternating polarity pulses
o Here synchronization is greatly improved except if a long
string of 0s is transmitted.
o It is also called Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI)

0 1 1 0 1 0 1

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 32

Line codes-Manchester
o There is a transition at the middle of each bit period.
o The mid-bit transition serves as a clocking mechanism and
also as data
o Has no dc components and there is always a transition
available for synchronization of receive and transmit clocks
o It is also called self clocking line encoding
o Absence of transition would indicate an error condition, the
encoding can detect errors during transmission

1 0 1 0 1

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 33

PCM Elements

We have seen the transmitter part in the previous sections

The channel and receiver…..

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 34

Regenerative Repeater - @Channel
o Repeater circuit has 3 main tasks
o Amplitude equalization: used to reduce the amplitude and phase
distortions so that the approximate shape of the actual pulse is
obtained
o Timing: the timing circuit controls the pulse rise time periods
o Decision making: the pulse has to be regenerated as 0 or 1 bit
representing voltage level. Decisions are made using preset
threshold voltage level
o Note that the regenerated PCM wave will not be exactly the
same with original signal since quantization and channel
noise will not be totally removed, but the error is low.

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 35

PCM system - @Receiver
o At the receiver the PCM wave signal is regenerated to
avoid distortions; in the same way as in case of channel.
o Then the decoder system maps each combination of bits to
corresponding quantization levels
o And finally reconstruction filter is used to reconstruct the
original message signal from the quantization levels

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 36

Differential PCM
o In a PCM system, after sampling the information signal,
each sample is quantized independently using a scalar
quantizer.
o This means that previous sample values have no effect on
the quantization of the new samples.
o However, the previous samples give some information
about the next sample, and this information can be
employed to improve the performance of the PCM system.
o For instance, if the previous sample values were small,
with high probability the next sample value will be small as
well and, hence, it is not necessary to quantize a wide
range of values to achieve a good performance.

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 37

Differential PCM…
o In the simplest form of differential pulse-code modulation
(DPCM), the difference between two adjacent samples is
quantized.
o Because two adjacent samples are highly correlated, their
difference has small variations and, therefore, to achieve a
certain level of performance fewer bits are required to
quantize it.
o This means that DPCM can achieve performance levels
compared to PCM at lower bit rates
o Instead of coding each quantization level DPCM codes the
transition changes

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 38

Differential PCM…
o Reference bit is initially used in DPCM (bit 1 in this case)
o Then if transition occurs 0, if not 1

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 39

Delta Modulation
o In delta modulation the analog signal is sampled first
o Then quantization step (Δ) is selected
o The quantization starts at the first sample and is held upto
the next sample, then the quantization level is
o increased by Δ if the quantization level is less than the next
sample or
o decreased by Δ if the quantization level is greater than the next
sample
o Mathemathically

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 40

Delta Modulation…

The first level is reference level. Then every decrementation step is

represented by 0 while every incrementation step is represented by 1.
Data rate in delta modulation is the sampling frequency it self (since there
is one bit for one sample)
C=bits per sample * samples per second
Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 41
Delta Modulation Noises
o Two main noises types in DM
o Slope-overload noise- occurs when step size(Δ) is too small as
compared to the slope of the message signal
o Granular noise- occurs when step size(Δ) is too large as compared
to the slope of the message signal
o The value of Δ is selected to satisfy so that
slope overload is reduced

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 42

Delta Modulation Noises…
o ex: Consider m(t0=2sin(6800πt) is sampled at sampling
frequency of 1MHz. Find the minimum appropriate value of
Δ to avoid slope-over-load distortion
o ans. Δ-min=42.7mV

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 43

 PCM vs Delta Modulation

Parameter PCM Delta modulation

Noise tolerance good poor
Bits per sample b bits per sample Only one bit per sample
Complexity Relatively complex circuit Simpler circuitry

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 44

ISI
o Intersymbol interference (ISI) occurs when a pulse
spreads out in such a way that it interferes with adjacent
pulses at the sample instant.
o The situation is entirely analogous to crosstalk
o Here adjacent bits are symbols representing a single
quantized shape. Hence the term ISI

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 45

Eye Diagram
o The amount of ISI can be seen on an oscilloscope using an
Eye Diagram or Eye pattern.

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 46

Digital signal transmission
o Digital data needs to be carried on an analog signal.
o Hence the digital signal is mapped to analog signal using
o Amplitude shift keying (ASK)
o Frequency shift keying (FSK)
Phase shift keying (PSK)

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 47

ASK

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 48

FSK

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 49

PSK

Sem. II, 2017/18 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation 50

Sem.
Sem. II,
I, 2017/18
2013/14 Ch. 5 – Pulse Code Modulation