Pulse Code Modulation

Pulse Code Modulation

Ø Pulse Code Modulation

Ø Quantizing
Ø Encoding
Ø Analogue to Digital Conversion
Ø Bandwidth of PCM Signals
 PULSE CODE MODULATION (PCM)
Ø DEFINITION: Pulse code modulation (PCM) is essentially
analog-to-digital conversion of a special type where the
information contained in the instantaneous samples of an analog
signal is represented by digital words in a serial bit stream.

Ø The advantages of PCM are:

• Relatively inexpensive digital circuitry may be used extensively.
• PCM signals derived from all types of analog sources may be merged with
data signals and transmitted over a common high-speed digital
communication system.
• In long-distance digital telephone systems requiring repeaters, a clean PCM
waveform can be regenerated at the output of each repeater, where the input
consists of a noisy PCM waveform.
• The noise performance of a digital system can be superior to that of an
analog system.
• The probability of error for the system output can be reduced even further
by the use of appropriate coding techniques.
 Sampling, Quantizing, and Encoding
Ø The PCM signal is generated by carrying out three basic operations:
1. Sampling
2. Quantizing
3. Encoding
1. Sampling operation generates a flat-top PAM signal.
2. Quantizing operation approximates the analog values by using a
finite number of levels. This operation is considered in 3 steps
a) Uniform Quantizer
b) Quantization Error
c) Quantized PAM signal output
3. PCM signal is obtained from the quantized PAM signal by encoding
each quantized sample value into a digital word.
 Analog to Digital Conversion
Ø The Analog-to-digital Converter (ADC)
performs three functions:
– Sampling
Analog • Makes the signal discrete in time.
Input
Signal
• If the analog input has a bandwidth
of W Hz, then the minimum sample
frequency such that the signal can be
Sample
reconstructed without distortion.
– Quantization
ADC • Makes the signal discrete in
Quantize amplitude.
111
110
101
• Round off to one of q discrete levels.
– Encode
100
011
010

Encode
001
000 • Maps the quantized values to digital
words that are n bits long.
Ø If the (Nyquist) Sampling Theorem is
satisfied, then only quantization introduces
Digital Output distortion to the system.
Signal
111 111 001 010 011 111 011
 Quantization
Ø The output of a sampler is still continuous in amplitude.
– Each sample can take on any value e.g. 3.752, 0.001, etc.
– The number of possible values is infinite.

Ø To transmit as a digital signal we must restrict the number of

possible values.

Ø Quantization is the process of “rounding off” a sample according to

some rule.
– E.g. suppose we must round to the nearest tenth, then:
3.752 --> 3.8 0.001 --> 0
Illustration of the Quantization Error
 PCM TV transmission:

(a) 5-bit resolution;

(a) 8-bit resolution.

 Uniform Quantization
Dynamic Range: • Most ADC’s use uniform
(-8, 8)
quantizers.
Output sample
XQ
7
• The quantization levels of a
uniform quantizer are
5

1
equally spaced apart.
-8 -6 -4 -2 -1 2 4 6 8
• Uniform quantizers are
-3
Input sample X
optimal when the input
-5 distribution is uniform.
-7 When all values within the
Quantization Characteristic Dynamic Range of the
Example: Uniform n =3 bit quantizer quantizer are equally likely.
q=8 and XQ = {±1,±3,±5,±7}
Quantization Example

Analogue signal

Sampling TIMING

Quantization levels.
Quantized to 5-levels

Quantization levels
Quantized 10-levels
 PCM encoding example

Levels are encoded

using this table

Table: Quantization levels with belonging code words

M=8

Chart 2. Process of restoring a signal.

Chart 1. Quantization and digitalization of a signal. PCM encoded signal in binary form:
101 111 110 001 010 100 111 100 011 010 101
Signal is quantized in 11 time points & 8 quantization segments.
Total of 33 bits were used to encode a signal
 Encoding
• The output of the quantizer is one of L possible signal levels.
– If we want to use a binary transmission system, then we need to map
each quantized sample into an n bit binary word.

• Encoding is the process of representing each quantized sample

by an n bit code word.
– The mapping is one-to-one so there is no distortion introduced by
encoding.
– Some mappings are better than others.
• A Gray code gives the best end-to-end performance.
• The weakness of Gray codes is poor performance when the sign bit
(MSB) is received in error.
 Gray Codes
• With gray codes adjacent samples differ only in one bit position.
• Example (3 bit quantization):
XQ Natural coding Gray Coding
+7 111 110
+5 110 111
+3 101 101
+1 100 100
-1 011 000
-3 010 001
-5 001 011
-7 000 010
• With this gray code, a single bit error will result in an amplitude
error of only 2.
– Unless the MSB is in error.
 Waveforms in a PCM system for L=8
L=8

(a) Quantizer Input output characteristics

(b) Analog Signal, PAM Signal, Quantized PAM Signal

M = 2n n = log 2 ( M )
M is the number of Quantization levels
(c) Error Signal n is the number of bits per sample

(d) PCM Signal

The basic elements of a PCM system
Bandwidth of PCM Signals
Example
Example