LINE CODING

i. A line code is the code used for data transmission of a digital signal over a transmission line.
This process of coding is chosen so as to avoid overlap and distortion of signal such as inter-
symbol interference.

ii. The process for converting digital data into digital signal is said to be Line Coding. Digital data is
found in binary format. It is represented (stored) internally as series of 1s and 0s.

Properties of Line Coding:

 As the coding is done to make more bits transmit on a single signal, the bandwidth used is
much reduced.
 For a given bandwidth, the power is efficiently used.
 The probability of error is much reduced.
 Error detection is done and the bipolar too has a correction capability.
 Power density is much favorable.
 The timing content is adequate.
 Long strings of 1s and 0s is avoided to maintain transparency.

Types of Line Coding:

There are 3 types of Line Coding:
1. Unipolar Signaling:
i. Unipolar signaling is also called as On-Off Keying or simply OOK. The presence of pulse
represents a 1 and the absence of pulse represents a 0.
ii. Unipolar encoding schemes use single voltage level to represent data. In this case, to represent
binary 1, high voltage is transmitted and to represent 0, no voltage is transmitted.
iii. There are two variations in Unipolar signaling −

 Non Return to Zero NRZ

 Return to Zero RZ

Unipolar Non-Return to Zero (NRZ):

In this type of unipolar signaling, a High in data is represented by a positive pulse called
as Mark, which has a duration T equal to the symbol bit duration. A Low in data input has no
0

pulse.
The following figure clearly depicts this.

Advantages:
The advantages of Unipolar NRZ are −

 It is simple.
 A lesser bandwidth is required.

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 Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of Unipolar NRZ are −
 No error correction done.
 Presence of low frequency components may cause the signal droop.
 No clock is present.
 Loss of synchronization is likely to occur (especially for long strings of 1s and 0s).

Unipolar Return to Zero RZ:

In this type of unipolar signaling, a High in data, though represented by a Mark pulse, its
duration T is less than the symbol bit duration. Half of the bit duration remains high but it
0

immediately returns to zero and shows the absence of pulse during the remaining half of the
bit duration.
It is clearly understood with the help of the following figure.

Advantages:
The advantages of Unipolar RZ are −

 It is simple.
 The spectral line present at the symbol rate can be used as a clock.

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 Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of Unipolar RZ are −

 No error correction.
 Occupies twice the bandwidth as unipolar NRZ.
 The signal droop is caused at the places where signal is non-zero at 0 Hz.

2. Polar Signaling:
There are two methods of Polar Signaling. They are −

 Polar NRZ
 Polar RZ

Polar NRZ:

In this type of Polar signaling, a High in data is represented by a positive pulse, while a Low in
data is represented by a negative pulse. The following figure depicts this well.

Advantages:
The advantages of Polar NRZ are −

 It is simple.
 No low-frequency components are present.
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 Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of Polar NRZ are −
 No error correction.
 No clock is present.
 The signal droop is caused at the places where the signal is non-zero at 0 Hz.

Polar RZ

In this type of Polar signaling, a High in data, though represented by a Mark pulse, its
duration T is less than the symbol bit duration. Half of the bit duration remains high but it
0

immediately returns to zero and shows the absence of pulse during the remaining half of the
bit duration.
However, for a Low input, a negative pulse represents the data, and the zero level remains
same for the other half of the bit duration. The following figure depicts this clearly.

Advantages:
The advantages of Polar RZ are −

 It is simple.
 No low-frequency components are present.

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 Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of Polar RZ are −
 No error correction.
 No clock is present.
 Occupies twice the bandwidth of Polar NRZ.
 The signal droop is caused at places where the signal is non-zero at 0 Hz.

3. Bipolar Signaling :
This is an encoding technique which has three voltage levels namely +, - and 0. Such a signal is
called as duo-binary signal.
An example of this type is Alternate Mark Inversion AMIAMI. For a 1, the voltage level gets a
transition from + to – or from – to +, having alternate 1s to be of equal polarity. A 0 will have a
zero voltage level.
Even in this method, we have two types.

 Bipolar NRZ
 Bipolar RZ

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 The above figure has both the Bipolar NRZ and RZ waveforms. The pulse duration and symbol
bit duration are equal in NRZ type, while the pulse duration is half of the symbol bit duration in
RZ type.

Advantages:

 It is simple.
 No low-frequency components are present.
 Occupies low bandwidth than unipolar and polar NRZ schemes.
 This technique is suitable for transmission over AC coupled lines, as signal drooping
doesn’t occur here.
 A single error detection capability is present in this.

Disadvantages:

 No clock is present.
 Long strings of data causes loss of synchronization.

BLOCK CODING
i. Block coding refers to the technique of adding extra bits to a digital word in order to improve
the reliability of transmission.
ii. The word consists of the message bits (often called information, or data) plus code bits. It may
also, as in the present case, contain a frame synchronization bit.
iii. A block code adds bits to existing message bits, or blocks, independently of adjacent blocks 1.
iv. In block coding, we divide our message into blocks, each of k bits, called data words. We add r
redundant bits to each block to make the length n = k + r. The resulting n-bit blocks are called
code words.
v. For example, we have a set of data words, each of size k, and a set of code words, each of size
of n. With k bits, we can create a combination of 2k data words, with n bits; we can create a
combination of 2n code words. Since n > k, the number of possible code words is larger than
the number of possible data words in the message being transferred.