What is Line Coding

Line coding is a technique which

hich represents digital data into digital signals. Using this
coding, it is possible to map sequence of bits into digital signal.

Figure-11 : Line Encoding and Decoding

Line encoder does line coding at the sender side as shown in figure
figure-1.
1. The same digital
signal is decoded at the receiver side by line decoder. Line encoder converts digital data
to digital signal format and line decoder does the reverse.

Unipolar Signaling
Figure-2/3
2/3 : Unipolar signaling

In the unipolar signaling type, binary oone

ne ('1') is encoded as presence of pulse where as
binary zero ('0') is encoded as absence of pulse. Hence it is known as "ON-OFF
"ON Keying".
It is categorized into unipolar NRZ and unipolar RZ types as described below.
Advantages of Unipolar Signaling
Following
ng are the benefits or advantages of Unipolar Signaling.
➨It is very simple line coding technique.
➨Unipolar NRZ requires very less bandwidth (BW).
➨Spectral line present at symbol rate in unipolar RZ can be used as clock.
Disadvantages of Unipolar Signaling
Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of Unipolar Signaling.
➨No clock is present in unipolar NRZ.
➨Low frequency components in the signal waveforms may cause signal droop (Unipolar
NRZ). In Unipolar RZ signal droop is caused at places wh
where
ere signal is non-zero
non at 0
hertz.
➨No error correction is done (in both unipolar NRZ and unipolar RZ).

➨When long string of ones and zeros are present in the data, it leads to loss of
synchronization (Unipolar NRZ).
➨Unipolar RZ occupies twice bandwidth as unipolar NRZ.
Polar Signaling
Figure-6/7 : Bipolar signaling

In the Bipolar signaling type, there are three voltage levels viz. positive, negative and
zero. Binary '0' is encoded as neutral zero voltage. Binary '1' is encoded either as positive
pulse or as negative pulse based on its alternate positions. Binary ones are mapped by
alternatine positive and negative voltages. Hence it is called as Alternate Mark Inversion
(AMI). It is further categorized into NRZ and RZ.
Advantages of Bipolar Signaling
Following are the benefits or advantages of Bipolar Signaling.
➨It iss simple line coding type like unipolar and polar.
➨Low frequency components are not present.

➨Bipolar signal occupies low bandwidth than unipolar and polar NRZ types.
➨Signal droop does not occure in bipolar type unlike unipolar and polar.

➨Single error detection

etection is possible.
Disadvantages of Bipolar Signaling
Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of Bipolar Signaling.
➨Clock is not present.
➨Long string of 1's and 0's cause loss of synchronization.
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.

Properties of Line Coding

Following are the 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

 Unipolar
 Polar
 Bi-polar

Unipolar Signaling
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.
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 T0 equal to the symbol bit duration. A Low in data input has no
pulse.
The following figure clearly depicts this.
Advantages
The advantages of Unipolar NRZ are −

 It is simple.
 A lesser bandwidth is required.
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 T0 is less than the symbol bit duration. Half of the bit duration remains high but it
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.
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.

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.
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 T0 is less than the symbol bit duration. Half of the bit duration remains high but it
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.
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.

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
From the models so far discussed, we have learnt the difference between NRZ and RZ. It just
goes in the same way here too. The following figure clearly depicts this.
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
Following are the 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
Following are the disadvantages −

 No clock is present.
 Long strings of data causes loss of synchronization.
There is another important distortion which is most likely to occur, called as Inter-Symbol
Interference ISI.

Inter Symbol Interference

This is a form of distortion of a signal, in which one or more symbols interfere with subsequent
signals, causing noise or delivering a poor output.

Causes of ISI
The main causes of ISI are −

 Multi-path Propagation
 Non-linear
linear frequency in channels
The ISI is unwanted and should be completely eliminated to get a clean output. The causes of
ISI should also be resolved in order to lessen its effect.

Eye Pattern
An effective way to study the effects of ISI is the Eye Pattern.. The name Eye Pattern was
given from its resemblance to the human eye for binary waves. The interior region of the eye
pattern is called the eye opening
opening.. The following figure shows the image of an eye-pattern.
eye

Jitter is the short-term variation

iation of the instant of digital signal, from its ideal position, which
may lead to data errors.
When the effect of ISI increases, traces from the upper portion to the lower portion of the eye
opening increases and the eye gets completely closed, if ISI is very high.
An eye pattern provides the following information about a particular system.
 Actual eye patterns are used to estimate the bit error rate and the signal-to-noise ratio.
 The width of the eye opening defines the time interval over which the received wave can
be sampled without error from ISI.
 The instant of time when the eye opening is wide, will be the preferred time for
sampling.
 The rate of the closure of the eye, according to the sampling time, determines how
sensitive the system is to the timing error.
 The height of the eye opening, at a specified sampling time, defines the margin over
noise.
Hence, the interpretation of eye pattern is an important consideration.