Line Coding, Block Coding and

Scrambling
Digital To Digital Conversion
• A computer network is designed to send
information from one point to another.
• This information needs to be converted to
either a digital signal or an analog signal for
transmission.
• Digital To Digital Conversion involves
representing digital data using digital signal
using three techniques:
Line coding, block coding and scrambling
Line Coding
• Line coding is the process of converting digital
data to digital signals.
• The data is in the form of text, numbers, graphical
images, audio, or video, are stored in computer
memory as sequences of bits.
• Line coding converts a sequence of bits to a
digital signal.
• At the sender, digital data are encoded into a
digital signal
• At the receiver, the digital data are recreated by
decoding the digital signal.
Line coding and decoding
Characteristics of line coding
Basic
1. Signal Element and Data Element
2. Data Rate and Signal Rate
Specific to schemes
1. Baseline wandering.
2. DC component.
3. Self Synchronization.
4. Built in Error Detection.
5. Immunity to noise and interference.
6. Complexity.
1. Signal Element and Data Element
– A data element is the smallest entity that can
represent a piece of information: this is the bit.
– A signal element is the shortest unit (timewise) of
a digital signal that carries data elements.
– Data elements are what we need to send; signal
elements are what we can send.
– Data elements are being carried; signal elements
are the carriers.
– A ratio r is the number of data elements carried by
each signal element.
Signal element versus data element
2. Data Rate Versus Signal Rate
– The data rate defines the number of data elements
(bits) sent in 1s.
– The unit is bits per second (bps).
– The signal rate is the number of signal elements sent
in 1s. The unit is the baud.
– The data rate is sometimes called the bit rate; the
signal rate is sometimes called the pulse rate, the
modulation rate, or the baud rate.
• One goal in data communications is to increase
the data rate while decreasing the signal rate.
• Increasing the data rate increases the speed of
transmission; decreasing the signal rate decreases
the bandwidth requirement.
Relationship between data rate and signal rate
• This relationship is dependent on r and on data
pattern.
• The worst case is when we need the maximum
signal rate, the best case is when we need the
minimum.
• The relationship between data rate and signal rate
as
S =c xNx 1/r baud
Where
N is the data rate (bps); c is the case factor, which
varies for each case; S is the number of signal
elements; and r is the previously defined factor.
Example 1:
A signal is carrying data in which one data
element is encoded as one signal element ( r =
1). If the bit rate is 100 kbps, what is the
average value of the baud rate if c is between 0
and 1?
Soln:
We assume that the average value of c is 1/2 .
The baud rate is then
Bandwidth
• Digital signal is non periodic.
• The baud rate, not the bit rate, determines the
required bandwidth for a digital signal.
• The bandwidth reflects the range of frequencies
needed.
• Bandwidth (range of frequencies) is proportional
to the signal rate (baud rate).
• The minimum bandwidth can be given as
Bmin = c * N *1/ r
Where c- case factor, N is maximum data rate and r
is the factor defined previously
3. Baseline Wandering
• In decoding a digital signal, the receiver
calculates a running average of the received
signal power.
• This average is called the baseline.
• The incoming signal power is evaluated against
this baseline to determine the value of the data
element.
• A long string of Os or 1s can cause a drift in the
baseline (baseline wandering) and make it
difficult for the receiver to decode correctly.
• A good line coding scheme needs to prevent
baseline wandering.
Baseline Wandering Example
4. DC Components

• When the voltage level in a digital signal is

constant for a while(long sequence of 0/1), the
spectrum creates very low frequencies.

• These frequencies around zero, called DC

(direct-current) components, present problems
for a system that cannot pass low frequencies
5. Self-synchronization
• To correctly interpret the signals received from
the sender, the receiver's bit intervals must
correspond exactly to the sender's bit intervals.
• If the receiver clock is faster or slower, the bit
intervals are not matched and the receiver might
misinterpret the signals.
• A self-synchronizing digital signal includes
timing information in the data being transmitted.
• If the receiver's clock is out of synchronization,
these points can reset the clock.
Figure Effect of lack of synchronization

4.17
6. Built-in Error Detection
• It is desirable to have a built-in error-detecting
capability in the generated code to detect some of
or all the errors that occurred during transmission.
7. Immunity to Noise and Interference
• Another desirable code characteristic is a code
that is immune to noise and other interferences.
8. Complexity
• A complex scheme is more costly to implement
than a simple one.
• For example, a scheme that uses four signal levels
is more difficult to interpret than one that uses
only two levels.
Line coding schemes can be divided into five
broad categories
Unipolar Scheme
• In a unipolar scheme, all the signal levels are
on one side of the time axis, either above or
below.
NRZ (Non-Return-to-Zero)
• The positive voltage defines bit 1 and the zero
voltage defines bit O.
• It is called NRZ because the signal does not
return to zero at the middle of the bit.
Unipolar NRZ

• DC component is present in the encoded

signal and there is loss of synchronization for
long sequences of 0’s and 1’s.
• It is simple but obsolete.
• Normalized Power- the power needed to send
1 bit per unit line resistance.
Polar NRZ
• The voltages are on the both sides of the time axis.
• For example, the voltage level for 0 can be positive and the
voltage level for 1 can be negative.
• Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) In polar NRZ encoding, two levels
of voltage amplitude are used.
• There are two versions of polar NRZ: NRZ-L and NRZ-I.
• In NRZ-L the level of the voltage determines the
value of the bit.
• In NRZ-I the inversion or the lack of inversion
determines the value of the bit.
• NRZ-L and NRZ-I both have an average signal
rate of N/2 Bd.
• NRZ-L and NRZ-I both have a DC component
problem.
• Lack of synchronization capability.
• When there is long sequence of 0’s or 1’s, the
receiving side will fail to regenerate the clock and
synchronization between the transmitter and
receiver clocks
Example:
• A system is using NRZ-I to transfer 10-Mbps
data. What are the average signal rate and
minimum bandwidth?
Solution
• The average signal rate is S = N/2 = 500
kbaud. The minimum bandwidth for this
average baud rate is Bmin = S = 500 kHz.
Return to zero(RZ)
• The main problem with NRZ encoding occurs
when the sender and receiver clocks are not
synchronized.
• The receiver does not know when one bit has
ended and the next bit is starting.
• One solution is the return-to-zero (RZ)
scheme, which uses three values: positive,
negative, and zero.
• In RZ, the signal changes not between bits but
during the bit.
Key characteristics of the RZ coding are:
• Three levels
• Bit rate is double than that of baud rate
• No dc component
• Good synchronization
• Main limitation is the increase in bandwidth
1. The main disadvantage of RZ encoding is that
it requires two signal changes to encode a bit
and therefore occupies greater bandwidth.
2. Sudden change of polarity resulting in all Os
interpreted as 1s and all 1s interpreted as Os,
still exist here, but there is no DC component
problem.
3. Another problem is the complexity:
RZ uses three levels of voltage.
• RZ is been replaced by the better-performing
Manchester and differential Manchester
schemes
Biphase: Manchester and Differential Manchester
• The idea of RZ (transition at the middle of the bit) and the
idea of NRZ-L are combined into the Manchester scheme.
• In Manchester encoding, the duration of the bit is divided
into two halves.
• The voltage remains at one level during the first half and
moves to the other level in the second half.
• The transition at the middle of the bit provides
synchronization.
• Differential Manchester, on the other hand, combines the
ideas of RZ and NRZ-I.
• There is always a transition at the middle of the bit, but the
bit values are determined at the beginning of the bit.
• If the next bit is 0, there is a transition; if the next bit is 1,
there is none.
Polar biphase: Manchester and differential
Manchester schemes
• In the standard Manchester coding there is a
transition at the middle of each bit period.
• A binary 1 corresponds to a low-to-high
transition and a binary 0 to a high-to-low
transition in the middle.
• In Differential Manchester, inversion in the
middle of each bit is used for synchronization.
• The encoding of a 0 is represented by the
presence of a transition both at the beginning
and at the middle and 1 is represented by a
transition only in the middle of the bit period.
Key characteristics are:
• Two levels
• No DC component
• Good synchronization
• Higher bandwidth due to doubling of bit rate with
respect to data rate.
• The bandwidth required for biphase techniques are
greater than that of NRZ techniques.
• Because of predictable transition during each bit time,
the receiver can synchronize properly on that transition.
• Biphase encoded signals have no DC components .
• A Manchester code is now very popular and has been
specified for the IEEE 802.3 standard for base band
coaxial cables and twisted pair CSMA/CD bus LANs.
Advantage:
• There is no DC component because each bit
has a positive and negative voltage
contribution.
Disadvantage:
• The only drawback is the signal rate.
– The signal rate for Manchester and differential
Manchester is double that for NRZ.
– The reason is that there is always one transition at
the middle of the bit and maybe one transition at
the end of each bit.
Bipolar Schemes
• In bipolar encoding (sometimes called
multilevel binary), there are three voltage
levels: positive, negative, and zero.
• The voltage level for one data element is at
zero, while the voltage level for the other
element alternates between positive and
negative.
• AMI- Alternate Mark Inversion and
Pseudoternary are variations of bipolar.
AMI
• AMI means alternate I inversion. A neutral
zero voltage represents binary O.
• Binary 1s are represented by alternating
positive and negative voltages.
• In pseudoternary 1 bit is encoded as a zero
voltage and the 0 bit is encoded as alternating
positive and negative.
• voltages.
• The bipolar scheme was developed as an
alternative to NRZ.
• The bipolar scheme has the same signal rate as
NRZ, but there is no DC component.
• The NRZ scheme has most of its energy
concentrated near zero frequency, which
makes it unsuitable for transmission over
channels with poor performance around this
frequency.
• The concentration of the energy in bipolar
encoding is around frequency N/2.
Why no DC Component?
• If we have a long sequence of 1s, the voltage
level alternates between positive and negative;
it is not constant, there is no DC component
• For a long sequence of Os, the voltage remains
constant, but its amplitude is zero, which is the
same as having no DC component.
• In other words, a sequence that creates a
constant zero voltage does not have a DC
component.
• AMI is commonly used for long-distance
communication, but it has a synchronization
problem when a long sequence of Os is present
in the data.
Multilevel Schemes
• The desire to increase the data speed or
decrease the required bandwidth has resulted
in the creation of many schemes.
• The goal is to increase the number of bits per
baud by encoding a pattern of m data elements
into a pattern of n signal elements.
• There are two types of data elements (Os and Is), which
means that a group of m data elements can produce a
combination of 2m data patterns.
• There are different types of signal elements by allowing
different signal levels.
• If we have L different levels, then we can produce Ln
combinations of signal patterns.
• If 2m =Ln, then each data pattern is encoded into one signal
pattern.
• If 2m<Ln, data patterns occupy only a subset of signal
• patterns.
• Then the subset can be carefully designed to prevent
baseline wandering, to provide synchronization, and to
detect errors that occurred during data transmission.
• Data encoding is not possible if 2m>Lnbecause some of the
data patterns cannot be encoded.
• The code designers have classified these types of
coding as mBnL
where
m is the length of the binary pattern,
B means binary data,
n is the length of the signal pattern,
L is the number of levels in the signaling.
• A letter is often used in place of L: B (binary) for
L =2, T (ternary) for L =3, and Q (quaternary) for
L =4.
• The first two letters define the data pattern, and
the second two define the signal pattern.
1. 2B1Q
• Two binary, one quaternary (2BIQ), uses data patterns
of size 2 and encodes the 2-bit patterns as one signal
element belonging to a four-level signal.
• Here m =2, n =1, and L =4 (quaternary).
• The average signal rate of 2B1Q is S =N/4.
• This means that using 2BIQ, send data 2 times faster
than by using NRZ-L.
• 2B lQ uses four different signal levels, which means
the receiver has to discern four different thresholds.
• The reduced bandwidth comes with a price.
• 2BIQ is used in DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
technology to provide a high-speed connection to the
Internet by using subscriber telephone lines.
8B6T
• This scheme is eight binary, six ternary (8B6T).
• This code is used with 100BASE-4T cable.
• The idea is to encode a pattern of 8 bits as a pattern of 6
signal elements, where the signal has three levels
(ternary).
• Here there are 28 =256 different data patterns and 36
=478 different signal patterns.
• There are 478 - 256 =222 redundant signal elements
that provide synchronization and error detection.
• Part of the redundancy is also used to provide DC
balance.
• Each signal pattern has a weight of 0 or +1 DC values.
• If two groups of weight 1 are encountered one after
another, the first one is sent as is, while the next one is
totally inverted to give a weight of -1.
Multilevel: 8B6T scheme
4D-PAMS
• It is four dimensional five-level pulse amplitude
modulation (4D-PAM5).
• The 4D means that data is sent over four wires at the
same time.
• It uses five voltage levels, such as -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2.
• One level, level 0, is used only for forward error
detection
• If we assume that the code is just one-dimensional, the
four levels create something similar to 8B4Q.
• In other words, an 8-bit word is translated to a signal
element of four different levels. The worst signal rate
for this imaginary one-dimensional version is N X 4/8,
or N/2
• The technique is designed to send data over four
channels (four wires).
• This means the signal rate can be reduced to N/8.
• All 8 bits can be fed into a wire simultaneously and
sent by using one signal element.
• Four signal elements comprising one signal group are
sent simultaneously in a four- dimensional setting.
• Gigabit LANs use this technique to send 1-Gbps data
over four copper cables that can handle 125 M baud.
• This scheme has a lot of redundancy in the signal
pattern because 28 data patterns are matched to 44 =
256 signal patterns.
• The extra signal patterns can be used for other purposes
such as error detection.
Multilevel: 4D-PAM5 scheme
Multiline Transmission: MLT-3
• NRZ-I and differential Manchester are classified as
differential encoding but use two transition rules to encode
binary data (no inversion, inversion).
• If a signal has more than two levels, differential encoding
scheme can be designed with more than two transition
rules.
• MLT-3 is one of them. The multiline transmission, three
level (MLT-3) scheme uses three levels (+v, 0, and - V) and
three transition rules to move between the levels.
1. If the next bit is 0, there is no transition.
2. If the next bit is 1 and the current level is not 0, the next
level is 0.
3. If the next bit is 1 and the current level is 0, the next level is
the opposite of the last nonzero level.
Multitransition: MLT-3 scheme
• The behavior ofMLT-3 can best be described by the state
• The three voltage levels (-V, 0, and +V) are shown by three states (ovals).
• The transition from one state (level) to another is shown by the connecting
lines.
Summary of Encoding Scheme
Block Coding
• Redundancy is required to ensure
synchronization and to provide some kind of
inherent error detecting.
• Block coding can give us this redundancy and
improve the performance of line coding
• Block coding changes a block of m bits into a
block of n bits, where n is larger than m.
• Block coding is referred to as an mB/nB
encoding technique.
• Block coding normally involves three steps: division,
substitution, and combination.
• In the division step, a sequence of bits is divided into
groups of m bits, these bits are substituted with n bits
and group of nbits are combined to form a stream.
• The new stream has more bits than the original.
4B/5B
• The four binary/five binary (4B/5B) coding
scheme was designed to be used in combination
with NRZ-I.
• NRZ-I has a good signal rate, one-half that of the
biphase, but it has a synchronization problem.
• A long sequence of as can make the receiver
clock lose synchronization.
• One solution is to change the bit stream, prior to
encoding with NRZ-I, so that it does not have a
long stream of 0s.
• The 4B/5B scheme achieves this goal.
• At the receiver, the NRZ-I encoded digital
signal is first decoded into a stream of bits and
then decoded to remove the redundancy.
Using block coding 4B/5B with NRZ-I line coding
scheme.
• In 4B/5B, the 5-bit output that replaces the 4-bit
input has no more than one leading zero (left bit)
and no more than two trailing zeros (right bits).
• When different groups are combined to make a
new sequence, there are never more than three
consecutive 0s.
• A group of 4 bits can have only 16 different
combinations while a group of 5 bits can have 32
different combinations.
• This means that there are 16 groups that are not
used for 4B/5B encoding.
• Some of these unused groups are used for control
purposes others provide a kind of error
detection.
Substitution in 48/5B block coding
Example:
To send data at a 1-Mbps rate. What is the minimum
required bandwidth, using a combination of 4B/5B and
NRZ-I or Manchester coding?
Soln
• First 4B/5B block coding increases the bit rate to 1.25
Mbps.
• The minimum bandwidth using NRZ-I is NI2 or 625 kHz.
• The Manchester scheme needs a minimum bandwidth
of 1 MHz.
• The first choice needs a lower bandwidth, but has a DC
component problem; the second choice needs a higher
bandwidth, but does not have a DC component
problem.
8B/10B
• A group of 8 bits of data is now substituted by
a 10-bit code.
• It provides greater error detection capability
than 4B/5B.
• The 8B/1OB block coding is actually a
combination of 5B/6B and 3B/4B encoding
• The most five significant bits of a 8 bit block is fed into
the 5B/6B encoder; the least 3 significant bits is fed
into a 3B/4B encoder.
• The split is done to simplify the mapping table.
• To prevent a long run of consecutive Os or Is, the code
uses a disparity controller which keeps track of excess
Os over Is (or Is over Os).
• If the bits in the current block create a disparity that
contributes to the previous disparity (either direction),
then each bit in the code is complemented (a 0 is
changed to a 1 and a 1 is changed to a 0).
• The coding has 210 - 28 =768 redundant groups that
can be used for disparity checking and error detection.
• In general, the technique is superior to 4B/5B because
of better built-in error-checking capability and better
synchronization.
Scrambling
• Biphase schemes that are suitable for
dedicated links between stations in a LAN are
not suitable for long-distance communication
because of their wide bandwidth requirement.
• Bipolar AMI encoding, on the other hand, has
a narrow bandwidth and does not create a DC
component, a longsequence of Os upsets the
synchronization.
• Requirement: “A technique that does not
increase the number of bits and does provide
synchronization”.
• Scrambling is one such technique that provides
synchronization and requires lesser bandwidth.(AMI
is modified)
• In this method at the time of encoding the required
pulses are added based on defined scrambling rules.
• Two common scrambling techniques are B8ZS and
HDB3.
B8ZS
• Bipolar with 8-zero substitution is a technique
in which eight consecutive zero-level voltages
are replaced by the sequence 000VB0VB.
• The V in the sequence denotes violation; this
is a nonzero voltage that breaks an AMI rule of
encoding (opposite polarity from the
previous).
• The B in the sequence denotes bipolar; which
means a nonzero level voltage in accordance
with the AMI rule.
• The scrambling in this case does not change the
bit rate, it balances the positive and negative
voltage levels (two positives and two negatives)
• The substitution may change the polarity of a 1
because, after the substitution, AMI needs to
follow its rules.
• The letter V (violation) or B (bipolar) here is
relative.
• The V means the same polarity as the polarity
of the previous nonzero pulse; B means the
polarity opposite to the polarity of the
previous nonzero pulse.
HDB3
• High-density bipolar 3-zero (HDB3) is
technique, which is more conservative than
B8ZS.
• Four consecutive zero-level voltages are
replaced with a sequence of OOOV or B00V.
• The reason for two different substitutions is to
maintain the even number of nonzero pulses
after each substitution.
• The two rules can be stated as follows:
1. If the number of nonzero pulses after the last
substitution is odd, the substitution pattern will
be OOOV, which makes the total number of
nonzero pulses even.
2. If the number of nonzero pulses after the last
substitution is even, the substitution pattern will
be BOOV, which makes the total number of
nonzero pulses even.
Different situations in HDB3 scrambling
technique
• First, before the first substitution, the number of
nonzero pulses is even, so the first substitution is
BODY.
• After this substitution, the polarity of the 1 bit is
changed because the AMI scheme, after each
substitution, must follow its own rule.
• After this bit, we need another substitution,
which is OOOV because we have only one
nonzero pulse (odd) after the last substitution.
• The third substitution is BOOV because there are
no nonzero pulses after the second substitution
(even).
Various Approaches for conversion of data to
signal

DATA SIGNAL APPROACH

Digital Digital Encoding

Analog Digital Encoding

Analog Analog Modulation

Digital Analog Modulation