Digital Transmission

Objectives
• To describe a binary digital transmission system
• To explain intersymbol interference
• To show how an eye diagram is produced and explain its significance for system performance
assessment
• To show the pulses with zero intersymbol interference
• To introduce the condition for zero intersymbol interference
• To introduce the term“error probability”
• To introduce the concept of error control coding
• To introduce the concept of line coding and to provide illustrations of some practical line codes
• To study digital carrier modulation schemes

The pulse modulation systems such as PAM, PWM and PPM are not completely digital, as the amplitude,
width, or position of the pulses transmitted may vary continuously in accordance with a message signal
variation. PAM is the simplest pulse modulation system. For this reason, the PAM signals are used to get a
complete digital system. The PAM signals are first quantized and then coded (usually in binary code), thus,
giving rise to PCM system. The output of a PCM system is a series of binary digits, i.e., a string of 1’s and
0’s. These binary digits are transmitted over the transmission channel.

Binary digital transmission system

The transmitted signal, when it arrived at the output of the channel, is attenuated and distorted due to the
loss and restricted bandwidth of the channel. It is the role of the receiver to recover the original data.
The distortion can be partially corrected by the use of an equalizer. This equalized waveform is then
applied to a threshold device which restores the signal to its original form except that the timing of the

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transitions may be irregular. This arises because the transition times depend on the transmission channel
and the threshold circuit which may be corrupted by the noise. Hence, to restore the relative regularity of
data transitions a clock waveform of frequency fc = 1/T is extracted from the signal and used to retime the
data. This combination of threshold and retiming circuitry provides for data recovery and corresponds to
making decisions on the basis of samples of the signal taken at regularly spaced interval of T seconds, the
sampling epochs being adjusted to provide data extraction at the peaks and troughs of the equalized signal
waveform.

Function of an equalizer
A method of signal recovery is to use a filter that has a transfer function which is the reciprocal of the
channel transfer function Q(ω)
1/ Q(ω ) w <w m
H eq (ω ) = 
0 elsewhere
So that G0(ω) = Gs(ω)Q(ω)Heq(ω) becomes G(ω)/T. This technique of correcting the frequency response of
a system for a known distortion is called equalization.

Intersymbol interference
In practice, the digital pulses are not perfectly rectangular and the transmission medium is not perfectly
linear nor distortionless (because it has limited bandwidth).
When a signal is transmitted over a channel of limited bandwidth, a significant portion of its spectrum is
transmitted, but a small portion is suppressed. Such a spectral distortion tends to spread the pulse.
Spreading of a pulse beyond its interval causes it interfere with neighboring pulses. This is known as
intersymbol interference (ISI).

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Condition for zero intersymbol interference
If the signal shape is p(t), then p(t) must satisfy
p(0) = non-zero constant
p(nT) = 0, when n ≠ 0.

The pulse satisfying the condition for zero ISI:

ISI can be avoided either by pulse shaping or by using a filter which causes the transfer function of the
transmitting medium to have suitable shape. If the pulse is made to have a Sinx/x shape, where its spread
passes through zero at the sampling points, this spreading will not give rise to errors.

In principle, it is possible to obtain zero ISI and yet have a limited bandwidth. However, it is virtually
impossible to achieve this kind of pulse shape in practice, as it is the impulse response of an ideal lowpass
filter.

Assignment 27:
(a) The overall transfer function of a transmission medium is given as Ha(w). The Fourier transform of this
2 sin (2π × 106 ) t
function is
ha (t ) = .
π 106 t
If the sequence of pulses, shown below, is to be transmitted through the medium given above, discuss
whether there will be any possibility of error due to intersymbol interference at the receiver. EXPLAIN.

(b) If we now send the same sequence of pulses through another transmission medium which has the
transfer function Hb(w) shown below, will there be intersymbol interference? Explain.

Both the intersymbol interference and noise may cause errors, and hence affect the system performance.

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How to evaluate the combination effect of noise and intersymbol interference on overall system
performance?
An experimental tool for such an evaluation is the eye pattern (eye diagram).

The eye pattern (eye diagram)

The eye pattern is the synchronized superposition of all possible signal atterns obtained in a particular
signal interval. The eye pattern derives its name from the fact that it resembles the human eye for binary
waves.
The interior region of the eye pattern is called the eye opening. Eye opening is also the timing error
allowed on the sampler at the receiver. Under normal operating conditions (i.e., for no detection errors), the
eye pattern will open. If there is great deal of noise or ISI, the eye will close; this indicates that bit errors
will be produced at the receiver output.
Little ISI, little noise, little jitter ⇒ more open eye

An eye pattern provides a great deal of useful information about the performance of a digital transmission
system.
• The width of the eye opening defines the time interval over which the received signal can be sampled
without error from ISI. The best sampling time is the instant where the vertical opening of the eye is
the largest.
• The height of the eye opening, at a specified sampling time, defines the noise margin of the system. If
noise is larger than the noise margin, there will be bit error

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• The slope of the eye pattern indicates the sensitivity to timing error.

Probability of error in transmission

In a binary digital communication system, the two levels may be represented as an on-off signal, i.e., by an
amplitude A and an amplitude 0 as the two possible levels, or by equal amplitude pulses of opposite
polarities, i.e., by amplitude A and - A. The latter is known as a polar binary signal.
Consider the case polar binary signal transmission using a basic pulse p(t), assume that the binary levels at
the receiver are - A and A, i.e., the received signal f(t) is either at the level - A or at the level A. The
observed waveform y(t) at the receiver also contains random noise n(t), so that
y(t) = f(t) + n(t)
At a given time t1, the possible receiver inputs are either
A + n(t1) (signal present)
or - A + n(t1) (signal absent)
The detection threshold is 0; that is, if the sample value is positive, the digit is detected as “1”; if the sample
value is negative, the digit detected as “0”.
There is a probability that the noise amplitude can exceed that of the signal, the error occurs when A + n(t1)
is negative or – A + n(t1) becomes positive.

Normally, the noise waveform has a Gaussian probability density function (pdf)
1 2 2
p( y ) = e − y / 2σ
σ 2π
where σ is the rms value of the noise amplitude. The probability of a one being interpreted as a zero (error):
0 1  (V − A) 2 
P(0 /1) = ∫ −∞
2π σ
exp  −
 2σ 2 
 dy

The probability of a zero being interpreted as a one (another error):

∞ 1  (V + A) 2 
P (1/ 0) = ∫ 0
2π σ
exp  −
 2σ 2 
 dy

The total error probability is given by

Pe = P(1) P(0|1) + P(0) P(1|0)
where P(1) is the probability of a one being sent, and P(0) is that for a zero. Usually ones and zeros are
equally likely, so
P(0) = P(1) = ½.

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Substituting x = (V + A)/σ, and x = (V – A)/σ respectively, we get
∞ 1  x2 
P(0 /1) = P (1/ 0) = ∫ A exp  −  dx
σ 2π  2
≡ T (A/σ )
where T(A/σ) is known as the Gaussian tail function (sometimes called the complementary error function).
Thus,
Pe = T ( A / σ )
Its values are given in tabular form in most mathematical handbooks. Alternatively, it is given in graph
form as a function of the voltage SNR.
A standard norm for Pe is 10-9, that is, if the transmission rate is 1 Gbit/s, there will be, on average, one
error every second.

Coding for digital transmission

In binary PCM, each sample of the signal is represented by a codeword of, say, k bits. These bits are
transmitted and the role of the receiver is to recognize each codeword in order to reconstruct the samples.
However, errors may occur in the transmission as a result of noise. One way to improve the reliability of
communication in the presence of noise is to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. An alternative is to use
appropriate coding.

Source coding
Source coding is concerned with the problem that given a source of information how should messages from
this source be represented such that on average the information is conveyed using the minimum number of
bits.
Let us consider, as an example, coding English text:
letters A – Z : 26 + 26 (capitals/small)
numerals 0 – 9 : 10
punctuation & symbols : 30
control characters : 20
The total number of characters is thus 112 and all of these can be represented by words each containing 7
bits (27 = 128). A 7 bit code widely used in computer and data communications is ASCII. In ASCII, all
characters are denoted by code words of the same length.

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An alternative approach is to assign short code words to characters which occur most often and vice versa.
In this way, the average number of bits required can be minimized.
An example of this strategy is the Morse code. When the Morse code is used, the signalling time varies
from character to character (which is a disadvantage). An additional character is thus needed to separate
letters.

Error control coding

In error control coding, the extra digits are introduced into the transmitted signal to provide carefully
structured redundancy, in order to detect the presence of errors in the received pattern.

Parity checks

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Sum check

Row and column parity check

Line coding
The digital data need to be coded into electrical pulses or waveforms for the purpose of transmission over
the channel. This process is called line coding or transmission coding.
This type of coding is used to match the digital signal to the physical characteristics of the channel (a
communication link usually cannot transmit dc components) and facilitate synchronization at the receiver.
The receiver must know the rate at which data bits arrive (known as the “clock rate”) so that it can achieve
synchronization.

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Unipolar code
The simplest line code is on-off, where a “1” is transmitted by a pulse and a “0” is transmitted by no pulse.

Polar code
“1” is transmitted by a pulse p(t) and “0” is transmitted by a pulse – p(t).

Bipolar code
“0” is encoded by no pulse and “1” is encoded by a pulse p(t) or – p(t), depending on whether the previous
“1” is encoded by p(t) or – p(t). In short, pulse representing consecutive 1’s alternate in sign.

The nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) format is disadvantages because it has a dc component and does not allow for
self-clocking.

The NRZ-bipolar (NRZ-B) format eliminates the dc component (assuming that an equal number of 1s and
0s occur) but it is also not self-clocking.
The polar return-to-zero (RZ) format includes clock information, has zero dc level (again, for equal
numbers of 1s and 0s), but has three voltage levels (for bipolar).

Manchester code
A “1” is represented by a “1” level during the first half-bit interval, then shift to “0” level for the latter half-
bit interval; a “0” is indicated by the reverse representation.
Manchester code uses a level transition of one direction or the other in the middle of every bit interval.
This provides the receiver with clocking information and produces a zero dc level even if the 1s and 0s are
not equal.

Quaternary code
A quaternary signal is derived by grouping message bits in blocks of two bits and using four amplitude
levels to represent the four possible combinations 00, 01, 10 and 11.

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Digital modulation
The output of a PCM system is a string of 1’s and 0’s. If they are transmitted over copper wire, they can be
directly transmitted as two voltage levels + V and – V. But if they are to be transmitted through space using
antenna, some form of modulation has to be used.

In binary modulation schemes, the modulation process corresponds to switching (keying) the amplitude,
frequency or phase of the sinusoidal carrier between either of two values corresponding to a 1 or a 0. The
three types of digital modulation are amplitude-shift keying (ASK), frequency-shift keying (FSK), and
phase-shift keying (PSK).

Amplitude-shift keying (ASK)

In ASK, the modulated signal can be expressed as

A cos ωc t for a 1 bit

xc (t ) = { 0 for a 0 bit
Note that the modulated signal is still an on-off signal. Thus, ASK is also known as on-off keying (OOK).
In amplitude-shift keying (ASK), the amplitude of a high frequency carrier wave is switched on of a binary
“1” and off for a “0”.

Frequency-shift keying (FSK)

In FSK, the modulated signal can be expressed as

A cos ω1t for a 1 bit

xc (t ) = {
A cos ω2t for a 0 bit
The bandwidth of the FSK signal is 2∆f + 2B where B is the bandwidth of the baseband digital signal,
and w1 = 2π (fc + ∆f) and w2 = 2π (fc - ∆f). T is the binary period.

Phase-shift keying (PSK)

In PSK, the modulated signal can be expressed as
A cos ωc t for a 1 bit
xc (t ) = {
A cos(ωc t + π ) for a 0 bit

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The detection of digital carrier modulation systems is virtually identical to that of analog modulation
systems. OOK signals can be demodulated also by using an envelope detector.

An example of a complete digital communications system, summarizing some of the important aspects we
have covered, is shown in the following figure.
It would be very useful to try to remind yourself what each box accomplishes in this communications
system.

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 Questions (Digital Transmission)

1. What is intersymbol interference? How is it generated?

2. What is eye diagram? What is its application?
3. What pulse shape has zero intersymbol interference?
4. What is the condition for zero intersymbol interference?
5. How are the two levels, “1” and “0”, represented in unipolar binary signal and in polar binary
signal respectively?
6. What is the main advantage of source coding?
7. How bit streams are electrically represented in communication systems?
8. What are suitable methods to transmit PCM signals through space using antenna?

Exercise Problems (Digital Transmission)

1. A digital transmission system employs a signal element waveform at the input to the decision circuit
given by p(t) = (1 – cos2πt/T) / 2(πt/T)2
Show that this provides zero ISI for a binary signaling rate of 1/T bits/s.

2. Consider a source which produces message based on three symbols: A, B, C. The symbols are found to
occur, on average, with relative frequencies A = 0.5, B = 0.25, C = 0.25. It is required to encode messages
in a binary format; two coding schemes are proposed:
Scheme1: A = 01, B = 10, C = 11
Scheme2: A = 1, B = 01, C = 00
Show that, on average, a smaller number of bits per message are required for scheme 2 than for scheme 1.

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