Chapter Five

Topics discussed in this section:

PAM, PWM, & PPM

Quantization and PCM
Delta modulation
Adaptive delta modulation
TDM

5.1
 Pulse Communications
• In pulse modulation, some parameter of a pulse train is varied in

accordance with the message signal.

• We may distinguish two families of pulse modulation:

1. Analog pulse modulation and

2. digital pulse modulation.

• In analog pulse modulation, a periodic pulse train is used as the

carrier wave, and some characteristic feature of each pulse

(e.g., amplitude, duration, or position) is varied in a continuous

manner in accordance with the corresponding sample value of

the message signal.

5.2
 Cont’d..

• Thus in analog pulse modulation, information is transmitted basically in

analog form, but the transmission takes place at discrete times.

• In digital pulse modulation, on the other hand, the message signal is

represented in a form that is discrete in both time and amplitude, thereby

permitting its transmission in digital form as a sequence of coded pulses;

this form of signal transmission has no CW counterpart.

• The use of coded pulses for the transmission of analog information-bearing

signals represents a basic ingredient in the application of digital

communications.

5.3
 PULSE MODULATION

6.4
 Analog pulse modulation
 pulse-amplitude modulation(PAM)

-is the simplest and most basic form of analog pulse

modulation.

- In pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM), the amplitudes of

regularly spaced pulses are varied in proportion to the
corresponding sample values of a continuous message signal.

5.5
 Cont’d..
 Pulse-position modulation (PPM), where the position of a pulse
relative to its Un modulated time of occurrence is varied in
accordance with the message signal .

 Pulse duration modulation(PDM), duration of a pulse is varied

with sample values of the message signal.

5.6
 Wave form of analog pulse modulation

6.7
 PAM PWM PPM
Amplitude is varied Width is varied Position is varied

Bandwidth depends on Bandwidth depends on Bandwidth depends on

the width of the pulse the rise time of the pulse the rise time of the pulse

Instantaneous transmitter Instantaneous transmitter Instantaneous transmitter

power varies with the power varies with the power remains constant
amplitude of the pulses amplitude and the width with the width of the
of the pulses pulses
System complexity is System complexity is System complexity is
high low low
Noise interference is high Noise interference is low Noise interference is low
It is similar to amplitude It is similar to frequency It is similar to phase
modulation modulation modulation

6.8
 Digital Pulse Modulation

 Merits of Digital Communication:

1. Digital signals are very easy to receive. The receiver has to just detect
whether the pulse is low or high.

2. AM & FM signals become corrupted over much short distances as

compared to digital signals. In digital signals, the original signal can be
reproduced accurately.

3. The signals lose power as they travel, which is called attenuation. When
AM and FM signals are amplified, the noise also get amplified. But the
digital signals can be cleaned up to restore the quality and amplified by
the regenerators

6.9
 4. AM and FM transmitters are ‘real time systems’. i.e.
they can be received only at the time of
transmission. But digital signals can be stored at
the receiving end.
5. The digital signals can be stored.

6.10
 ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION
 The process of transforming an analog wave form that is
compatible with DCS start with sampling the wave form to
produce a discrete pulse amplitude modulated wave form.

Pulse code modulation(PCM)

 PCM consists of three steps to digitize an
analog signal:
1. Sampling
2. Quantization
3. Binary encoding

5.11
 Components of PCM encoder

5.12
 Cont’d..

5.13
 Cont’d..

5.14
 The Sampling Theorem
 A sampler is a mixer with a train of very narrow pulses
as the local oscillator input.

 If the analog input is sampled instantaneously at

regular intervals at a rate that is at least twice the
highest analog frequency

fs > 2fa(max)

 then the samples contain all of the information of the

original signal.
5.15
4.16
 Example 1

• Telephone companies digitize voice by assuming a maximum

frequency of 4000 Hz. Find the sampling rate for this signal
frequency ?

Solution

The sampling rate therefore is 8000 samples per second.

5.17
 Quantization

 Sampling results in a series of pulses of varying amplitude

values ranging between two limits: a min and a max.
 The amplitude values are infinite between the two limits.
 We need to map the infinite amplitude values onto a finite
set of known values.
 This is achieved by dividing the distance between min and
max into L zones, each of height 

 = (max - min)/L

5.18
 Quantization Levels

 The midpoint of each zone is assigned a value from 0 to L-

1 (resulting in L values)
 Each sample falling in a zone is then approximated to the
value of the midpoint.

5.19
 Quantization Zones

 Assume we have a voltage signal with amplitudes Vmin=-4V

and Vmax=+4V.

 We want to use L=8 quantization levels.

 Zone width = (4 - -4)/8 = 1
 The 8 zones are: -4 to -3, -3 to -2, -2 to -1, -1 to 0, 0 to
+1, +1 to +2, +2 to +3, +3 to +4
 The midpoints are: -3.5, -2.5, -1.5, -0.5, 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5

5.20
 Assigning Codes to Zones
 Each zone is then assigned a binary code.
 The number of bits required to encode the zones, or the
number of bits per sample as it is commonly referred to,
is obtained as follows: nb = log2 L

 Given our example, nb = 3

 The 8 zone (or level) codes are therefore: 000, 001, 010,
011, 100, 101, 110, and 111
 Assigning codes to zones:
 000 will refer to zone -4 to -3
 001 to zone -3 to -2, etc.
5.21
 Quantization and encoding of a sampled signal

5.22
 Quantization Error

 When a signal is quantized, we introduce an error - the

coded signal is an approximation of the actual amplitude
value.
 The more zones, the smaller  which results in smaller
errors.
 BUT, the more zones the more bits required to encode
the samples -> higher bit rate
Thus the quantization error is the sequence eq (n) defined as the
difference between the quantized value and the actual sample value
eq ( n)  xq (n)  x(n)

5.23
 Examples of Quantization

5.24
 Bit rate and bandwidth requirements of PCM

 The bit rate of a PCM signal can be calculated form the

number of bits per sample x the sampling rate

Bit rate = nb x fs

 The bandwidth required to transmit this signal depends

on the type of line encoding used
 A digitized signal will always need more bandwidth than
the original analog signal. Price we pay for robustness and
other features of digital transmission.

5.25
 Components of a PCM decoder

5.26
 Delta Modulation
is the simplest form of differential pulse-code modulation in
which a two-level (1-bit) quantizer.
 Delta modulation transmits only one bit per sample. Here, the
present sample value is compared with the previous sample value
and this result whether the amplitude is increased or decreased
is transmitted.
 Input signal x(t) is approximated to step signal by the delta
modulator. This step size is kept fixed.
The difference between the input signal x(t) and staircase
approximated signal is confined to two levels, i.e., +Δ and -Δ.
Now, if the difference is positive, then approximated signal is
increased by one step, i.e., ‘Δ’. If the difference is negative,
then approximated signal is reduced by ‘Δ’.

5.27
 When the step is reduced, ‘0’ is transmitted and if the step is
increased, ‘1’ is transmitted.
Hence, for each sample, only one binary bit is transmitted.
Fig.1 shows the analog signal x(t) and its staircase approximated
signal by the delta modulator.

Fig.1. Delta Modulation Waveform

6.28
 Distortions in DM system

 If the slope of analog signal is much higher than that of

approximated digital signal over long duration, then this
difference is called Slope overload distortion.
 The difference between quantized signal and original signal is
called as Granular noise. It is similar to quantization noise.

6.29
 Cont’d..

Figure : two types of distortion in the DM encoder

5.30
 Adaptive delta modulation

 Granular noise occurs when step size▲ is large relative to local

slope m(t).
 There is a further modification in this system, in which step size
is not fixed. That scheme is known as Adaptive Delta Modulation.
 A better performance can be achieved if the value of ▲ is not
fixed.
 The value of ▲ changes according to the amplitude of the analog
signal.
 It has wide dynamic range due to variable step size.
 Also better utilization of bandwidth as compared to

5.31
deltamodulation.
 The adaption of the step value ∆ according to the level of
the input signal derivative.
1.If d(k) is closer to it's maximum value this indicates the need
to increase ∆
2.If d(k) is oscillates near to zero value this indicates the need
to decrease ∆

ADM with varying

step

6.32
6.33
 Time-Division Multiple (TDM)

• Assign the fixed sending frequency to a transmission channel

between a sender and a receiver for a certain amount of time.
• Dividing the time axis into portions or time slots, each
assigned to a single user to transmit data information.

5.34
 Basic Principles of TDM

5.35
 Block diagram of TDM system

5.36
 Cont’d..
In TDM system different time intervals rather than frequencies
are allowed to different signals. During these intervals these
signals are sampled and transmitted. Thus, this system transmits
information intermittently rather than continuously.
Continuously varying analog signals have to be sampled at proper
intervals for transmission and the receiver must recognize. These
samples for TDM system to operate properly.

6.37
 Contd..
Each signal source is processed in for a fixed time interval by a
time of the commutator. During this time the connected signal
modulates the carrier of the transmitter. The commutator then
moves to the next position connected the second signal to the
transmitter. The process is repeated by time switch which must
rotate continuously at a uniform speed in synchronism with the
receiver switch.
The out put of the transmitter signal is applied to the receiver,
by means of the synchronized decommutator the signals are
routed to their designed destination.

6.38
 Example 2

5.39