Communication Systems

• Compading
• Noises in non-uniform
• PCM vs. DM
• Performance Metrics
• Line Codes
Nonuniform quantization using companding
 Companding is a method of reducing the number of bits required in
ADC while achieving an equivalent dynamic range or SQNR
 In order to improve the resolution of weak signals within a converter,
and hence enhance the SQNR, the weak signals need to be
enlarged, or the quantization step size decreased, but only for the
weak signals
 But strong signals can potentially be reduced without significantly
degrading the SQNR or alternatively increasing quantization step size
 The compression process at the transmitter must be matched with an
equivalent expansion process at the receiver

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 The signal below shows the effect of compression, where the
amplitude of one of the signals is compressed
 After compression, input to the quantizer will have a more uniform
distribution after sampling

 At the receiver, the signal is

expanded by an inverse
operation
 The process of COMpressing
and exPANDING the signal is
called companding
 Companding is a technique
used to reduce the number of
bits required in ADC or DAC
while achieving comparable
SQNR

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 Basically, companding introduces a nonlinearity into the signal
 This maps a nonuniform distribution into something that more

closely resembles a uniform distribution

 A standard ADC with uniform spacing between levels can be used

after the compandor (or compander)

 The companding operation is inverted at the receiver

 There are in fact two standard logarithm based companding

techniques
 US standard called µ-law companding

 European standard called A-law companding

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Types of Companding
 -Law Companding Standard (North & South America,
and Japan)

log e 1   (| x | / xmax 
y  ymax sgn( x )
log e (1   )

where
 x and y represent the input and output voltages
  is a constant number determined by experiment
 In the U.S., telephone lines uses companding with  = 255
 Samples 4 kHz speech waveform at 8,000 sample/sec
 Encodes each sample with 8 bits, L = 256 quantizer levels
 Hence data rate R = 64 kbit/sec
  = 0 corresponds to uniform quantization

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A-Law Companding Standard (Europe, China, Russia,
Asia, Africa)
 |x|
 A
xmax | x| 1
 ymax sgn( x), 0 
 (1  A) xmax A
y ( x)  
   |x| 
 1  log e  A 
  xmax  1 | x|
 ymax sgn( x),  1
 (1  log e A) A xmax
where
 x and y represent the input and output voltages

 A = 87.6

 A is a constant number determined by experiment

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 Sources of Corruption in the sampled, quantized and transmitted pulses

 Sampling and Quantization Effects

 Quantization (Granularity) Noise: Results when
quantization levels are not finely spaced apart
enough to accurately approximate input signal
resulting in truncation or rounding error.
 Quantizer Saturation or Overload Noise: Results
when input signal is larger in magnitude than highest
quantization level resulting in clipping of the signal.
 Timing Jitter: Error caused by a shift in the sampler
position. Can be isolated with stable clock reference.
 Channel Effects
 Channel Noise
 Intersymbol Interference (ISI)
 Codec (Coder-decoder)

 Analog to digital conversion done using a

codec (coder-decoder). Two techniques:
1. Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
2. Delta Modulation (DM)
 Delta Modulation (DM)
 An analog input is approximated by a staircase function that moves up or
down by one quantization level () at each sampling interval (Ts).
 A 1 is generated if the staircase function is to go up during the next interval;
a 0 is generated
otherwise.
 The staircase
function tracks
the original
waveform

There are two important

parameters in a DM
scheme: the size of the
step assigned to each
binary digit, and the
sampling rate
 Delta Modulation Operation
 For transmission:
 the analog input is compared
to the most recent value of the
approximating staircase function.
Staircase
 If the value of the analog input
exceeds that of the staircase
function, a 1 is generated;
otherwise, a 0 is generated.
 Thus, the staircase
is always changed in the
direction of the input signal.
 For reception:
 The output of the
DM process is therefore a binary
sequence that can be used at the
receiver to reconstruct the
staircase function.
 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
Versus Delta Modulation (DM)

DM has simplicity compared to PCM

DM has worse SNR compared to PCM
PCM requires more bandwidth
eg., for good voice reproduction with PCM
 want 128 levels (7 bit) & voice bandwidth 4khz
 need 8000 sample/s x 7bits/sample = 56kbps
PCM is more preferred than DM for analog
signals
 Pulse Modulation
 Recall that analog signals can be represented by a sequence of discrete
samples (output of sampler)
 Pulse Modulation results when some characteristic of the pulse (amplitude,
width or position) is varied in correspondence with the data signal

 Two Types:
 Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)
 The amplitude of the periodic pulse train is varied in proportion to the
sample values of the analog signal
 Pulse Time Modulation
 Encodes the sample values into the time axis of the digital signal
 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
 Constant amplitude, width varied in proportion to the signal
 Pulse Duration Modulation (PDM)
 sample values of the analog waveform are used in determining the
width of the pulse signal

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 There are many types of waveforms. Why?
  performance criteria!
 Each line code type have merits and demerits
 The choice of waveform depends on operating characteristics of
a system such as:
 Modulation-demodulation requirements

 Bandwidth requirement

 Synchronization requirement

 Receiver complexity, etc.,

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 Goals of Line Coding --
(qualities to look for)
 A line code is designed to meet one or more of the following
goals:
 Self-synchronization

 The ability to recover timing from the signal itself

 That is, self-clocking (self-synchronization) - ease of

clock lock or signal recovery for symbol
synchronization
 Long series of ones and zeros could cause a problem

 Low probability of bit error

 Receiver needs to be able to distinguish the waveform

associated with a mark from the waveform associated with

a space
 BER performance

 relative immunity to noise

 Error detection capability
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 enhances low probability of error
 Spectrum Suitable for the channel
 Spectrum matching of the channel

 e.g. presence or absence of DC level

 In some cases DC components should be avoided

 The transmission bandwidth should be minimized

 Power Spectral Density

 Particularly its value at zero

 PSD of code should be negligible at the frequency near

zero
 Transmission Bandwidth
 Should be as small as possible

 Transparency
 The property that any arbitrary symbol or bit pattern can be

transmitted and received,

 i.e., all possible data sequence should be faithfully
reproducible

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 Summary of Major Line Codes

 Categories of Line Codes

 Polar - Uses two voltage levels, one positive and one

negative
 Alleviates DC component

 Unipolar - Send pulse or a 0

 Bipolar (a.k.a. alternate mark inversion, pseudoternary)

 Represent 1 by alternating signed pulses

 Generalized Pulse Shapes
 NRZ -Pulse lasts entire bit period

 Polar NRZ
 Bipolar NRZ
 RZ - Return to Zero - pulse lasts just half of bit period

 Polar RZ
 Bipolar RZ
 Manchester Line Code

 No DC component

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Unipolar

 Simplest method; inexpensive

 Uses only one voltage level (polarity)
 Polarity is usually assigned to binary 1; a 0 is
represented by zero voltage
Unipolar

 Potential problems:
 DC component (average amplitude of encoded
signal is non zero)
 Lack of synchronization
Polar

 Uses two voltage levels, one positive and

one negative
 Alleviates DC component
 Variations
 Nonreturn to zero (NRZ)
 Return to zero (RZ)
 Manchester
 Differential Manchester
 When the category and the generalized shapes are
combined, we have the following:
 Polar NRZ:
 Wireless, radio, and satellite applications primarily use

Polar NRZ because bandwidth is precious

 Unipolar NRZ
 Useful for noncoherent communication where receiver

can’t decide the sign of a pulse

 fiber optic communication often use this signaling
format
 Unipolar RZ
 This can be useful for timing and synchronization

purposes

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 Bipolar
 Uses three voltage levels: positive, negative,
and zero
 Zero level represents binary 0; 1s are
represented with alternating positive and
negative voltages, even when not consecutive
 This scheme is called Alternate mark inversion
(AMI).

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