UGANDA INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND

COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

SEM 1 Year.2 2021

ASSIGNMENT I

COURSE: TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING

COURSE UNIT: ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS PRINCIPLES II

LECTURER: MR KARUGABA MICHEAL

NAME: WAMEMA JOSHUA DICKSON

REG NO. 2019/TE/DAY/014

SESSION: DAY

DATE: 20TH JUNE 202

QUESTIONS
a) Describe the following line coding techniques: -
i. Unipolar Encoding
ii. Return to Zero
iii. Non-Return-to-Zero
iv. Alternate mark inversion
v. Manchester Encoding
b) Describe the Pulse Code Modulation technique

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 i. Unipolar encoding
This is an encoding technique where only two voltage levels are used and the
signal levels are on one side of the axis either above or below
Traditionally unipolar scheme was designed as Non Return to Zero (NRZ) scheme
in which the positive voltage defines bit 1 and zero voltage defines a bit 0
This technique is so costly because the power needed to send a bit per unit line
resistance is double that of the polar Non Return to Zero (NRZ)
𝟏 𝟏
Normalized power= 𝒗𝟐 + (𝟎)𝟐
𝟐 𝟐

Illustration of the unipolar Non Return to Zero

Amplitude 1 0 1 1 0
v

time
ii. Return To Zero encoding technique
The return to zero encoding technique is one which uses three values that is to
say positive, negative and and zero ensuring that there is a signal transition in
each bit hence ensuring synchronization.
The signal does not change between the bits but during the bits
Return to Zero encoding has the following characteristics
• Three levels of i.e positive, negative and zero
• Bit rate is double than that of data rate
• No DC component
• Good synchronization

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Limitation of the Return to Zero encoding technique
This technique has the following limitations
• It also requires two signal changes to encode a bit resulting to increase in
band width
• Return to Zero uses three level voltages which is more complex to create
and discern
Therefore because of these limitations Return to Zero technique is not being
used today
Illustration of the Return to Zero encoding technique

1 1
0 0 0

iii. Non return to zero

The voltages are on both sides of the time axis.
Polar Non Return to Zero (NRZ) scheme can be implemented with two
voltages. E.g. +V for 1 and -V for 0.
There are two versions of Non Return to Zero:
Non Return to Zero - Level (NRZ-L) - positive voltage for one symbol and
negative for the other

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 Non Return to Zero - Inversion (NRZ-I) - the change or lack of change in polarity
determines the value of a symbol. E.g. a “1” symbol inverts the polarity a “0”
does not.

(adopted from Forouzan, B. Data Communication and Networking, 5th edition)

iv. Alternate Mark Interval

Alternate mark inversion is one of the two variations of bipolar encoding. This
technique also uses 3 voltage values (positive, negative and zero) as earlier
discussed in the return to zero.
Here the 0 level is used to represent a 0 and 1’s represents appositive and
negative peaks as illustrated in the figure

amplitude
0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0

time

Alternate Mark Inversion is commonly used for long distance communication but
it has a synchronization problem when a long sequence of 0s is present in the
data

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 v. Manchester Encoding
This is a biphase encoding technique where there is transition at the middle of
each bit period providing synchronization
1 corresponds to a low to high transition and 0 represents a high to a low
transition in the middle
In this technique the duration of a bit is divided into two halves.
The voltage remains at one level during the first half and moves to the other
during the second half
The minimum band width of Manchester encoding is 2 times that of a bipolar Non
return to Zero technique
Key characteristics of Manchester encoding technique
• 2 levels
• No DC components
• Good synchronization
• Higher band width due to doubling of bit rate with respect to data rate

amplitude

1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0

v v v v v v
v v
time

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 b. Pulse code modulation
Is the most common technique of changing analog signals to digital
data(digitalization)
Pulse code modulation a method used to digitally represent sampled analog
signals
The pulse code modulation encoder has three processes that is to say sampling,
quantizing and encoding

Block diagram of the pulse code modulation encoding process

Analog signal
Sampling quantizing encoding 1001……1110

Digital data

Sampling
This is the first step in pulse code modulation
The analog signal is sampled at equal time interval Ts. The inverse of a sampling
interval is called sampling rate or sampling frequency fs
The sampling interval or sampling frequency can be mathematically expressed as
1
𝑓𝑠 = 𝑇𝑠
We have three sampling methods and these include
1. Ideal sampling
2. Natural sampling
3. Flat top sampling

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Ideal sampling is where pulses from the analog signal are sampled and this
method can be easily implemented
Natural sampling is where a high speed switch is turned on for only a small period
of time when the sampling occurs. The result is a sequence of samples that attain
a shape of an analog signal
Flat top sampling is sometimes called sample and hold or pulse amplitude
modulation
This is the common sampling method and it creates flat tops by using a circuit
Quantization
After sampling, we get a series of pulses with amplitude values between the
maximum and minimum amplitudes of signals
However, the set of amplitude values cannot be used in encoding because they
can be infinite with non-integral values between the two limits
We can therefore consider the following steps in quantizing
1. we make an assumption that the original analog signal has an
instantaneous amplitude between Vmin and Vmax
2. we divide the range into L zones each of height delta
𝑽𝒎𝒂𝒙 − 𝑽𝒎𝒊𝒏
𝜹=
𝑳
3. we assign quantized values of 0 to L-1 to midpoint of each zone
4. we approximate the values of the sample amplitude to quantized value
Encoding
This is the last step in pulse code modulation encoding and here each sample is
quantized and a number of bits per second is decided
Each sample can be changed to an nb- bit code word
𝑛𝑏 = log 2 𝐿
The bit rate can be found from formula
Bitrate = sampling rate X number of bits per second

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Bitrate = fs x nb
1
But we know that fs = and 𝑛𝑏 = log 2 𝐿
𝑇𝑠

1
Bitrate = 𝑥 log 2 𝐿
𝑇𝑠
log 2 𝐿
Bitrate =
𝑇𝑠

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 REFERENCES
1.Behrouz A Forouzan. (2013). Data Communication and Networking. New York.Mc Graw Hill Education.
2.Loius E Frenzel Jr. (2016). Principles of Electronic Communication Systems. New York.Mc Graw Hill Education.

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