Data Communications

Digital Transmission Techniques

Digital to Digital Conversion

Line Coding
Always needed Digital Signal

Block Coding
Digital Data May be needed
Digital Signal

Scrambling
Digital Signal
May be needed
Line Coding (Characteristics)
Digital Signal

10100101 Decoder Link Decoder 10100101

Digital Data Digital Data
Sender Receiver

• Line coding converts a sequence of bits to a digital signal.

• Data Element (a bit) is the smallest entity that can represent a piece of information. Carried by signal elements.
• Signal Element is the shortest unit (timewise) of a digital signal. Carry data element.
• r is the ratio of data element carried by each signal element.

4 data element 2 data element

1 data element 1 data element

r=4/3 r=2
r=1 r=1/2

3 signal element 1 signal element

1 signal element 2 signal element
Line Coding (Characteristics) Case Factor
Data Rate

• Data Rate (bps): the number of data elements (bits) sent in 1 second.
• Also called Bit Rate.
• Increased data rate results in faster transmission. 𝟏
𝑺𝒂𝒗𝒆 = 𝒄 × 𝑵 × ( ) 𝒃𝒂𝒖𝒅
• Signal Rate (baud): the number of signal elements sent in 1 second. 𝒓
• Also called pulse rate, modulation rate and baud rate.
• Decreased signal rate results in decreased bandwidth requirements. Signal Rate The Ratio
• The bandwidth (Range of Frequencies) is proportional to the signal rate (baud rate).
• The minimum bandwidth requirement is equal to the average signal rate.
Case Factor
Data Rate
• A signal is carrying one data element is encoded as one signal element (𝑟 = 1).
• The bit rate is 100 kbps.
• C is between 0 and 1 (assume ½).
• The baud rate is then: 𝟏
1 1 1 𝐵𝑚𝑖𝑛 =𝒄×𝑵×( )
𝑆 = 𝑐 × 𝑁 × 𝑟 = 2 × 100000 × 2 = 50000 = 50𝑘𝑏𝑎𝑢𝑑 𝒓

Signal Rate The Ratio

Line Coding (Characteristics)
• Baseline Wandering
• A received digital signal is evaluated with a running average of the received signal power (baseline) to
determine the value of the data element.
• A long string of 0s 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.

• DC Components
• Low frequencies around zero that are caused by a constant digital signal.
• Present problems for a system that cannot pass low frequencies or a system that uses electrical coupling
(via a transformer).
• The DC component means 0/1 parity that can cause baseline wondering.
• A scheme with no DC component is needed.
 Line Coding (Characteristics)
• Self Synchronization
• The receiver clock is faster or slower than the sender clock.
• 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.
• Including transitions in the signal that alert the receiver to the beginning, middle, or end of the pulse.
• If the receiver’s clock is out of synchronization, these points can reset the clock.

• The receiver clock is 0.1 percent faster than the sender clock.

Sent
• Data Rate is 1Kbps:
• Extra bps received:
0.1
1000 × = 1 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡
100
• Data Rate is 1Mbps:

Received
• Extra bps received:
0.1
1000000 × = 1000 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑟𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡
100
Line Coding (Characteristics)
• Built-in Error detection
• Error detecting capability in the generated code to detect some or all of the errors that occurred during
transmission

• Immunity to Noise and Interference

• A code that is immune to noise and other interferences.

• Complexity
• A complex scheme is more costly to implement than a simple one.
Line Coding (Schemes)
Unipolar NRZ

Polar NRZ

RZ

Biphase Manchester
Line Coding Bipolar AMI Differential Manchester
Pseudoternary

Multi Level 2B/1Q

8B/6T

4D-PAM5

Multi Transition Polar

Unipolar Scheme
• All signal levels are on one side of the time axis, either above or below.
• NRZ (Non-Return-to-Zero)
• Positive voltage defines bit 1 and the zero voltage defines bit 0.
• The signal does not return to zero at the middle of the bit.
• Costly if compared to polar scheme
• The normalized power (the power needed to send 1 bit per unit line resistance) is double that for polar
NRZ.
• This scheme is normally not used in data communications today.
 Polar Scheme (NRZ)
• The voltages are on both sides of the time axis.
• The voltage level for 0 is positive and the voltage level for 1 is negative.
• Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ)
• Two levels are used of voltage amplitude.
• There are two versions of polar NRZ:
• NRZ-Level: the level of the voltage determines the value of the bit.
• NRZ-Invert: the change or lack of change in the level of the voltage determines the value of the bit.

Baseline wandering Bandwidth

• NRZ-L (Twice Severe): Long • Power density is very high
sequence of 0s or 1s. around frequencies close to
• NRZ-I: Long sequence of 0s. zero.

Synchronization Polarity
• NRZ-L (Serious): Long • A sudden change of polarity
sequence of 0s or 1s. resulting in all 0s interpreted as 1s
• NRZ-I: Long Sequence of 0s. and all 1s interpreted as 0s
 Polar Scheme (RZ)
• Solves Synchronization problems of NRZ.
• It uses three values positive, negative, and zero.
• The signal goes to 0 in the middle of each bit and remains there until the beginning of the next bit.

Bandwidth
Complexity • it requires two signal
• Complex (Uses three levels). changes to encode a bit
(greater bandwidth).
DC Components
• None. Polarity
• A sudden change of polarity
resulting in all 0s interpreted as 1s
and all 1s interpreted as 0s
Bi Phase Scheme
• Manchester encoding (RZ and NRZ-L)
• The duration of the bit is divided into two halves.
• The transition at the middle of the bit provides synchronization.
• Differential Manchester (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.

Signal Rate
• Double of that in NRZ.
• Due to transitions.

Synchronization
• Problems due to Long
sequence of 0s.

DC Components
• None.
Bi Polar Scheme
• Three voltage levels: Positive, Negative, and Zero.
• One data element is at zero, while the other element alternates between positive and negative.
• AMI (Alternate Mark Inversion):
• A neutral zero voltage (Binary 0).
• Alternating positive and negative voltages (Binary 1).
• Pseudoternary:
• A neutral zero voltage (Binary 1).
• Alternating positive and negative voltages (Binary 0).
Signal Rate
• Same as NRZ.
• Due to transitions.

Baseline Wandering
• None

DC Components
• None.
Multilevel Scheme
• Increasing number of bits per baud:
• Encoding a pattern of m data elements into a pattern of n signal elements.
• A group of m data elements can produce a combination of 2𝑚 data patterns.
• L different levels, produce 𝐿𝑛 combinations of signal patterns.
• The subset is designed to prevent baseline wandering, provide synchronization and detect errors.

2𝑚 = 𝐿𝑛 2𝑚 < 𝐿𝑛 2𝑚 > 𝐿𝑛
data pattern is encoded data patterns occupy only a Data encoding is not
into one signal pattern subset of signal patterns possible because some of
the data patterns cannot
be encoded
Binary Data

𝒎𝑩𝒏𝑳
Number of signal levels
• B (Binary): L=2
• T (Ternary): L=3
Length of the binary pattern Length of the signal pattern
• Q (Quaternary): L=4
Multilevel Scheme

2B1Q (Two Binary, One Quaternary)

• The average signal rate is S = N/4.
• It sends data 2 times faster than by using NRZ-L.
• There are no redundant signal patterns in this scheme because 22 = 41 .
• It is used in DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technology.
• It provides a high-speed connection to the Internet by using subscriber telephone line.
Multilevel Scheme

8B6T (Eight Binary, Six Ternary)

• 28 = 256 different data patterns.
• 36 = 729 different signal patterns.
• There are 729 − 256 = 473 redundant signal elements that provide synchronization and error detection.
• Part of the redundancy is used to provide DC balance.
• Each signal pattern has a weight of 0 or +1 DC values.
• There is no pattern with the weight −1 (used to describe two groups of the same weight).
• It is used with 100BASE-4T cable.
Multilevel Scheme

4D-PAM5 (Four-dimensional, Five level pulse amplitude modulation)

• The 4D means that data is sent over four wires at the same time.
• It uses five voltage levels (−2, −1, 0, 1, and 2).
• level 0, is used only for forward error detection.
• The technique is designed to send data over four channels (four wires).
• 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.
• This scheme has a lot of redundancy in the signal pattern:
• 28 data patterns.
• 44 = 256 signal patterns.
• Gigabit LANs use this technique to send 1-Gbps data over four copper cables that can handle 125 Mbaud.
Multi Transitions (MLT-3)
Multi Line Transmission, Three Level (MLT-3)
• It uses three levels (+V, 0, and −V) and three transition rules to move between the levels:
• If the next bit is 0, there is no transition.
• If the next bit is 1 and the current level is not 0, the next level is 0.
• If the next bit is 1 and the current level is 0, the next level is the opposite of the last nonzero level.
• It helps to reduce the required bandwidth.

The worst-case scenario:

• The signal element pattern +V 0 −V 0 is repeated
every 4 bits.
• A nonperiodic signal has changed to a periodic signal
with the period equal to 4 times the bit duration.
• can be simulated as an analog signal with a
frequency one-fourth of the bit rate.
• MLT-3 a suitable choice when we need to send 100
Mbps on a copper wire that cannot support more
than 32 MHz.
Block Coding
• Redundancy ensures synchronization and provides some kind of
inherent error detecting.
• It provides the required redundancy and improve the performance
of line coding.
• It changes a block of m bits into a block of n bits.
• n is larger than m.
• Block coding is referred to as an mB/nB encoding technique.

Block Coding

Division A sequence of bits is divided into groups of m bits

Substitution Substitutes an m bits group with an n bit group

Combination Combines the n bit groups to form a stream (more bits the original stream
Block Coding (4B/5B)

4B/5B NRZ-I Link NRZ-I 4B/5B

Sender Receiver
Encoding Encoding Decoding Decoding

• Designed to be used in combination with NRZ-I.

• It solve the synchronization problem of NRZ-I
(A long sequence of 0s).
• It change the bit stream, prior to encoding
with NRZ-I.
• The block-coded stream does not have
more that three consecutive 0s.
• It increases the signal rate of NRZ-I.
• The redundant bits add 20 percent more
baud (Still less than the bi phase scheme)
• It does not solve the DC component problem
of NRZ-I.
Block Coding (8B/10B)
• It provides greater error detection capability than 4B/5B.
• It is a combination of 5B/6B and 3B/4B encoding.
• 5 Most Significant bits of a 8-bit block are fed into the 5B/6B encoder.
• 3 Least significant bits are fed into a 3B/4B encoder.
• The split is done to simplify the mapping table.
• It has 210 − 28 = 768 redundant groups.
• It is superior to 4B/5B because of:
• Better built-in error-checking capability.
• Better synchronization.
Scrambling
• suitable for dedicated links between stations in a LAN.
Bi Phase • Not suitable for long-distance communication because of their wide bandwidth requirement.

Solution is
Block Coding NRZ • Not suitable for long-distance encoding either, because of the DC component.
Scrambling

Bipolar AMI • A long sequence of 0s upsets the synchronization.

Scrambling
• Avoids a long sequence of 0s in the original stream.
• Does not increase the number of bits.
• Does provide synchronization.
• It substitutes long zero-level pulses with a combination of other levels.
• Scrambling, as opposed to block coding, is done at the same time as encoding.
• The scrambling does not change the bit rate.
• DC balance is maintained.
Scrambling
Bipolar with 8 Zero Substitution (B8ZS)
• Eight consecutive zero-level voltages are replaced
by the sequence 000VB0VB.
• V (Violation): The same polarity as the polarity
of the previous nonzero pulse;
• B (Bipolar): The polarity opposite to the
polarity of the previous nonzero pulse.
High Density Bipolar 3 Zero (HDB3)
• More conservative than B8ZS:
• Four consecutive zero-level voltages are replaced
by a sequence of 000V or B00V.
• The reason for two different substitutions is to
maintain the even number of nonzero pulses
after each substitution.
• B00V: is used if number of nonzero pulses is even.
• 000V: is used if number of nonzero pulses is odd.