DIFFERENTIAL PULSE CODE

MODULATION
INTRODUCTION
 PULSE CODE MODULATION:
 PULSE CODE MODULATION IS A METHOD THAT IS USED TO CONVERT AN
ANALOG SIGNAL INTO A DIGITAL SIGNAL, SO THAT MODIFIED ANALOG
SIGNAL CAN BE TRANSMITTED THROUGH THE DIGITAL
COMMUNICATION NETWORK.

 THE PULSE CODE MODULATION PROCESS INCLUDES THREE STEPS:

SAMPLING, QUANTIZATION, AND ENCODING.

 THE QUANTIZING AND ENCODING ARE PERFORMED IN SAME CIRCUIT

CALLED ANALOG TO DIGITALCONVERTER
• SAMPLING

• IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, SAMPLING IS THE REDUCTION OF

A CONTINUOUS-TIME SIGNAL TO A DISCRETE-TIME SIGNAL. A COMMON
EXAMPLE IS THE CONVERSION OF A SOUND WAVE (A CONTINUOUS
SIGNAL) TO A SEQUENCE OF SAMPLES (A DISCRETE-TIME SIGNAL).
• A SAMPLE IS A VALUE OR SET OF VALUES AT A POINT IN TIME AND/OR
SPACE.
• A SAMPLER IS A SUBSYSTEM OR OPERATION THAT EXTRACTS SAMPLES
FROM A CONTINUOUS SIGNAL.
• A THEORETICAL IDEAL SAMPLER PRODUCES SAMPLES EQUIVALENT TO
THE INSTANTANEOUS VALUE OF THE CONTINUOUS SIGNAL AT THE
DESIRED POINTS.
 QUANTIZATION: THE PROCESS OF CONVERTING THE ORIGINAL SIGNAL M (T) INTO A NEW
SIGNAL (OR) QUANTIZED SIGNAL MQ (T) WHICH IS AN APPROXIMATION OF M (T) IS
KNOWN AS QUANTIZATION.

 THE MINIMUM TRANSMISSION BANDWIDTH IN PCM IS GIVENAS,

BW= N*FM
HERE N IS THE NUMBER OF BITS USED TO REPRESENT ONE PULSE. FM IS THE MAXIMUM
SIGNAL FREQUENCY.

 TO GET A PULSE CODE MODULATED WAVEFORM FROM AN ANALOG WAVEFORM AT THE

TRANSMITTER END (SOURCE) OF A COMMUNICATIONS CIRCUIT, THE AMPLITUDE OF THE
ANALOG SIGNAL SAMPLES AT REGULAR TIME INTERVALS. THE SAMPLING RATE OR
NUMBER OF SAMPLES PER SECOND IS SEVERAL TIMES THE MAXIMUM FREQUENCY. THE
MESSAGE SIGNAL CONVERTED INTO BINARY FORM WILL BE USUALLY IN THE NUMBER OF
LEVELS WHICH IS ALWAYS TO A POWER OF 2. THIS PROCESS IS CALLED QUANTIZATION.
 WHY WE ARE GOING FOR DPCM?

• TO IMPROVE THE ENCODING EFFICIENCY OF ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERSION.

• INSTEAD OF TRANSMITTING THE SAMPLE VALUES, WE TRANSMIT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SUCCESSIVE
SAMPLE VALUES.
• M(K) IS KTH SAMPLE, INSTEAD OF TRANSMITTING M(K)
• D(K) = DQ(K) -M(K -1)
• AT THE RECEIVER, KNOWING PRECIOUS SAMPLE VALUE M(K-1) , THE M(K) IS RECONSTRUCTED.
• DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SUCCESSIVE SAMPLES IS GENERALLY MUCH SMALLER THAN SAMPLE VALUES. ’ P M ’ IS
REDUCED CONSIDERABLY.
ΔV = / P M L
• PREDICTING THE VALUES OF KTH SAMPLE M(K) FROM PREVIOUS SAMPLE M(K) FROM M(K) CAN BE ESTIMATED, THEN
D(K) =M(K) -M(K) AT THE RECEIVER M(K) FROM PREVIOUS SAMPLE AND GENERATE M(K) BY ADDING D(K) TO
ESTIMATE M(K)
 DIFFERENTIAL PULSE CODE MODULATION:

 DIFFERENTIAL PULSE CODE MODULATION IS A TECHNIQUE OF ANALOG TO

DIGITAL SIGNAL CONVERSION. THIS TECHNIQUE SAMPLES THE ANALOG
SIGNAL AND THEN QUANTIZES THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SAMPLED
VALUE AND ITS PREDICTED VALUE. IT THEN ENCODES THE SIGNAL TO
FORM A DIGITALVALUE.

 BASIC CONCEPT OF DPCM - CODING A DIFFERENCE, IS BASED ON THE FACT

THAT MOST SOURCE SIGNALS SHOW SIGNIFICANT CORRELATION
BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE SAMPLES SO ENCODING USES REDUNDANCY IN
SAMPLE VALUES WHICH IMPLIES LOWER BIT RATE.
 ADVANTAGES OF DPCM:

1) BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENT OF DPCM IS LESS COMPARED TO PCM.

2) QUANTIZATION ERROR IS REDUCED BECAUSE OF PREDICTION FILTER.

3) NUMBERS OF BITS USED TO REPRESENT .ONE SAMPLE VALUE AREALSO

REDUCED COMPARED TO PCM.
 AN ILLUSTRATION OF DPCM'S ADVANTAGES
OVER PCM

• A TYPICAL EXAMPLE OF A SIGNAL GOOD FOR DPCM IS A LINE IN A CONTINUOUS-

TONE (PHOTOGRAPHIC) IMAGE.
• FOR ILLUSTRATION, WE PRESENT TWO HISTOGRAMS MADE FROM THE SAME PICTURE
WHICH WERE CODED IN TWO WAYS. THE HISTOGRAMS SHOW THE PCM AND
DPCM SAMPLE FREQUENCIES, RESPECTIVELY.
• ON THE FIRST HISTOGRAM, LARGE NUMBER OF SAMPLES HAS A SIGNIFICANT
FREQUENCY AND WE CANNOT PICK ONLY A FEW OF THEM WHICH WOULD BE
ASSIGNED SHORTER CODE WORDS TO ACHIEVE COMPRESSION. ON THE SECOND
HISTOGRAM PRACTICALLY ALL THE SAMPLES ARE BETWEEN -20 AND +20, SO WE
CAN ASSIGN SHORT CODE WORDS TO THEM AND ACHIEVE A SOLID COMPRESSION
RATE.
• DPCM ENCODING AND DECODING

• A SIMPLE CASE OF DPCM QUANTIZES THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN THE SIGNAL'S CURRENT VALUE AND ITS VALUE AT
THE PREVIOUS STEP.
• THUS THE PREDICTOR IS JUST Y(K) = X (K - 1).
• THE CODE BELOW IMPLEMENTS THIS SCHEME. IT ENCODES
A SAWTOOTH SIGNAL, DECODES IT, AND PLOTS BOTH THE
ORIGINAL AND DECODED SIGNALS. THE SOLID LINE IS THE
ORIGINAL SIGNAL, WHILE THE DASHED LINE IS THE
RECOVERED SIGNALS. THE EXAMPLE ALSO COMPUTES THE
MEAN SQUARE ERROR BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL AND
DECODED SIGNALS.
 ADVANTAGES

• DIGITAL COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES HAVE PROVED THEIR PREFERENCE OVER

ANALOG COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES DUE TO THEIR HIGHER RELIABILITY,
FLEXIBILITY AND COMPATIBILITY. HOWEVER, THE COMMONLY USED DIGITAL
COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES SUCH AS PCM (PULSE CODED MODULATION) AND
LDM (LINEAR DELTA MODULATION) CAUSE QUANTIZATION ERROR, SLOPE OVERLOAD
DISTORTION, AND GRANULAR NOISE WHICH ALL NEGATIVELY AFFECT THE
COMMUNICATION PROCESS. IN ORDER TO SOLVE THE AFOREMENTIONED PROBLEMS,
ADM (ADAPTIVE DELTA MODULATION) AND DPCM (DIFFERENTIAL PULSE CODED
MODULATION) ARE DISCUSSED AND IMPLEMENTED. DPCM SYSTEM SOLVES THE
QUANTIZATION ERROR PROBLEM, AND ADM SOLVES THE SLOPE OVERLOAD
DISTORTION AND THE GRANULAR NOISE PROBLEMS.
 MERITS OF DPCM:

 BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENT OF DPCM IS LESS COMPARED TO PCM.

 QUANTIZATION ERROR IS REDUCED BECAUSE OF PREDICTION FILTER
 NUMBERS .OF BITS USED TO REPRESENT .ONE SAMPLE .VALUE ARE
ALSO REDUCED

COMPARED TO PCM.
REAL LIFE APPLICATIONS