Modulation and Coding

Techniques
I. Pulse Modulation
Engr. AdMer H. Cano Jr

2013
Grading System
LECTURE % LABORATORY %
1st Exam 10 Laboratory Exercise 50
2nd Exam 10 Project 50
3rd Exam 10
4th Exam 30
Quiz 15
Research 25
TOTAL 100 100

FINAL GRADE = 70% *LECTURE + 30%*LABORATORY

 Coverage
1st Exam
• Introduction to Digital Communications
• Digital Transmission
• PAM,PWM,PPM,PCM
2nd Exam
• Digital Communication: ASK, FSK
• Bandwidth consideration for ASK, FSK, PSK,
QAM
 Coverage
3rd Exam:
• Basic of Information Theory
• Error Detection, FDM,TDM
4th Exam
• WDM, Application of Multiplexing
• Multiple Access channeling Protocols:
FDMA,CDMA,TDMA
Merits of Digital
Communication

1. Digital signals are very easy to receive.

2. In digital signals, the original signal can
be reproduced accurately.
3. digital signals can be cleaned up to
restore the quality and amplified by the
regenerators.

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Merits of Digital
Communication
4. The noise may change the shape of the pulses
but not the pattern of the pulses.
5. But digital signals can be coded so that only the
person, who is intended for, can receive them.
6. digital signals can be stored at the receiving
end.
7. The digital signals can be processed

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Data and Signal

• Analog data • Analog Signal

– Takes on continuous values. – Continuously varying
Ex. Voice or video electromagnetic wave
representing data carried over
a variety of medium

• Digital data • Digital Signal

– Takes on discrete values. – Sequence of voltage pulses
representing data transmitted
Ex. Text and integers over a wire medium

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Data and Signal
• Analog Data, Analog Signals
– Amplitude Modulation
– Frequency Modulation
– Radio
• Digital Data, Analog Signals
– Analog Shift Keying
– Frequency Shift Keying
– Phase Shift Keying
– Fiber optics
– Modem
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• Analog Data, Digital Signals
– Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
– Delta Modulation
– Frequency Division Multiplexing
(FDM)
– Wave Division Multiplexing
(WDM) [fiber]
– Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
– Codec
• Digital Data, Digital Signals
– wired LAN, (e.g., Ethernet)
– Line encoding
ANALOG PULSE MODULATION:
TRANSITION
FROM ANALOG
TO DIGITAL
COMMUNICATIONS

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 Pulse Modulation
The process of transmitting signals in the form of
pulses by using special techniques.
• Signal
• Pulse Amplitude
Modulation
• Pulse Width Modulation
• Pulse Position
Modulation
• Pulse Code Modulation

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Pulse Modulation

Analog Pulse Modulation Digital Pulse Modulation

Pulse Amplitude (PAM) Pulse Code (PCM)

Pulse Width (PWM) Delta (DM)

Pulse Position (PPM)

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 Analog Pulse Modulation

Pulse Amplitude Modulation

• amplitude of discrete carrier signal changes in accordance with
the instantaneous amplitude of modulating signal(message
signal) keeping width and position of carrier constant
• The signal is sampled at regular intervals such that each sample
is proportional to the amplitude of the signal at that sampling
instant.

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 Analog Pulse Modulation
Pulse Amplitude Modulation

Analog Signal

Amplitude Modulated Pulses

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Merits and Demerits of PAM

• Merits
– Generation and detection is easy.
• Demerits
– Added noise cannot be removed easily as it has
impact on amplitude which carries information.
– Transmission bandwidth is too large.

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 Analog Pulse Modulation

Pulse Width Modulation

• the duration or length or width of each pulse is varied in
accordance with instantaneous value of the analog
signal keeping amplitude and position of carrier constant
• The negative side of the signal is brought to the
positive side by adding a fixed d.c. voltage.

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 Analog Pulse Modulation

Pulse Width Modulation

Analog Signal

Width Modulated Pulses

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Merits and Demerits of PWM

• Merits
– Very good noise immunity.
– Its possible to separate out signal from noise.
• Demerits
– Large Bandwidth requirement compared to
PAM.

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 Analog Pulse Modulation

Pulse Position Modulation

• The sampled waveform has fixed amplitude and width
whereas the position of each pulse is varied as per
instantaneous value of the analog signal.

• Modification of a PWM signal. It has positive thin pulses

(zero time or width) corresponding to the starting edge of a
PWM pulse and negative thin pulses corresponding to the
ending edge of a pulse.

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 Analog Pulse Modulation
Pulse Position Modulation

* This wave can be

PWM further amended
by eliminating the
whole positive
narrow pulses.
PPM The remaining
pulse is called
clipped PPM.

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Merits and Demerits of PPM

• Merits
– High noise immunity.

• Demerit
– Generation and detection is complex.

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PAM, PWM and PPM at a glance:

Analog Signal

Amplitude Modulated Pulses

Width Modulated Pulses

Position Modulated Pulses

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DIGITAL PULSE MODULATION:

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Pulse Code Modulation

•A digital signal is superior to an analog signal

•it is more robust to noise
•can easily be recovered, corrected and
•amplified.

•Generally used two techniques are :

pulse code modulation
delta modulation
.

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Pulse Code Modulation

• It is the type of pulse modulation in which

the group of pulses or codes are transmitted
which represent binary numbers
corresponding to modulating signal voltage.
• They are a primary building block for
advanced communication systems

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Pulse Code Modulation

The most used technique in digital communications

• Telephone systems
• Digital audio recording
• CD laser disks
• voice mail
• digital video etc.

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Trivia!

PCM was invented by the British engineer

Alec Reeves in 1937 in France.
It was not until about the middle of 1943
that the Bell Labs people became aware of
the use of PCM binary coding as already
proposed by Alec Reeves.

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Pulse Code Modulation

PCM Encoder

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 Pulse Code Modulation

Digitization Process

1. Sampling:
• The process of taking samples of the analogue signals at given
interval of time.

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SAMPLING
Pulse Code Modulation

Sampling Theorem
• If sufficient samples are sent and sampling
theorem are met the original signal can be
reconstructed at the receiver.
• Only samples are being transmitted.

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SAMPLING
Pulse Code Modulation

Sampling Theorem
“if the sampling rate in any pulse modulation system
exceeds twice the maximum information signal
frequency, the original signal can be reconstructed in
the receiver with minimum distortion.”
fs ≥ 2fmax (This is called Nyquist Rate)
fs = sampling frequency,
fmax = maximum frequency of the
modulating signal

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Sampling Methods

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Pulse Code Modulation

2. Quantization:
• The process of dividing the maximum value of the
analog signal into a fixed no. of levels in order to
convert the PAM into a Binary Code.
• The levels obtained are called “quanization levels”.
• quantizing process will produce errors called
quantizing errors or quantizing noise

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Types of Quantization

(a) midtread (b) midrise

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Illustration of the quantization process

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Nonuniform Quantizing
• Voice analog signals are more likely to have
amplitude values near zero than at the extreme
peak values allowed.
• For signals with nonuniform amplitude distribution,
the granular quantizing noise will be a serious
problem if the step size is not reduced for amplitude
values near zero and increased for extremely large
values. This is called nonuniform quantizing since a
variable step size is used.

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Nonuniform Quantizing

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Quantization Error and SNQR

• When a signal is quantized, the result signal

approximates the actual amplitude value, thus
introducing error on the system.
• The difference between actual and coded value
(midpoint) is referred to as the quantization error.
• Signals with lower amplitude values will suffer more
from quantization error as the error range: /2, is fixed
for all signal levels.

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Quantization Error and SNQR

• Non-linear quantization is used to alleviate this

problem. Goal is to keep SNQR fixed for all sample
values.
• Two approaches:
– The quantization levels follow a logarithmic curve.
Smaller ’s at lower amplitudes and larger’s at
higher amplitudes.
– Companding: The sample values are compressed
at the sender into logarithmic zones, and then
expanded at the receiver.

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Quantization Error and SNQR

• Qe=Resolution/2

• SNQR = minimum voltage / quantization noise voltage

• SNQR = 10 log (average signal power/average quantization

noise power)

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PCM Encoder

3. Encoding:
• The process of representing the sampled values as a binary
number in the range 0 to n.
• The value of n is chosen as a power of 2, depending on the
accuracy required.
• Increasing n reduces the step size between adjacent
Quantization levels and hence reduces the Quantization
noise.
• The down-side of this is that the amount of digital data
required to represent the analog signal increases.

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PCM Decoder

• To recover an analog signal from a digitized signal

– Used of hold circuit that holds the amplitude value of a
pulse till the next pulse arrives.
– Pass this signal through a low pass filter with a cutoff
frequency that is equal to the highest frequency in the
pre-sampled signal.

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Pulse Code Modulation

PCM Decoder

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PCM TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

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PCM Parameter

• Dynamic Range
• Resolution
• Maximum allowable input amplitude
• Coding efficiency
• Ratio of the largest possible magnitude to
the smallest possible magnitude that can be
decoded

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PCM Parameter

• Dynamic Range, DR
 Ratio of the largest possible magnitude to the
smallest possible magnitude that can be
decoded
 DR=Vmax/Vmin = Vmax/Resolution

 2n – 1 >=DR

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Dynamic Range

• Is the ratio of the strongest possible signal that can be

transmitted and the weakest discernible signal
• In a linear PCM system, the maximum dynamic range is
found by:

DR = (1.76 + 6.02m) dB

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Companding

• Sometimes called compassion

• used to improve dynamic range
• Compression is used on the transmitting end and
expanding is used on the receiving end
• Keep the bit rate and bandwidth low

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A LAW & µ- LAW

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A LAW & µ- LAW

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Mu Law

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Speech Companding

• The human auditory system is believed to be a

logarithmic process in which high amplitude
sounds do not require the same resolution as low
amplitude sounds.
• The human ear is more sensitive to quantization
noise in small signals than large signals.
• A-law and µ-law coding apply a logarithmic
quantization function to adjust the data resolution
in proportion to the level of the input signal.
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Speech Companding
• quantises the difference between the original and the
predicted signals, i.e. the difference between
successive values.
• Leads to reduction in the number of bits used per
sample over that used for PCM. Using DPCM can
reduce the bit rate of voice transmission down to 48
kbps.

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Inter Symbol Interference

• If the system impulse response h(t) extends over

more than 1 symbol period, symbols become
smeared into adjacent symbol periods
• Known as inter symbol interference (ISI)

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Inter Symbol Interference

Modulator input Slicer input

Binary ‘1’ Binary ‘1’
amplitude

amplitude
1.0 1.0
0.5 0.5

0 2 4 6 0 2 4 6
Time (bit periods) Time (bit periods)

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Noise in PCM Systems
The performance of a PCM system is influenced by two
noise sources:
(1) Channel noise
• introduce bit errors into the received signal. The
presence of this noise can be measured in terms of
probability of symbol error or bit error rate
(BER).
• can be made practically negligible by using high
signal energy-to-noise density ratio through short
spacing between regenerative repeaters.

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Noise in PCM Systems
(2) Quantization noise.
• can be made negligible by increasing the number
of levels L
• selecting a compressor-expander pair that is
matched to the message signal characteristics.

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Limitations of PCM systems

• Choosing a discrete value near the analog

signal for each sample leads to quantization
error
• Between samples no measurement of the
signal is made;
• Accurate clock is required for accurate
reproduction

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Merits and Demerits of PCM

• Merits
– Secured.
– Encoding is possible.
– Very high noise immunity.
– Convenient for long distance communication.
– Good signal to noise ratio.

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Merits and Demerits of PCM

• Demerits
– Complex circuitry.
– Requires large bandwidth.
– Synchronization is required between transmitter
& receiver.

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Delta Modulation (DM)
• only one bit is transmitted per sample
• That bit is a one if the current sample is more
positive than the previous sample, and a zero if
it is more negative
• Since so little information is transmitted, delta
modulation requires higher sampling rates than
PCM for equal quality of reproduction
• The step-size is very small

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Delta Modulation (DM)

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Delta Modulation (DM)

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Merits and Demerits of DM

• Merits
– One bit code word for output.
– Low signaling rate.
– Low channel bandwidth.
– No ADC is required
• Demerits
1. Slope overload present.
2. Granular noise present.

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Demerits of DM

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 Slope overload and Granular noise
Slope overload distortion.
• To reduce this error a large
step size is required, when
slope of signal x(t) is high.
• This can be achieved by
using Adaptive Delta
Modulation Technique.
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Granular or Idle noise
• Occurs when the step
size is too large
compared to small
variation in the input
signal.
• The solution to this
problem is to make the
step size small .
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Delta-Sigma Modulation

• Alternatively known as Pulse Density

modulation or Pulse Frequency modulation
• Modification of the delta modulation

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Adaptive Delta Modulation

• This is the advanced version of DM.

• Avoid the problem on slope over load error
and granular noise problem.
• step size is adapted to the slope (variation) of
the message signal.

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Adaptive Delta Modulation

• If successive errors are of opposite polarity, then the

delta modulator is operating in the granular mode; in
such a case it is advantageous to use reduced step
size.
• If successive errors are of the same polarity, then the
delta modulator is operating in its slope-overload
mode; in this case, the step size should be increased.

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ADM System

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ADM Waveform

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Merits and Demerits of ADM

• Merits
– Improved SNR.
– Low signaling rate.
– Wider dynamic range
– Better bandwidth utilization
– Reduction in slope overload and granular noise.

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 Differential Pulse Code Modulation

• Voice and video signals represented in PCM

exhibit high correlation.
• Contain redundant information.
• The result is an inefficient coding.

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DPCM vs. PCM
Differential Pulse Code Modulation
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) (DPCM)
Parameters

Number of bits It uses 4, 8, or 16 bits per sample < PCM bits

Levels, step size Fixed step size. Cannot varied A fixed number of levels are used.
Bit redundancy Present Can permanently remove
Slope overload distortion and
Quantization error Depends on the number of levels
quantization noise are present but very
and distortion used
less as compared to PCM
The bandwidth of the Higher bandwidth has been required
Lower than PCM bandwidth
transmission channel since the number of bits is absent
Feedback No feedback in Tx and Rx Feedback exists
Complexity of
Complex Simple
notation
Signal to noise ratio
Good Fair
(SNR)

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DPCM System

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DPCM System

• If the prediction is well performed, then the

variance of e(k) will be much smaller than
the variance of m(k), which results into a
smaller number of levels to quantize e(k).
• Can be described as a predictive coding
scheme.

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Merits and Demerits of DPCM

• Merits
1. Less signaling rate.
2. Less bandwidth.
3. Requires less quantization levels
• Demerits
1. High bit rate.
2. Needs the predictor circuit to be used which
is complex.

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 Additional Notes:
• Signal to Noise Ratio.

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