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INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

The purpose of a Communication System is to transfer an infor matio n bearing signa l from a
source to a user destination via a communication channel.
MODEL OF A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM (ANALOG)

Fig 1.1 Block diagra m of Communication System.

The three basic elements of communication syste ms are
Transmitter
Receiver and
Channel.
The Overall purpose of this system is to transfer information from one point (called
Source) to another point, the user destination.
The message produced by a source, normally, is not electrical. Hence an input transducer
is used for converting the message to a timevarying electrical quantity called message
signal. Similarly, at the destination point, another transducer converts the electrical
waveform to the appropriate message.
The transmitter is located at one point in space, the receiver is located at some other point
separate from the transmitter, and the channel is the medium that divides the electrical
connection between the m.
The purpose of the transmitter is to transform the message signal produced by the source of
information into a form suitable for transmission over the channel. The received signal is
normally corrupted version of the transmitted signal, which is due to channel imperfections,
noise and interference fro m other sources. The receiver has the task of operating on the
received signal so as to reconstruct a recognizable form of the original message signal and to
deliver it to the user destination.

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Communication Systems are divided into 3categories:

1. Analog Communication Systems are designed to transmit analog infor mation
using analog modulation methods.
2. Digital Communication Syste ms are designed for transmitting digital
infor mation using digital modulation schemes, and
3.Hybrid Systems that use digital modulation schemes for transmitting sampled
and quantized values of an analog message signal.
ELEMENTSOFDIGITALCOMMUNICATIONSYSTEMS:
The figure 1.2 shows the functional ele ments of a digita l communication system.
Source of Information:
The source of information to be transmitted may be either analog or discrete. An analog
source produces time-continuous signals, while a discrete source produces sequences of
discrete symbols. Examples of signals from an analog source are speech signals, radar
outputs, and photographic scan data. Typical discrete sources are computer data files and
messages generated at teleprinter terminals.
1.Analog Information Sources.
2.Digital Infor mation Sources.
Analog Information Sources Microphone actuated by a speech, TV Camera
scanninga scene, continuous amplitude signals.
Digital Information SourcesThese are tele type or the numerical output o f
Computer which consists of a sequence of discrete symbols or letters.
An Analog information is transfor med into a discrete infor mation through the process
of sampling and quantizing.
DigitalCommunicationSystem

Fig1.2:BlockDiagramofa DigitalCommunicationSystem

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SOURCE ENCODER/DECODER:
The Source encoder ( or Source coder) converts the input i.e. symbol sequence into a binary
sequence of 0 s and 1 s by assigning code words to the symbols in the input sequence.
For eg. :-If
a source set is having hundred symbols, then the number of bits used
to represent each symbol will be 7 because 27=128 unique combinations are available. The
important parameters of a source encoder are block size, code word lengths, average data
rate and the efficiency of the coder (i.e. actual output data rate compared to the
minimum achievable rate)
At the receiver, the source decoder converts the binary output of the channel decoder into a
symbol sequence.
The decoder for a system using fixed length code words is quite
simple, but the decoder for a system using variable length code words will be very
complex.
Aim of
the source coding is to remove the redundancy in the transmitting
information, so that bandwidth required for transmission is minimized. Based on the
probability of the symbol code word is assigned. Higher the probability, shorter is the
codeword.
Ex: Huffman coding.

CHANNEL ENCODER/DECODER:
Error control is accomplished by the channel coding operation that consists of
systematically adding extra bits to the output of the source coder. These extra bits do not
convey any information but helps the receiver to detect and/or correct some of the errors in
the infor mation bearing bits.
There are two methods of channel coding:
1.BlockCoding:The encoder takes a block of k infor mation bits fro m the source
encoder and adds r error control bits, where r is dependent on k and error control
capabilities desired.
2.Convolution Coding:The infor mation bearing message strea m is encoded in
a
continuous fashion by continuously interleaving infor mation bits and error control
bits.
The Channel decoder recovers the infor mation bearing bits from the coded binary stream.
Error detection and possible correction is also performed b y the channel decoder. The
important para meters of coder / decoder are: Method of coding, efficiency, error control
capabilities and complexity of the circuit.
MODULATOR:
The Modulator converts the input bit stream into an electrical waveform s uita ble for
transmission over the co mmunication channel. Modulator can be effectively used to
minimize the effects of channel noise, to match the frequency spectrum of trans mitted

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signal with channel characteristics, to provide the capability to multiplex many signals.

DEMODULATOR:
The extraction of the message fro m the information bearing wavefor m produced by the
modulation is accomplished by the demodulator. The output of the de modulator is bit
stream. The important parameter is the method of demodulation.
CHANNEL:
The Channel provides the electrical connection between the source and des tina tion.The
different channels are:
Pair of wires
Coaxial cable
Optical fibre
Radio channel
Satellite channel or combination of any o f these.
The communication channels have only finite Bandwidth, non- idea l frequency response,
the signal of ten suffers amplitude and phase distortion as it travels over the channel.
Also,the signal power decreases due to the attenuation of the channel.
The signal is corrupte d by unwanted, unpredictable electrical signals referred
to as noise.
The important para meters of the channel are Signal to Noise power Ratio (SNR),
usable bandwidth, amplitude and phase response and the statistical properties of noise.
Advantages of Digital Communication
1. The effect of distortion, noise and interfe rence is less in a digita l communication
sys te m. T his is because the disturbance must be large enough to change the pulse
fro m one state to the other.
2. Regenerative repeaters can be used at fixed distance along the link, to identify and
regenerate a pulse before it is degraded to an ambiguous state.
3. Digital circuits are more reliable and cheaper compared to analo g circuits.
4. The Hardware implementation is more flexible than analog hardware because of the
use of microprocessors, VLSI chips etc.
5. Signal processing functions like encryption, co mpression can be employed to
maintain the secrecy of the information.

6. Error detecting and Error correcting codes improve the syste m perfor mance by
reducing the probability of error.

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7. Combining digital signals using TDM is simpler than co mbining analog signals
us ing F DM. The different types of signals such as data, telephone, TV can be
treated as identical signals in transmission and switching in a digital
communication system.
8. We can avoid signal ja mming using spread spectrum technique.
DisadvantagesofDigitalCommunication:
1. Large System Bandwidth:- Digital transmission requires a large system bandwidth
to communicate the same infor mation in a digital format as compared to analog
format.
2. System Synchronization:- Digital detection requires syste m
where
as the analog signals generally have no suc h require ment.

synchronization

PULSE MODULATION

Pulse Digital Modulation:

Transmitting digital signals has many advantages than transmitting analog signals over a
channel. In order to transmit the digital signals, analog signals are to be digitised. The scheme
that converts the analog signals to its corresponding digital form (analog to digital
conversion) is known as Pulse Digital Modulation. Various schemes/ techniques that are
employed to represent analog signals in digital format are known as Waveform Coding
Techniques.
WAVEFORM CODING TECHNIQUES:
Various types of modulation techniques are:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

Differential Pulse Code Modulation (DPCM)
Delta Modulation (DM)
Adaptive Delta Modulation (ADM)

Note: Here, modulation doesnt reflect the meaning of conventional modulation in which the
parameter of message signal are varied with respect to carrier signal as done in the case of
Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), etc...These waveform coding
techniques are called baseband modulation techniques which imply that the signals are

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represented in digital form and no parameter of signal is changed. The output of these
techniques is a baseband signal.
Baseband Signal: Signals of low frequencies are baseband signals. In general, they are not
used for communication directly as they cant travel long distances. The output of the above
mentioned techniques is a baseband signal which is to be further processed (modulated) using
modulation techniques like ASK, PSK, FSK, etc... for transmitting over a channel effectively.
1) Pulse Code Modulation (PCM):
PCM is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. The block diagram of
PCM is shown in the figure.

A PCM system has 3 main parts.

1) Transmitter
2) Transmission path
3) Receiver
PCM Trans mitter:
It includes,
a)
b)
c)
d)

Low Pass Filter (LPF)

Sampler
Quantizer
Encoder

The blocks are as shown below.

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LPF: The analog signal is first passed into a LPF of cut-off frequency fm Hz which filters all
the frequencies above fm Hz. This implies that a signal is now band limited. It avoids aliasing
effect. So, it is called as anti-aliasing filter.
Sampler: Samples a continuous band limited analog signal at discrete intervals. The spacing
between the samples must follow the Nyquist Criteria i.e. Ts fm/2, where Ts is the sampling
time and fm is the highest signal frequency of band limited analog signal.
Quantizer: The sampled signal is now to be discretized in amplitude levels, called
quantization. This block quantizes the sampled band limited signal. The amplitude levels are
rounded off to nearest integer. This leads to an error called Quantization error. The process
is shown in figure. Below figure shows a 4-bit sampling and quantization.

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Quantization is of 2 types.
i)

ii)

Uniform Quantization: The amplitude levels are discretized at regular intervals

having equal spacing between them i.e. the step size remains same throughout the
input range. n.
Non-uniform Quantization: The amplitude levels are discretized at irregular
intervals having unequal spacing between them i.e. the step size varies according
to the input signal values. The use of non-uniform quantization is equivalent to
passing a baseband signal through a compressor and then applying compressed
signal to a uniform quantizer. Then the signal is then expanded and the whole
process is known as companding.
Companding = compressing + expanding

Companding can be achieved through 2 methods.

- law companding
A-law companding
-law companding:
It is defined as,

Where
m is the normalized input voltage
v is the normalized output voltage

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is a positive constant.
The practically used value of is 255. The case of uniform quantization arises when =0.
The graph of companding characteristics of a - law for 3 different values of is given in fig
(a) below. The reciprocal slope of the compression curve which defines the quantum steps is
given by derivative of |m| w.r.t |v| as,

We can hence observe that - law is neither strictly (except at =0) linear nor logarithmic
(except at =255). For |m| << 1 it is approximately linear and for |m|>>1 it is
approximately logarithmic.
A-law companding:
It is defined as,

Where m and v are normalized input and output voltages and A is a positive constant. The
practically used value of A is 87.56. The case of uniform quantization arises when A=1.The
graph of companding characteristics of a A- law for 3 different values of A is given in fig (b)
above. The reciprocal slope of the compression curve which defines the quantum steps is
given by derivative of |m| w.r.t |v| as,

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At A=1 the characteristics are strictly linear corresponding to uniform quantization.
Quantizers are of 2 types.
i)
ii)

Mid Tread Quantizer

Mid Rise Quantizer

Note: Sampler and Quantizer are together known as Analog to Digital Converter (ADC).
Encoder: This converts the digital signal into a series of bit streams, usually called a n n-bit
binary code word. In a binary code, each symbol may have either logic 0 or logic 1. There are
various formats to represent the binary sequence and are called line codes.

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PCM Trans mission Path:
The path between PCM Tx and PCM Rx over which a PCM signal travels is called PCM
Transmission path. The important feature of PCM system lies in its ability to contro l the
effects of distortion and noise when PCM wave travels on channel. The capability is
accomplished by reconstructing PCM wave using regenerative repeaters located at
sufficiently close spacing along the transmission path.
The block diagram of a repeater is shown in the figure below.

3 basic functions of regenerative repeater are:

Equalization
Timing
Decision Making
The equalizer shapes the received pulses so as to compensate for the effects of amplitude and
phase distortions produced in the channel.
Timing circuit provides periodic pulse train derived from the received pulses for sampling the
equalized pulses at instants of time where SNR is maximum.
The decision device is enabled when the amplitude of equalized pulse (along with noise)
exceeds a predetermined voltage level. The signal is reconstructed when the amplitude
exceeds the predetermined level.
PCM Receiver:
Operations of a PCM receiver are,
Regeneration
Decoding
Reconstruction
The block diagram is as shown below.

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The received pulse is reshaped (regenerated). The clean pulses are regrouped into code words
and decoded into a quantized PAM signal. In the reconstruction part the decoded signal is
passed into a low pass reconstruction filter whose cut-off frequency is equal to bandwidth
(W) of the message, to recover the analog signal.
1) Effect of noise is reduced.
2) PCM permits the use of pulse regeneration.
3) Multiplexing of various PCM signals is possible