B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.

Sudha, Prof, DSCE

Electrical Waveform Representation of Binary Sequences

For the purposes of transmission, the symbols 0 and 1 should be converted to electrical
waveforms. A number of waveform representations have been developed and are being currently
used, each representation having its own specific applications. This representation is also called as
line coding or transmission coding. The resulting waveforms are called line codes or transmission
codes for the reason that they are used for transmission on a telephone line.

The selection of a proper line code can help in so many ways:

 One possibility is to aid in clock recovery at the receiver. A clock signal is recovered by
observing transitions in the received bit sequence, and if enough transitions exist, a good
recovery of the clock is guaranteed, and the signal is said to be self-clocking.
 Another advantage is to get rid of DC shifts. The DC component in a line code is called the
bias or the DC coefficient. Unfortunately, most long-distance communication channels
cannot transport a DC component. This is why most line codes try to eliminate the DC
component before being transmitted on the channel. Such codes are called DC balanced,
zero-DC, zero-bias, or DC equalized.
 Error detection is possible with some representation.
 Inversion of signal in channel will not affect the data in some formats.
 Bandwidth in less in some formats compared to others.

2.1 Encoding Formats

Some common types of line encoding in common-use nowadays are unipolar, polar, bipolar,
Manchester, and Duobinary encoding.

In the Unipolar format (also known as On-Off signaling), symbol 1 represented by

transmitting a pulse, where as symbol 0 is represented by switching off the pulse. When the pulse
occupies the full duration of a symbol, the unipolar format is said to be of the non return-to-zero
(NRZ) type. When it occupies only a fraction (usually one-half) of the symbol duration, it is said to
be of the return-to-zero (RZ) type.
The unipolar format contains a DC component that is often undesirable.
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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

In the polar format, a positive pulse is transmitted for symbol 1 and a negative pulse for
symbol 0. It can be of the NRZ or RZ type.
Unlike the unipolar waveform, a polar waveform has no dc component; provided that 0's
and 1's in the input data occur in equal proportion.

In the bipolar format (also known as pseudo ternary signaling or Alternate Mark Inversion,
AMI), positive and negative pulses are used alternatively for the transmission of 1's (with the
alternation taking place at every occurrence of a 1) and no pulses for the transmission of 0‘s. Again
it can be of the NRZ or RZ type. Note that in this representation there are three levels: +1, 0, -1.
 An attractive feature of the bipolar format is the absence of a DC component, even if the
input binary data contains large strings of 1's or 0's. The absence of DC permits transformer
coupling during the course of long distance transmission.
 Also, the bipolar format eliminates ambiguity that may arise because of polarity inversion
during the course of transmission.
 Error detection is possible if continuous 1’s are received with the same polarity.
 Because of these features, bipolar format is used in the commercial PCM telephony.
In the Manchester format (also known as biphase or split phase signaling), symbol 1 is
represented by transmitting a positive pulse for one-half of the symbol duration, followed by a
negative pulse for the remaining half of the symbol duration; for symbol 0, these two pulses are
transmitted in the reverse order.
 This format has no DC component;
 It has a built in synchronization capability because there is a predictable transition
during each bit interval.
 The disadvantage of the Manchester format is that it requires twice the bandwidth when
compared to the NRZ unipolar, polar and bipolar formats.

Polarity inversion problem can be overcome by differential encoding shown in fig where 1
is represented by transition in level and 0 by no transition.
Fig. 4.1 illustrates some of the waveform formats described above. Duration of each bit has been
taken as Tb sec and the levels as 0 or ± a

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

Manchester encoding

RZ-AMI or Bipolar format and differential encoding for for 10110001101

Fig. 2.1: Binary data waveform formats NRZ / RZ: (a) on-off (b) polar (c) Manchester (d) bipolar
format (e) differential encoding

2.2 Bandwidth requirements of Different formats

Any sequence of digital signal represented by square wave formats explained above can be
considered as a random process and is represented by

(4.1)
then, the power spectral density of the process is,
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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

(4.2)
By using this result, let us estimate the bandwidth required to transmit the waveforms using any one
of the signaling formats.

2.21Unipolar Format
In this case, Ak 's represent an on-off sequence. Let us assume that 0's and 1's of the binary
sequence to be transmitted are equally likely and '0' is represented by level 0 and '1' is represented
by level 'a'. Then,

Let us compute

For n= 0 , we have

That is,

Next consider the product Ak, Ak+n, n ≠0. This product has four possible values, namely, 0, 0, 0 and
a2 . Assuming that successive symbols in the binary sequence are statistically independent, these
four values occur with equal probability resulting in,

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

Hence,

(1)

Let p(t ) be rectangular pulse of unit amplitude and duration Tb sec. Then, P(f) is

and SX (f) can be obtained by substituting above values in eqn 4.2

(2)
But from Poisson's formula,

(3)
Noting that sinc(fTb) has nulls at

eqn(3) can be simplified to

(4)
If the duration of p(t ) is less than Tb , then we have unipolar RZ sequence. If p(t ) is of duration
Tb/2 seconds, then SX (f) reduces to

(5)
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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

From equation 6.23(b) it follows that unipolar RZ signaling has discrete spectral components at

2.22 Polar Format

In polar format, 1 is represented by a and 0 by –a. Assuming,

and 0's and 1's of the binary data sequence are statistically independent; it is easy to show,

(1)
With p(t ) being a rectangular pulse of duration Tb sec. (NRZ case), Substituting ACF values in eqn
4.2, we get

(2)
The PSD for the case when p(t ) is duration of Tb/2 (RZ case), is given by

(3)

2.23 Bipolar Format

Bipolar format has three levels: a, 0 and (− a). Assuming that 1's and 0's are equally likely,
we have

And

.
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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

We can compute the autocorrelation function of a bipolar sequence.

To compute RA (1) , we have to consider the four two bit sequences, namely, 00,01, 10, 11. As the
binary ‘0’ is represented by zero volts, we have only one nonzero product, corresponding to the
binary sequence (11). As each one of these two bit sequences occur with a probability ¼ , we have

To compute RA (n), for n ≥ 2, again we have to take into account only those binary n-tuples which
have ‘1’ in the first and last position, which will result in the product ± a2. It is not difficult to see
that, in these product terms, there are as many terms with − a2 as there are with a2 which implies
that the sum of the product terms would be zero. (For example, if we take the binary 3-tuples, only
101 and 111 will result in a non-zero product quantity. 101 will yield −a2
whereas 111 will result in a2 ). Therefore RA (n) = 0 for n ≥ 2. That is, for the bipolar format,

For the NRZ case, with a rectangular p(t ) , Substituting ACF values in eqn 4.2, we obtain

Similarly for the return-to-zero case, we have

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

2.24 Manchester Format

If the input binary data consists of independent equally likely symbols, RA (n) for the
Manchester format is the same as that of the polar format. The pulse p(t ) for the Manchester format
is a doublet of unit amplitude and duration Tb . Hence,

And

Plots of are shown in Fig. 4.2 for all formats. From Fig. 4.2(a), we see that most of the
power of the unipolar return- to zero signal is in a bandwidth of Tb/2 (of course, for the NRZ case,
it would be 1/Tb. Similarly, the bandwidth requirements of the Manchester format and return-to
zero polar format can be taken as Tb/2 ; the spectral width of the return-to-zero bipolar format is
essentially1/Tb

Fig. 4.2: Power spectral density of some signaling schemes

(a) RZ unipolar (b) polar (RZ), bipolar (RZ) and split phase (Manchester) formats

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

2.3. Inter symbol interference

Inter-symbol interference (ISI) is an unavoidable consequence of both wired and wireless
communication systems. This is a form of distortion of a signal, in which one or more symbols
interfere with subsequent signals, causing noise or delivering a poor output. Morse first noticed it
on the transatlantic telegraph cables transmitting messages using dots and dashes.

Causes of ISI

The main causes of ISI are −

 Multi-path Propagation
 Band limited channels

To view ISI in a mathematical form present in the receiver output, we can consider the receiver
output.

Fig(2.1) Baseband binary PAM system

Fig(2.2) ISI in transmission of pulses in band limited channel

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

The input to the above system is a binary data sequence {bk}with a bit duration of Tb sec. The
discrete PAM signal at the input is given by


x(t )   a v(t  kT )
k  
k b

The receiving filter output y(t) is sampled at time t=iTb(with i taking on integer values),


Then output y (t )    a k p (t  kTb )
k  

In the above equation, the first term μ->scaling factor and p(t) is normalized pulse.

We can relate p(t) and v(t) in frequency domain   p( f )  V ( f )  Ht ( f ) Hc ( f ) Hr ( f )

The receiving filter output y(t) is sampled at time ti=iTb i is integer value.

 
Then y (t i )    a k p(iTb  kTb )    ai    a k p (iTb  kTb )
k   k  
k i

The first term is produced by the ith transmitted bit. The second term represents the residual effect
of all other transmitted bits on the decoding of the ith bit. This residual effect is called as Inter
Symbol Interference.

In the absence of ISI, the output will be y(ti)=μai. This equation shows that the ith bit transmitted is
correctly reproduced. However, the presence of ISI introduces bit errors and distortions in the
output.While designing the transmitter or a receiver, it is important that you minimize the effects of
ISI, so as to receive the output with the least possible error rate.

Cause of inter symbol interference is the transmission of a signal through a band limited
channel, i.e., one where the frequency response is zero above a certain frequency (the cutoff
frequency). Passing a signal through such a channel results in the removal of frequency components
above this cutoff frequency. In addition, components of the frequency below the cutoff frequency
may also be attenuated by the channel. This filtering of the transmitted signal affects the shape of
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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

the pulse that arrives at the receiver. The effects of filtering a rectangular pulse not only change the
shape of the pulse within the first symbol period, but it is also spread out over the subsequent
symbol periods. When a message is transmitted through such a channel, the spread pulse of each
individual symbol will interfere with following symbols. The band limiting can also be due to the
physical properties of the medium - for instance, the cable being used in a wired system may have a
cutoff frequency above which practically none of the transmitted signal will propagate.

Communication systems that transmit data over band limited channels usually implement
pulse shaping to avoid interference caused by the bandwidth limitation. If the channel frequency
response is flat and the shaping filter has a finite bandwidth, it is possible to communicate with no
ISI at all. Often the channel response is not known beforehand, and an adaptive equalizer is used to
compensate the frequency response.

2.31 Nyquist criterion for distortion less baseband binary transmission

Nyquist proposed a condition for pulses p(t) to have zero–ISI when transmitted through a channel
with sufficient bandwidth to allow the spectrum of all the transmitted signal to pass. Nyquist
proposed that a zero–ISI pulse p(t) must satisfy the condition

p (iTb  kTb )  {10 i k

i  k

A pulse that satisfies the above condition at multiples of the bit period Tb will result in
zero–ISI if the whole spectrum of that signal is received. The reason for which these zero–ISI
pulses (also called Nyquist–criterion pulses) cause no ISI is that each of these pulses at the
sampling periods is either equal to 1 at the center of pulse and zero the points other pulses are
centered.

To find at what rate we need to take samples to weight the data at individual bit duration, consider
the signal in frequency domain.

From sampling process


P ( f )  Rb  P( f  nR ) where Rb=1/Tb ,bit rate.
n  
b

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

But Pδ(f) is the FT of δ functions shifted by mTb.

 
i.e P ( f )  

 P( f  mT ) (t  mT ) exp(  j 2ft)dt
m  
b b

If we take m=i-k, then i=k means m=0, i#k is m#0. For zero ISI, i=k. Then

  
P ( f )  

 P(0) (t ) exp(  j 2ft)dt  P(0)  1  Rb
m  
 P( f  nR )
n  
b


 Rb  P( f  nR )  T
n  
b b

The above equation gives Nyquist criterion for distortion less baseband transmission in the absence
of noise. It provides a method for reconstructing band limited functions to overcome the effect of
ISI.

2.32 Ideal solution

A frequency function p(f) that occupy the narrowest band that satisfy above equation is

1 f
p( f )  rect ( ) with B0=Rb/2
2 B0 2 B0

Thus the function that gives zero ISI and meets Nyquist criterion for distortionless baseband binary
transmission is P(t)=sinc(2B0t) whose spectrum is a square function with limited BW.

Fig(2.3): Rectangular pulse and its spectrum

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

This suggest that p(f) is frequency response of an ideal Low pass filter. P(t)=sinc(2B0t) is the
impulse response of ideal filter. Since p(t) is sinc function, it goes through zero values at integer
multiple of Tb. Thus if Tb=1/B0

p(t  kTb )  sin c(2B0 (t  kTb )) for integer values of k as shown in figure below.

Fig(2.4) ISI free samples

Fig above indicates that if output is sampled at instances of time t=0, t=Tb, 2Tb, etc no ISI due to
other symbols will be there.

But in this solution, there are two practical difficulties:

1. Ideal LPF response cannot be obtained

2. Synchronization of clock in receiver sampling circuit must be perfect. Inaccurate synchronization

will cause ISI

2.33Practical solution:

Due to above mentioned problems ideal solution cannot be used practically. Practical solution for
this problem is to use raised cosine pulses which we obtain by passing P(f) through raised cosine
roll off Nyquist filter. i.e P(f) should have a flat portion and a roll off portion that has the form of a
raised cosine spectrum as shown in figure.

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

Fig(2.5) Raised cosine pulse in frequency domain and its IFT –time domain signal

Mathematically a raised cosine spectrum is expressed as

IFT of the above equation is given below and its variation w.r.t time is shown in the fig above.

Tb B0
At t    , p(t)=0.5 i.e pulse width measured at ½ amplitude is exactly equal to the bit
2 4
duration.

3Tb 5Tb
Zero crossings at t   , in addition to the usual zero crossings at sampling times t=
2 2
t  Tb ,2Tb ..... These two properties are useful in generating timing signal and requires double
BW than with ideal case.

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

2.4 Correlative Coding

For zero ISI, the symbol rate R = 1/T < 2W, the Nyquist rate. We may relax the condition of zero
ISI in order to achieve R = 2W. The schemes which allow a controlled amount of ISI to achieve the
symbol rate 2W are called correlative coding or partial response signaling schemes.

2.41 Duo binary signaling

The prefix “duo” implies doubling of the transmission capacity of a straight binary system. Figure 1
shows a duo binary encoder.

Fig(2.6)Block diagram of duo binary encoder

The name duo-binary means doubling the binary system’s transmission capability. To understand
this, let us consider a binary input sequence {ak} consisting of uncorrelated binary digits each
having a duration Ta seconds. In this, the signal 1 is represented by a +1 volt and the symbol 0 by a
-1 volt.Therefore, the duo-binary coder output ck is given as the sum of present binary digit ak and
the previous value ak-1 as shown in the following equation.

ck=ak+ak−1

The above equation states that the input sequence of uncorrelated binary sequence {ak} is changed
into a sequence of correlated three level pulses {ck}. This correlation between the pulses may be
understood as introducing ISI in the transmitted signal in an artificial manner.

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

Example:
The binary data stream 001101001 is applied to the input of a duobinary system. Construct
the duobinary coder output and corresponding received output.

Answer
Binary Sequence:
Polar representation:
Duobinary coder output
Receiver output
Output binary sequence
0 011 01 0 0 1
-1 -1 1 1 -1 1 -1 -1 1
-2 0 2 0 0 0 -2 0
-1 1 1 -1 1 -1 -1 1
0 11 01 0 0 1

2.5 Eye Pattern

An effective way to study the effects of ISI is the Eye Pattern. The name Eye Pattern was given
from its resemblance to the human eye for binary waves. The interior region of the eye pattern is
called the eye opening. The following figure shows the image of an eye-pattern.

Jitter is the short-term variation of the instant of digital signal, from its ideal position, which may
lead to data errors.

Fig(2.7) Eye diagram

When the effect of ISI increases, traces from the upper portion to the lower portion of the eye
opening increases and the eye gets completely closed, if ISI is very high.

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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

An eye pattern provides the following information about a particular system.

 Actual eye patterns are used to estimate the bit error rate and the signal-to-noise ratio.
 The width of the eye opening defines the time interval over which the received wave can be
sampled without error from ISI.
 The instant of time when the eye opening is wide, will be the preferred time for sampling.
 The rate of the closure of the eye, according to the sampling time, determines how sensitive
the system is to the timing error.
 The height of the eye opening, at a specified sampling time, defines the margin over noise.

Hence, the interpretation of eye pattern is an important consideration.

2.6 Equalization

For reliable communication to be established, we need to have a quality output. The transmission
losses of the channel and other factors affecting the quality of the signal, have to be treated. The
most occurring loss, as we have discussed, is the ISI.

To make the signal free from ISI, and to ensure a maximum signal to noise ratio, we need to
implement a method called Equalization. The following figure shows an equalizer in the receiver
portion of the communication system.

Fig(2.8) Equalizer in receiver

The noise and interferences which are denoted in the figure(2.8), are likely to occur, during
transmission. The regenerative repeater has an equalizer circuit, which compensates the
transmission losses by shaping the circuit. The Equalizer is feasible to get implemented.
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 B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

Question Bank
1. Sketch the digital formats for the bit stream 0110100011 in RZ polar, differential encoding and
Manchester formats. Give advantages and disadvantages of these formats. [10]
2. a. What are the important properties that we look into when we select a particular format of
representing digital data in baseband communication system and why? [6]
b. Draw PSD curve for NRZ unipolar, polar and bipolar formats and compare them. [4]
3. Derive expression for the power spectral density for NRZ unipolar format [10]
4. Obtain the autocorrelation for different values of n and derive expression for the power spectral
density for polar and bipolar formats. [10]
5. What is ISI? Explain with equations. [10]
6. Derive Nyquist criterion for distortion less baseband transmission [10]
7. Explain ideal and practical solution to reduce ISI. [10]
8. What is correlative coding? Explain with block diagram, waveforms and equations, working of
duo-binary signaling scheme.
9. a) A computer puts out binary data at the rate of 56kbps. The computer output is transmitted
using baseband binary PAM system that is designed to have a raised cosine spectrum.
Determine the transmission BW required for each of the following roll off factors. A. α=0.25,
B.α=0.75 [5]
b. A binary PAM wave is to be transmitted over a low pass channel with an absolute maximum
BW of 75kHz. The bit duration is 10 μS. Find a raised cosine spectrum that satisfies these
requirements. [5
10. The binary data 001101001 are applied to the input of duo binary system. Construct the duo
binary coder output and corresponding receiver output. Suppose that due to error during
transmission, the level at the receiver input produced by the second digit is reduced to zero,
construct the new receiver output. [10]

One mark questions:

1. When pulse occupy full duration of a symbol, the format is said to be __________
2. Polar waveform has no dc component, provided that the zeros and ones in the input occur in
_______proportion.
3. _____________is adapted for use in T1 carrier system for digital telephony.
4. __________format have the capability of error detection
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B.E VI Sem -Digital Communication (EC61) Dr. K.L.Sudha, Prof, DSCE

5. Manchester format has built in __________ capability

6. Identify the data from the Manchester format given below

7. Differential encoding is immune to polarity ______________

8. Maximum ISI is predicted when eye is ___________in eye diagram
9. To ensure maximum signal to noise ration in ISI environment _____ circuits are used
10. Duo binary signaling helps us to send signal of_____ BW over a channel of B BW.

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