Line Coding

Line Coding
The first approach converts digital data to digital signal, known as line coding, as shown in Figure

Click to edit Master text styles Second level Third level Fourth level Fifth level

Line Coding
No. of signal levels: This refers to the number values allowed in a signal, known as signal levels, to represent data. Figures shows two signal levels and three signal levels to represent binary data.

Line Coding
Bit rate versus Baud rate: The bit rate represents the number of bits sent per second, whereas the baud rate defines the number of signal elements per second in the signal. Depending on the encoding technique used, baud rate may be more than or less than the data rate.

Line Coding
Synchronization: To interpret the received signal correctly, the bit interval of the receiver should be exactly same or within certain limit of that of the transmitter. Any mismatch between the two may lead wrong interpretation of the received signal. Usually, clock is generated and synchronized from the received signal with the help of a special hardware known as Phase Lock Loop (PLL). However, this can be achieved if the received signal is selfsynchronizing having frequent transitions (preferably, a minimum of one transition per bit interval) in the signal.

Line Coding
DC components: After line coding, the signal may have zero frequency component in the spectrum of the signal, which is known as the direct-current (DC) component. DC component in a signal is not desirable because the DC component does not pass through some components of a communication system such as a transformer. This leads to distortion of the signal and may create error at the output. The DC component also results in unwanted energy loss on the line. Signal Spectrum: Different encoding of data leads to different spectrum of the signal. It is necessary to use suitable encoding technique to match with the medium so that the signal suffers minimum attenuation and distortion as it is transmitted through a medium.

Line Coding
In order to be transmitted over a digital communications system, an information signal must first be formatted so that it is represented by digital symbols (usually binary digits or bits). Next, these digital or binary representations must be converted into electrical waveforms that are transmitted over the communications channel. In baseband digital transmission, the electrical waveforms used are pulses and this conversion from digital data to digital waveforms is known as line Coding.

Line Coding
The binary data such as the binary 1s and 0s produced by a PCM encoder may be represented in various serial-bit signalling formats known as line codes. There exists many line codes and each has its own particular advantages and disadvantages depending on the particular application. However, there are a number of desirable properties that a line code should exhibit.

Line Coding
Introduction:
Binary data can be transmitted using a number of different types of pulses. The choice of a particular pair of pulses to represent the symbols 1 and 0 is called Line Coding and the choice is generally made on the grounds of one or more of the following considerations:

Presence or absence of a DC level. Power Spectral Density- particularly its value at 0 Hz. Bandwidth. BER performance (this particular aspect is not covered in this lecture). Transparency (i.e. the property that any arbitrary symbol, or bit, pattern can be transmitted and received). Ease of clock signal recovery for symbol synchronisation. Presence or absence of inherent error detection properties.

Line Coding
Signal Spectrum: Several aspects of the signal spectrum are important: The spectral occupancy (i.e. the bandwidth) should be as small as possible to ensure good spectral efficiency. There should be no dc component as this permits the use of ac coupling via transformer. This provides for electrical isolation and helps reduce the effects of interference.

Line Coding
Clock Signal: Synchronization between the transmitter and receiver is of critical importance in digital communications systems. Ideally, the spectrum of the line code should contain a frequency component at the clock frequency to permit clock extraction. This avoids having to transmit a separate clock signal between the transmitter and receiver.

Line Coding
Signal Interference and Noise Immunity: Ideally, the line code should be rugged in terms of exhibiting an immunity to interference and noise. In more technical terms, the line code should have a low probability of error for a given level of transmitted power. Certain line codes are more rugged than others, e.g. polar codes have a better error performance compared to unipolar codes.

Line Coding
Error Detection: It is useful to have some error detection capability built into the line code to permit transmission errors to be detected more quickly. Transparency: The performance of the line code should be independent of the data, i.e. long strings of binary 1s or 0s should not affect the performance. Cost and Complexity: The line coding scheme should not be excessively complex and/or costly.

Line Coding
Line Coding Formats: The various line coding waveforms can be categorized in terms of the following. The duration of the pulses. The way in which voltage levels are assigned to the pulses.

Line Coding
Pulse Duration: There are two classes used here. Non return-to-zero (NRZ) where the pulse or symbol duration Ts = the bit period Tb. Return-to-zero (RZ) where the pulse or symbol duration Ts < the bit period Tb. Usually Ts = 0.5Tb. The pulse duration will usually have an effect on the synchronization properties of the line code (i.e. it determines the presence or absence of a frequency component at the clock frequency).

Line Coding
Pulse Voltage Levels: There are many voltage level formats possible: Unipolar Polar Dipolar Bipolar High Density Bipolar substitution (HDBn) Coded Mark Inversion (CMI)

Line Coding
Unipolar

signalling is where a binary 1 is represented by a high positive level (+A volts) and a binary 0 is represented by a zero level (0 volts). This is sometimes known as on-off keying (OOK). There are two variations possible: Unipolar NRZ Unipolar RZ

Different Types of Line Coding

Unipolar Signalling
Unipolar signalling (also called on-off keying, OOK) is the type of line coding in which one binary symbol (representing a 0 for example) is represented by the absence of a pulse (i.e. a SPACE) and the other binary symbol (denoting a 1) is represented by the presence of a pulse (i.e. a MARK).

There are two common variations of unipolar signalling: Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) and Return to Zero (RZ).

Unipolar Signalling
Unipolar Non-Return to Zero (NRZ):

In unipolar NRZ the duration of the MARK pulse ( ) is equal to the duration (To) of the symbol slot.

1
V

0 1 0

Unipolar Signalling
Unipolar Non-Return to Zero (NRZ):
In unipolar NRZ the duration of the MARK pulse ( ) is equal to the duration (To) of the symbol slot. (put figure here).

Advantages:

Simplicity in implementation. Doesnt require a lot of bandwidth for transmission.

Disadvantages:

Presence of DC level (indicated by spectral line at 0 Hz). Contains low frequency components. Causes Signal Droop (explained later). Does not have any error correction capability. Does not posses any clocking component for ease of synchronisation. Is not Transparent. Long string of zeros causes loss of synchronisation.

Unipolar Signalling
Unipolar Non-Return to Zero (NRZ):

Figure. PSD of Unipolar NRZ

Unipolar Signalling
Unipolar Non-Return to Zero (NRZ):
When Unipolar NRZ signals are transmitted over links with either transformer or capacitor coupled (AC) repeaters, the DC level is removed converting them into a polar format.

The continuous part of the PSD is also non-zero at 0 Hz (i.e. contains low frequency components). This means that AC coupling will result in distortion of the transmitted pulse shapes. AC coupled transmission lines typically behave like high-pass RC filters and the distortion takes the form of an exponential decay of the signal amplitude after each transition. This effect is referred to as Signal Droop and is illustrated in figure below.

Unipolar Signalling
1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1

V/2 0 -V/2 Figure Distortion (Signal Droop) due to AC coupling of unipolar NRZ signal

Unipolar Signalling
Return to Zero (RZ):

In unipolar RZ the duration of the MARK pulse ( ) is less than the duration (To) of the symbol slot. Typically RZ pulses fill only the first half of the time slot, returning to zero for the second half.

1
V

0 0 0

To

Unipolar Signalling
Return to Zero (RZ):

In unipolar RZ the duration of the MARK pulse ( ) is less than the duration (To) of the symbol slot. Typically RZ pulses fill only the first half of the time slot, returning to zero for the second half.

1
V

0 0 0

0 To

Unipolar Signalling
Unipolar Return to Zero (RZ):

Advantages:

Simplicity in implementation. Presence of a spectral line at symbol rate which can be used as symbol timing clock signal.

Disadvantages:

Presence of DC level (indicated by spectral line at 0 Hz). Continuous part is non-zero at 0 Hz. Causes Signal Droop. Does not have any error correction capability. Occupies twice as much bandwidth as Unipolar NRZ. Is not Transparent

Unipolar Signalling
Unipolar Return to Zero (RZ):

Figure. PSD of Unipolar RZ

Unipolar Signalling
In conclusion it can be said that neither variety of unipolar signals is suitable for transmission over AC coupled lines.

Polar Signalling
In polar signalling a binary 1 is represented by a pulse g1(t) and a binary 0 by the opposite (or antipodal) pulse g0(t) = -g1(t). Polar signalling also has NRZ and RZ forms.

1
+V 0 -V

0 1 0

Figure. Polar NRZ

Polar Signalling
In polar signalling a binary 1 is represented by a pulse g1(t) and a binary 0 by the opposite (or antipodal) pulse g0(t) = -g1(t). Polar signalling also has NRZ and RZ forms.

1
+V 0 -V

0 0 0

Figure. Polar RZ

Polar Signalling
PSD of Polar Signalling:
Polar NRZ and RZ have almost identical spectra to the Unipolar NRZ and RZ. However, due to the opposite polarity of the 1 and 0 symbols, neither contain any spectral lines.

Figure. PSD of Polar NRZ

Polar Signalling
PSD of Polar Signalling:
Polar NRZ and RZ have almost identical spectra to the Unipolar NRZ and RZ. However, due to the opposite polarity of the 1 and 0 symbols, neither contain any spectral lines.

Figure. PSD of Polar RZ

Polar Signalling
Polar Non-Return to Zero (NRZ):

Advantages:

Simplicity in implementation. No DC component.

Disadvantages:

Continuous part is non-zero at 0 Hz. Causes Signal Droop. Does not have any error correction capability. Does not posses any clocking component for ease of synchronisation. Is not transparent.

Polar Signalling
Polar Return to Zero (RZ):

Advantages:

Simplicity in implementation. No DC component.

Disadvantages:

Continuous part is non-zero at 0 Hz. Causes Signal Droop. Does not have any error correction capability. Does not posses any clocking component for easy synchronisation. However, clock can be extracted by rectifying the received signal. Occupies twice as much bandwidth as Polar NRZ.

BiPolar Signalling
Bipolar Signalling is also called alternate mark inversion (AMI) uses three voltage levels (+V, 0, -V) to represent two binary symbols. Zeros, as in unipolar, are represented by the absence of a pulse and ones (or marks) are represented by alternating voltage levels of +V and V.

Alternating the mark level voltage ensures that the bipolar spectrum has a null at DC And that signal droop on AC coupled lines is avoided.

The alternating mark voltage also gives bipolar signalling a single error detection capability.

Like the Unipolar and Polar cases, Bipolar also has NRZ and RZ variations.

BiPolar Signalling
1
+V 0 -V

0 1 0

Figure. BiPolar NRZ

Polar Signalling
PSD of BiPolar/ AMI NRZ Signalling:

Figure. PSD of BiPolar NRZ

BiPolar Signalling
BiPolar / AMI NRZ:

Advantages:

No DC component. Occupies less bandwidth than unipolar and polar NRZ schemes. Does not suffer from signal droop (suitable for transmission over AC coupled lines). Possesses single error detection capability.

Disadvantages:

Does not posses any clocking component for ease of synchronisation. Is not Transparent.

BiPolar Signalling
1
+V 0 -V

0 1 0

Figure. BiPolar RZ

Polar Signalling
PSD of BiPolar/ AMI RZ Signalling:

Figure. PSD of BiPolar RZ

BiPolar Signalling
BiPolar / AMI RZ:

Advantages:

No DC component. Occupies less bandwidth than unipolar and polar RZ schemes. Does not suffer from signal droop (suitable for transmission over AC coupled lines). Possesses single error detection capability. Clock can be extracted by rectifying (a copy of) the received signal.

Disadvantages:

Is not Transparent.

HDBn Signalling
HDBn is an enhancement of Bipolar Signalling. It overcomes the transparency problem encountered in Bipolar signalling. In HDBn systems when the number of continuous zeros exceeds n they are replaced by a special code.

The code recommended by the ITU-T for European PCM systems is HDB-3 (i.e. n=3).

In HDB-3 a string of 4 consecutive zeros are replaced by either 000V or B00V.

Where, B conforms to the Alternate Mark Inversion Rule. V is a violation of the Alternate Mark Inversion Rule

HDBn Signalling
The reason for two different substitutions is to make consecutive Violation pulses alternate in polarity to avoid introduction of a DC component.

The substitution is chosen according to the following rules:

1.

If the number of nonzero pulses after the last substitution is odd, the substitution pattern will be 000V.

1.

If the number of nonzero pulses after the last substitution is even, the substitution pattern will be B00V.

HDBn Signalling
1 0 0 0 1 0 B V 0 0 0 V 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

HDBn Signalling
PSD of HDB3 (RZ) Signalling:

The PSD of HDB3 (RZ) is similar to the PSD of Bipolar RZ.

Figure. PSD of HDB3 RZ

HDBn Signalling
HDBn RZ:

Advantages:

No DC component. Occupies less bandwidth than unipolar and polar RZ schemes. Does not suffer from signal droop (suitable for transmission over AC coupled lines). Possesses single error detection capability. Clock can be extracted by rectifying (a copy of) the received signal. Is Transparent.

These characteristic make this scheme ideal for use in Wide Area Networks

Manchester Signalling
In Manchester encoding , the duration of the bit is divided into two halves. The voltage remains at one level during the first half and moves to the other level during the second half.

A One is +ve in 1st half and -ve in 2nd half.

A Zero is -ve in 1st half and +ve in 2nd half.

Note: Some books use different conventions.

Manchester Signalling
1
+V 0 -V

0 1 0

Note: There is always a transition at the centre of bit duration. Figure. Manchester Encoding.

Manchester Signalling
PSD of Manchester Signalling:

Figure. PSD of Manchester

Manchester Signalling
The transition at the centre of every bit interval is used for synchronization at the receiver. Manchester encoding is called self-synchronizing. Synchronization at the receiving end can be achieved by locking on to the the transitions, which indicate the middle of the bits. It is worth highlighting that the traditional synchronization technique used for unipolar, polar and bipolar schemes, which employs a narrow BPF to extract the clock signal cannot be used for synchronization in Manchester encoding. This is because the PSD of Manchester encoding does not include a spectral line/ impulse at symbol rate (1/To). Even rectification does not help.

Manchester Signalling
Manchester Signalling:

Advantages:

No DC component. Does not suffer from signal droop (suitable for transmission over AC coupled lines). Easy to synchronise with. Is Transparent.

Disadvantages:

Because of the greater number of transitions it occupies a significantly large Does not have error detection capability.

bandwidth.

These characteristic make this scheme unsuitable for use in Wide Area Networks. However, it is widely used in Local Area Networks such as Ethernet and Token Ring.

Reference Text Books

1.

Digital Communications 2nd Edition by Ian A. Glover and Peter M. Grant. Modern Digital & Analog Communications 3rd Edition by B. P. Lathi. Digital & Analog Communication Systems 6th Edition by Leon W. Couch, II. Communication Systems 4th Edition by Simon Haykin. Analog & Digital Communication Systems by Martin S. Roden. Data Communication & Networking 4th Edition by Behrouz A. Forouzan.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

53