Goals of Line Coding (qualities to look for)

A line code is designed to meet one or more of the following

goals:
Self-synchronization
The ability to recover timing from the signal itself
That is, self-clocking (self-synchronization) - ease of clock
lock or signal recovery for symbol synchronization
Long series of ones and zeros could cause a problem
Low probability of bit error
Receiver needs to be able to distinguish the waveform
associated with a mark from the waveform associated with
a space
BER performance
relative immunity to noise
Error detection capability
enhances low probability of error
1

Spectrum Suitable for the channel

Spectrum matching of the channel
e.g.

presence or absence of DC level

In some cases DC components should be avoided
The transmission bandwidth should be minimized
Power Spectral Density
Particularly its value at zero
PSD of code should be negligible at the frequency
near zero
Transmission Bandwidth
Should be as small as possible
Transparency
The property that any arbitrary symbol or bit pattern
can be transmitted and received, i.e., all possible
data sequence should be faithfully reproducible
2

Line Coder
The input to the line encoder

is the output of the A/D

converter or a sequence of
values an that is a function of
the data bit
The output of the line
encoder is a waveform:

s (t )

f (t nTb )

where f(t) is the pulse shape and Tb is the bit period

(Tb=Ts/n for n bit quantizer)

This means that each line code is described by a symbol

mapping function an and pulse shape f(t)

Details of this operation are set by the type of line code

that is being used
3

Summary of Major Line Codes

Categories of Line Codes
Polar - Send pulse or negative of pulse
Unipolar - Send pulse or a 0
Bipolar (a.k.a. alternate mark inversion, pseudoternary)
Represent 1 by alternating signed pulses
Generalized Pulse Shapes
NRZ -Pulse lasts entire bit period
Polar NRZ
Bipolar NRZ
RZ - Return to Zero - pulse lasts just half of bit period
Polar RZ
Bipolar RZ
Manchester Line Code
Send a 2- pulse for either 1 (high low) or 0 (low

high)
Includes rising and falling edge in each pulse
No DC component

When the category and the generalized shapes are

combined, we have the following:

Polar NRZ:
Wireless, radio, and satellite applications primarily use
Polar NRZ because bandwidth is precious
Unipolar NRZ
Turn the pulse ON for a 1, leave the pulse OFF for a 0
Useful for non-coherent communication where receiver
cant decide the sign of a pulse
fiber optic communication often use this signaling
format
Unipolar RZ
RZ signaling has both a rising and falling edge of the
pulse
This can be useful for timing and synchronization
purposes
5

 Bipolar RZ
A unipolar line code, except now we alternate

between positive and negative pulses to send a 1

Alternating like this eliminates the DC component
This is desirable for many channels that cannot
transmit the DC components
Generalized Grouping
Non-Return-to-Zero: NRZ-L, NRZ-M NRZ-S
Return-to-Zero: Unipolar, Bipolar, AMI
Phase-Coded: bi-f-L, bi-f-M, bi-f-S, Miller, Delay
Modulation
Multilevel Binary: dicode, doubinary

Commonly Used Line Codes

Polar line codes use the antipodal mapping
A, when X n 1
an
A, when X n 0

Polar NRZ uses NRZ pulse shape

Polar RZ uses RZ pulse shape

Unipolar NRZ Line Code

Unipolar non-return-to-zero (NRZ) line code is defined
by unipolar mapping

A,
an
0,

when X n 1

when X n 0

Where Xn is the nth data

bit

In addition, the pulse shape for unipolar NRZ is:

where Tb is the bit periodf (t ) t ,
Tb

NRZ Pulse Shape

Bipolar Line Codes

With bipolar line codes a space is mapped to zero and a
mark is alternately mapped to -A and +A
A,

an A,
0,

Either

when X n 1 and last mark A

when X n 1 and last mark A
when X n 0

RZ or NRZ pulse shape can be used

It

is also called pseudoternary signaling or alternate mark

inversion (AMI)

Summary of Line Codes

10

Summary of Line Codes

11

Comparison of Line Codes

Self-synchronization
Manchester codes have built in timing information

because they always have a zero crossing in the center of

the pulse
Polar RZ codes tend to be good because the signal level
always goes to zero for the second half of the pulse
NRZ signals are not good for self-synchronization
Error probability
Polar codes perform better (are more energy efficient)
than Unipolar or Bipolar codes
Channel characteristics
We need to find the power spectral density (PSD) of the
line codes to compare the line codes in terms of the
channel characteristics
12

13

Figure Line codes for the electrical representations of binary d

(a) Unipolar NRZ signaling. (b) Polar NRZ signaling.
(c) Unipolar RZ signaling. (d) Bipolar RZ signaling.
(e) Split-phase or Manchester code.