Pulse Code Modulation on Mac

14. Pulse Code Modulation

We have seen that sampling a bandlimited signal at or above the Nyquist sampling rate does
not destroy any information content and fully characterises the bandlimited signal. A
system transmitting these sampled values of the bandlimited signal is called a sampleddata or pulse modulation system. In modern communication systems, these sampled
signals are often quantised and coded before transmission. We have pulse code
modulation (PCM).
Pulse code modulation is very popular because of the many advantages it offers. These
include:
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

Inexpensive digital circuitry may be used in the system.

All-digital transmission. PCM signals derived from analogue signals may be timedivision multiplexed with data from digital computers and transmitted over a
common high-speed channel.
Further digital signal processing such as encryption is possible.
Errors may be minimised by appropriate coding of the signals.
Signals may be regularly reshaped or regenerated using repeaters at appropriate
intervals.

Figure 14.1 shows a single-channel PCM system.

Figure 14.1 A single-channel PCM transmission system.
An analogue message m(t) is first sampled at or above the Nyquist sampling rate. These
sampled signals are then converted into a finite number of discrete amplitude levels. The
conversion process is called quantisation. Figure 14.2 shows how an analogue message
is converted into 8 amplitude levels with equal spacing by an 8-level quantiser.
Figure 14.2 Message and quantised signal.
Quantisation obviously reduces the degree of accuracy of representation of the sampled
signal and introduces some error in the reproduction of the signal at the receiver. Error
introduced by the quantiser is called quantisation error or quantisation noise. To
reduce the quantisation error, we simply increase the total number of amplitude levels
(decreasing the spacing between adjacent levels). What is the minimum number of
quantisation levels for speech? 8 ~ 16 levels are sufficient. In practical digital telephone
systems, 256 = 28 levels are used to keep the quantisation error to a tolerable level. 65,536
= 216 levels are used for the CD digital system.

14.1

Pulse Code Modulation on Mac

If the quantised samples are transmitted directly over a channel, we have a quantised
PAM system. If, instead, we code each quantised sample into a block of digits for
transmission, , we have a PCM system. The decimal-to-binary conversion can be done
in various ways. Table 15.1 shows two possible coding rules (binary and gray coding) for
converting a 16-level sample into 4 binary digits.
________________________________________________________________________
Binary Code
Gray Code
________________
_______________
Digit [b1 b2 b3 b4]
[g1 g2 g3 g4]
________________________________________________________________________
0
0000
0000
1
0001
0001
2
0010
0011
3
0011
0010
4
0100
0110
5
0101
0111
6
0110
0101
7
0111
0100
8
1000
1100
9
1001
1101
10
1010
1111
11
1011
1110
12
1100
1010
13
1101
1011
14
1110
1001
15
1111
1000
________________________________________________________________________
Table 14.1 Decimal-to-binary conversion.
The elements bk and gk are related to each other by the following equations:
g1 = b1,
gk = bk bk-1, k > 2

(14.1)

b1 = g1,
bk = gk bk-1, k > 2

(14.2)

where represents the modulo-2 operation. It can be seen from Table 14.1 that, in
changing from one decimal digit to an adjacent digit, the binary code may change by more
than one binary digit. This makes the binary code highly susceptible to error in recording
14.2

Pulse Code Modulation on Mac

the analogue-to-digital conversion. One would prefer a code in which only one binary digit
at a time changed as the corresponding input digit changed by one level. Gray code has the
above property and is the preferred coding method. Figure 14.3 shows 3 quantised
samples and their corresponding coded bit sequences.
Figure 14.3 Binary and Gray coding of samples.
In Figure 14.4, we show a complete 10-channel PCM system and its associated signal
shapes at various transmitting points. Clearly, the bandwidth required at the output of the
binary encoder is three times the bandwidth required at the input and the output of the
quantiser. Thus, a binary PCM system requires more transmission bandwidth than the
PAM and the quantised PAM systems.
Figure 14.4

Ten-channel PCM system. (a) Transmitter. (b) Receiver. (c) Signal

shapes.

Bandwidth Reduction Technique

Binary coding is just one special case of a coding method in a PCM system. In general, we
can code a quantised sample into a group of m pulses every T seconds, each pulse with a
duration of = T/m seconds and n possible amplitude levels. Clearly, the total number
of amplitude levels that a quantised signal can have is M = nm. The ability to choose n
and m gives us some freedom to reduce the transmission bandwidth. Figure 14.5 shows
the bandwidth reduction effects when we vary n and m. If n is fixed, we can reduce the
transmission bandwidth by reducing the value of m. This is shown in Figure 14.5 (a). If
M is fixed, we can reduce the transmission bandwidth by increasing the value of n and
reducing the value of m. This is shown in Figure 14.5 (b). The collapsing of successive
pulses onto one much wider pulse reduces the transmission bandwidth. However, there is
one major drawback for the fixed M case. If the spacing between adjacent levels is fixed,
the required peak power goes up as n increases. On the other hand, if the peak power or
amplitude swing is fixed, adjacent levels get closer to each other. This makes easier for
noise to obscure adjacent levels. Not a very good bandwidth reduction technique! The
technique is only useful for very-low-noise environments.
n = 2 is the most noise-immune choice. As we are only dealing with on-off signalling, the
exact magnitude is not important. Reshaping of signals by repeaters facilitates the signal
decision process at the receiver.
Figure 14.5 Bandwidth reduction technique. (a) Fixed n, (b) Fixed M.

14.3

Pulse Code Modulation on Mac

References
[1]

H. P. Hsu, Analog and Digital Communications, McGraw-Hill, 1993.

[2]

M. Schwartz, Information Transmission, Modulation, and Noise, 4/e,

McGraw-Hill, 1990.

[3]

L. W. Couch II, Analog and Digital Communication Systems, 6/e, Prentice

Hall, 2001.

14.4

Pulse Code Modulation on Mac

Message

m (t )

Quantiser

Sampler

Encoder
~
~

Low-pass
filter

m^ ( t )

Decoder

Figure 14.1 A single-channel PCM transmission system.

Volts

message m ( t )

7
6
5
4
3
2
1

A0

10

12

Seconds

Figure 14.2 Message and quantised signal.

Quantised samples

1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1

Binary code

1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1

Gray code

Figure 14.3 Binary and Gray coding of samples.

14.5

Pulse Code Modulation on Mac

30-3200 Hz
m 1( t )

8000 cycles/s

m 2( t )
:
m

10

8-level
quantiser

Binary 3
encoder

(t )
(a)

m (t )
1
Filter
m 2( t )
Filter
:
m 10 ( t )
Filter
30-3200 Hz

8000 cycles/s
Decoder

(b)
5.3
1. TDM PAM

2.7

4.8

1 2 3

2. Quantised

3
1 2 3

12.5 s
3. Binary coded
4.2 s

...

125 s

12.5 s
5

5.5 2.4
4
10 1 2 3

...

4.2 V
10

125 s
6
2
4
10 1 2 3

...

125 s

...
125 s

1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1
1
3

4V
10

12.5 s
(c)
Figure 14.4

Ten-channel PCM system. (a) Transmitter. (b) Receiver. (c) Signal

shapes.

14.6

Pulse Code Modulation on Mac

M = n m Total no. of amplitude levels

m = T / - No. of pulses per sample
- No. of possible amplitude levels per pulse
n
Fixed n ( = 2): ( = m / T )
Quantised
sample

m
T
t

= T /3
m = 3 pulses
per sample

= T /2

m = 2 pulses
per sample

n=2
= 3/ T
t
n=2
= 2/ T
t

(a)
Fixed M (= 16):

T
Quantised
sample

= T /4

t
n =2
= 4/ T
t

m = 4 pulses
per sample

= T /2
m = 2 pulses
per sample

Fixed peak
power swing

Fixed spacing

n=4
= 2/ T V
t

1
0

3
2
1
0

a
0

V
a

(b)
Figure 14.5 Bandwidth reduction technique. (a) Fixed n, (b) Fixed M.

14.7

3
2
1
0