ECU302 Digital Communication

Topics:
Time Division Multiplexing
Pulse Code Modulation
 Time Division Multiplexing
Definition: Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) is the time interleaving of samples
from several sources so that the information from these sources can be transmitted
serially over a single communication channel.
At the Transmitter
Simultaneous transmission of several signals on a time-sharing basis.
 Each signal occupies its own distinct time slot, using all frequencies, for the duration
of the transmission.
 Slots may be permanently assigned on demand.
At the Receiver
 Decommutator (sampler) has to be synchronized with the incoming waveform  Frame
Synchronization
 Low pass filter
 ISI – poor channel filtering
 Feedthrough of one channel's signal into another channel -- Crosstalk
Applications of TDM: Digital Telephony, Data communications, Satellite Access,
Cellular radio.
 Time Division Multiplexing

Conceptual diagram of multiplexing-demultiplexing.

PAM TDM System

Illustrating 4-Channel PAM TDM Multiplexing
 Digital Time Division Multiplexing
 Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) can be accomplished at bit or byte (word) level.
 Channhels having different data rates can also be TDM multiplexed but must be
interleaved accordingly.

Digit Interleaving Interleaving channel with

different bit rates

WORD or Byte Interleaving channel with

Interleaving different bit rates using two
multiplexers
Block diagram of TDM system.
PAM TDM System

A Typical Framing Structure for

TDM
 Time Division Multiplexing

Frame structure of a certain TDM signal

Composite Signal Format

 Time Division Multiplexing

Pulse width of TDM PAM:

Ts 1
=
3 3 fs

1
fs  fs satisfies Nyquist rate
Ts
 Pulse Stuffing in TDM
 Stuff bits, which are dummy bits are inserted in the TDM output data when the
different inputs are not completeley synchronized or the different input rates are not
related by a ratinal number.
 Pulse Stuffing in TDM

 Stuff bits, which are dummy bits are inserted in the TDM output data
when the different inputs are not completeley synchronized or the different
input rates are not related by a ratinal number.
 TDM Example (Multiplexing Analog and Digital)
Source 1: 2 kHz
bandwidth.
Source 2: 4 kHz
16 ksam/s
bandwidth.
 Source 3: 2 kHz
bandwidth.
64 kb/s
 Source 4-11:
Digital 7200
bits/sec.
8x7.2=57.6
kb/s
Use stuff bits
to complete 7.2 128
to 8 kb/s. kb/s
Now 8 and 64
rates are
complete
multıples
 Frame Synchronization
 To sort and direct the received multiplexed data to the appropriate output channel
 Frame sync (unique k-bits) +Information words of an N-channel TDM
 Two
system
ways to provide frame sync to the demultiplexer circuit
- Over a separate channel
- Deriving from the TDM signal itself
TDM PAM for Radio Telemetry
CCITT Digital TDM Hierarchy
 Packet Transmission System

 TDM is Synchronous Transfer Mode (STM) technology

- Data source is assigned a specific time slot – fixed data rate

- More efficient when sources have a fixed data rate
- Inefficient to accommodate bursty data source

Solution?

 Packet Transmission System

- Partitions source data into data packets (destination address, header)

- Efficiently assigns network resources when the sources have bursty data
- Examples : Internet TCP/IP technology and the Asynchronous Transfer
Mode (ATM) technology.
 Pulse Code Modulation

 Pulse Code Modulation

 Quantizing
 Encoding
 Analogue to Digital Conversion
 Bandwidth of PCM Signals
 PULSE CODE MODULATION (PCM)
 DEFINITION: Pulse code modulation (PCM)-
the information contained in the instantaneous
samples of an analog signal is represented by
digital words in a serial bit stream.

 The advantages of PCM are:

• Relatively inexpensive digital circuitry may be
used extensively.
• PCM signals derived from all types of analog
sources may be merged with data signals and
transmitted over a common high-speed digital
communication system (multiplexing).
 PULSE CODE MODULATION (PCM)
• In long-distance digital telephone systems
requiring repeaters, a clean PCM waveform
can be regenerated at the output of each
repeater, where the input consists of a
noisy PCM waveform.
•
• The noise performance of a digital system
can be superior to that of an analog system.

• The probability of error for the system

output can be reduced even further by the
use of appropriate coding techniques.
 Sampling, Quantizing, and Encoding
 The PCM signal is generated by carrying out three
basic operations:
1. Sampling
2. Quantizing
3. Encoding
• Sampling operation generates a flat-top PAM signal.
• Quantizing operation approximates the analog values
by using a finite number of levels. This operation is
considered in 3 steps
a) Uniform Quantizer
b) Quantization Error
c) Quantized PAM signal output
4. PCM signal is obtained from the quantized PAM signal
by encoding each quantized sample value into a digital
word.
 Analog to Digital Conversion
 The Analog-to-digital Converter (ADC)
performs three functions:
Analog – Sampling
Input • Makes the signal discrete in time.
Signal
• If the analog input has a bandwidth
Sample of W Hz, then the minimum sample
frequency such that the signal can be
reconstructed without distortion.
ADC – Quantization
Quantize • Makes the signal discrete in
111
110
101
amplitude.
100
011
• Round off to one of q discrete levels.
010

Encode
001
000
– Encode
• Maps the quantized values to digital
words that are ν bits long.

Digital Output  If the (Nyquist) Sampling Theorem is

Signal
111 111 001 010 011 111 011
satisfied, then only quantization introduces
distortion to the system.
 Quantization

 The output of a sampler is still continuous in amplitude.

– Each sample can take on any value e.g. 3.752, 0.001,
etc.
– The number of possible values is infinite.

 To transmit as a digital signal we must restrict the

number of possible values.

 Quantization is the process of “rounding off” a sample

according to some rule.
– E.g. suppose we must round to the nearest tenth, then:
3.752 --> 3.8 0.001 --> 0
 Illustration of the Quantization Error

 The difference between the analog signal and the quantized

signal is the quantization error.
 PCM TV transmission:

(a) 5-bit resolution;

(g) 8-bit resolution.

 As the number of bits per sample increases the quantization

error decreases and picture resolution improves.
 Uniform Quantization
Dynamic Range: • Most ADC’s use uniform
(-8, 8)
quantizers.
Output sample 7
XQ
5
• The quantization levels
3
of a uniform quantizer
1
are equally spaced apart.
-8 -6 -4 -2 -1 2 4 6 8
Input sample X

• Uniform quantizers are

-3

optimal when the input

-5

distribution is uniform.
-7

When all values within

Quantization Characteristic

Example: Uniform ν =3 bit quantizer

q=8 and XQ = {±1,±3,±5,±7}
the Dynamic Range of
the quantizer are equally
likely.
Quantization Example

Analogue signal

Sampling TIMING

Quantization levels.
Quantized to 5-levels

Quantization levels
Quantized 10-levels
 PCM encoding example

Levels are encoded

using this table

Table: Quantization levels with belonging code words

M=8

Chart 2. Process of restoring a signal.

Chart 1. Quantization and digitalization of a signal. PCM encoded signal in binary form:
101 111 110 001 010 100 111 100 011 010 101
Signal is quantized in 11 time points & 8 quantization segments.
Total of 33 bits were used to encode a signal
 Encoding
• The output of the quantizer is one of M possible signal
levels.
– If we want to use a binary transmission system,
then we need to map each quantized sample into an
n bit binary word.
M  2 , n  log 2 ( M )
n

• Encoding is the process of representing each

quantized sample by an ν bit code word.
– The mapping is one-to-one so there is no distortion
introduced by encoding.
– Some mappings are better than others.
• A Gray code gives the best end-to-end
performance.
• The weakness of Gray codes is poor performance
when the sign bit (MSB) is received in error.
 Gray Codes
• With gray codes adjacent samples differ only in one bit
position.
• Example (3 bit quantization):
XQ Natural coding Gray Coding
+7 111 110
+5 110 111
+3 101 101
+1 100 100
-1 011 000
-3 010 001
-5 001 011
-7 000 010
• With this gray code, a single bit error will result in an
amplitude error of only 2.
– Unless the MSB is in error.
 Waveforms in a PCM system for M=8
M=8

(a) Quantizer Input output characteristics

(b) Analog Signal, PAM Signal, Quantized PAM Signal

(c) Error Signal

(d) PCM Signal

 M  2n n  log 2 ( M )
M is the number of Quantization levels
n is the number of bits per sample
PCM Transmission System
PCM Communication System
 Practical PCM Circuits

• Three popular techniques are used to implement the

analog-to-digital converter (ADC) encoding
operation:
1. The counting or ramp, ( Maxim ICL7126 ADC)
2. Serial or successive approximation, (AD 570)
3. Parallel or flash encoders. ( CA3318)

• The objective of these circuits is to generate the

PCM word.
• Parallel digital output obtained (from one of the
above techniques) needs to be serialized before
sending over a 2-wire channel
• This is accomplished by parallel-to-serial converters
[Serial Input-Output (SIO) chip]
• UART,USRT and USART are examples for SIO’s
 Bandwidth of PCM Signals
• The spectrum of the PCM signal is not directly related to the
spectrum of the input signal.
• The bandwidth of (serial) binary PCM waveforms depends on the bit
rate R and the waveform pulse shape used to represent the data.
• The Bit Rate R is
R=nfs M=2n

Where n is the number of bits in the PCM word and fs is the

sampling rate.
• For no aliasing case (fs≥ 2B), the MINIMUM Bandwidth of PCM
Bpcm(Min) is:

Bpcm(Min) = R/2 = nfs//2

The Minimum Bandwidth of nfs//2 is obtained only when sin(x)/x

pulse is used to generate the PCM waveform.

• For PCM waveform generated by rectangular pulses, the First-null

Bandwidth is:

Bpcm = R = nfs
 Quantization Noise
 The process of quantization can be interpreted as an additive noise
process.
Signal Quantized Signal
X XQ

Quantization Noise
nQ

• The signal to quantization noise ratio (SNR)Q=S/N is given as:

Average Power{ X }
( SNR)Q 
Average Power{nQ }
 Effects of Quantizing Noise
• If Pe is negligible, there are no bit errors resulting from channel noise and no ISI, the
Peak SNR resulting from only quantizing error is:

• The Average SNR due to quantizing errors is:

• Above equations can be expresses in decibels as,

Where, M = 2n
α = 4.77 for peak SNR
α = 0 for average SNR
 DESIGN OF A PCM SIGNAL FOR TELEPHONE SYSTEMS

• Assume that an analog audio voice-frequency(VF) telephone signal occupies a band

from 300 to 3,400Hz. The signal is to be converted to a PCM signal for transmission
over a digital telephone system. The minimum sampling frequency is 2x3.4 = 6.8
ksample/sec.
• The VF signal is oversampled with a sampling frequency of 8ksamples/sec - standard
adopted by the Unites States telephone industry.
• Assume that each sample values is represented by 8 bits; then the binary PCM bit
rate

• This 64-kbit/s signal is called a DS-0 signal (digital signal, type zero).
• The minimum absolute bandwidth of the binary PCM signal is

R nf s
BPCM  
2 2
This B is for a sinx/x type pulse sampling
DESIGN OF A PCM SIGNAL FOR TELEPHONE SYSTEMS

• If we use a rectangular pulse for sampling the first null bandwidth is

given by

• We require a bandwidth of 64kHz to transmit this digital voice

PCM signal, whereas the bandwidth of the original analog voice
signal was, at most, 4kHz.

• We observe that the peak signal-to-quantizing noise power ratio

is:
 Nonuniform Quantization
Many signals such as speech have a nonuniform distribution.
– The amplitude is more likely to be close to zero than to be at
higher levels.
Nonuniform quantizers have unequally spaced levels
– The spacing canOutput
be chosen to optimize the SNR for a particular
sample
type of signal. X 6
Q

2 Example: Nonuniform 3 bit quantizer

-8 -6 -4 -2 2 4 6 8

-2
Input sample
X
-4

-6
Uniform and Nonuniform Quantization
 Companding
• Nonuniform quantizers are difficult to make and expensive.
• An alternative is to first pass the speech signal through a nonlinearity
before quantizing with a uniform quantizer.
• The nonlinearity causes the signal amplitude to be Compressed.
– The input to the quantizer will have a more uniform distribution.
• At the receiver, the signal is Expanded by an inverse to the
nonlinearity.
• The process of compressing and expanding is called Companding.
 µ -Law Companding

• Telephones in the U.S., Canada and

Japan use µ-law companding:
Output |x(t)|

ln(1   | x (t )|)
| y (t ) |
ln(1   )
– Where µ = 255 and |x(t)| < 1

0 1
Input |x(t)|
 Non Uniform quantizing
• Voice signals are more likely to have amplitudes near zero than at extreme peaks.
• For such signals with non-uniform amplitude distribution quantizing noise will be
higher for amplitude values near zero.
• A technique to increase amplitudes near zero is called Companding.

Effect of non linear quantizing can be

can be obtained by first passing the
analog signal through a compressor
and then through a uniform quantizer.

x x’ x’ y
Q
C(.) (.)
Compressor Uniform Quantizer
 Example: µ -law Companding
1

x[n]=speech /song/
0 .5

­ 0 .5

­1
0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

0 .5

y[n]=C(x[n]) 0

Companded Signal
­ 0 .5

­1
0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

0 .5
Close View of the Signal
Segment of 0

­ 0 .5

x[n] ­1
2 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 2 4 0 0 2 5 0 0 2 6 0 0 2 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 9 0 0 3 0 0 0

Segment of y[n]
0 .5

Companded Signal ­ 0 .5

­1
2 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 2 4 0 0 2 5 0 0 2 6 0 0 2 7 0 0 2 8 0 0 2 9 0 0 3 0 0 0
µ -law Encoder Transfer Characteristics
 A-law and µ− law Companding
• These two are standard companding methods.
• u-Law is used in North America and Japan
• A-Law is used elsewhere to compress digital telephone signals
 V.90 56-Kbps PCM Computer modem
• The V.90 PC Modem transmits data at 56kb/s from a
PC via an analog signal on a dial-up telephone line.
• A μ law compander is used in quantization with a
value for μ of 255.
• The modem clock is synchronized to the 8-ksample/
sec clock of the telephone company.
• 7 bits of the 8 bit PCM are used to get a data rate of
56kb/s ( Frequencies below 300Hz are omitted to get
rid of the power line noise in harmonics of 60Hz).
• SNR of the line should be at least 52dB to operate on
56kbps.
• If SNR is below 52dB the modem will fallback to
lower speeds ( 33.3 kbps, 28.8kbps or 24kbps).