Chapter 4:Digital Transmission

Revision
 What is the theoretical capacity of a channel in each of the
following cases?

 Bandwidth: 1 MHz SNRdB = 20

 What is the total delay (latency) for a frame of size 5
million bits that is being sent on a link with 10 routers
each having a queuing time of 2 μs and a processing
time of 1 μs. The length of the link is 2000 Km. The
speed of light inside the link is 2 × 108 m/s. The link has
a bandwidth of 5 Mbps.

 Which component of the total delay is dominant?

 Which one is negligible?

Agenda
1. Line Coding

2. Line Coding Schemes

3. Block Coding

4. Scrambling
DIGITAL-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION
 In this section, we see how we can represent digital data
by using digital signals.

 The conversion involves three techniques:

 Line coding,

 Block coding,

 Scrambling.

 Line coding is always needed; block coding and

scrambling may or may not be needed.
Line Coding
 Line coding converts digital data to digital signals.
 Digital data can be in the form of text, numbers, images,
audio, or video.
 Data is stored in computer memory as sequences of bits.
 At the sender, digital data is encoded into a digital
signal.
 At the receiver, the digital data is recreated by decoding
the digital signal.
Line Coding: Characteristics
 Signal Element Versus Data Element

 Data Rate Versus Signal Rate

 Baseline Wandering

 DC component

 Self-synchronization
Signal Element Versus Data Element
 A data element is the smallest entity that can represent a
piece of information: this is the bit.
 A signal element is the shortest unit (timewise) of a
digital signal.
 In other words, data elements are what we need to send;
signal elements are what we can send.
 Data elements are being carried; signal elements are the
carriers.
Example
 We define a ratio r which is the number of data
elements carried by each signal element.
 Suppose each data element is a person who needs to be
carried from one place to another.
 We can think of a signal element as a vehicle that can
carry people.
 When r = 1, it means each person is driving a vehicle.
 When r > 1, it means more than one person is travelling
in a vehicle (a carpool, for example).
 We can also have the case where one person is driving a
car and a trailer (r = 1/2).
Signal Element Versus Data Element
Data Rate Versus Signal Rate
 The data rate
 defines the number of data elements (bits) sent in 1s.
 The unit is bits per second (bps).
 The data rate is sometimes called the bit rate;

 The signal rate

 is the number of signal elements sent in 1s.
 The unit is the baud.
 the signal rate is sometimes called the pulse rate, the modulation
rate, or the baud rate.
Data Rate Versus Signal Rate
 One goal in data communications is to increase the data rate
while decreasing the signal rate.

 Increasing the data rate increases the speed of transmission;

 Decreasing the signal rate decreases the bandwidth

requirement.

 In our vehicle-people analogy, we need to carry more people in

fewer vehicles to prevent traffic jams.

 We have a limited bandwidth in our transportation system.

Data Rate Versus Signal Rate
 We can formulate the relationship between data rate and
signal rate as

 where N is the data rate (bps); c is the case factor, which

varies for each case; S is the number of signal elements
per second; and r is the previously defined factor.
Example
 A signal is carrying data in which one data element is
encoded as one signal element (r = 1). If the bit rate is 100
kbps, what is the average value of the baud rate if c is
between 0 and 1?

 Solution:

 We assume that the average value of c is 1/2. The baud

rate is then
Baseline Wandering
 In decoding a digital signal, the receiver calculates a running
average of the received signal power.
 This average is called the baseline.
 The incoming signal power is evaluated against this baseline to
determine the value of the data element.
 A long string of 0s or 1s can cause a drift in the baseline
(baseline wandering) and make it difficult for the receiver to
decode correctly.
 A good line coding scheme needs to prevent baseline
wandering.
DC component
 When the voltage level in a digital signal remains constant for
long periods of time, there is an increase in the low frequencies
of the signal.

 These frequencies around zero, called DC (direct-current)

components.

 System can not pass low frequencies. For example, a telephone

line cannot pass frequencies below 200 Hz.

 This will require the removal of the dc component of a

transmitted signal.
Self-synchronization
 To correctly interpret the signals received from the sender,
the receiver’s bit intervals must correspond exactly to
the sender’s bit intervals.
 If the receiver clock is faster or slower, the bit intervals
are not matched and the receiver might misinterpret the
signals.
Self-synchronization
 Self-synchronizing digital signal includes timing
information in the data being transmitted.

 This can be achieved if there are transitions in the signal

that alert the receiver to the beginning, middle, or end of
the pulse.

 If the receiver’s clock is out of synchronization, these

points can reset the clock.
Example
 In a digital transmission, the receiver clock is 0.1 percent
faster than the sender clock.

 How many extra bits per second does the receiver

receive if the data rate is 1 kbps? How many if the data
rate is 1 Mbps?

 Solution:
Line Coding Schemes
NRZ (Non-Return-to-Zero)
 NRZ (Non-Return-to-Zero) Traditionally, a unipolar
scheme was designed as a non-return-to-zero (NRZ)
scheme in which the positive voltage defines bit 1 and
the zero voltage defines bit 0.

 It is called NRZ because the signal does not return to zero

at the middle of the bit.
Polar Scheme
 The voltages are on both sides of the time axis.

 For example, the voltage level for 0 can be positive and

the voltage level for 1 can be negative.
NRZ-L (NRZ-Level)
 Level of the voltage determines the value of the bit.

 In the second variation, NRZ-I (NRZ-Invert), the change or

lack of change in the level of the voltage determines the
value of the bit.

 If there is no change, the bit is 0; if there is a change, the bit

is 1.
Return-to-Zero (RZ)
 The main problem with NRZ encoding occurs when the sender

and receiver clocks are not synchronized.

 The receiver does not know when one bit has ended and the

next bit is starting.

Return-to-Zero (RZ)
 One solution is the return-to-zero (RZ) scheme, which uses
three values: positive, negative, and zero.

 In RZ, the signal changes not between bits but during the
bit.
Biphase: Manchester
 Manchester coding consists of combining the NRZ-L
and RZ schemes.
 Every symbol has a level transition in the middle: from
high to low or low to high. Uses only two voltage levels.
Differential Manchester
 Combines the ideas of RZ and NRZ-I.

 There is always a transition at the middle of the bit, but

the bit values are determined at the beginning of the bit.

 If the next bit is 0, there is a transition; if the next bit is 1,

there is none.
Manchester and differential Manchester schemes
 In Manchester and differential Manchester encoding, the
transition at the middle of the bit is used for synchronization.
 There is no DC component because each bit has a positive and
negative voltage contribution.
 The only drawback is the signal rate.
 The signal rate for Manchester and differential Manchester is
double that for NRZ.
 The reason is that there is always one transition at the middle
of the bit and maybe one transition at the end of each bit.
Bipolar Schemes
 Bipolar encoding (sometimes called multilevel binary)
 Three voltage levels: positive, negative, and zero
 Two variations of bipolar encoding
 AMI (alternate mark inversion)
 0: neutral zero voltage
 1: alternating positive and negative voltages
Bipolar Schemes
 Pseudoternary
 1: neutral zero voltage
 0: alternating positive and negative voltages
Bipolar Schemes
 Has no DC component.
 If we have a long sequence of 1s,
the voltage level alternates
between positive and negative; it
is not constant. Therefore, there
is no DC component.
 For a long sequence of 0s, the
voltage remains constant, but its
amplitude is zero, which is the
same as having no DC
component. In other words, a
sequence that creates a constant
zero voltage does not have a DC
component.
Exercises
True or False
 The data rate and signal rate are the same in line coding.

 In NRZ-L line coding, the signal level does not change

during the bit interval.

 Manchester encoding involves changing the voltage at the

beginning of each bit.

 AMI (Alternate Mark Inversion) uses only two voltage

levels.
True or False
 The data rate and signal rate are the same in line coding.

 In NRZ-L line coding, the signal level does not change

during the bit interval.

 Manchester encoding involves changing the voltage at the

beginning of each bit.

 AMI (Alternate Mark Inversion) uses only two voltage

levels.
Which line coding scheme involves changing
voltage at the middle of each bit?
• A) NRZ-L
• B) Manchester
• C) AMI
 In Bipolar schemes, which of the following describes the
AMI (Alternate Mark Inversion) method?

• A) A single voltage level is used for "1" and zero voltage for
"0"

• B) Positive, zero, and negative voltage levels are used, with

"1" represented by alternating polarities

• C) Each bit interval has a transition to synchronize the signal

• D) Voltage always returns to zero during each bit interval

 . Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of
line coding?

• A) Baseline wandering

• B) Self-synchronization

• C) Signal distortion

• D) DC component
 Which of the following issues can affect
transmission in systems that cannot pass low
frequencies?
• A) Baseline wandering
• B) DC component
• C) Signal rate
• D) Synchronization
Task
 Compare Unipolar, Polar, and Bipolar encoding in terms

of

 Schema,

 Bandwidth,

 DC components,

 Synchronization.
Practical
Project Title: Digital Data Line Coding Simulator
 Project Overview:

 This Python project will simulate the encoding of binary

data using various line coding schemes (e.g., NRZ, RZ,
Manchester). The user will input a binary string, select a
coding scheme, and the program will display the
corresponding signal representation.