EXPERIMENT 2

BINARY SIGNALLING FORMATS

OBJECTIVES

In this experiment you will investigate how binary information is serially

coded for transmission at baseband frequencies. In particular, you will study:
• line coding methods which are currently used in data communication
applications;
• power spectral density functions associated with various line codes;
• causes of signal distortion in a data communications channel;
• effects of intersymbol interference (ISI) and channel noise by observing
the eye pattern.

PRE-LAB ASSIGNMENT

1. Given the binary sequence b = {1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1}, sketch the waveforms

representing the sequence b using the following line codes:
a. unipolar NRZ;
b. polar NRZ;
c. unipolar RZ;
d. bipolar RZ;
e. manchester.
Assume unit pulse amplitude and use binary data rate Rb = 1 kbps.

2. Determine and sketch the power spectral density (PSD) functions cor-
responding to the above line codes. Use Rb = 1 kbps. Let f1 > 0 be
the location of the first spectral null in the PSD function. If the trans-
mission bandwidth BT of a line code is determined by f1 , determine
BT for the line codes in question 1 as a function of Rb .
2 Experiment 2: Binary Signalling Formats ELE 745

PROCEDURE

A. Binary Signalling Formats: Line Code Waveforms

Binary 1’s and 0’s such as in pulse-code modulation (PCM) systems, may be
represented in various serial bit signalling formats called line codes. In this
section you will study signalling formats and their properties.

A.1 You will use the MATLAB function wave gen to generate waveforms
representing a binary sequence:

wave gen( binary sequence, ’line code name’, Rb )

where Rb is the binary data rate specified in bits per second (bps).
If you use the function wave gen with the first two arguments only, it
will default to the binary data rate set by the variable binary data rate,
which is 1,000 bps. Create the following binary sequence:

À b = [ 1 0 1 0 1 1 ];

Generate the waveform representing b, using unipolar NRZ line code

with Rb = 1 kbps and display the waveform x.

À x = wave gen( b, ’unipolar nrz’, 1000 );

À waveplot(x)

A.2 Repeat step A.1 for the following line codes:

• polar NRZ (’polar nrz’);
• unipolar RZ (’unipolar rz’);
• bipolar RZ (’bipolar rz’);
• manchester (’manchester’).
You may want to simplify your command line by using:

À waveplot( wave gen( b, ’line code name’ ) )

Since you will compare waveforms at the same Rb , you can use the
function wave gen with only two arguments.

Q2.1 For the above set of line codes determine which will gener-
ate a waveform with no dc component regardless of binary
sequence represented. Why is the absence of a dc compo-
nent of any practical significance for the transmission of
waveforms?
ELE 745 Experiment 2: Binary Signalling Formats 3

A.3 Power spectral density (PSD) functions of line codes: Generate

a 1,000 sample binary sequence:

À b = binary(1000);

Display the PSD function of each line code used in part A.1:

À psd( wave gen( b, ’line code name’ ) )

Let:
• fp1 : first spectral peak; • fn1 : first spectral null;
• fp2 : second spectral peak; • fn2 : second spectral null;
such that all f(.) > 0. Record your observations in Table 2.1.

Rb = fp1 fn1 fp2 fn2 BT

unipolar NRZ
polar NRZ
unipolar RZ
bipolar RZ
manchester

Table 2.1
Location of the first spectral null determines transmission bandwidth
BT .

A.4 To illustrate the dependence of the PSD function on the underlying

binary data rate, use the manchester line code and vary Rb :

À psd( wave gen( b, ’manchester’, Rb ) )

where Rb ∈ {5 kbps, 10 kbps, 20 kbps}. You may replace manchester

by any other line code used in part A.1. Observe the location of spectral
peaks and nulls and relate them to Rb .

Q2.2 For a baseband data communications channel with usable

bandwidth of 10 kHz, what is the maximum binary data
rate for each of the line codes examined in part A.1.
4 Experiment 2: Binary Signalling Formats ELE 745

B . Channel Characteristics

In this part you will simulate characteristics of a communications channel.

NOISE

INPUT CHANNEL OUTPUT

Fig 3.1 Channel model

The MATLAB function that represents the channel response is channel

which is called with the following arguments:

channel( input, gain, noise power, bandwidth )

B.1 Create a 10 sample binary sequence b and generate a waveform repre-

senting b in polar NRZ signalling format. Use Rb = 1 kbps.

À b = binary(10);
À x = wave gen( b, ’polar nrz’, 1000 );

From your observation in part A, determine the transmission band-

width BT of x:

BT = Hz.

B.2 Consider a baseband data transmission channel with unity gain and ad-
ditive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) where the noise power is 10−2 W
and the channel bandwidth is 4.9 kHz. Transmit waveform x over this
channel. Display the channel input and output waveforms:

À y = channel( x, 1, 0.01, 4900 );

À subplot(211), waveplot(x)
À subplot(212), waveplot(y)

If the signalling format is polar NRZ at Rb = 1 kbps, estimate the

transmitted sequence from the display of the channel output waveform.

b̂ =

Compare your estimate with the original sequence b.

ELE 745 Experiment 2: Binary Signalling Formats 5

B.3 Effect of channel noise on the transmitted waveform: Gradually

increase the channel noise power while keeping the channel bandwidth
at 4.9 kHz and observe changes in the channel output.

À y = channel(x,1,sigma,4900);
À waveplot(y)

where sigma ∈ {0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 5}. At what noise power level, does the
channel output waveform becomes indistinguishable from noise?

B.4 You can also observe effects of increasing channel noise power by look-
ing at the PSD of the channel output waveform.

À b = binary(1000);
À x = wave gen(b, ’polar nrz’, 1000);
À clf; subplot(121); psdf(x);
À subplot(122); psdf(channel(x,1,0.01,4900))
À hold on
À subplot(122); psdf(channel(x,1,1,4900))
À subplot(122); psdf(channel(x,1,5,4900))

Q2.3 Since the channel noise is additive and uncorrelated with

the channel input, determine an expression that will de-
scribe the PSD of the channel output in terms of the input
and noise PSD functions.

B.5 Effects of channel bandwidth on transmitted waveform: Dis-

tortion observed in the time display of the channel output is due to
finite bandwidth of the channel and due to noise. To study distortion
due to channel bandwidth only, set noise power to zero and regenerate
the channel output waveform:

À hold off; clf;

À b = binary(10);
À x = wave gen( b, ’polar nrz’, 1000 );
À subplot(211), waveplot(x)
À subplot(212), waveplot(channel(x,1,0,4900))

B.6 Investigate effects of channel bandwidth on the output waveform.

À subplot(212), waveplot( channel(x,1,0,bw) )

6 Experiment 2: Binary Signalling Formats ELE 745

where bw ∈ {3000, 2000, 1000, 500}. Observe the delay in the output
waveform due to filtering characteristics of the channel. Plot the input
and output waveforms. Determine the appropriate sampling instants
for the decoding of the waveform for the case bw = 500.

C . Eye Diagram

Effects of channel filtering and noise can be best seen by observing the output
waveform in the form of an “eye diagram”. The eye diagram is generated
with multiple sweeps where each sweep is triggered by a clock signal and the
sweep width is slightly larger than the binary data period Tb = 1/Rb . In this
simulation the eye diagram is based on a sweep width of 2Tb .

C.1 Generation of Eye Diagram:

À b = [ 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ];
À x = wave gen( b, ’polar nrz’, 1000);
À clf
À subplot(221), waveplot(x)
À subplot(223), eye diag(x)

The eye diagram for the waveform x represents what you should expect
to see for an undistorted signal. To observe how the eye diagram is
generated and to observe effects of signal distortion as the signal x is
transmitted over a finite bandwidth channel with no noise component:

À y = channel( x, 1, 0, 4000 );
À subplot(222), waveplot(y)
À subplot(224), eye diag(y,-1)

If the second argument to the function eye diag is negative, you have
to hit the Return key for the next trace to be displayed. This will assist
you to understand how the eye diagram is generated.

C.2 Key parameters to be measured with an eye diagram are shown below.
ELE 745 Experiment 2: Binary Signalling Formats 7
-3
x 10 EYE DIAGRAM
1.5
E
1

0.5

B
0 slope C
D
-0.5
A
-1

-1.5
t*
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Time [sec] -3
x 10

Fig 3.2 Interpretation of the eye pattern

A time interval over which the waveform can be sampled;

B margin over noise;
C distortion of zero crossings;
D slope: sensitivity to timing error;
E maximum distortion;
t∗ optimum sampling instant measured with respect to the time
origin. If the binary data period is Tb , then the waveform will be
sampled at t∗ , t∗ + Tb , t∗ + 2Tb , . . . for signal detection.

Generate the eye diagram from a polar NRZ waveform at the channel
output for values of noise variance s2 and channel bandwidth bw shown
in Table 2.2. Record t∗ , A and B for each set of s2 and bw.

À clf
À b = binary(100);
À x = wave gen( b, ’polar nrz’, 1000 );
À eye diag( channel( x, 1, s2, bw ) )
8 Experiment 2: Binary Signalling Formats ELE 745

Polar NRZ Line Code

s2 bw t∗ A B
3000
0.01 2000
1000
0.02
0.08 4000
0.10

Table 2.2

C.3 Repeat step C.2 for manchester line code and record your results in
Table 2.3.

Manchester Line Code

s2 bw t∗ A B
3000
0.01 2000
1000
0.02
0.08 4000
0.10

Table 2.3

Q2.4 When you compare the eye diagrams from C.2 and C.3
for s2 = 0.01 and bw = 1000, for which line code do you
observe a “reasonable” eye diagram? Explain the difference
in terms of the respective line code properties.

C.4 Generate eye diagrams as in step C.2 for polar RZ and unipolar RZ
and unipolar NRZ line codes and observe how the line code dictates
the shape and the symmetry of the eye diagram.