Pulse Digital Modulation : Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

The modulation methods PAM, PWM, and PPM discussed in the previous lectures still represent analog
communication signals since the height, width, and position of the PAM, PWM, and PPM, respectively, can take
any value in a range of values.

One solution to reduce the disturbances and distortions on a transmission line is by using digital signals for
transmission. The digital information can be transmitted directly as a baseband signal through a low pass filter
channel or carried through a band pass channel. Thus, PCM is an Analog-to-digital conversion.

The digital information is obtained by dividing the message signal into certain amplitude stages, the so-called
quantization intervals. Each of these intervals is assigned a code word. The finer the resolution of the amplitude
stages, the greater the number of quantization intervals and the greater the number of positions of the binary
codes. For transmission, it is not necessary to quantize and code every instantaneous value of the information
signal. Individual sampling values as supplied by the PAM technique are sufficient. The PAM is therefore used
frequently as a pre-stage to PCM.

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
The principle of a pulse code modulation is illustrated below.

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
The analog message signal is limited in bandwidth by the low pass filter (requirement of the sampling theorem 𝒔
min > 2 𝒎 ). The frequency band limited information signal is sampled with the sampling frequency 𝒔 . The
amplitude of the sampling values constant until the next sample arrives. This is enabled by the hold circuit. Sample
and hold form a unit and are often referred to as a sample and hold circuit.

PCM modifies the pulses created by PAM to create a completely digital signal. PCM quantizes the PAM pulses
(assigns integer values in a specific range to sampled instances

Advantages of PCM
• Inexpensive digital circuitry may be used in the system.
• Further digital signal processing such as encryption is possible.
• Errors may be minimized by appropriate coding of the signals.
• Signals may be regularly reshaped or regenerated using repeaters at appropriate intervals.

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 Components of PCM Encoder
Three main process in PCM transmission are
 Sampling :is done at higher than Nyquist rate
 Quantization: the sample level is rounded off to the closest allowed level (only a fixed finite number of levels
are allowed)
 Encoding: each allowed (quantized) level is represented by a (unique) binary code word

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
Sampling
Process of taking samples of the analog signals at given interval of time. Only samples are being transmitted. If
sufficient samples are sent and sampling theorem are met, the original signal can be re-constructed at the receiver.
Usually –the flat-top PAM is the results of this step.

fs ≥ 2 𝒎 =2 B
Analog-to-digital conversion needs always sampling of the data
Quantization
 Quantization is a process of assigning the analog signal samples to a pre-determined discrete levels.
 The number of quantization levels, L depends on the number of bits per sample, n, used to code the signal where

7
L6
𝒏 e5
v4
e3
l 2
The above quantized signal instead of having any value between s1
0 to 7V, will have only discrete values ex. 0,1,2,3,4V etc. 0
Time
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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
The magnitude of the minimum step size of the quantization levels is called resolution Δv. The resolution depends
on the maximum voltage, 𝒎𝒂𝒙 and the minimum voltage, 𝒎𝒊𝒏 of the information signal, where

𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝒎𝒊𝒏

Quantization error or quantization noise is the distortion introduced during the quantization process
when the modulating signal is not an exact value of the quantization level.
 The maximum quantization error,

 Quantization error can be reduced by increasing the number of quantization levels, but this
will increase the bandwidth required.

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
Encoding
 In this process, the samples that has been divided into various levels is coded into respective codes where the
samples that are the same number of level are coded into the same code.

𝟐
L = quantization level and n = Number of bits
Signal to Quantization noise ratio (SNR or SQNR) for PCM
Each additional coding bit, which increases the number of quantize levels (L), decrease the quantization error,
and increases SNR. The relation between the SNR and Number of bits is given by

SNRdB = 20log10(L) + 1.76 =6.02(n) + 1.76

Example : What is the SNRdB of 8- quantization level code word?
Solution
𝒏 = 𝒍𝒐𝒈𝟐 𝑳 =3 bits per sample, so
SNRdB = 6.02(3) + 1.76 = 19.82 dB.

Note that increasing the number of levels increases the SNR.

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 Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
Example of binary number and 3-bit pulse code is shown below:

These encoded signals now will be send through the channel.

How many bits needed to represent 16 levels?
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 Data Rate and Bandwidth of PCM Signals
The bit rate of PCM is given by
Bit rate = sampling rate × No. of bits / sample

R=n× 𝒔

where n is the number of bits in the PCM word (L = ) and fs is the sampling rate. For no aliasing, we require
that 𝒔 ≥ 2B or (2 𝒎 ), where B is the bandwidth of the analog signal (that is to be converted to the PCM signal).

The bandwidth of (serial) binary PCM waveforms depends on the bit rate and the waveform pulse shape used
to represent the data. The bandwidth of the binary encoded PCM waveform is bounded by
𝟏 𝟏
𝑷𝑪𝑴 𝟐 𝟐 𝒔

Example :
We want to digitize the human voice with frequencies from 0 to 4000 Hz. What is the bit rate, assuming 8 bits
per sample?
Solution:
Sampling rate 𝒔 = 4000 x 2 = 8000 samples/s
Bit rate = n 𝒔 = sampling rate x number of bits per sample
= 8000 x 8 = 64,000 bps = 64 Kbps EEE323 Communication Systems II 40
 V Sampling,
o
l Quantization
t and Coding
a
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Time
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v 4 100 n o
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 PCM
Example:

Solution:

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 Decoder of PCM
• Decoding the PCM signal includes :-
• Restore a pulse from a code word
• Low-pass filter : Cutoff frequency must be same as the sender’s frequency
Components of a PCM decoder are shown in figure below

To recover an analog signal from a digitized signal, following steps are needed:
• A hold circuit that holds the amplitude value of a pulse till the next pulse arrives.
• Pass this signal through LPF with a cutoff frequency equal to the highest frequency in the pre-sampled signal.
• The higher the value of L, the less distorted a signal is recovered
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 PCM
Example: A system is designed to sample analog voltage signals using a 3-bit PCM codec. Assume that the voltage values are
in the range of 0 to 5 Volts.

 Sketch and briefly describe the various stages of a PCM codec.

Sampling: The input analog data signal is sampled at twice the highest significant frequency of the data signal. Each sample
represents a narrow pulse whose amplitude is proportional to the value of the original data signal. This process is known as
Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM).

Quantization: The PAM pulses are quantized, which consists of the assignment of discrete values to the PAM pulses. The
discrete values are approximations of the amplitudes of the PAM pulses.

Coding: Each discrete value is encoded in an n-bit integer. Therefore, 2n signal levels are available for approximating the
PAM pulses.
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 PCM
Example: A system is designed to sample analog voltage signals using a 3-bit PCM codec. Assume that the voltage values are
in the range of 0 to 5 Volts.
 Name and briefly describe the type of errors/noise that may be introduced by a PCM codec.

1. Aliasing Error: When sampling is performed at a rate less than the Nyquist rate.
2. Quantization Error: Caused by the fact that a countable number of discrete signal levels are used to approximate an
uncountable number of signal levels. This error is reduced by increasing the number of levels, i.e. the number of
quantization steps. This requires the use of more bits
 Into how many groups (levels) does this 3-bit codec divide the input voltage?

L= 2^n=23 =8 groups.

 What is the resolution of this 3-bit codec?

𝑽𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝑽𝒎𝒊𝒏
Resolution = 5/23 = 0.625 Volt.
𝑳
 What is the quantization error of this PCM signal?
Quantization Error = Resolution/2 = 0.3125 Volt.
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 PCM
Example: A system is designed to sample analog voltage signals using a 3-bit PCM codec. Assume that the voltage values are
in the range of 0 to 5 Volts.

 Give the analog voltages and the corresponding digital values that will be used by this 3-bit codec.
Answer:

0 0.625 1.25 1.875 2.5 3.125 3.75 4.375 5

| 000 | 001 | 010 | 011 | 100 | 101 | 110 | 111 |

 What bit stream output will occur from the following voltage inputs?
1.25 3.21 5.5 3.75 0.6

Answer:
1.25 3.21 5.5 3.75 0.6
001 101 111 101 000

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 PCM
Example: A system is designed to sample analog voltage signals using a 3-bit PCM codec. Assume that the voltage values are
in the range of 0 to 5 Volts.

 If the frequency of the input signal is 4 KHz, what sampling rate should be used to avoid aliasing?

Answer:
Sampling Rate >= 8 KHz

 Suppose that the input voltage is sampled at 50% more than the Nyquist rate, what bit rate would be generated out of the
codec.

Answer:
Bit Rate = 8000 x 1.5 × 3 = 36 Kbps R = n × fs

 Suppose that the codec resolution has been improved so that the bit rate output from the codec becomes 56 Kbps. What will
be in that case the bandwidth required to transmit the above digitized analog voltage if the channel has a signal-to-noise
ratio of 30 decibels.

Answer: C= BW log2(1+SNR)
BW= 56000/(log2(1+SNR)) = 56000/( log2(1+1000)) = 5.6 KHz

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