NETWORK TECHNOLOGY SIGNAL ENCODING

LECTURE No.3

Character Encoding

Encoding is the process of putting a sequence of characters (letters, numbers, punctuation, and
certain symbols) into a specialized format for efficient transmission or storage. Decoding is the
reverse process of encoding which is to extract the information from the converted format.

Data Encoding is the process of using various patterns of voltage or current levels to
represent 1s and 0s of the digital signals on the transmission link.

The terms encoding and decoding are often used in reference to the processes of analog-to-digital
conversion and digital-to-analog conversion

Encoding and decoding are used in data communications, networking, and storage, the term is
especially applicable to radio (wireless) communications systems.

All character encoding does assign a number to every character that can be used. You could
make a character encoding right now.

For example, I could say that the letter A becomes the number 13, a=14, 1=33, #=123, and so on.
This is where industry-wide standards come in. If the whole computer industry uses the same
character encoding scheme, every computer can display the same characters.

The code used by most computers for text files is known as ASCII. it's limited to only 128
character definitions. This is fine for the most common English characters, numbers, and
punctuation, but is a bit limiting for the rest of the world.

Naturally, the rest of the world wants the same encoding scheme for their characters too.
However, for a little, while depending on where you were, there might have been a different
character displayed for the same ASCII code.

In the end, the other parts of the world began creating their own encoding schemes, and things
started to get a little bit confusing. Not only were the coding schemes of different lengths,
programs needed to figure out which encoding scheme they were supposed to use.

Other commonly-used codes include Unicode, BinHex, Uuencode, and MIME. In data
communications, Manchester encoding is a special form of encoding in which the binary digits
(bits) represent the transitions between high and low logic states.
Unicode encoding

A worldwide character-encoding standard. Its main objective is to enable a single, unique

character set that is capable of supporting all characters from all scripts, as well as symbols, that
are commonly utilized for computer processing throughout the globe. Unicode is capable of
encoding about at least 1,110,000 characters. Can encode characters in 16 bits encode characters
from all kinds of language.

Unicode is an entirely new idea in setting up binary codes for text or script characters. Officially
called the Unicode Worldwide Character Standard, it is a system for "the interchange,
processing, and display of the written texts of the diverse languages of the modern world." It also
supports many classical and historical texts in a number of languages.

BinHex encoding

BinHex, originally short for "binary-to-hexadecimal", is a binary-to-text encoding system that

was used on the classic Mac OS for sending binary files through e-mail. BinHex is a utility for
converting (encoding) Macintosh files into files that will travel well on networks either as files or
e-mail attachments. BinHex encodes a file from its 8-bit binary or bit-stream representation into
a 7-bit ASCII set of text characters. Netscape and possibly other Web browsers as well as some
popular e-mail applications (including Eudora) include BinHex encoding and decoding
capability

MIME encoding

MIME (Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions) is gateway provides a standard set of content
transfer methods for encoding MIME attachments such as base64, it is an extension of the
original Internet e-mail protocol that lets people use the protocol to exchange different kinds of
data files on the Internet: audio, video, images, application programs, and other kinds, as well as
the ASCII text handled in the original protocol, the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP).

Manchester

Manchester code (also known as phase encoding or PE) is a line code in which the encoding of
each data bit is either low then high, or high then low, for equal time, it is a self-clocking signal.
Manchester encoding is a form of digital encoding in which data bits are represented by
transitions from one logical state to the other.
Manchester code was widely used for magnetic recording on 1600 bpi computer tapes before the
introduction of 6250 bpi tapes which used the more efficient group-coded recording. Manchester
code was used in early Ethernet physical layer standards and is still used in consumer
IR protocols, RFID and near-field communication.
SIGNAL ENCODING TECHNIQUES.

The data encoding technique is divided into the following types, depending upon the type of data
conversion.

Analog data to Analog signals − the modulation techniques such as Amplitude Modulation,
Frequency Modulation and Phase Modulation of analog signals, fall under this category.
Analog data to Digital signals − this process can be termed as digitization, which is done by
Pulse Code Modulation PCM. Hence, it is nothing but digital modulation. As we have already
discussed, sampling and quantization are the important factors in this. Delta Modulation gives a
better output than PCM.
Digital data to Analog signals – The modulation techniques such as Amplitude Shift
Keying (ASK), Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK), etc., fall under this
category. These will be discussed in subsequent chapters.

Digital data to Digital signals − these are in this section. There are several ways to map digital
data to digital signals. Some of them are −
Non Return to Zero NRZ

NRZ Codes has 1 for High voltage level and 0 for Low voltage level. The main behavior of NRZ
codes is that the voltage level remains constant during bit interval. The end or start of a bit will
not be indicated and it will maintain the same voltage state, if the value of the previous bit and
the value of the present bit are same.

The following figure explains the concept of NRZ coding.

If the above example is considered, as there is a long sequence of constant voltage level and the
clock synchronization may be lost due to the absence of bit interval, it becomes difficult for the
receiver to differentiate between 0 and 1.
There are two variations in NRZ namely −
NRZ - L (NRZ–LEVEL )

There is a change in the polarity of the signal, only when the incoming signal changes from 1 to
0 or from 0 to 1. It is the same as NRZ; however, the first bit of the input signal should have a
change of polarity.
NRZ - I (NRZ–INVERTED)

If a 1 occurs at the incoming signal, then there occurs a transition at the beginning of the bit
interval. For a 0 at the incoming signal, there is no transition at the beginning of the bit interval.

NRZ codes has a disadvantage that the synchronization of the transmitter clock with the
receiver clock gets completely disturbed, when there is a string of 1s and 0s. Hence, a separate
clock line needs to be provided.
Bi-phase Encoding

The signal level is checked twice for every bit time, both initially and in the middle. Hence, the
clock rate is double the data transfer rate and thus the modulation rate is also doubled. The clock
is taken from the signal itself. The bandwidth required for this coding is greater.

There are two types of Bi-phase Encoding.

 Bi-phase Manchester
 Differential Manchester
Bi-phase Manchester

In this type of coding, the transition is done at the middle of the bit-interval. The transition for
the resultant pulse is from High to Low in the middle of the interval, for the input bit 1. While
the transition is from Low to High for the input bit 0.
Differential Manchester

In this type of coding, there always occurs a transition in the middle of the bit interval. If there
occurs a transition at the beginning of the bit interval, then the input bit is 0. If no transition
occurs at the beginning of the bit interval, then the input bit is 1.

The following figure illustrates the waveforms of NRZ-L, NRZ-I, Bi-phase Manchester and
Differential Manchester coding for different digital inputs.