Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

contents

• Sampling
• Pulse-amplitude modulation PAM
• Quantization
• Pulse-code modulation PCM
• Time-division multiplexing TDM
• Digital multiplexers
• Improved PCM: DM , DPCM, ADPCM
• MPEG-1/audio coding standard

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.1 Introduction
• Continuous-wave modulation (CW)
• Pulse modulation (PM)
The carrier consists of a periodic sequence of
rectangular pulses. some parameter of a pulse
train is varied with the message signal.

1. Amplitude
Pulse parameters: 2. Position
3. Width/duration
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Pulse modulation types

Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM)

Analog pulse
modulation Pulse-duration modulation (PDM)

Pulse-position modulation (PPM)

Digital pulse Pulse code modulation (PCM)

modulation
DPCM, ADPCM, M
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.2 Sampling Process

Sampling: an analog signal is converted into
a corresponding sequence of samples.

instantaneous sampled version of

Analog signal the analog signal

Ts: sampling period fs=1/Ts: sampling rate

Instantaneous sampling
ideal sampling
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Question: how to choose the sampling rate

properly so that the sequence of samples
uniquely define the original analog signal?

Sampling theorem answers this question.

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Ideal sampling process g(t g (t )

)
Ideal sampled signal:   ( t  nTs )

 
g ( t )  g ( t )    (t  nT )   g(nT ) (t  nT )
n 
s
n 
s s 3.1

Fourier-transform pairs:
  
1 1
g( t ) 
FT
G( f ) 
n  
( t  nTs ) 
Ts 
m  
( f  m )  f s
Ts

m  
( f  mf s )


Then g (t)

FT
G ( f )  fs  G( f mf )
m
s 3.2

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Reconstruction of the original signal g(t)


n sin(2 Wt  n ) 
n
g( t )   g( )   g( )sin c(2 Wt  n ) 3.9
n  2W (2 Wt  n ) n  2W

Interpolation formula
Interpolation function

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Practical sampling
In practical, delta function is closely
approximated by a rectangular pulse. The
smaller the duration of pulse the better will be
the approximation.

Ideal sampling
Natural sampling
Practical sampling
Flat-top sampling: PAM

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.3 Pulse-Amplitude Modulation PAM

PAM is the simplest and most basic form of
analog pulse modulation.
PAM signal:

s
(t
)  m
(
nT)
sh

n

t
(

nT
)
s

3.10

Two operations for generation of PAM

signal:
1. Instantaneous sampling 2. Lengthening

Sample and hold

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Properties of Sample m(t) h(t)=rect(t /τ)

s(t)
and hold circuit
T (t)S

 1, 0  t  T
1
h(t )   , t  0, t  T
2
 0, otherwise

Instantaneously sampled version of m(t) is


m (t )   m(nT ) (t  nT )
n 
s s s( t )  m ( t )  h( t )
 
s
(t
)  m
(
nT)
s

n

ht
(

) S ( f )  fs
nT
s  M ( f  kf )H ( f )
k 
s

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Comparison
Ideal sampling

G ( f )  f s  G ( f  mf )
m 
s 3.2

Flat-top sampling or PAM


S( f )  fs  M ( f  kf )H ( f )
k 
s 3.18

Compared to ideal sampling, we have H(f)

here. It produces distortion.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Aperture effect
The distortion caused by the use of PAM to transmit
an analog signal is referred to as the aperture effect.
Aperture distortion can be corrected by connecting an
equalizer in cascade with the low pass reconstruction
filter.

The magnitude response of 1 1 f

 
the equalizer is given by H ( f ) T sin c( fT ) sin( fT )
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.4 Other Forms of Pulse Modulation

1. Pulse amplitude modulation PAM

2. Pulse-duration modulation
(Pulse-width modulation)
PDM 　

3. Pulse-position modulation PPM

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Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

(a) Modulating wave.

(b) Pulse carrier.
(c) PDM wave.
(d) PPM wave.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.5 Bandwidth-Noise Trade-off 　

PPM and FM can improve noise performance by

increasing transmission bandwidth. Both of them
have a figure of merit proportional to the square of
transmission bandwidth BT.

Digital pulse modulation is the way to do it.

The use of such a method is a radical
departure from CW modulation. PCM is a
basic form of digital pulse modulation.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

PCM
In PCM, a message signal is represented in
discrete form in both time and amplitude.

Sampling Quantizing Encoding

PCM

sampling Quantizing
Analog Sampled Digital
signal signal signal

Continuous time Discrete time Discrete time

continuous amplitude continuous amplitude discrete amplitude
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.6 　 Quantization Process

Definition: Amplitude quantization is defined as the
process of transforming the sample amplitude into a
discrete amplitude taken from a finite set of possible
amplitudes.
• Sampling process:
In theory, it can be a lossless process.
• Quantization process:
It uses finite numbers of amplitudes to
represent infinite sample amplitudes, which
must cause loss of information. It is a lossy
process even in theory.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation
v  g (m)

Fig. 3.9 Description of a quantizer

k : mk  m mk1 k 1,2,, L
decision levels
mk (k=1,2,  L) or decision thresholds

Vk (k=1,2, L) representation levels

or reconstruction levels

 k =vk+1 -v k (k=1,2,  L  1) quantum

step-size
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Quantizer characteristic
v  g ( m) It is a staircase function.
Quantizer classification:
Uniform quantizer Midtread type
Nonuniform quantizer Midrise type

(a) midtread 19 (b) midrise

 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Quantization Noise

q=m-v
v  g( m )
Q=M-V

Definition: The use of quantization introduces

an error defined as the difference between the
input signal m and the output signal v. The
error is called quantization noise.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Figure 3.11 Illustration of the quantization process

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

How to Calculate Quantization Noise ?

Suppose
m(-mmax, mmax), uniform quantization, midrise type
Then 2mmax  
  q
Step size: L 2 2
If  is sufficiently small, the quantization error Q is
uniformly distributed. Thus, the probability density
function of Q is 1  
  q
f Q (q )    2 2 3.26
 0 otherwise

Q has zero mean. So, the mean-square value equals

variance. 2 
1 
 2
 Q  E[Q ]   2 q f Q (q )dq 

2 2 2

2
q dq  3.28
2 2 12
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

SNR of Uniform Quantizaer

Typically, each sample is represented by R
binary bits, then L=2R or R=log2L, so
2mmax 1 2 2 R
   mmax 2
2
Q
2R 3
P: average power of the message signal m(t),
then the output SNR of a uniform quantizer:
P 3P 2 R
( SNR) o  2  ( 2 )2
Q mmax

SNR increase exponentially with R.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Example 3.1 Sinusoidal Modulating Signal

Consider a full-load sinusoidal modulating wave
m ( t )  Am cos 2f m t Am2
P
2
By using uniform quantizer and mmax=Am, we get
1 2 2 R Am2 / 2 3 2R
 Q  Am 2
2
( SNR )o  2 2 R  2
3 Am 2 / 3 2

Describe SNR in decibel: 用分贝表示

10 log10 ( SNR)o  1.8  6 R
As R increases 1 bit, SNR increases 6 dB.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.7 Pulse-Code Modulation

PCM is the most basic form of digital pulse

modulation. In PCM, a message signal is
represented by a sequence of coded pulses ，
which is accomplished by representing the
signal in discrete form both in time and
amplitude.

Sampling Quantizing Encoding

Basic operations of PCM

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation
Figure 3.13
The basic elements of a PCM system.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Sampling follows sampling theorem. 　

Quantization can employ uniform quantizer

and nonuniform quantizer in theory.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

How to realize nonuniform

quantization?

The use of nonuniform quantizer is

equivalent to passing the baseband signal
through a compressor and then applying
the compressed signal to a uniform
quantizer.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Compression Law: A-Law

 A|m| 1
 1  log A 0 | m |
 A
| v | 
1  log( A | m |) 1
| m | 1
 1  log A A

• A>=1
• A=1 uniform quantizer
• A=87.6
international standard

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Compression Law: -Law

log(1   | m |) -Law is neither strictly linear

| v |
log(1   ) nor strictly logarithmic.

>=0
=0 uniform quantizer
=255 international standard

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Compressor+expander=compander

There is a need to use a device in the receiver

with a characteristic complementary to the
compressor. Such a device is called an expander.
Ideally, the compression and expansion laws are
exactly inverse so that the expander output is
equal to the compressor input.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Piecewise linear approximation

• It is also of interest to note that in actual

PCM systems, the companding circuitry
does not produce an exact replica of the
nonlinear compression curves.
• Rather, it provides a piecewise linear
approximation to the desired curve.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Encoding Why encoding?

• After sampling and quantizing, the

specification of a continuous message signal
becomes limited to a discrete set of values, but
not in the form best suited to transmission
over a telephone line or radio path.

• We require the use of an encoding process to

translate the discrete set of sample values to a
more appropriate form of signal.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Terms about encoding

Any plan for representing each of the discrete set of
values as a particular arrangement of discrete
events is called a code.
One of the discrete events in a code is called a code
element or symbol.
A particular arrangement of symbols used in a code to
represent a single value is called code word or
character.
00 0
Binary code: 1 and 0 01 1

Ternary code: 0, 1, 2. 10 2
11 3
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Commonly used Line codes

1. Unipolar nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) signaling

2. Polar nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) signaling

3. Unipolar return-to-zero (RZ) signaling

4. Bipolar return-to-zero (BRZ) signaling

alternate mark inverse (AMI) signaling

5. Split-phase( Manchester code)

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

(a) Unipolar NRZ

(b) Bipolar NRZ

(c) Unipolar RZ

(d) Bipolar NRZ

AMI
(e) split-phase or
manchester code
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Unipolar NRZ

• Advantage: Simplicity
• Disadvantage: Waste of power due to DC level
and large spectrum value at zero frequency.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Polar NRZ

• Advantage: Simplicity, no DC level if “1”

and “0” are equiprobable.
• Disadvantage: Waste of power due to large
spectrum value at zero frequency.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Unipolar RZ

• Advantage: delta function at f=0, 1/Tb in

the power spectrum can be used for bit-
timing recovery. 。
• Disadvantage: Waste of power
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

BRZ/AMI

• Advantage: power spectrum has no DC

component and relatively insignificant low –
frequency components when symbols “1”
and “0” occur with equal probability.
• Disadvantage: complexity.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Manchester code
Split-phase

• Advantage: power spectrum has no DC

component and relatively insignificant low –
frequency components regardless of the
signal statistics.
• Disadvantage: complexity.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Differential Encoding
Differential encoding is defined to encode information
in terms of signal transitions.

A transition is used to designate symbol 0;

No transition is used to designate symbol 1.

Figure 3.17
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Regeneration
Figure 3.18 Block diagram of regenerative repeater

Repeaters （ have three basic functions :

Equalization
timing
decision making
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Figure 3.13 　 The basic elements of a PCM

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.8 Noise Consideration in PCM Systems

PCM systems have two major sources of noise:
1 Channel noise
It is introduced anywhere between the transmitter
output and receiver input. Channel noise is always
present, once the equipment is switched on.
2 Quantization noise
It is introduced in the transmitter and is carried all
the way along to the receiver output. Unlike channel
noise, quantization noise is signal-dependent in the
sense that it disappears when the message signal is
switched off.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

• Naturally, these two sources of noise

appear simultaneously once the PCM
system is in operation.
• However, the traditional practice is to
consider them separately, so that we may
develop insight into their individual effects
on the system performance.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Bit Error Rate (BER)

Average probability of symbol error

It is defined as the probability that the reconstructed

symbol at the receiver output differs from the
transmitted symbol.
Bit Error Rate
It is defined as the probability that the reconstructed
bit at the receiver output differs from the transmitted
bit.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.9 Time-Division Multiplexing TDM

Multiplexing: a number of independent signals

are combined into a composite signal suitable
for transmission over a common channel.

FDM:
separating the signals according to frequency
TDM:
separating the signals according to time

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

How to understand the principle of TDM?

An important feature of the sampling process

is a conservation of time.
That is, the transmission of message samples
engages the communication channel for only a
fraction of the sampling interval on a periodic
basis, and in this way some of the time
interval between adjacent samples is cleared
for use by other independent message sources
on a time-shared basis.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Figure 3.19 Block diagram of TDM system.

Commutator 　　　 Decommutator

Pulse modulator 　 Pulse demodulator
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

A commutator, which is usually implemented

using electronic switching circuitry ．

A pulse modulator, the purpose of which is

to transform the multiplexed signal into a
form suitable for transmission over a
common channel.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Synchronization
In a PCM system with time-division multiplexing,
there is a need that a local clock at the the receiver
keeps the same time as a distant standard clock at the
transmitter.

• Bit synchronization
• Code word synchronization
• Frame synchronization
• Carrier synchronization
• Net synchronization
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation
Example 3.2 the T1 System
• T1 system carries 24 voice channels over
separate pairs of wires
• T1 system is a typical example of TDM.

• T1 system is basic to the North American

Digital Switching Hierarchy.
• T1 system uses a piecewise-linear
characteristic (consisting 15 linear
segments) to approximate the logarithmic -
Law with the constant =255.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

What is E1 system?
• E1 system carries 30 voice channels over
separate pairs of wires.

• E1 system is a typical example of TDM.

• E1 system is used in China and Europe.

• E1 system uses a piecewise-linear

characteristic (consisting 13 linear segments)
to approximate the logarithmic A-Law with
the constant A=87. 56.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.10 Digital Multiplexers

• In section 3.9, we introduced the idea of
TDM whereby a group of analog signals are
sampled sequentially in time at a common
sampling rate and then multiplexed for
transmission over a common line.

• In this section, we consider the multiplexing

of digital signals at different bit rates. The
device used to accomplish this operation is
referred to as digital multiplexers.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Fig. 3.20 a conceptual diagram of the digital

multiplexing-demultiplexing operation

The multiplexing of digital signals is accomplished by

using a bit-by-bit interleaving procedure with a selector
switch that sequentially takes a bit from each incoming
line and then applies it to the high-speed common line.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation
3.11 Virtues, Limitations, and Modificati
ons of PCM
Advantages of PCM
1 Robustness to channel noise and interference
2 Efficient regeneration
3 Efficient exchange of BT for improved SNR
4 Uniform format for the transmission of different
kinds of baseband signals
5 Comparative ease to drop or reinsert message
sources in TDM system
6 Secure communication through the use of special
modulation schemes or encryption.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Disadvantages of PCM

1. Increased system complexity

2. Increased channel bandwidth

However, today these two problems are no

longer serious. Why?

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

For problem 1----complexity

----Very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuit
----delta modulation can be used if the
simplicity of implementation is a necessary
requirement.

For problem 2----bandwidth

----Wideband communication channels, such
as satellites and optic fibers, are available.
----Data compression is helpful to reduce
bandwidth requirement.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

3.12 Delta Modulation DM

DM provides a staircase approximation to the

sampled version of the message signal.
The difference between the input and the
approximation is quantized into only two levels,
namely , corresponding to positive and
negative differences.

Oversampling ： sampling at a rate much

higher than the Nyquist rate.
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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

Illustration of delta modulation

• If the approximation falls below the signal at any

sampling epoch, it is increased by .
• If the approximation lies above the signal at any
sampling epoch, it is diminished by .
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Communication Systems Pulse Modulation

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Selection of 
• In order to avoid slope overload, we need
Large   dm(t )
 max
Ts dt

• In order to minimize granular noise, we

need Small .

Solution : to make the delta “adaptive”. That

is to say, the step size is varied with the input
signal.
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3.14 Differential Pulse-code Modualtion

PCM samples have following features:

1. High degree of correlation between
adjacent samples
2. Redundancy information
When the highly correlated samples are encoded, the
resulting encoded signal contains redundant
information. By removing this redundancy before
encoding, we obtain a more efficient coded signal,
which is the basic idea behind DPCM.
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Virtues of DPCM

• DPCM can be used to improve noise

performance or reduce bit rate.
• The latter function is referred to as data
compression.

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 Communication Systems Pulse Modulation
Figure 3.28
DPCM system. (a) Transmitter. (b) Receiver.

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