Chapter Three

Data Encoding, Data

Transmission and Multiplexing
 Introduction
• Data transmission occurs between transmitter and receiver
over some transmission medium
• Transmission media may be classified as guided or unguided
– In both cases communication is in the form of electromagnetic
waves
• The successful transmission of data depends on
– the quality of the signal being transmitted
– the characteristics of the transmission medium
 Analog and Digital Data Transmission
• In transmitting data from a source to a destination:
– the nature of the data
– the transmission media used to propagate the data
– what processing or adjustments may be required along the way
to assure that the received data are understandable
• The term analog and digital correspond, roughly to
continuous and discrete respectively
• Data
– Entities that convey meaning
– Can be
• analog
– data take on continuous values on some interval, i.e.
continuously varying patterns of intensity
– E.g. Audio, video, temperature, etc
• digital
– data take on discrete values
– E.g. text or character strings
• Signals
– Electric or electromagnetic representations of data
– Can be also digital or analog
– analog signal
• is a continuously varying electromagnetic wave that may be
propagated over a variety of media
• Three important characteristics: Amplitude, Frequency, Phase
• Frequency Spectrum of a signal:
– is the collection of all component frequency
• Bandwidth of a signal
– is the range of component frequencies or the width of the
frequency spectrum
• Amplitude
– The vertical distance between the highest pick (crest) and the
wave’s central axis
– measured in volts, amperes, or watts
• Frequency
– The number of periods in one second
– Period – the amount of time, in seconds, a signal needs to
complete one cycle
– Period and frequency have inverse relationship
– Measured in Hertz (Hz.)
• Phase
– The position of the waveform relative to time zero
– Measured in degrees or radians
• A digital signal is a sequence of voltage pulses that may
be transmitted over a wire medium
– Bit Interval : the time required to send a single bit
– Bit rate : the number of bit intervals per second usually
expressed in bits per second (bps)
• Signaling is the physical propagation of the signal along a
suitable medium
• Transmission
– Communication of data by propagation and processing of
signals
– The way signals are treated is a function of the transmission
system
– Analog transmission is a means of transmitting analog signals
without regard to their content the signals may represent
analog data (e.g., voice) or digital data (e.g., binary data that
pass through a modem).
– Digital transmission, in contrast, is concerned with the content
of the signal.
• Which is the preferred method of transmission?
– Digital transmission is preferable
• The reasons are
– Digital technology are:
• Continuing to drop in cost and size
• Analog equipment has not shown a similar drop
– Data integrity
• With the use of repeaters the effect of noise and other signal
impairments are not cumulative
– Capacity utilization
• High degree of multiplexing
– Security and privacy
• Encryption techniques can be readily applied to digital data and to
analog data that have been digitized
– Integration
• Can treat analog and digital data similarly
 Signal vs. data
• Analog signals can represent analog and digital data and
digital signals can represent digital as well as analog data
• Analog data are a function of time and occupy a limited
frequency spectrum
– Such data can be represented by an electromagnetic signal
occupying the same spectrum
• Digital data can be represented by digital signals
– Different voltage level for each of the two binary digits is used
• Digital data can also be represented by analog signals
– Using modem
• Analog data can be represented by digital signals
– Using codec
Analog Signals Carrying Analog and Digital Data
Digital Signals Carrying Analog and Digital Data

Data
 Encoding and Modulation Techniques
• Encoding:
– the process of preparing data for efficient and accurate
transmission
• Modulation:
– the process of encoding a baseband source signal onto a carrier
signal
• Four combinations
– Digital data, digital signal
– Analog data, digital signal
– Digital data, analog signal
– Analog data, analog signal
 Digital Data, Digital Signal
• A digital signal is a sequence of discrete, discontinuous
voltage pulses
• Each pulse is a signal element.
• Binary data are transmitted by encoding each data bit into
signal elements
– E.g. binary 0 is represented by -5V and binary 1 by +5V
• At the receiving end the receiver:
– must know the timing of each bit. That is, the receiver must
know with some accuracy when a bit begins and ends
– must determine whether the signal level for each bit position
is high (1) or low (0)
• Success factors:
– the signal-to-noise ratio
– the data rate - is closer to bandwidth, but it is often per host,
or source to destination devices.
– the bandwidth - is the number of bits per second that a link
can send or receive, including all flows.
• The encoding scheme that can be used can also improve
performance
• Encoding schemes
– Non-return to Zero (NRZ)
• NRZ-L
• NRZ-I
– Biphase
• Manchester
• Differential Manchester
• NRZ
– Uses two different voltage levels (one positive and one
negative) as the signal elements for the two binary digits
• For Example: Absence of voltage for zero, constant positive
voltage for one
– More often, negative voltage for one value and positive for the
other
– Two Variants
• NRZ-L
• NRZ-I
• NRZ-L
– Digital 1s are represented as one voltage (amplitude), while
digital 0s are represented as another:
• Cheap to implement
• Check for voltage of each bit
• A long series of 1s or 0s produces a flat, unchanging voltage level
(produces synchronization problems)
• NRZ-I
– Digital 1s are represented by a voltage change (high-to-low, or
low-to-high), while 0s are represented as a continuation of the
same voltage level:
• 1  existence of a signal transition at the beginning of the bit time
(either a low-to-high or a high-to-low transition)
• 0  no signal transition at the beginning of the bit time
– Even cheaper to implement (only check for changes)
– A long series of 0s produces a flat, unchanging voltage level
• Pros and Cons of NRZ
– Pros
• Easy to engineer
• Make good use of bandwidth
– Cons
• Lack of synchronization capability
– Used for magnetic recording
– Not often used for signal transmission
 Biphase
• Manchester
– Transition in middle of each bit period
– Transition serves as clocking
– Low to high represents one
– High to low represents zero
– Used by IEEE 802.3
• Used in 802.3 baseband coaxial cable and CSMA/CD twisted pair.
• Differential Manchester
– Midbit transition is clocking only
– Transition at start of a bit period represents zero
– No transition at start of a bit period represents one
– Note: this is a differential encoding scheme
– Used by IEEE 802.5
– Used in 802.5 (token ring) with twisted pair.
 Digital Data, Analog Signals
• The most familiar use of this transformation is for transmitting
digital data through the public telephone network using modem
• Basis for analog signaling is a continuous, constant-frequency
signal known as the carrier frequency.
• Digital data is encoded by modulating one of the three
characteristics of the carrier: amplitude, frequency, or phase
or some combination of these.
• there are three basic encoding or modulation techniques
– Amplitude-shift keying (ASK)
– Frequency-shift keying (FSK)
– Phase-shift keying (PSK)
• ASK
– Is the modulation method where digital signals change the
amplitude of the carrier wave
– the two binary values are represented by two different
amplitudes of the carrier wave
• If the digital signal value is 1, the amplitude of the carrier wave
remain the same
• When the digital signal value is 0, the amplitude of the carrier
wave is much weaker or zero.
– Used in our infrared remote controls
– Used in fiber optical transmitter and receiver.
• FSK
– Is the digital modulation technique in which the frequency of
the carrier wave changes with digital signals
– the two binary values are represented by two different
frequencies near the carrier frequency
• When the value is 1 the frequency of the carrier wave is higher
and lower when the value is 0.
– Many modems used FSK in telemetry systems
• PSK
– Is a digital modulation technique which transmits data by
changing the phase of a constant frequency of the carrier wave
– The frequency and amplitude of the carrier wave remain the
same.
– Phase changes at the point where binary value 1 changes to
binary value 0 or 0 changes to 1.
– Used in our ADSL broadband modem
– Used in satellite communication
– Used in our mobile phones
 Analog Data, Digital Signals
• To send continuous data such as voice information over a
digital transmission medium
– Example: To transfer analog voice signals off a local loop to
digital end office within the phone system, one uses a codec
• The most common technique for using digital signals to
encode analog data is PCM
• PCM is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog
signals
• Steps
– Sampling - sample the continuous data - to measure the value
of the continuous data at equal interval
• Each sample is called Pulse
– Quantization - the resulting pulse is quantized - assigned a
value
– Coding - each value is transformed to binary number
 Analog Data, Analog Signal
• The principal techniques for modulation using analog data are:
– amplitude modulation (AM)
– frequency modulation (FM)
– phase modulation (PM)
• Amplitude Modulation (AM)
– is the process of varying the instantaneous amplitude of carrier
signal accordingly with instantaneous amplitude of message
signal.
– is the simplest type of modulation.
– Hardware design of both transmitter and receiver is very simple
and less cost effective.
– is very susceptible to noise.
– AM radio broadcast is an example
• Frequency Modulation (FM)
– is the process of varying the instantaneous frequency of Carrier
signal accordingly with instantaneous amplitude of message
signal.
– Modulation and demodulation does not catch any channel
noise.
– Circuit needed for FM modulation and demodulation is a bit
complicated than AM.
– FM radio broadcast is an example
• Phase Modulation
– is the process of varying the instantaneous phase of Carrier
signal accordingly with instantaneous amplitude of message
signal.
– Modulation and demodulation does not catch any channel
noise.
– Circuit needed for PM modulation and demodulation is a bit
complicated than AM and FM.
– Satellite communication.
 Transmission Impairments
• Signal received may differ from signal transmitted
• Analog - degradation of signal quality
• Digital - bit errors
– A binary 1 is transformed into a binary 0 and vice versa
• Caused by
– Attenuation and attenuation distortion
– Distortion
– Noise
• Solution
– Amplifiers – analog signal
– Repeaters – digital signal
• Attenuation
– It is a phenomenon which occurs when signal strength falls off
with distance
– It depends on medium
• mediums such as Fiber optic cables carries signal without
attenuation up to 2Km.
– In communicating entities, received signal strength:
• must be enough to be detected
• must be sufficiently higher than noise to be received without error
• Noise
– Additional signals inserted between transmitter and receiver is
known as noise
– Noises can be caused by
• Thermal
– Due to thermal agitation of electrons
• Crosstalk
– A signal from one line is picked up by another
• Impulse Noise
– is sharp quick spikes on the signal caused from electromagnetic
interference, lightning, sudden power switching,
electromechanical switching, etc.
• Distortion
– The signal changes its form or shape
– Can occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies
– Each signal component has its own propagation speed through a
medium and therefore, its own delay in arriving at the
destination
– Differences in delay may create a difference in phase
– The shape of the composite signal is therefore not the same
• Intermodulation noise
– When signals at different frequencies share the same
transmission medium
• They produce signals at a frequency that is the sum or
difference of the two original frequencies, or multiples of those
frequencies
 Multiplexing
• refers to a process where multiple analog message signals or
digital data streams are combined into one signal over a
shared medium
• Is used to share an expensive resource
• divides the capacity of the low-level communication channel
into several higher-level logical channels, one for each
message signal or data stream to be transferred
• A reverse process, known as demultiplexing, can extract the
original channels on the receiver side
• The three most basic forms of multiplexing are :
– Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)
– Statistical Time-Division Multiplexing (STDM)
– Frequency-Division Multiplexing (FDM)
• Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
– Divide time slots or intervals and assign them equally among
users
– Transmits digital data
– The main feature of TDM is equality
– Every user is allocated with the same amount of time
– But equality is not efficient in many situations
– For example:
• Some user may have more data or a higher priority than others
– Assigning the same amount of time regardless of need or
priority is not cost effective
– With TDM, there is no inter-modulation noise, whereas we
have seen that this is a concern for FDM.
• Advantages
– TDM systems are more flexible than frequency division
multiplexing.
– circuitry is not complex.
– Problem of cross talk is not severe.
– Full available channel bandwidth can be utilized for each
channel.
• Disadvantages
– Synchronization is required in time division multiplexing.
– Complex to implement.
• Applications
– It used in ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network)
telephone lines.
– It is used for some telephone system.
– It is used in cellular networks
• Statistical TDM (Statistical Multiplexing)
– Analyzes statistics related to the workload, need, or priority
– Determines on-the-fly how much time each user should get
– Compared with TDM, STDM is more efficient and more in
control.

– The user B has more data than the others as shown in the figure
above and hence it will get more priority and then user C.
• Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)
– Deals with analog signals

– Different users sends their data over the same channel

– FDM combines the signals and send them simultaneously
– each signal is modulated onto a different carrier frequency
– Signals travel in their own non-overlapping frequency sub-
channels
• Advantages
– It does not need synchronization between its transmitter and
receiver.
– is simpler and easy demodulation.
– A large number of signals (channels) can be transmitted
simultaneously.
• Disadvantages
– It suffers problem of cross-talk.
– It is used only when a few low speed channels are desired.
– Intermodulation distortion takes place.
• Applications
– It is used to public telephones and in cable TV systems.
– It is used in broad casting.
– It is used in AM and FM broadcasting.