Signal Encoding and Modulation

Techniques

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Encoding and Modulation Techniques

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Different Conversion Schemes
 Digital Signaling Versus Analog Signaling

 Digital signaling
 Digital or analog data is encoded into a digital signal
 Encoding may be chosen to conserve bandwidth or to
minimize error
 Analog Signaling
 Digital or analog data modulates analog carrier signal
 The frequency of the carrier fc is chosen to be compatible
with the transmission medium used
 Modulation: the amplitude, frequency or phase of the carrier
signal is varied in accordance with the modulating data
signal
 by using different carrier frequencies, multiple data signals
(users) can share the same transmission medium
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 Digital Signaling

 Digital data, digital signal

 Simplest encoding scheme: assign one voltage level to
binary one and another voltage level to binary zero
 More complex encoding schemes: are used to improve
performance (reduce transmission bandwidth and minimize
errors).
 Examples are NRZ-L, NRZI, Manchester, etc.
Analog data, Digital signal
 Analog data, such as voice and video
 Often digitized to be able to use digital transmission facility
 Example: Pulse Code Modulation (PCM), which involves
sampling the analog data periodically and quantizing the
samples
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 Analog Signaling

 Digital data, Analog Signal

 A modem converts digital data to an analog signal so that it
can be transmitted over an analog line
 The digital data modulates the amplitude, frequency, or
phase of a carrier analog signal
 Examples: Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Frequency Shift
Keying (FSK), Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
Analog data, Analog Signal
 Analog data, such as voice and video modulate the
amplitude, frequency, or phase of a carrier signal to produce
an analog signal in a different frequency band
 Examples: Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency
Modulation (FM), Phase Modulation (PM)
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 Digital Data, Digital Signal

 Digital signal
discrete, discontinuous voltage pulses
each pulse is a signal element
binary data encoded into signal elements

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Digital to Digital Encoding
 Periodic signals

 Data element: a single binary 1 or 0

 Signal element: a voltage pulse of constant amplitude
 Unipolar: All signal elements have the same sign
 Polar: One logic state represented by positive voltage the other
by negative voltage
 Data rate: Rate of data (R) transmission in bits per second
 Duration or length of a bit: Time taken for transmitter to emit
the bit (Tb=1/R)
 Modulation rate: Rate at which the signal level changes,
measured in baud = signal elements per second. Depends on
type of digital encoding used.

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 Interpreting Signals

Need to know
 timing of bits: when they start and end
 signal levels: high or low
factors affecting signal interpretation
 Data rate: increase data rate increases Bit Error Rate (BER)
 Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): increase SNR decrease BER
 Bandwidth: increase bandwidth increase data rate
 encoding scheme: mapping from data bits to signal elements

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Types of Digital to Digital Encoding
Encoding Schemes

Positive level (+5V)

Negative level (-5V)

Positive level (+5V)

No line signal (0V)
Negative level (-5V)

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Encoding Schemes

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Unipolar Encoding
Types of Polar Encoding
 NonReturn to Zero-Level (NRZ-L)

Two different voltages for 0 and 1 bits

Voltage constant during bit interval
no transition, i.e. no return to zero voltage
more often, negative voltage for binary one
and positive voltage for binary zero

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 NonReturn to Zero INVERTED (NRZI)

Nonreturn to zero inverted on ones

Constant voltage pulse for duration of bit
Data encoded as presence or absence of signal
transition at beginning of bit time
 transition (low to high or high to low) denotes binary 1
 no transition denotes binary 0
Example of differential encoding since have
– data represented by changes rather than levels
– more reliable detection of transition rather than level

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NRZ-L and NRZ-I Encoding
 RZ Encoding

 Problem with NRZ occurs when sender

and receiver clocks are not synchronized.
Return To Zero(RZ)
 It uses three levels, positive, negative and
zero
Signal changes not between bits but during
the bit.
 It require two signal changes to encode a bit,
so occupies greater bandwidth.
RZ Encoding
 Manchester Encoding

 combines idea of RZ and NRZ-L

has transition in middle of each bit period
low to high represents binary one
transition serves as clock and data
high to low represents binary zero
used by IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) LAN standard

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 Differential Manchester Encoding
 Combines idea of RZ and NRZ-I.
 midbit transition is clocking only
 transition at start of bit period representing binary 0
 no transition at start of bit period representing binary 1
 used by IEEE 802.5 token ring LAN

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Manchester and Diff. Manchester Encoding
 Advantages and disadvantages of
Manchester Encoding
Disadvantages
 at least one transition per bit time and possibly two
 maximum modulation rate is twice NRZ
R
D
L
D : Modulation rate, [baud ]
R : Data Rate, [bps ]
L : number of bits per signal elements
 requires more bandwidth
Advantages
 synchronization on mid bit transition (self clocking codes)
 has no dc component
 has error detection capability (the absence of an expected
transition can be used to detect errors)
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Types of Bipolar Encoding
 Multilevel Binary
Bipolar Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI)
Use more than two levels (three levels,
positive, negative and no line signal)
Bipolar-AMI
zero represented by no line signal
one represented by positive or negative pulse
one pulses alternate in polarity
no loss of sync if a long string of ones
long runs of zeros still a problem
no net dc component
lower bandwidth
easy error detection
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Bipolar AMI Encoding
 Multilevel Binary
Pseudoternary

Binary one represented by absence of line

signal
Binary zero represented by alternating
positive and negative pulses
No advantage or disadvantage over
bipolar-AMI
Each used in some applications

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 Scrambling

Use scrambling to replace sequences that would

produce constant voltage
These filling sequences must
 produce enough transitions to maintain synchronization
 be recognized by receiver & replaced with original
 be same length as original
Design goals
 have no dc component
 have no long sequences of zero level line signal
 have no reduction in data rate
 give error detection capability

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B8ZS and HDB3

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 Bipolar with 8-Zero Substitution (B8ZS)

To overcome the drawback of the AMI code that a

long string of zeros may result in loss of
synchronization, the encoding is amended with the
following rules:
 If 8 zeros occurs and the last voltage pulse was positive,
then the 8 zeros are encoded as 000+–0–+
 If zeros occurs and the last voltage pulse was negative,
then the 8 zeros are encoded as 000–+0+–

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 High Density Bipolar-3 zeros (HDB3)

The scheme replaces strings with 4 zeros by sequences

containing one or two pulses
In each case, the fourth zero is replaced with a code
violation (V)
 successive violations are of alternate polarity

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 Digital Data, Analog Signal
Main use is public telephone system
has freq range of 300Hz to 3400Hz
use modem (modulator-demodulator)
The digital data modulates the amplitude A,
frequency fc , or phase θ of a carrier signal
A cos( 2f ct   )
Modulation techniques
Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
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Modulation Techniques

Amplitude Shift Keying

(ASK)

Binary Frequency Shift

Keying (BFSK)

Binary Phase Shift Keying

(BPSK)

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 Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)
In ASK, the two binary values are represented by to
different amplitudes of the carrier frequency
The resulting modulated signal for one bit time is

 A cos( 2f c t ), binary 1

s(t )  
0, binary 0

Susceptible to noise
Inefficient modulation technique
used for
 up to 1200bps on voice grade lines
 very high speeds over optical fiber
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ASK
Bandwidth for ASK
 Applications of ASK

•Low-speed data transmission like infrared

remote controls (e.g., for TVs, ACs).

•Optical fiber communication, where a pulse of

light represents a binary '1' and the absence of
light represents a binary '0'.
 Binary Frequency Shift Keying (BFSK)
The most common form of FSK is Binary FSK (BFSK)
Two binary values represented by two different
frequencies ( f1 and f2 )
0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
 A cos( 2f1t ), binary 1 f2 f2 f1 f1 f2 f1 f2 f2 f2 f1 f2
s(t )  
 A cos( 2f 2t ), binary 0

less susceptible to noise than ASK

used for
 up to 1200bps on voice grade lines
 high frequency radio (3 to 30MHz)
 even higher frequency on LANs using coaxial cable
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FSK
Bandwidth for FSK
 Applications of FSK

•Telemetry: and remote metering.

•Caller ID systems .
•RFID technology .
•Wireless communication systems .
•Emerging IoT and wireless sensor networks .
•Some modem applications
 Full-Duplex BFSK Transmission on
a Voice-Grade line
 Voice grade lines will pass voice frequencies in the range 300
to 3400Hz
 Full duplex means that signals are transmitted in both directions
at the same time

f1 f2 f3 f4

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 Multiple FSK (MFSK)

More than two frequencies (M frequencies) are used

More bandwidth efficient compared to BFSK
More susceptible to noise compared to BFSK
MFSK signal:
si (t )  A cos( 2f i t ), 1 i  M
where
f i  f c  ( 2i  1  M ) f d
f c  the carrier frequency
f d  the difference frequency
M  number of different signal elements  2 L
L  number of bits per signal element
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 Multiple FSK (MFSK)

 MFSK signal:
si (t )  A cos( 2f i t ), 1 i  M
where
f i  f c  ( 2i  1  M ) f d
M  number of different signal elements  2 L
L  number of bits per signal element
 Period of signal element
Ts  LTb , Ts : signal element period Tb :bit period

 Minimum frequency separation

1 / Ts  2 f d  1 /( LTb )  2 f d  1 / Tb  2Lf d (bit rate)

 MFSK signal bandwidth:

Wd  M (2 f d )  2Mf d
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 Example
 With fc=250KHz, fd=25KHz, and M=8 (L=3 bits), we have the
following frequency assignment for each of the 8 possible 3-bit
data combinations: f i  f c  (2i  1  M ) f d
000  f1  75 KHz 
001  f 2  125KHz 
010  f 3  175KHz 

011  f 4  225KHz 
 bandwidth  Ws  2 Mf d  400 KHz
100  f 5  275KHz 
101  f 6  325KHz 

110  f 7  375KHz 
111  f 8  425KHz 

 This scheme can support a data rate of:

1 / Tb  2 Lf d  2(3bits)( 25Hz )  150Kbps
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 Example
 The following figure shows an example of MFSK with M=4. An
input bit stream of 20 bits is encoded 2bits at a time, with each
of the possible 2-bit combinations transmitted as a different
frequency. f i  f c  (2i  1  M ) f d
00  i 1  f1  f c  3 f d
01  i2  f2  fc  fd
10  i3  f3  fc  f d
11  i4  f4  fc  3 fd

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 Phase Shift Keying (PSK)

Phase of carrier signal is shifted to represent data

Binary PSK (BPSK): two phases represent two
binary digits  A cos( 2f c t ), binary 1
s (t )  
 A cos( 2f c t   ), binary 0
 A cos( 2f c t ), binary 1

  A cos( 2f c t ), binary 0
 Ad (t ) cos( 2f c t ), d (t )  1

0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
π π 0 0 π 0 π π π 0 π

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PSK
 Applications of PSK

•Wireless LANs (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) .

•Cellular phones .
•Optical communications .
•Biometrics .
•Satellite communications .
•High-speed data transmission .
 Differential PSK (DPSK)

 In DPSK, the phase shift is with reference to the previous bit

transmitted rather than to some constant reference signal
 Binary 0:signal burst with the same phase as the previous one
 Binary 1:signal burst of opposite phase to the preceding one

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 Four-level PSK: Quadrature PSK (QPSK)
 More efficient use of bandwidth if each signal element
represents more than one bit
 eg. shifts of /2 (90o)
 each signal element represents two bits
 split input data stream in two & modulate onto the phase of the carrier
 
 A cos( 2 f c t  )  11
4
 3
 A cos( 2f c t  )  01
 4
s (t )  
3
 A cos( 2f c t  )  00
 4
 
 A cos( 2f t  )  10

c
4
 can use 8 phase angles & more than one amplitude
 9600bps modem uses 12 phase angles, four of which have two
amplitudes: this gives a total of 16 different signal elements
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 Performance of ASK, FSK, MFSK, PSK and
MPSK
Bandwidth Efficiency
data rate R 1
 ASK/PSK: transmission bandwidth  B  1  r , 0  r 1
T

R log 2 M
 MPSK:  , M : number of different signal elements
BT 1 r
R log 2 M
 MFSK: 
BT (1  r ) M

Bit Error Rate (BER)

 bit error rate of PSK and QPSK are about 3dB superior to
ASK and FSK
 for MFSK & MPSK have tradeoff between bandwidth
efficiency and error performance
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Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

QAM used on asymmetric digital subscriber line

(ADSL) and some wireless standards
combination of ASK and PSK
logical extension of QPSK
send two different signals simultaneously on
same carrier frequency
 use two copies of carrier, one shifted by 90°
 each carrier is ASK modulated

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8-QAM Signal
 QAM Variants

Two level ASK (two different amplitude levels)

each of two streams in one of two states
four state system
essentially QPSK
Four level ASK (four different amplitude levels)
combined stream in one of 16 states
Have 64 and 256 state systems
Improved data rate for given bandwidth
but increased potential error rate

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Analog to Digital Encoding
PAM
Nyquist Theorem
Quantized PAM Signal
 Quantizing Using
Sign and Magnitude
PCM
From Analog to PCM
From Analog to PCM
From Analog to PCM
From Analog to PCM
 Delta Modulation
• This scheme sends only the difference between
pulses, if the pulse at time tn+1 is higher in
amplitude value than the pulse at time tn, then a
single bit, say a “1”, is used to indicate the
positive value.
• If the pulse is lower in value, resulting in a
negative value, a “0” is used.
• This scheme works well for small changes in signal
values between samples.
• If changes in amplitude are large, this will result in
large errors.
4.67
The process of delta modulation

4.68
Figure 4.29 Delta modulation components

4.69
Figure Delta demodulation components

4.70
 Delta PCM (DPCM)

• Instead of using one bit to indicate positive and

negative differences, we can use more bits ->
quantization of the difference.
• Each bit code is used to represent the value of the
difference.
• The more bits the more levels -> the higher the
accuracy.

4.71
Analog to Analog Modulation
Amplitude Modulation
 AM Bandwidth

WCB/McGraw-Hill  The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1998

AM Band Allocation
 Applications of AM
•Long-range Radio Broadcasting: AM is still used for some
commercial radio stations, particularly for news and talk
programming on the long, medium, and short wave bands,
due to its ability to travel long distances according to some
sources.
•Aviation Communication: AM is used for airband radio,
including ground-to-air and two-way radio links for ground
staff.
•Single Sideband (SSB): A form of AM, single sideband, is
used for HF radio links, offering efficient power use and
bandwidth.
•Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM): Used in various
wireless links like Wi-Fi, cellular, and other digital
communications.
Frequency Modulation
FM Bandwidth
FM Band Allocation
 Applications of FM
•FM Radio Broadcasting: FM is widely used for music and
other high-fidelity audio broadcasts due to its noise reduction
capabilities.
•Television Sound: FM is used to transmit the audio portion
of a television broadcast.
•Telemetry, Radar, and Seismic Prospecting: FM is used
in Applications of FM these applications.
•Satellite TV: Some satellite systems use FM for video
transmission.
•Two-way Radio Systems: FM is used in various two-way
radiocommunication systems.
•Sound Synthesis: FM is utilized in some sound synthesis
techniques.
 Phase Modulation (PM)

• The modulating signal only changes the

phase of the carrier signal.
• The phase change manifests itself as a
frequency change but the instantaneous
frequency change is proportional to the
derivative of the amplitude.
• The bandwidth is higher than for AM.

5.82
Figure Phase modulation

5.83
 Applications of PM
•Wireless Communication
•Global System for Mobile Communications,
•Satellite Communication
• Sound Synthesis, Digital Synthesizers
• Radar Systems
•Optical Communication