AJAY KUMAR GARG ENGINEERING COLLEGE, GHAZIABAD

Branch - ECE
Digital Communication(KEC-601)

Line Coding Techniques

Lecture-5

By

Dr. Pawan Bhutani

Assistant Professor
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Ghaziabad
 Line coding
• In this section, we see how we can represent digital data by
using digital signals.

Line coding is the process of converting digital data to digital signals. We assume that data,
in the form of text, numbers, graphical images, audio, or video, are stored in computer
memory as sequences of bits. Line coding converts a sequence of bits to a digital signal. At the
receiver, the digital data are recreated by decoding the digital signal.
 Signal element versus data element
 Recall that digital signal is a sequence of discrete,
discontinuous voltage pulses.
 Each pulse in digital signal is a signal element.
 Binary data are transmitted by encoding each data bit into
signal elements.
1 0 1 0 1 0

 There can be one-to-one correspondence between data

elements and signal elements or one-to-multiple/multiple-to-
one
Signal element versus data element

 In digital data communication, a signal element carries data elements. We

define a ratio “r” , which is the number of data elements carried by each signal
element.
 Data rate: The data rate defines the number of data elements (bits) in 1sec. The unit is
bits per second (bps).
 Signal rate: The signal rate is the number of signal elements in 1sec. The unit is baud.

Note: The data rate is sometimes called the bit rate; the signal rate is sometimes called the pulse rate, the
modulation rate, or the baud rate.

 Bit Rate: Number of bits transmitted during one second.

 Baud Rate: Number of signal units/elements per second that are required to represent
that bit.
OR
Modulation rate: The rate at which signal element is changed and is expressed in baud
i.e. signal elements/second
 To measure the efficiency of computer we use bit rate.
 To measure the efficiency of a data communication system we use baud rate.
 Example: An analog signal carries 4 bits in each signal element. If 1000 signal elements
are sent per second, find the baud rate and bit rate?
 Baud rate = number of signal elements per second
 Baud rate = 1000 bauds
 Bit rate = baud rate * number of bits per signal element
 Bit rate = 1000 * 4 = 4000 b/s
 Unipolar NRZ Line Code
• The unipolar nonreturn-to-zero line code is defined by the
unipolar mapping:
 A when X k 1
ak 
 0 when X k 0
– where Xk is the kth data bit.
– In addition, the pulse shape for unipolar NRZ is:
– Where Tb is the bit period.  t 
p (t )    NRZ pulse shape
 Tb 

Note the DC component Hard to recover symbol timing

This means wasted power! when long string of 0s or 1s.

1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1
 Unipolar RZ Line Code
• The unipolar return-to-zero line code has the same symbol
mapping but a different pulse shape than unipolar NRZ:

 A when X k 1
ak 
 0 when X k 0

 t 
p (t )    RZ pulse shape
 Tb / 2  Long strings of 1’s no longer a problem.
Pulse of half the duration of NRZ
However strings of 0’s still problem.
requires twice the bandwidth!
1 0 1 1 0 1

0 Tb 2Tb 3Tb 4Tb 5Tb

Polar - NRZ
• The voltages are on both sides of the time axis.
• Polar NRZ scheme can be implemented with two
voltages. E.g. +V for 1 and -V for 0.
• There are two versions:
– NZR - Level (NRZ-L) - positive voltage for one symbol
and negative for the other
– NRZ - Inversion (NRZ-I) - the change or lack of change in
polarity determines the value of a symbol. E.g. a “1”
symbol inverts the polarity a “0” does not.
In NRZ-L the level of the voltage determines the value of the bit.
In NRZ-I the inversion or the lack of inversion determines the value of
the bit
Polar - RZ
• The Return to Zero (RZ) scheme uses three
voltage values. +, 0, -.
• Each symbol has a transition in the middle. Either
from high to zero or from low to zero.
• This scheme has more signal transitions (two per
symbol) and therefore requires a wider
bandwidth.
• No DC components or baseline wandering.
• Self synchronization - transition indicates symbol
value.
• More complex as it uses three voltage level. It has
no error detection capability.
Polar - Biphase: Manchester and
Differential Manchester
• Manchester coding consists of combining the
NRZ-L and RZ schemes.
– Every symbol has a level transition in the middle: from
high to low or low to high. Uses only two voltage levels.
• Differential Manchester coding consists of
combining the NRZ-I and RZ schemes.
– Every symbol has a level transition in the middle. But
the level at the beginning of the symbol is determined
by the symbol value. One symbol causes a level change
the other does not.
Polar biphase: Manchester and differential Manchester schemes

In Manchester and differential Manchester encoding, the transition

at the middle of the bit is used for synchronization.
The minimum bandwidth of Manchester and differential Manchester is
2 times that of NRZ. The is no DC component and no baseline
wandering. None of these codes has error detection.
 Bipolar schemes: AMI
A common bipolar encoding scheme is called bipolar alternate mark inversion (AMI). In the
term alternate mark inversion, the word mark comes from telegraphy and means 1. So AMI
means alternate 1 inversion. A neutral zero voltage represents binary 0. Binary 1s are
represented by alternating positive and negative voltages.

A variation of AMI encoding is called pseudoternary in which the 1 bit is encoded as a zero
voltage and the 0 bit is encoded as alternating positive and negative voltages.

AMI is commonly used for long-distance communication, but it has a synchronization

problem when a long sequence of 0s is present in the data. Later we will see how a
scrambling technique can solve this problem.
Scrambling:
 Biphase schemes that are suitable for dedicated links between stations in a LAN are not
suitable for long-distance communication because of their wide bandwidth requirement.
The combination of block coding and NRZ line coding is not suitable for long-distance
encoding either, because of the DC component.
 Bipolar AMI encoding, on the other hand, has a narrow bandwidth and does not create a
DC component. However, a long sequence of 0s upsets the synchronization. If we can find a
way to avoid a long sequence of 0s in the original stream, we can use bipolar AMI for long
distances. One solution is called scrambling.
 We use modify part of the AMI rule to include scrambling, as shown in Figure 4.18. Note
that scrambling, as opposed to block coding, is done at the same time as encoding. The
system needs to insert the required pulses based on the defined scrambling rules.
 Two common scrambling techniques are B8ZS and HDB3.
 Two cases of B8ZS scrambling technique
 Bipolar with 8-zero substitution (B8ZS) is commonly used in North America. In this
technique, eight consecutive zero-level voltages are replaced by the sequence 000VB0VB.
 The V in the sequence denotes violation; this is a nonzero voltage that breaks an AMI rule
of encoding. The B in the sequence denotes bipolar, which means a nonzero level voltage
in accordance with the AMI rule. There are two cases, as shown in Figure.
 Note that the scrambling in this case does not change the bit rate. Also, the technique
balances the positive and negative voltage levels (two positives and two negatives).

B8ZS substitutes eight consecutive zeros with 000VB0VB.

 High-density bipolar 3-zero (HDB3) is commonly used outside of North America. In this
technique, which is more conservative than B8ZS, four consecutive zero-level voltages are
replaced with a sequence of 000V or B00V. The reason for two different substitutions is to
maintain the even number of nonzero pulses after each substitution. The two rules can be
stated as follows:
1) If the number of nonzero pulses after the last substitution is odd, the substitution pattern
will be 000V, which makes the total number of nonzero pulses even.
2) If the number of nonzero pulses after the last substitution is even, the substitution pattern
will be B00V, which makes the total number of nonzero pulses even.

HDB3 substitutes four consecutive zeros with 000V or B00V depending

on the number of nonzero pulses after the last substitution.
 Line codes
1 1 0 1 0 0 1 BINARY DATA

(a) Punched Tape Mark Mark space Mark space space Mark
(hole) (hole) (hole) (hole)
Volts
A

0
(b) Unipolar NRZ
Tb Time

(c) Polar NRZ 0

-A

0
(d) Unipolar RZ

A
(e) Bipolar RZ 0
-A

A
(f) Manchester NRZ 0
-A

Binary Signaling Formats

THANK YOU