Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

15. Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation

In PCM, an analogue signal is sampled, quantised, and coded into a sequence of digits.
Once we have quantised the sampled signals, the exact values of the sampled signals can
never be restored. This gives rise to random variations called quantisation noise. This
noise can be reduced to any desirable level by simply increasing the number of quantisation
levels M. However, the larger the value of M, the larger the number of bits required to
code the quantised signal, and the greater the bandwidth required for transmission. In a
practical PCM system for speech transmission, we use 8-bit quantisation.

Uniform Quantisation

Consider the 8-level uniform quantiser (equal spacing) shown in Figure 15.1.

Figure 15.1 Message and quantised signal.

Let M be the total number of quantisation (amplitude) levels, and a be the spacing
between adjacent levels. Suppose the message can have a maximum swing of + V volts,
then

2V
a= (15.1)
M

The output peak signal voltage is

V = aM/2 (15.2)

and the quantiser covers a range of

(M - 1)a (volts) (15.3)

Let A j be the voltage associated with the j-th quantisation level. Any samples that lie
between A j + 0.5a volts are quantised to A j volts. The quantisation error (noise) is
therefore limited to + 0.5a volts. This region of uncertainty is shown in Figure 15.2.

Figure 15.2 Uncertainty region at quantiser output.

The mean-squared quantisation noise is

a/2
1
E(ε2) =
a ∫ ε2 dε
−a / 2

15.1
 Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

= a2 / 12 (15.4)

a
and the root-mean-squared (rms) quantisation noise is .
12

The output peak signal-to-rms quantisation noise ratio is

V
= 3M (15.5)
E(ε 2 )

The corresponding output peak signal-to-rms quantisation noise power ratio (SNR) is

( 3 M)2 = 3M 2 (15.6)

= 4.8 + 20 log10 M (dB) (15.7)

We can normalise the input signal swing to + 1 volt. In this case, the spacing becomes
2/M, and the output peak signal-to-rms quantisation noise ratio and the corresponding
output peak signal-to-rms quantisation noise power ratio remain unchanged.

________________________________________________________________________
M Output SNR Relative bandwidth
________________________________________________________________________
2 11 1
4 17 2
8 23 3
16 29 4
32 35 5
64 41 6
128 47 7
________________________________________________________________________

Table 15.1 Output SNR improvement with number of quantisation levels.

We can improve the output SNR by increasing the value of M. It can also be seen from
Figure 15.1 that the input signal is directly proportional to the quantised output signal. For
a fixed value of M, a small input signal will give a lower output SNR than a large input
signal. Therefore, a good reproduction for all types of telephone users would not be
possible with uniform spacing. Some users shout while others whisper. To cater for all
types of users, non-uniform quantisation is employed. It gives finer levels for small input
signals and coarser levels for large input signals.

15.2
 Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

Nonuniform Quantisation

The most common form of nonuniform quantisation is known as companding. The

name is derived from the words compressing and expanding. A block diagram of a PCM
system with companding is shown in Figure 15.3. The original signal is compressed and
uniformly quantised. At the receiving end, the decoded signal is expanded.

Figure 15.3 A PCM system with companding.

µ -law Compander

In the United States, Canada, and Japan, a µ-law compander is used. The compression
characteristic is given by

ln(1 + µx )
y(x) = , 0 <x<1 (15.8)
ln(1 + µ )

where x is the normalised input signal, and

dy µ 1
= (15.9)
dx ln(1 + µ ) 1 + µx

To find the rms quantisation noise of the µ-law compander, we consider the spacing ∆j
centred at xj of the compressor, as shown in Figure 15.4.

Figure 15.4 Compressor analysis.

For small ∆j, the slope at xj is

dy 2/ M
≈ (15.10)
dx x ∆j
j

and

2/ M
∆j ≈ (15.11)
dy / dx x
j

The mean-squared quantisation noise about the input xj is given by

15.3
 Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

∆j
xj+
2
E(εj2) = ∫ (x - xj)2 f(x) dx (15.12)
∆j
xj−
2

where f(x) is the probability density function of the input signal x. Assuming that f(x)
is unchanged over that range, we have

∆j
xj+
2
E(εj2) ≈ f(x j) ∫ (x - xj)2 dx
∆j
xj−
2
∆3j
= f(xj) (15.13)
12

Substituting for ∆j2 from equation (15.11) into equation (15.13), we get

1 f (x j )
E(εj2) ≈ ∆j (15.14)
3M 2 [ dy / dx x ]2
j

For j = 1, 2, ..., M/2 and including negative values of x, we have

M/2
E(ε2) = 2 ∑ E(εj2)
j =1
M/2 f (x j )
2
= ∑
3M 2 j =1 [ dy / dx x ]2
∆j
j

For large M, ∆j becomes dx and summation becomes integration

1
2 f ( x)
E(ε2) =
3M 2
∫ [dy / dx ]2
dx (15.15)
x= 0

Substituting equation (15.9) into equation (15.15), we get

2 1
2  ln(1 + µ ) 
E(ε2) = 
3M 2  µ 

∫ (1+µx)2 f(x) dx
x =0

15.4
 Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

2 1
2  ln(1 + µ ) 
= 
3M 2  µ 

∫ (1+ 2µx+µ2x2) f(x) dx
x =0
2 1
2  ln(1 + µ ) 
 { ∫ [f(x) +2µxf(x) + µ x f(x)] dx}
2 2
=
2  µ
3M  
x= 0
2 1 2
2  ln(1 + µ )  2σx ]
=
3M 2 
 µ 

[0.5 + 2 µ ∫ xf (x) dx + µ
2
x= 0
2 1
1  ln(1 + µ ) 
=   [1 + 4µ ∫ xf (x) dx + µ2 σ 2x ] (15.16)
3M 2 µ 
x= 0

where

1
σ 2x = ∫x
2 f ( x )dx (15.17)
−1

σ x = σ /V is the normalised mean input signal power and σ is the unnormalised input
signal power.

The output peak signal-to-rms quantisation noise power ratio is

1 3M 2
= (15.18)
E(ε 2 ) 1
4 ∫ xf ( x )dx
ln(1 + µ )2 [σ 2x + x = 0
1
+ ]
µ µ2

Figure 15.5 shows a plot of the output SNR vs normalised input signal when f(x) is a
Gaussian probability density function. A relatively constant output SNR over 40 dB of
input dynamic range is achieved.

Figure 15.5 Output SNR of 8-bit PCM with and without companding.

A-Law Compander

For the rest of the world, an A-law compander has been used, where A = 100. The A-
law compressor characteristic is defined by

Ax 1
y(x) = , 0<x< (15.19)
1 + ln( A) A

15.5
 Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

and

1 + ln( Ax ) 1
y(x) = , <x<1 (15.20)
1 + ln( A) A

The A-law compressor characteristic is linear for small x and logarithmic for large x.
The A-law compressor has a greater dynamic range than the µ-law compressor, and has
a smaller output SNR than the µ-law compressor.

References

[1] M. Schwartz, Information Transmission, Modulation, and Noise, 4/e, McGraw

Hill, 1990.

[2] H. Taub and D. L. Schilling, Principles of Communications Systems, 2/e,

McGraw Hill, 1986.

[3] L. W. Couch, II, Digital and Analog Communication Systems, 6/e, Prentice Hall,
2001.

15.6
 Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

a /2
Volts Message m ( t )

7
a
6 V
5
4 ( M -1) a
t (sec.)
3
2
V
1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
a /2
Figure 15.1 Message and quantised signal.

j +1-th level
a /2 Sampled signal
a
A j volts.
a
a /2
a /2
ε
j -th level } Uncertainty
region

a /2
j -1-th level

Figure 15.2 Uncertainty region at quantiser output.

Nonuniform quantiser

Message
Sampler Compressor Uniform Encoder
m (t ) quantiser
~
~
Low-pass
filter Expander Decoder
^
m (t )

Figure 15.3 A PCM system with companding.

15.7
 Quantisation Noise and Nonuniform Quantisation on Mac

Output y
2
1.0 M
j -th level
0.8

0.6
∆j
0.4

0.2 xj
-1
Input x
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

-1.0

Figure 15.4 Compressor analysis.

Output SNR (dB) µ = 255 -law

companding
40

30

20
Uniform quantiser
(No companding)
10
µ =0
0

-10 Relative input level (dB)

-60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 20 log 10 ( σ x )

Figure 15.5 Output SNR of 8-bit PCM with and without companding.

15.8