Modulation

Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

• A technique by which analog signal gets converted into digital form in order to
have signal transmission through a digital network is known as Pulse Code
Modulation. It is abbreviated as PCM.

• A signal is pulse code modulated to convert its analog information into a binary
sequence, i.e., 1s and 0s.
• The output of a PCM will resemble a binary sequence.
• In Pulse Code Modulation, the message signal is represented by a sequence of
coded pulses..
 Basic Elements of PCM
• It is basically composed of a transmitter, a transmission path and a
receiver.
• The transmitter performs the sampling, quantizing and encoding of the
signal.
• The transmission path includes regenerative receivers that recover the
signal from the undesired noise effects.
• Lastly, the receiver section that performs decoding of the coded signal
after regeneration of the signal at the receiver
Transmitter
Low Pass Filter
• The message signal which is in the continuous time form, is allowed
to pass through a low pass filter (LPF).This LPF whose cutoff
frequency is fm eliminates the high-frequency components of the
signal and passes only the frequency components that lie below f m. to
avoid aliasing of the message signal.

Sampler
• The output of the LPF is then fed to a sampler where the analog input
signal is sampled at regular intervals. The sampling of the signal is
done at the rate of fs. This sampling frequency is so selected that it
must follow the sampling theorem that is expressed as:
• fs ≥ 2fm
• The output of the sampler is a signal that is discrete time continuous
amplitude signal which is nothing but a PAM signal.
Quantizer
A quantizer is a unit that rounds off each sample to the nearest
discrete level. The sampler provides a continuous range signal and
hence still an analog one. The quantizer performs the
approximation of each sample thus assigning it a particular
discrete level.
Quantization error :
• Quantizing a signal introduces some distortion or noise into it. The difference
between an input value and its quantized value is called a Quantization Error.
.

Two Types of Quantization

Uniform Quantization and Non-uniform Quantization.

Uniform Quantization :The type of quantization in which the quantization levels are
uniformly spaced.

Non-uniform Quantization. The type of quantization in which the quantization

levels are unequally spaced.
.
 Two types of uniform quantization.

• Mid-Rise type
• Mid-Tread type

The Mid-Rise type is so called because the origin lies in the middle of a
raising part of the stair-case like graph
The Mid-tread type is so called because the origin lies in the middle of a
tread of the stair-case like graph
Encoder
An encoder performs the conversion of the quantized signal into
binary codes. This unit generates a digitally encoded signal which is a
sequence of binary pulses that acts as the modulated output. That is
transmitted through the transmission path.

Various digitally encoded signal

hese three sections LPF,Sampler,and Quantizer will act as an analog to digital
converter. Encoding minimizes the bandwidth used.
 Transmission path in a PCM system

• The channel introduces distortion in the signal during

transmission. This distortion is eliminated by employing
regenerative repeaters along the transmission path.
• The figure below shows the block diagram of a regenerative
repeater. It basically performs equalization and timing and then
executes decision making
• When PCM signal is applied to the regenerative repeater, the
equalizer circuit performs the reshaping of the distorted signal.
• At the same time, the timing circuit generates a pulse train that
is a derivative of input PCM pulses.
• This pulse train is then utilized by the decision-making device
in order to sample the PCM pulses. This sampling is done at
the instant where maximum SNR can be achieved. In this way,
the decision-making device generates the distortionless PCM
wave.
 PCM Receiver

Regenerator:
A regenerative repeater is placed at the receiving end also so
as to have an exact PCM transmitted signal. It eliminates the
channel induced noise and reshapes the pulse.
Decoder

It is also called Digital to analog converter. It performs the

inverse operation of the encoder. The decoder output is a
sequence of quantized multilevel sample pulses. The quantized
PAM (Pulse Amplitude Modulation) signal is obtained.

LPF:

LPF is termed as the reconstruction filter. The decoder output is

applied to the LPF having cutoff frequency fm. It rejects all
frequency components above fm and produces the original
message signal.
The figure below shows the reconstruction of the actual
analog message signal at the receiver.
Bandwidth
The bandwidth of the PCM system is given as,
BW ≥ n fm

Advantages of PCM
1.Immune to channel induced noise and distortion.
2.Repeaters can be employed along the transmitting channel.
3.Encoders allow secured data transmission.
4.It ensures uniform transmission quality.

Disadvantages of PCM
5.Pulse code modulation increases the transmission bandwidth.
6.A PCM system is somewhat more complex than another system.
.
 Companding

• Companding is a combination of Compressing and

Expanding. This is a non-linear technique used in PCM
which compresses the data at the transmitter and expands the
same data at the receiver. The effects of noise and crosstalk
are reduced by using this technique.
• In non-uniform quantization, the step size varies according
to the signal level.
• If the signal level is low then step size will be small. Thus
the quantization noise will also be low.
• In order to maintain proper signal to quantization noise
ratio, the step size must be variable according to the signal
level.
• Thus in order to achieve non-uniform quantization, the
process of companding is used.
Model of Companding

The figure below represents the companding model in order

to achieve non-uniform companding:

• The companding model consists of a compressor, a uniform

quantizer and an expander.
• Initially at the transmitting end, the signal is first provided to
the compressor. The compressor unit amplifies the low value
or weak signal in order to increase the signal level.
• While if the input signal is a high level signal or strong signal
then compressor attenuates the signal before providing it to
the uniform quantizer.
• Compression is done in order to have an appropriate signal
level as the input to the uniform quantizer.
• The output of the compressor is provided to uniform quantizer.
Uniform quantizer performs the quantization of the signal.
• At the receiver end, the output of the uniform quantizer is fed to
the expander.
• It performs the reverse of the process executed by the
compressor. This unit when receives a low value signal then it
attenuates it. While if a strong signal is achieved then the
expander amplifies it.
• This is done in order to achieve the originally transmitted signal
at the output.
.
.
Compressor characteristic: The figure below shows the graphical
representation of characteristic of the compressor and expander:
The compressor and expander performs inverse operations
thus in the above figure the dotted line represents the linear
characteristic of the compander indicating that the
originally transmitted signal is recovered at the receiver.
There are two types of Companding techniques. They are −
A-law Companding Technique
•Uniform quantization is achieved at A = 1, where the characteristic curve
is linear and no compression is done.
•A-law has mid-rise at the origin. Hence, it contains a non-zero value.
•A-law companding is used for PCM telephone systems.
µ-law Companding Technique
•Uniform quantization is achieved at µ = 0, where the characteristic curve is
linear and no compression is done.
•µ-law has mid-tread at the origin. Hence, it contains a zero value.
•µ-law companding is used for speech and music signals.
µ-law is used in North America and Japan.