Encoding Techniques and Codec

by Dinesh Thakur Category: Communication Networks

It is required that information must be encoded into signals before it can be transported across
communication media. In more precise words we may say that the waveform pattern of voltage or
current used to represent the 1s and 0s of a digital signal on a transmission link is called digital to
digital line encoding. There are different encoding schemes available:

Digltal-to-Digltal Encoding

It is the representation of digital information by a digital signal.

                                                   

There are basically following types of digital· to-digital encoding available like:

 Unipolar

 Polar

 Bipolar.

Unipolar

 Unipolar encoding uses only one level of value 1 as a positive value and 0 remains Idle. Since
unipolar line encoding has one of its states at 0 Volts, it’s also called Return to Zero (RTZ) as shown in
Figure. A common example of unipolar line encoding is the 11'L logic levels used in computers and
digital logic.

                                

Unipolar encoding represents DC (Direct Current) component and therefore, ca.'1nottravel through
media such as microwaves or transformers. It has low noise margin and needs extra hardware for
synchronization purposes. It is well suited where the signal path is short. For long distances, it
produces stray capacitance in the transmission medium and therefore, it never returns to zero as
shown in Figure.
                                  

Polar

Polar encoding uses two levels of voltages say positive and negative. For example, the RS:232D
interface uses Polar line encoding. The signal does not return to zero; it is either a positive voltage or
a negative voltage. Polar encoding may be classified as non·return to zero (NRZ), return to zero (RZ)
and biphase. NRZ may be further divided into NRZ·L and NRZ·I. Biphase has also two different
categories as Manchester and Differential Manchester encoding. Polar line encoding is the simplest
pattern that eliminates most of the residua! DC problem. Figure shows the Polar line encoding. It has
the same problem of synchronization as that of unipolar encoding. The added benefit of polar
encoding is that it reduces the power required to transmit the signal by one-half.

                                           

Non-Return to Zero (NRZ)

In NRZ·L, the level of the signal is 1 if the amplitude is positive and 0 in case of negative amplitude.

In NRZ·I, whenever a positive amplitude or bit I appears in the signal, the signal gets inverted,

Figure explains the concepts of NRZ-L and NRZ·I more precisely.

                                  

Return to Zero (RZ)

RZ uses three values to represent the signal. These are positive, negative, and zero. Bit 1is
represented when signal changes from positive to zero. Bit 0 is represented when signal changes
from negative to zero. Figure explains the RZ concept.

                                   

Biphase
Biphase is implemented in two different ways as Manchester and Differential Manchester encoding.

In Manchester encoding, transition happens at the middle of each bit period. A low to high transition
represents a 1 and a high to low transition represents a 0.In case of Differential Manchester
encoding, transition occurs at the beginning of a bit time, which represents a zero.

These encoding can detect errors during transmission because of the transition during every bit
period. Therefore, the absence of a transition would indicate an error condition. They have no DC
component and there is always a transition available for synchronizing receives and transmits clocks.

Bipolar

Bipolar uses three voltage levels. These are positive, negative, and zero. Bit 0 occurs at zero level of
amplitude. Bit 1 occurs alternatively when the voltage level is either positive or negative and
therefore, also called as Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI). There is no DC component because of the
alternate polarity of the pulses for Is. Figure describes bipolar encoding.

                            

Unipolar scheme –
In this scheme, all the signal levels are either above or below the axis.
 Non return to zero (NRZ) – It is unipolar line coding scheme in which positive
voltage defines bit 1 and the zero voltage defines bit 0. Signal does not return
to zero at the middle of the bit thus it is called NRZ. For example: Data = 10110.
 But this scheme uses more power as compared to polar scheme to send one bit
per unit line resistance. Moreover for continuous set of zeros or ones there will
be self-synchronization and base line wandering problem.
Polar schemes –
In polar schemes, the voltages are on the both sides of the axis.
 NRZ-L and NRZ-I – These are somewhat similar to unipolar NRZ scheme but
here we use two levels of amplitude (voltages). For NRZ-L(NRZ-Level), the
level of the voltage determines the value of the bit, typically binary 1 maps to
logic-level high, and binary 0 maps to logic-level low, and for NRZ-I(NRZ-
Invert), two-level signal has a transition at a boundary if the next bit that we are
going to transmit is a logical 1, and does not have a transition if the next bit that
we are going to transmit is a logical 0.
Note – For NRZ-I we are assuming in the example that previous signal before
starting of data set “01001110” was positive. Therefore, there is no transition at
the beginning and first bit “0” in current data set “01001110” is starting from +V.
Example: Data = 01001110.

Comparison between NRZ-L and NRZ-I: Baseline wandering is a problem for

both of them, but for NRZ-L it is twice as bad as compared to NRZ-I. This is
because of transition at the boundary for NRZ-I (if the next bit that we are going
to transmit is a logical 1). Similarly self-synchronization problem is similar in
both for long sequence of 0’s, but for long sequence of 1’s it is more severe in
NRZ-L.
 Return to zero (RZ) – One solution to NRZ problem is the RZ scheme, which
uses three values positive,negative,and zero. In this scheme signal goes to 0 in
the middle of each bit.
Note – The logic we are using here to represent data is that for bit 1 half of the
signal is represented by +V and half by zero voltage and for bit 0 half of the
signal is represented by -V and half by zero voltage. Example: Data = 01001.

Main disadvantage of RZ encoding is that it requires greater bandwidth.

Another problem is the complexity as it uses three levels of voltage. As a result
 of all these deficiencies, this scheme is not used today. Instead, it has been
replaced by the better-performing Manchester and differential Manchester
schemes.
 Biphase (Manchester and Differential Manchester ) – Manchester
encoding is somewhat combination of the RZ (transition at the middle of the bit)
and NRZ-L schemes. The duration of the bit is divided into two halves. The
voltage remains at one level during the first half and moves to the other level in
the second half. The transition at the middle of the bit provides synchronization.
Differential Manchester is somewhat combination of the RZ and NRZ-I
schemes. There is always a transition at the middle of the bit but the bit values
are determined at the beginning of the bit. If the next bit is 0, there is a
transition, if the next bit is 1, there is no transition.
Note –
1. The logic we are using here to represent data using Manchester is that for bit
1 there is transition form -V to +V volts in the middle of the bit and for bit 0 there
is transition from +V to -V volts in the middle of the bit.
2. For differential Manchester we are assuming in the example that previous
signal before starting of data set “010011” was positive. Therefore there is
transition at the beginning and first bit “0” in current data set “010011” is starting
from -V. Example: Data = 010011.

The Manchester scheme overcomes several problems associated with NRZ-L,

and differential Manchester overcomes several problems associated with NRZ-I
as there is no baseline wandering and no DC component because each bit has
a positive and negative voltage contribution.
Only limitation is that the minimum bandwidth of Manchester and differential
Manchester is twice that of NRZ.
Bipolar schemes –
In this scheme there are three voltage levels positive, negative, and zero. The
voltage level for one data element is at zero, while the voltage level for the other
element alternates between positive and negative.
 Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI) – A neutral zero voltage represents binary 0.
Binary 1’s are represented by alternating positive and negative voltages.
  Pseudoternary – Bit 1 is encoded as a zero voltage and the bit 0 is encoded
as alternating positive and negative voltages i.e., opposite of AMI scheme.
Example: Data = 010010.

The bipolar scheme is an alternative to NRZ.This scheme has the same signal
rate as NRZ,but there is no DC component as one bit is represented by voltage
zero and other alternates every time.

List three ways in which the CRC algorithm can be described.

Three ways

Modulo 2 arithmetic, polynomials, and digital logic.

MULTIPLEXING

ERROR DETECTION

Types of error

 One Single bit error- only one bit gets corrupted. Its common in parallel transmission.
 Burst error

message D = 1010001101

pattern P = 110101