Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Al-Mustaqbal University College

Computer Engineering Techniques Department

Subject: Digital Communications

Class: 3rd

Lecture Four-Five
"Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) "

By
Msc. Musadaq Mahir

2021-2022

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

Pulse code modulation (PCM)

Pulse code modulation (PCM) is the name given to the class of
baseband signals obtained from the quantized PAM signals by encoding
each quantized sample into a digital word. Figure below shows the steps
required in PCM communication.

The source of information is sampled and quantized to one of L-

levels, then each quantized sample is digitally encoded into a k-bits
code word.

Where
k log2 L
L 2k

The essential features of binary PCM are shown in figure below.

Assume that an analog signal, x(t), is limited in its excursions to the

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

range (-4V to +4V). The step size between quantization levels has been
set at 1V. Thus eight quantization level are employed, these located at
-3.5V, -2.5V, ………., +3.5V.
The code number 0 may be assigned to the level at -3.5V; the code
number 1 may be assigned to the level at -2.5V, and so on until the level
at 3.5V, which is assigned the code number 7.
Each code number has its representation in binary arithmetic,
ranging from 000 for code number 0 to 111 for code number 7.

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 From the above figure each sample of analog signal is assigned to the
quantization level closest to the value of the sample. Beneath the analog
waveform, x(t), are seen four representations of x(t) as follows:- the
natural sample value, the quantized sample value, the code numbers, and
the PCM sequence.

 Quantization
The objective of the quantization step in PCM process is to represent
each sample by a fixed number of bits.
For example, if the amplitude of PAM resulting from sampling process
ranges between (-1V and +1V), there can be infinite values of voltage
between (-1 and +1). For instance, one value can be -0.27689V. To assign
a different binary sequence to each voltage value, we would have to
construct a code of infinite length. Therefore, we can take a limit
number of voltage values between (-1V and +1V) to represent the original
signal and these values must be discrete.
Assume that the quantization steps were in 0.1V increment, and the
voltage measurement for one sample is 0.58V. That would have to be
rounded off to 0.6V, the nearest discrete value. Note that there is a
0.02V error, the difference between 0.58V and 0.6V. See figure below.
Take step 12 in the curve, for example, the curve is passing through a
maximum and is given tow values of 12. For the first value, the actual
curve is above 12 and for second value below 12. That error from the
true value to the quantum value is called quantization distortion.
This distortion is the major source of imperfection in PCM system.

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

+1 15

12

1
-1 0

12 12

Code value

The more quantization level, the better quality the system will
deliver. However, increasing the number of quantization level has two
major costs:-
1) The cost of designing a system with large binary code size needed.
2) The time it takes to process this large number of quantizing steps by the
coder.
Therefore, a very large number of quantizing levels may induce
unwanted delays in the system.

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

Uniform and Nonuniform Quantization

Form the above discussion it can be seen that the quantization
noise depends on the step size. When the steps have uniform size the
quantization called as uniform quantization.
For uniform quantization, the quantization noise is the same for all
signal magnitudes. Therefore, with uniform quantization the signal to
noise ratio (SNR) is worse for low level signals than for high level
signals.
Nonuniform quantization can provide fine quantization of the
weak signal and coarse quantization of the strong signal. Thus in the
case of nonuniform quantization, quantization noise can be made
proportional to signal size. The effect is to improve the overall SNR by
reducing the noise for the predominant weak signals, at the expense of
an increase in noise for the rarely occurring strong signals. Figure
below compares the quantization of strong signal versus a weak signal
for uniform and nonuniform quantization.

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

 Noise consideration in PCM system

The performance of a PCM system is influenced by two major
sources of noise.
1) Channel noise, which is introduced anywhere between the
transmitter output and the receiver input, channel noise is always
present, once the equipment is switched on.
2) Quantization noise, which is introduced in the transmitter and is
carried all the way along to the receiver output.

Quantization Noise
The peak signal to r.m.s noise power ratio is given by
S0
3L2
N0
S0
) 4.8 20log L
dB 10
N0
where L=number of quantizer level.
S0= peak signal power.
N0= r.m.s noise power.
Increasing L increases the number of code pulses and hence the
bandwidth. We can thus relate SNR to bandwidth. This is easily done
by noting that

L nm
where m=the number pulses in code group.

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

n=the number of code levels.

S
 0 3n2m
N0
and

S0
) 4.8 20m log n
dB 10
N

In particular, for binary code n=2.

S0
)dB 4.8 6m
N0

Since the bandwidth is proportional to m, the output SNR increases

exponentially with bandwidth.

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

Example 13
Ten voice channels each of bandwidth (B.W) =3.2 KHz are
sequentially sampled at 8 KHz and TDM’ed.
(a) What is the system bandwidth (B.W).
(b) If TDM’ed signal is PCM’ed using 8-level quantization, find bit rate
(Rb)

Solution:-
(a) Without guard band

Ts  1  1 125 sec.
f s 8KHz
10 voice channels,  10 samples
10
 Necessary B.W= 80KHz
125 106
bit
(b) k log 2 L log2 8 3
sample
sample bit bit
Rb  80 10 3
3
240
sec. sample sec.

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

Example 21
The information in an analog waveform, with maximum frequency
fm=3 KHz, is to be transmitted over M level PCM system, where
number of pulse level M=16. The quantization distortion is specified
not to exceed 1% of the peak-to-peak analog signal.
(a) What is the minimum number of bits/sample, or bits/PCM word that
should be used in this PCM system.
(b) What is the minimum required sampling rate, and what is the
resulting bit transmission rate.
(c) What is the PCM pulse or symbol transmission rate.

Solution:-
Note:- in this example we are considered with two types of levels, the
number of quantization levels (L), and the 16 level of the multilevel
PCM pulses (M).
(a) By using

1
L levels
2p

1
k log
2 p bits
2

where L=number of quantization level, k=number of bits, and

p=fraction of peak-to-peak analog voltage.
1
k log log 50 5.6
2 0.01
2 2

k 6 L 2 k 64

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Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

The number of bit/samples =k =6

(b) fs=2fm=6000 sample/second

 bit transmission rate Rb kf s
Rb 6 6000 36000 bit/sec

(c) Since multilevel pulses are to be used with M=2m=16

m=4 bit/symbol
 The bit stream will be partitioned into groups of 4-
bits to form a new 16-level PCM digit.
Symbol transmission rate (Rs)
Digital Communications The Lecturer: Musadaq Mahir

Example 3
(a) Find the minimum required bandwidth for the base-band
transmission of 4-level PCM pulses sequence having a data rate of
Rb=2400 bit/sec. if the system transfer characteristic consists of a
raised cosine spectrum with 100% excess bandwidth (r=1).
(b) The same PCM sequence is modulated on to a carrier wave,
so that the base-band spectrum is shifted and centered at
frequency . Find the minimum required DSB bandwidth for
transmitting the modulated PCM sequence. Assume that the
system transfer characteristic is the same in part (a).

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