PULSE CODE MODULATION:

 PCM is the method of converting an analog signal to digital

signal.
 With Pulse Code Modulation (PCM), the amplitude of the sound
wave is sampled at regular intervals and translated into a binary
number.
 The difference between the original analog signal and the
translated digital signal is called quantizing error.
ADVANTAGES OF DIGITAL
COMMUNICATION :
 Digital signals are very easy to receive. The receiver has to just detect whether
the pulse is low or high.
 In digital signals, the original signal can be reproduced accurately.
 The signals lose power as they travel, which is called attenuation. When AM
and FM signals are amplified, the noise also get amplified. But the digital
signals can be cleaned up to restore the quality and amplified by the
regenerators.
 The noise may change the shape of the pulses but not the pattern of the pulses.
 The digital signals can be stored, or used to produce a display on a computer
monitor or converted back into analog signal to drive a loud speaker.
PCM PROCESSES:
 The practical implementation of PCM makes use of other processes. The
processes are carried out in the order in which they appear below:
 Sampling
 Quantizing
 Encoding
SAMPLING:
 Sampling is the reduction of a continuous-time signal to a discrete-time signal.
 A common example is the conversion of a sound wave (a continuous signal) to a
sequence of samples (a discrete-time signal).
 Sampling Rate:
 The no. of pulses per second is called “sampling rate”.
 Instantaneous sampling of the message signal x(t) every Ts seconds, where the
sampling rate fs = 1/Ts is chosen in accordance with the sampling theorem
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SAMPLING
METHODS:
 Ideal - an impulse at each sampling instant
 Natural - a pulse of short width with varying amplitude
 Flattop - sample and hold, like natural but with single amplitude value
QUANTIZING:
 The process of dividing the maximum value of the analog signal into a fixed
no. of levels in order to convert the PAM signal into a Binary Code. It
transforms message signal m(t) at time t=nTs into a discrete amplitude signals.
 Since the quantization is an approximation process, it results into an
approximation error called quantization noise.
Quantization:

 Sampling results in a series of pulses of varying amplitude values ranging

between two limits :a min and a max.
 The amplitude values are infinite between the two limits.
 We need to map the infinite amplitude values onto finite set of known values.
 This is achieved by dividing the distance between min and max into L
zones,each of height.

 The midpoint of each zone is assigned a value 0 to L-1.

 Each sample falling in a zone is then approximated to the value of the midpoint
.
QUANTIZation zones:
 Assume we have a voltage signal with amplitudes :
 Vmin=-20V and Vmax=+20V.
 We want to use L=8 quantization levels.
 Zone width:
(20-(-20))/8=5
 The 8 zones are:
-20 to -15,-15 to -10,-10 to -5, -5 to 0,
0 to +5,+5 to +10,+10 to +15,+15 to +20.
 The mid points are:
-17.5,-12.5,-7.5,-2.5,2.5,7.5,12.5,17.5.
ADVANTAGES OF PCM:
 Uniform Transmission Quality
 Compatibility of different classes of Traffic in the
Network
 Integrated Digital Network
 Increased utilization of Existing Circuit
 Low Manufacturing Cost
 Good Performance Over Very poor Transmission Path
APPLICATIONs:
 In compact disk
 Digital telephony
 Digital audio applications
 The microphone and line-in circuits on a sound card
generate PCM samples, and all sound cards require
PCM for output. Compressed audio formats such as
MP3 and AAC are converted to PCM first, and The
sound card converts the PCM to analog for the speakers