Chapter 10: Digital Transmission - Review Notes

This is the summary notes of the important terms and concepts in Chapter 10 of the book "Electronic Communications System" by Wayne Tomasi. The notes are properly synchronized and concise for much better understanding of the book. Make sure to familiarize this review notes to increase the chance of passing the ECE Board Exam.

CHAPTER 10

DIGITAL TRANSMISSION

Items	Definitions	Terms
1	Is the transmittal of digital signals between two or more points in a communications system.	Digital Transmission
2	_________ developed the first digital transmission system for the purpose of carrying digitally encoded analog signals, such as human voice, over metallic wire cables between telephone offices.	AT&T
3	The primary advantage of digital transmission over analog transmission.	Noise Immunity
4	Digital signals are also better suited than analog signals for processing and combining using a technique called _____.	Multiplexing
5	Is the processing of analog signals using digital methods and includes bandlimiting the signal with filters, amplitude equalization, and phase shifting.	Digital Signal Processing ( DSP )
6	Digital transmission systems are more resistant to analog systems to additive noise because they use ________ rather than signal amplification.	Signal Regeneration
7	Consist essentially of sampling analog information signals and then converting those samples into discrete pulses and transporting the pulses from a source to a destination over a physical transmission medium.	Pulse Modulation
8	The four predominant methods of pulse modulation.	PWM, PPM, PAM and PCM
9	Sometimes called pulse duration modulation (PDM) or pulse length modulation (PLM), as the width (active portion of the duty cycle) of a constant amplitude pulse is varied proportional to the amplitude of the analog signal at the time the signal is sampled.	Pulse Width Modulation ( PWM )
10	The position of a constant-width pulse within a prescribed time slot is varied according to the amplitude of the sample of the analog signal.	Pulse Position Modulation ( PPM )
11	The amplitude of a constant-width, constant-position pulse is varied according to the amplitude of the sample of the analog signal.	Pulse Amplitude Modulation
12	The analog signal is sampled and then converted to a serial n-bit binary code for transmission.	Pulse Code Modulation ( PCM )
13	__________ is credited with inventing PCM in 1937 while working for AT&T at its Paris laboratories.	Alex H. Reeves
14	A circuit that periodically samples the analog input signal and converts those samples to a multilevel PAM signal.	Sample-and-Hold Circuit
15	The transmission line ________ are placed at prescribed distances to regenerate the digital pulses.	Repeaters
16	An integrated circuit that performs the PCM encoding and decoding functions.	Codec ( Coder / Decoder )
17	The function of a _________ in a PCM transmitter is to periodically sample the continually changing analog input voltage and convert those samples to a series of constant-amplitude pulses that can more easily be converted to binary PCM code.	Sampling Circuit
18	The sampling process alters the frequency spectrum and introduces an error called _________.	Aperture Error
19	The ________ of the capacitor is called the A/D conversion time because it is during this time that the ADC converts the sample voltage to a PCM code.	Storage Time
20	If the input to the ADC is changing while it is performing the conversion, _______ results.	Aperture Distortion
21	_________ theorem establishes the minimum sampling rate (fs) that can be used for a given PCM system.	Nyquist Sampling
22	The binary codes used for PCM are _________, where n may be any positive integer greater than 1.	N-Bit Codes
23	The sign bit in a sign-magnitude code.	Most Significant Bit ( MSB )
24	Is the process of converting an infinite number of possibilities to a finite number of conditions. Is the process of rounding off the amplitudes of flat-top samples to a manageable number of levels.	Quantization
25	A type of code where the codes on the bottom half of the table are a mirror image of the codes on the top half, except for the sign bit.	Folded Binary Code
26	The magnitude difference between adjacent steps.	Quantization Interval or Quantum
27	If the magnitude of the sample exceeds the highest quantization interval, ________ (also called peak limiting) occurs.	Overload Distortion
28	Any round-off errors in the transmitted signal are reproduced when the code is converted back to analog in the receiver.	Quantization Error (Qe ) Quantization Noise (Qn)
29	Is the ratio of the largest possible magnitude to the smallest possible magnitude (other than 0V) that can be decoded by the digital-to-analog converter in the receiver.	Dynamic Ratio
30	During times when there is no analog input signal, the only input to the PAM sampler is random, thermal noise also called as __________, that is converted to a PAM sample just as if it were a signal.	Idle Channel Noise
31	A way to reduce idle channel noise wherein the first quantization interval is made larger in amplitude than the rest of the steps.	Midtread Quantization
32	Is the process of compressing and then expanding.	Companding
33	Two methods of companding:	μ-Law and A-law Companding
34	Involves compression in the transmitter after the input sample has been converted to a linear PCM code and then expansion in the receiver prior to PCM decoding.	Digital Companding
35	When digitizing speech signals only, special voice encoders/decoders called _______ are often used	Vacoders
36	A _________ coder extracts the most significant portions of speech information directly from the time waveform rather than from the frequency spectrum as with the channel and formant vocoders.	Linear Predictive
37	_________ modulation uses a single-bit PCM code to achieve digital transmission of analog signals.	Delta
38	Two problems associated with delta modulation that do not occur with conventional PCM.	Slope Overload and Granular Subdivision
39	With ________, the difference in the amplitude of two successive samples is transmitted rather than the actual sample.	Differential PCM ( DPCM )
40	The secondary lobes are called __________.	Ringing test
41	_________ causes crosstalk between channels that occupy adjacent time slots in a time-division-multiplexed carrier system.	Inter symbol interference ( ISI )
42	Special filters called _________ are inserted in the transmission path to “equalize” the distortion for all frequencies, creating uniform transmission medium reducing transmission impairments.	Equalizers
43	A ________ is simply the superposition of a series of harmonically related sine waves with specific amplitude and phase relationships.	Pulse Modulation
44	The decision levels for the regenerator are represented by	Crosshairs
45	The _______ has an effect on the symbol timing (clock) recovery circuit and, if excessive, may significantly degrade the performance of cascaded regenerative sections.	Jitter

Complete List of Reviewers in Electronic Communications System per Chapter

Reviewer in Electronic Communications System by Wayne Tomasi

Important List of Communications Engineering Materials

Communications Engineering Coaching Materials

Series of Communications Engineering Exams: ECE Pre-Board

Series of Questions and Answers in Communications Engineering

Multiple Choice Questions in Data Communications and Networking

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