Patent GB-644935-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to electric pulse code modulation systems of communication
Inventor: EARP CHARLES WILLIAM
IPC: H04B14/02
Filed: 1948-02-20
Abstract: 644,935. Multiplex pulse code signalling. STANDARD TELEPHONES & CABLES, Ltd. Feb. 20, 1948, No. 5012. [Class 40 (v)] In a pulse code modulation communication system, in which the signal amplitudes are represented by a pulse code of the binary type, a change of only one code element occurs when the signal amplitude changes by one step in any part of the amplitude scale. In a known simple addition 5-element binary code, the amplitude steps 0 ... 32, Fig. 1, set out horizontally are each represented by five code elements set out vertically. The shaded portions of the diagram represent code elements during which the pulse is absent and the other areas elements during which a pulse is present. The " staggered step " code used in the present system is set out in Fig. 2. A feature of this code, which is made use of in the demodulator, is that whenever a change occurs in code element n of Fig. 2, there is a simultaneous change of code element n and all elements of a higher number in the coding of Fig. 1. Transmitter.-The modulating signal is applied to frequency modulate the carrier frequency F of an oscillator 3, Fig. 6, between the limits FŒf. The output from the frequency modulator is fed, through valve 14, to a line 4 composed of thirty-two band-pass filter sections of band width 2f centred on frequency F and terminated by resistance 15. Five discriminators, corresponding to the five code elements, are supplied from tapping points in line 4 and with the direct output from modulated source 3. The circuit 5 of one of these discriminators comprises valves 22, 23, the former handling the direct output from valve 14 and the latter the output from the third shunt circuit of the delay network 4. The respective output circuits 26, 34 and 27, 35 are tuned to frequency F and one terminal of 26 is connected to the centre tap of 27. The ends of output winding 27 are connected to the anodes of double diode 36, the cathodes of which are connected through load resistances 37, 38 respectively to the other terminal of circuit 26. The series-connected resistances 37, 38 provide the output voltage which controls a trigger circuit 41. This output voltage varies with input frequency over the range F - f to F+f, curve (a), Fig. 7, as shown in curve (b), the frequencies F1, F2 being those at which the phase difference between the two inputs is 0 or 180 degrees and maximum negative and positive outputs are respectively produced. At frequency F the output is zero. The trigger circuit 41 is a double-stability multivibrator which is switched over when the input changes in sign from negative to positive and back when it changes from positive to negative. The network potentials fed to the other four discriminators are taken from the fourth, eighth, sixteenth and thirty-second sections, the resulting diode output voltages being represented by curves (c) ... (f), Fig. 7, and the corresponding trigger circuit outputs by the dotted lines. Each trigger circuit is followed by a gating valve 42, Fig. 8, to the grid 52 of which its output is applied in such a way that the negative portions completely block the valve and the positive portions provide zero voltage. The potential divider 49, 50 applies a cut-off voltage to the cathode, the portion 49 being shunted by a diode 51 to prevent the cathode going negative. A pulse train which provides pulses for coding is applied from a generator, not shown, to the cathode 53. and a pulse is repeated at the anode when the grid is unblocked at the time of its occurrence. The anode pulses from the five gating valves are assembled in any desired order by applying them to selected tappings on a delay line 43 which feeds the output terminal 54. The transmitter described may be one of, say, twenty, providing the twenty channel pulse trains of a multiplex system, the channel pulse trains being interlaced in time. In a modification the delay network 4, Fig. 6, is provided with fewer sections, frequency multipliers being interposed in the feeders to the discriminators, Fig. 9 (not shown). Receiver.-At the receiver, Fig. 10, a synchronizing pulse is separated from the received train of pulses in circuit 84 and used to control a code element separator 83 and a restoring pulse generator 85. The separator 83 delivers pulses, corresponding to the first code element, to all the five trigger circuits 58 ... 62. The second code element pulses are fed to the four trigger circuits 59 ... 62, the third to circuits 60 ... 62, the fourth to circuits 61, 62 and the fifth to circuit 62 only. Each trigger circuit comprises a flip-flop multivibrator circuit of the type in which each pulse supplied to it switches it over to its other stable condition. The output from each circuit is taken from a tapping on the anode resistance 68 of the right-hand valve. Before the code pulses set up the trigger circuits they are all set, by a restoring pulse on terminal 77, to the " unoperated " condition in which the left-hand valve is cut off, and after the code pulses have set up the circuits according to the simple addition binary code of Fig. 1, the voltage across common output resistance 91 is used to determine the amplitude of the output pulse from the gating circuit 92 supplied from generator 85. The tappings on the resistances 68 are set so that the contributions of the five trigger circuits to the output voltage are proportional to the numbers 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1. In this way the coding results in an output amplitude of one of 32 values proportional to the corresponding sampled amplitude at the transmitter. The code element pulses may be sent in an order different from that indicated in Fig. 2, by adjustment of the tappings on line 43, Fig. 8 The proper order may be restored by the code element separator 83, Fig. 10, or alternatively, the distribution of the output voltages of the trigger circuits 58 ... 62 may be appropriately changed. A staggered step code with more or less than five elements may be used. Specifications 535,860 and 644,936 are referred to. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 663,872.