Contents
Definition Block Coding
Steps of Block Coding
4B/5B (four binary/five binary )
Disadvantages of 4B/5B
Block Coding
helps in error detection and re-transmission of the signal.
normally referred to as mB/nB coding as it replaces each m-bit data group with an n-
bit data group (where n>m)
adds extra bits (redundancy bits) which helps in synchronization and some kind of
error detecting capability.
Three steps
division step, a sequence of bits is divided into groups of m-bits
substitution step, we substitute an m-bit group for an n-bit group
Combination step the n-bit groups are combined together to form a stream
which has more bits than the original bits.
Using block coding 4B/5B with NRZ-I line coding
scheme
4B/5B (four binary/five binary )
Designed to be used in combination with NRZ-I
Solves the synchronization problem of NRZ-I
The block-coded stream does not have more than three consecutive zeros
Example
Disadvantages
increases the signal rate of NRZ-L
it does not solve the DC component problem of NRZ-L.
8B/10B block encoding
The eight binary / ten binary (8B/10B) encoding is similar to 4B/5B encoding except that a group of 8 bits
of data is now substituted by a 10-bit code. It provides greater error detection capability than 4B/5B.
The 8B/10B block coding is actually a combination of 5B/6B & 3B/4B encoding, as shown in Figure.
The five most significant bits of a 10-bit block are fed into the 5B/6B encoder; the three least significant
bits are fed into a 3B/4B encoder. The split is done to simplify the mapping table. To prevent a long run of
consecutive 0s or 1s, the code uses a disparity controller which keeps track of excess 0s over 1s (or 1s over
0s)