DELTA MODULATION
Communications Systems Glossary
Communications Systems — Line Coding — Delta modulation
Information on Delta Modulation
Delta modulation can be considered to be an incremental pulse-code modulation (PCM) system where, rather than transmitting the absolute amplitude at each sampling, only the changes in signal amplitude from sampling instant to sampling instant are transmitted. This provides a simpler system and requires less information to be transmitted. The range of signal amplitudes is divided into a similar number of quantisation levels as in pulse-code modulation systems. However, at each sampling, the presence or absence of only one transmitted pulse contains the information. The delta-modulation code is therefore a one-element code in which a '1' is transmitted if the sampled signal at any sampling instant is greater than the immediately previous sampling instant. A '0' is transmitted if the sampled signal is lower. The step size is called delta (the Greek letter) and hence the name delta modulation.
Other topics in our resources on Communications Systems related to Delta modulation include:
If you wish to nominate related terms to improve our glossaries, please contact Argos Press. © Argos Press Pty Ltd, Canberra, 2003-2004. All rights reserved. Please contact Argos Press to seek permission to broadcast, adapt, reproduce and communicate Argos Press content (such as this entry on Delta Modulation).