23 March 2020

Advantages and disadvantages of delta modulation

DM stands for delta modulation, It is used for analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal conversion techniques. It is used for the transmission of voice information where quality is not of primary importance modulation. Now here let us discuss the benefits or advantages and drawbacks and disadvantages of delta modulation to better understand this topic.

Related article: Pros and cons of Direct Stream Digital

Advantages of delta modulation:

  • The transmitter and receiver implementation is very simple for data modulation. There is no analog to digital converter was required in delta modulation (DM).
  • It is a cost-effective technique and can be used if financial problems there.
  • Delta modulation transmits only one bit for one sample, therefore the signaling rate and transmission channel bandwidth is quite small for the delta modulation as compared to the pulse code modulation.
  • It requires less quantization.
  • The amplitude of the speech signal does not exceed the maximum sinusoidal amplitude.
  • PCM has a sampling rate higher than the Nyquist rate, The encoded signal contains redundant information while in delta modulation can efficiently remove this redundancy.

Disadvantages of delta modulation:

  • Slope overload distortion.
  • Granular or idle noise.
  • High bit rate.
  • Its practical usage is limited.
  • Poor start-up response.
  • It requires a predictor and hence it is very complex.
  • Modulator overload when the slope of the signal is too high.
  • If changes in signal are less than the step size, then the modulator no longer follows the signal. Thus produces a train of alternating positive and negative pulses.