ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

HDB3

HDB3, or High Density Bipolar 3 Encoding, is a way of sending digital information over a physical medium like a wire. Imagine you have a string with different colored beads on it that you want to send to someone far away using a telephone line. But, instead of saying the color of each bead (which would take too long), you want to use a special code to represent the different colors.

HDB3 uses a special code that includes two kinds of symbols: plus signs and minus signs. The code tells the telephone company when to change the signal from a plus to a minus, or from a minus to a plus. Each change in signal tells the receiver that a new bit of information has been sent.

But, HDB3 also has a special rule to make sure there are no long strings of zeros in the signal. This is important because if there are too many zeros in a row, the signal could become confused with a complete lack of signal. To fix this problem, HDB3 replaces strings of zeros with special sequences using the plus and minus signs. This helps the receiver understand that the signal is still active, and that zeros are still being sent, even if they don't show up in a long string.

In summary, HDB3 is like a secret code that helps send information over a telephone line using plus and minus signs. It also has a special rule to avoid long strings of zeros that might confuse the receiver.