Terms Used Electronic Communication Channels

The act of transmitting information is known as communication. Every living organism on the planet feels compelled to share or receive information with others in their environment on an almost constant basis. Modern communication can be traced back to the efforts of scientists like as J.C. Bose, F.B. Morse, G. Marconi, and Alexander Graham Bell in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After the first part of the twentieth century, the rate of development appears to have accelerated substantially. The purpose of this article is to examine the concepts used in electronic communication systems.

Also Read: What is Internet ?

Keywords: Electronic Communication, Signals, Transmitter, Antenna, Channel, Transducer, Amplitude, Modulators, Communication, Electrical circuits, Radio, television

---

Electronic Communication Systems

[Click Here for Sample Questions]

The transmission, receiving, and processing of data between two or more places using electrical circuits is known as electronic communications. Point-to-point and broadcast communication are the two most common kinds of communication. Communication occurs via a single connection between a single transmitter or a single receiver in point-to-point communication mode. In broadcast mode, on the other hand, a single transmitter is served by many receivers. The broadcast medium of communication includes radio and television. The transmitter, communications channel or medium, receiver, and noise are the essential components of an electronic communications system. Analog signals (such as human speech) or digital signals (binary data) are fed into the system, processed for transmission by electronic circuits, and decoded by the receiver. Only errors are minimized inside the process, making the system dependable and effective.

Also Read:

---

Terms Used in Electronic Communication Systems

[Click Here for Sample Questions]

It is crucial to understand the basic terminology underlying any communication system. Several of these terms discussed in this article are information, signal, amplifier, transducer, modulator, demodulator, repeaters, noise, channel, antenna, transmitter, attenuation, distortion, receiver, range, and bandwidth.

1. Information

The entity to be conveyed is the message or information. It is usually in the form of music, video, temperature, image, pressure, and so forth.

2. Signal

Any audio, video, or audio-visual content created, for example, cannot be transferred directly. It should be transformed into an electronic format first. This electronic form is referred to as a 'Signal.' Because electronics use only 1s and 0s (with 1 denoting 'on' or 'high' and 0 denoting 'off' or 'low,' the entire audio-visual system is transformed to binary. A 'Signal' is a binary form in the electrical medium.

3. Transducer

It is a device that transforms one type of energy into another. An electrical transducer is used to convert physical factors such as pressure, force, and temperature into electrical signal fluctuations. Microphone and a photodetector are some examples.

4. Amplifier

Amplification is the technique of using an electrical circuit to increase the amplitude of a signal. The intensity of a signal is measured in amplitude. An amplifier is a type of electrical circuit that is used for amplification. When the distance between the source and receiver gets too far, the signals reaching the receiver become too weak; an amplifier can be used to ensure that the receiver receives powerful signals.

5. Modulator

Most of the information/messages are transmitted at low frequencies, which experience significant attenuation and have a limited range. The original low-frequency data is overlaid on a high-frequency carrier wave that transports the data to overcome the problem of heavy attenuation. This is known as modulation, and there are three varieties of it: AM, FM, and PM.

6. Demodulator

Demodulation is the process of retrieving information from a carrier wave at a receiver. This is the reversal of the modulation process.

7. Transmitter

It is the device that converts a communication signal into a format suitable for transmission and subsequent reception.

8. Antenna

A structure or equipment that transmits and receives electromagnetic waves is known as an antenna. As a result, they are employed in transmitters as well as receivers.

9. Channel

It refers to the physical medium by which the signal is sent from the transmitter to the receiver. Examples include a wire, cables, or space.

10. Noise

Unwanted signals that disrupt the transmission and processing of message signals in a communication system are referred to as noise. The cause of the noise might be inside or outside of the system.

11. Attenuation

The medium causes attenuation, which is a concern. The starting strength of a signal falls as it propagates across a long distance through a medium, counting on the length of the medium. The reduction in starting power is proportional to the medium's length. The signal power is enhanced or amplified with amplifiers to reduce attenuation. In comparison to analog signals, digital transmissions are less vulnerable to attenuation.

12. Distortion

It is also a different kind of channel issue. When a signal is distorted, it may have a frequency and bandwidth that differs from the transmitted signal. The signal frequency fluctuation might be linear or nonlinear.

12. Receiver

The message or information from the sent signal at the channel's output end is retrieved by a receiver. As the original message signal is a receiver, it is replicated in a suitable format.

13. Range

It is the furthest distance between a source and a destination at which the signal is strong enough to be received.

14. Bandwidth

The frequency range across which an instrument function, or the fraction of the spectrum occupied by the signal, is referred to as bandwidth.

15. Repeaters

A repeater is a device that combines a transmitter and a receiver. A repeater receives a signal from a transmitter, amplifies it, and retransmits it to the receiver, often with a carrier frequency modification. Repeaters are used to increase a communication system's range. A communication satellite functions as a space-based repeater station.

Also Read: Modulation and Demodulation

---

Things to Remember

• Electronic communication is the precise transmission of data or a message (in the form of electrical voltage and current) from one location to another.
• A communication system's three fundamental units are the transmitter, transmission channel, and receiver.
• Analog and digital are two significant types of communication systems. The information to be communicated is usually in the continuous waveform for the analog signals. But merely discrete or quantized levels of the information are communicated for the digital signals.
• Some characteristics of the carrier signal, such as amplitude, frequency, or phase, change in response to the modulating or message signal in modulation. They are referred to as Amplitude Modulated (AM), Frequency Modulated (FM), or Phase Modulated (PM) waves, respectively.

Also Read: