Bautista, Alexa Marrie B.

2015
BS ECE/ Third Year/ T3A
No. 1

April

14,

Assignment

1. Define of the following terms:

a. Data
Data came from the Latin word datum which means something
given. It is a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables collected
and analyzed to create suitable information on which operations are
performed by a system, being stored and transmitted in the form of
electrical signals and recorded on magnetic, optical, or mechanical
recording media.
b. Information
It came from the Latin verb informare which means to give form,
or to form an idea of. It is defined as the data processed, stored, or
transmitted by a system. It is also the knowledge or intelligence that is
communicated between a transmitter or receiver.
c. Signal
It came from the Latin word signum which means mark or sign.
It is an electrical impulse or radio wave transmitted or received. It is also
an impluse or fluctuating quantity, as of electrical voltage or light intensity,
whose variations represent coded information.
d. Analog Signal
An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the
time variable of the signal is a representation of some other time varying
quantity. It is also a time-varying voltage or current that is continuously
changing which can be sine and cosine waves.
e. Digital Signal
It is the voltage or current that change in discrete steps or levels. It
is a pulse train signal that switches between a discrete number of voltage
levels or levels of light intensity, also known as a line coded signal
or baseband transmission, for example a signal found in digital electronics
or in serial communications. It is also any continuous-time waveform signal
used in digital communication, representing a bit stream or other sequence
of discrete values.
f. Digital Communication
Digital Communications include systems where relatively high
frequency analog carriers are modulated by relatively low frequency digital
information signals (digital radio) and systems involving the transmission
of digital pulses.

g. Digital Transmission
A true digital system where digital pulses (discrete levels such as
+5V and ground) are transferred between two or more points in a
communications system. With digital transmission, there is no analog
carrier, and the original source information may be in digital or analog
form.

2. Discuss the basic digital communication system.

The preceding figure shows the basic

communication system briefly dicussed as follows:

elements

of

digital

Information Source and Input Transducer: The source of

information can be analog or digital. In digital communication the
signal produced by this source is converted into digital signal consists
of 1s and 0s. For this we need source encoder.

Source Encoder: In digital communication we convert the signal from

source into digital signal as mentioned above. In such a way this
efficient representation of the source output results in little or no
redundancy. This sequence of binary digits is called information
sequence.

Channel Encoder: The information sequence is passed through the

channel encoder. The purpose of the channel encoder is to introduced,
in controlled manner, some redundancy in the binary information
sequence that can be used at the receiver to overcome the effects of
noise and interference encountered in the transmission on the signal
through the channel.

Digital Modulator: The binary sequence is passed to digital

modulator which in turns convert the sequence into electric signals so

that we can transmit them on channel. The digital modulator maps the
binary sequences into signal wave forms.

Channel: The communication channel is the physical medium that is

used for transmitting signals from transmitter to receiver. In wireless
system, this channel consists of atmosphere , for traditional telephony,
this channel is wired , there are optical channels, under water acoustic
cahnenls etc.

Digital Demodulator: The digital demodulator processes the channel

corrupted transmitted waveform and reduces the waveform to the
sequence of numbers that represents estimates of the transmitted
data symbols.

Channel Decoder: This sequence of numbers then passed through

the channel decoder which attempts to reconstruct the original
information sequence from the knowledge of the code used by the
channel encoder and the redundancy contained in the received data

Source Decoder: At the end, if an analog signal is desired then source

decoder tries to decode the sequence from the knowledge of the
encoding algorithm. And which results in the approximate replica of the
input at the transmitter end.

Output Transducer: Finally we get the desired signal in desired

format analog or digital.

3. Compare digital to analog communication system.

Signal
Waves
Representati
on

Analog
Analog signal is a continuous
signal which represents
physical measurements.
Denoted by sine waves
Uses continuous range of
values to represent information

System

Analog system records

waveforms as they are.

Data
Transmission
s

Subjected to deterioration by
noise during transmission and
write/read cycle.

Digital
Digital signals are discrete time
signals generated by digital
modulation.
Denoted by square waves
Uses discrete or discontinuous
values to represent information
Samples analog waveforms into
a limited set of numbers and
records them.
Can be noise-immune without
deterioration during
transmission and write/read
cycle.

Response to
Noise

More likely to get affected

reducing accuracy

Flexibility

Analog hardware is not flexible.

Uses

Can be used in analog devices

only. Best suited for audio and
video transmission.

Best suited for computing and

digital electronics.

Bandwidth

Analog signal processing can be

done in real time and consumes
less bandwidth.

There is no guarantee that

digital signal processing can be
done in real time and consumes
more bandwidth to carry out
the same information.

Memory
Power
Cost
Impedance

Stored in the form of wave

signal
Analog instrument draws large
power
Low cost and portable

Less affected since noise

response are analog in nature
Digital hardware is flexible in
implementation.

Stored in the form of binary bit

Digital instrument drawS only
negligible power
Cost is high and not easily
portable
High order of 100 M

Low
Analog instruments usually
Digital instruments are free
have a scale which is cramped
from observational errors like
Errors
at lower end and give
parallax and approximation
considerable observational
errors.
errors.
Tabulation from http://www.diffen.com/difference/Analog_vs_Digital

Sources
1. The Free Dictionary by Farlex on www.thefreedictionary.com
2. Tutorial I : Basic Elements of Digital Communication System posted
by Ashwini
Shankar
Patankar on July
10,
2009
on
https://wirelesscafe.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/tutorial-i-basic-elements-ofdigital-communication-system/
3. Analog
Versus
Digital
posted
on
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Analog_vs_Digital