Information and communication technology

Information has been very important in business, politics, education and sports in particular and all walks of life in general. Several research works have been done on ways to improve communication of information from one location to another (point-to-point) and from location to many locations (point-to-multipoint). The technology for transferring information started with analog communication system and it has now been improved to digital communication system which offers efficiency, better performance and greater flexibility.

Analog and Digital Communication Systems

Analog communication systems can send along signals from one location to another or from one location to many locations. An analog signal is a continuously varying waveform that is similar to a voice or sound wave. One of the signals used in analog communication is Amplitude Modulation Radio Signal.

Digital communication systems can transmit real valued discrete time signals. A digital signal is a sequence of discrete pulses of 1’s and 0’s. Global system for mobile communication (G.S.M) signal is an example of digital communication system.

Although, analog systems are less expensive in many cases than digital ones for the same application, digital systems offer greater efficiency, better performance and greater flexibility.

In addition to digital communication’s ability to transmit a variety of signals than analog systems, point-to-point digital systems can be organized into global systems that provide efficient and flexible information transmission.

Digital. Analog. The block diagram on the top shows the blocks common to all communication systems.

The Merits and Demerits of Analog and Digital Communication System

Advantages of Digital Communication System

• Less expensive
• More reliable
• Easy to manipulate
• Flexible
• Compatibility with other digital systems
• Only digitized information can be transported through a noisy channel without degradation
• Integrated networks

Disadvantages of Digital Communication System

• Sampling Error
• Digital communications require greater bandwidth than analogue to transmit the same information.
• The detection of digital signals requires the communications system to be synchronized, whereas generally speaking this is not the case with analogue systems.

Advantages of Analogue Communication System

• Uses less bandwidth
• More accurate

Disadvantages of Analogue Communication System

• The effects of random noise can make signal loss and distortion impossible to recover.

ASSESSMENT

1. Differentiate between Analog and Digital communication system?
2. List FIVE merit of digital communication system?