Analog Digital Comparison

Running Head: ANALOG AND DIGITAL COMPARISON 1

Analog and Digital Comparison

Gerardo Maya

01/28/13

NTC/362

ANALOG AND DIGITAL COMPARISON 2

Analog and Digital Comparison

The improvements in technology have impacted people's everyday lives immensely. Particularly, in the manner those individuals communicate. Telecommunications has seen a vast change over the years that can date back to when the telegraph was invented by Samuel F.B. Morse in 1832. In order for there to be successful communication two specifications must be fulfilled. First is the transmitter and receiver must understand each other. The second requirement is the ability to identify errors while they're in occurrence and have a solution to fix the errors. Communication is carried by data devices through transmission lines; transmission lines come in the form of circuits, channels, lines, trunks, and virtual circuits. The two forms of transmission are analog and digital transmission.

Analog transmission is the traditional form of sending and receiving signals in telecommunications. Analog signals are in the form of waves that are composed of amplitude and frequency. Analog transmissions are sent along single channels. Before the introduction of digital transmission, analog transmission was used for radio, television, and telephones. Analog transmission duplicates the sound or image from where it was sent. Voice signals are transmitted as sound waves; the duplicate of the sound wave is transmitted as electricity through a wire and then converted once again into a sound wave to the receiver. The same process takes place with television. Analog transmissions have low bandwidth; therefore they cannot support high-speed data. Analog transmission also tends to accumulate more noise or errors. The reason is because signal wave amplify sound, so static or noises can be gathered up and also be amplified.

Digital transmission on the other hand, is a lot easier to comprehend. The signals are made up of pulses that embody one bits and zero bits known as the binary system (Goleniewski

ANALOG AND DIGITAL COMPARISON 3

& Jarret, 2007). Voice or image signals are converted into numbers pre-transmission. The ones and zeros can be sent through either electrical or optical networks. Digital signals in electrical networks generate one bits as high voltage and zero bits as low voltage (Goleniewski & Jarret, 2007). Digital signals in optical networks generate one bits by the existence of light and zero bits by the absence of light (Goleniewski & Jarret, 2007). The receiver of the signals figures out what the bits represent. Also digital signals can be regenerated as they move along a network. Unlike analog signals, digital signals eliminate noise and enhance the error rate. Digital transmission offers high bandwidth that supports high-speed data.

Analog transmissions can be converted into digital transmissions and vice versa. Those conversions are made possible