Communication is a process of transmitting information or exchange of information from one point to another. The exchange of information in our daily life is in the form of signals. These real life signals, like audio signals are, generally analog in nature. So, if we want to establishes communication over a long distance, then the analog signals are sent through wire, using different techniques like telegraphy and telephony. But these analog communication techniques used in early days.
Now in modern communication systems, including the internet, telecommunications, wireless networks, we use Digital Communication.
Need of Digitization
Analog communication is a conventional method of communication, through which we can transmit analog signal over a log distance but analog signals are more susceptible to noise and interference.
So, to solve this problem we convert our analog signal into digital signal. Digital signal are discrete signals represented by binary digits (bits) – 0s and 1s. Digital signals are less susceptible to noise, distortion and interference and provide more reliable and efficient transmission of data over long distances.
Digital communication plays a important role in various fields, such as telecommunications, internet communication, satellite communication, digital broadcasting, mobile networks, and data storage.
Advantages of Digital Communication
Digital communication offers various advantages over conventional analog communication are:
- Digital signals are less affected by noise, distortion and interference during transmission compared to analog signals.
- Digital signals more robust, leading to better signal quality and reliability.
- Digital circuits are more reliable.
- Digital circuits are easy to design and cheaper than analog circuits.
- Digital communication can employ encryption techniques, ensuring the confidentiality and privacy of sensitive information.
- Digital communication systems can employ various error detection and correction techniques. These mechanisms help identify and rectify errors that may occur during data transmission.
- Digital signals can be easily processed and manipulated using digital signal processing (DSP) techniques.
- The occurrence of cross-talk is very less in digital communication.
- Through digital communication we send various type of information such as text, images, audio, and video, into a single data stream.
- Digital communication enables multiplexing, this optimizes the use of available resources and increases overall efficiency.
- Digital signals can be compressed easier, allowing the transmission of large amounts of information in less bandwidth.