Slide #2

3-7 Distinguish between data and signals. Cite the advantages of digital data and digital signals over analog data and analog
signals

Data is piece of information that needs to be moved and signals are the instruction to move data over the network

Digital Advantages: Advantages of Analog

Less expensive Uses less bandwidth
More reliable More accurate
Easy to manipulate
Flexible Disadvantages of Analogue -
Compatibility with other digital systems The effects of random noise can make signal loss and distortion
Disadvantages of Digital impossible to recover
1) Sampling Error
2) Digital communications require greater bandwidth than
analogue to transmit the same information.
3) The detection of digital signals requires the communications
system to be synchronised, whereas generally speaking this is not
the case with analogue systems.

Digital signals are less prone to noise or distortion than analogue signals
8-11 Identify the 3 basic measurements to describe an analog signal
Amplitude: The height of the wave above or below a given reference point. Measured in volts
Frequency: number of cycles per second. Measured in Hertz (Hz) : 1hz = 1 cycle
Phase: The position of the waveform relative to a given moment of time or relative to time zero

8-9 Discuss the bandwidth of a signal & how it relates to data transfer speed
Absolute value of the difference between the lowest and highest frequencies of a signal
• The average voice has a frequency range of roughly 300 Hz to 3100 Hz
• The spectrum would be 300 – 3100 Hz
• The bandwidth would be 2800 Hz

12-13 Identify signal strength and attenuation, and how they are related
Signal strength refers to the magnitude of the electric field at a reference point that is a significant distance from the transmitting antenna.
Attenuation is a loss of signal strength measured in decibels (dB).
14-31 Outline the basic characteristics of transmitting analog data with analog signals, digital data with digital signals, digital
data with analog signals and analog data with digital signals

1) Analog data transmitted using analog signals

– In order to transmit analog data, you can modulate the data onto a set of analog signals
 2) Digital data transmitted using digital signals
-There are 5 digital encoding schemes to transmit digital data over digital signals (NRZ –L, NRZ-I, Manchester, Differential
Manchester, Bipolar AMI)
- 4B/5B Digital Encoding Scheme
• Yet another encoding technique; this one converts four bits of data into five-bit quantities
• The five-bit quantities are unique in that no five-bit code has more than 2 consecutive zeroes
• The five-bit code is then transmitted using an NRZI encoded signal
3) Digital data transmitted using discrete analog signals
There are 3 base technique to transmit digital data to analog signals (Amplitude shift keying, Frequency shift keying, Phase
shift keying)
4) Analog data transmitted using digital signals
To convert analog data into a digital signal, there are two techniques: Pulse code modulation (the more common) and Delta
modulation

15-21 List and draw diagrams of the basic digital encoding techniques, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each
• NRZ-L transmits 1s as zero voltages and 0s as positive voltages
• NRZI has a voltage change at the beginning of a 1 and no voltage change at the beginning of a 0
• Manchester: Binary 0 represented by change from high to low in the middle of the time mark.
Binary 1 represented by a change from low to high in the middle of the time mark
• Differential Manchester: Binary 0 – represented by change at the beginning of the time mark. Binary
1 – represented by no change at the beginning of the time mark

• Bipolar-AMI: Has 3 voltage levels. binary 0 = zero voltage. binary 1 = positive or negative
voltage sent depending on last binary 1 sent

22-27 Identify the different shift keying (modulation) techniques and describe their advantages, disadvantages, and uses
Amplitude shift keying: One amplitude encodes a 0 while another amplitude encodes a 1
Frequency shift keying: One frequency encodes a 0 while another frequency encodes a 1
Phase shift keying: One phase change encodes a 0 while another phase change encodes a 1

28-31 Identify the two most common digitization techniques and describe their advantages and disadvantages
Pulse code modulation (the more common): The analog waveform is sampled at specific intervals and the “snapshots” are
converted to binary values

Delta modulation: An analog waveform is tracked, using a binary 1 to represent a rise in voltage, and a 0 to represent a drop

32-34 Identify the different data codes and how they are used in communication systems
Data codes are necessary to transmit the letters, numbers, symbols, and control characters found in text data
- Three important data codes are ASCII, EBCDIC, and Unicode