Types of Data Transmission

Introduction

• Topic: Types of data transmission (also called data communication)
• Definition: Techniques and types used to send data from source to destination

Types of Data Transmission

1. Analog Signal
2. Digital Signal

Analog Signal

• Form: Sine waves (continuous signal)
• Range: Includes floating point values (e.g., 0.1, 0.2, ... up to 1)
• Representation: Waveform
• Characteristics: Continuous, slow transition
• Applications: Temperature, sound, movement, pressure
• Examples: Speech, voice on telephone, analog watch

Digital Signal

• Form: Binary (0 and 1)
• Range: Discrete values (only 0 and 1, no floating point)
• Representation: On/Off electric state
• Characteristics: Discrete, fast/simple transition
• Applications: Music, voice, video conversion to binary
• Examples: Digital watch

Advantages and Disadvantages

Analog Signal

Advantages

• Captures subtle (continuous) nature well (e.g., temperature, pressure)
• Useful in monitoring conditions like movement, temperature

Disadvantages

• Loses energy over distance
• Noise prone
• Cannot be copied perfectly (distortion in audio/video)

Digital Signal

Advantages

• Fast communication
• Perfect copy (can be copied millions of times without loss)
• High speed and high quality (e.g., digital audio, 1080p video)
• Less prone to error
• Accurate and reliable

Disadvantages

• Requires absorbers and regenerators for long distance (cannot be amplified)

Conclusion

• Analog signals: Continuous, useful for monitoring, but have energy loss and noise issues
• Digital signals: Discrete, fast, high quality, reliable, but need special devices for long distances