Communications systems, how prominent are they?
One field in which man has been striving to improve from day one on earth is communications. And see where it has taken us!!! From the early day of signaling using smoke and fire we have reached a world of fiber optics and mobile phones. We no more talk in terms of physical boundaries or barriers thanks to the information technology revolution. The advent of the modern communications systems has revolutionized the academic, social, cultural, and political outlook and structure of the entire world. The whole world has been brought together to a global village thanks to modern communications. Acting as the backbone of any Industrial, Military or Civilian establishment the amount of potential and scope provided by the field of Communication Engineering is immense. Imagine a world of no phones or fax, Internet or satellite television!!
Which are these systems?
Having said all that let us look at what all these communication systems actually consist of. In today�s world scientists and engineers come up with one improvised communications systems everyday. Existing systems of communication can be broadly divided into Cable communication, Wireless communication and optical communication. In Cable communication information is carried by a twisted pair cable, coaxial cable or in rare cases even wave-guides (in case of microwave frequencies, and can be used only for a limited distance). In Wireless communication the message is modulated over a carrier signal of high frequency and transmitted from a transmitter antenna. Another system of wireless communication worth mentioning is satellite communication. Here the data send by one transmitter on earth is reflected or retransmitted by a satellite orbiting the earth to a distant receiver. A receiver antenna intercepts the signals and feed it to a demodulator and amplifier to retrieve the original signal. The most recent and most powerful means of communication, fiber optic communications consists of sending light or laser pulses through a special glass fiber called optic fiber that carries these signals without much attenuation by a method called total internal reflection. At the receiving end a light detector demodulates the signals. Since light is being used here to send the data, the bandwidth available is considerable.
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