INTRODUCTION ABOUT COMMUNICATION:

Communication refers to the sending, receiving and processing of information by electronic means. Communication involves implicitly the transmission of information or message from one point to another through a succession of processes, as described here: The generation of a message signal: voice, music, picture, or computer data. The description of that message signal with a certain measure of precision, by a set of symbols: electrical, aural, or visual. The encoding of these symbols in a form that is suitable for transmission over a physical medium of interest. The transmission of the encoded symbols to the desired destination. The decoding and reproduction of the original symbols. The recreation of the original message signal, with definatable degradation in equality the degradation is caused by imperfections in the system. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM: It is concerned with the sorting, processing and storing of information before its transmission. Irrespective of the form of communication process (satellite comm., Telecomm etc.,) there are three basic elements to every communication system namely transmitter, channel, and receiver as depicted in figure 1

The transmitter is located at one point in space, the receiver is located at some other point separate from the transmitter and the channel is the physical medium that connects them.

Source of information

Transmitter

Receiver

User of information

Channel

Figure 1 Elements of a Communication system

Information source :

The source which gives the information or message to transmit is known as information source or a source which produces the required information for communication. Transmitter: The purpose of the transmitter is to convert the message signal produced by the source of information in to a form suitable for transmission over a channel. The transmitter performs an important process called modulation in order to transmit the low frequency message signal into a form suitable for transmission over the channel. Channel: The physical layer that links the transmitter and the receiver for transmission is known as channel. Channel is often used to refer to the frequency range allocated to particular service or transmission. The transmission of information across a communication network is accomplished in the physical layer by means of a communication channel. Depending upon the mode of transmission channel is divided in to (i) Guided propagation channels Example: (i) Telephone channels, (ii) Coaxial cable& optical fibers (ii) Free propagation channels Example: (i) Wireless broadcast channel (ii) Satellite channel (iii) Mobile radio channel

So a communication channel is central to the operation of a communication system. Receiver:

The important function of the receiver is demodulation or detection. Demodulation is process in which the original base band signal is recovered from the modulated wave. The output of a receiver may be fed to a loudspeaker, video display unit, tele writer, various radar displays or computer etc.,

Basic modes of communication:

Broadcasting:

It involves the use of a single powerful transmitter and numerous receivers that are relatively inexpensive to build. Here information bearing signals flow only in one direction. Example: Radio, Television

Point to point communication:

In which the communication process takes place over a link between a single transmitter and a receiver. The flow of information bearing signals is bidirectional. It requires the use of a transmitter and receiver at each end of the link INTRODUCTION ABOUT MODULATION: The purpose of a communication system is to deliver a message signal from an information source in recognizable form to a user destination, with the source and the user being physically separated from each other. To do this the transmitter modifies the message signal into a form suitable for transmission over the channel. This modification is achieved by means of a process known as modulation which involves varying some parameter of a carrier wave in accordance with the message signal. The receiver recreates the original message signal from a degraded version of the transmitted signal after propagation through the channel. This recreation is accomplished by using a process known as demodulation which is the reverse of the modulation process used in the transmitter.

Modulation:
Modulation may be defined as a process in which any one parameter of the high frequency carrier wave (Amplitude, Frequency, and phase) is varied in accordance with the instantaneous value of the message signal.

Need for modulation:

In order to transmit the signal with different frequency spectra over a channel effectively we are doing modulation.

 Ease of radiation: as the signals are translated to higher frequencies, it becomes relatively easier to design amplifier circuits.