Analogue and digital signals

What you will learn:

You'll learn the difference between analogue and digital signals, understand how information is represented electrically, and discover how the characteristics of passive components and transmission lines affect a signal as it travels through a network. This knowledge forms the essential foundation for all further study in telecoms technology. signal quality as it travels through a network. This knowledge forms the essential foundation for all further study in telecoms technology.

 

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• define the terms voltage, current, resistance and power and describe the relationships between them.
• describe the characteristics of the passive components of an electrical circuit.
• describe the characteristics of analogue signals with reference to the terms level, frequency and bandwidth.
• compare the bandwidth requirements of various types of traffic including text, voice, music and video.
• explain that complex waves contain a fundamental frequency and harmonics of that frequency.
• describe the characteristics of AC circuits containing inductance and capacitance and explain the concepts of impedance and resonant frequency.
• describe how the characteristics of a transmission line can be explained by its equivalent circuit.
• explain the advantages of transmitting information as binary code.
• explain that various types of information can be conveyed in digital form.
• define the terms bit, byte and bit rate and explain their significance.
• describe the role of the basic components of a digital link.
• compare the bit rate requirement of signals carrying speech, music and video.

 

Course prerequisites:

Study of Physics or Additional Science at secondary (high) school level.

 

Approximate study time: 4 hours 

 

Delivery platform requirements:
To access the course, a computer/tablet running a browser such as Chrome, Safari, Edge etc. is required. The device should have an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024x768.