Fundamentals - About this Section

Understanding the basics is key. Learning these topics will help you to better understand telecommunications and other advanced topics.



Analog and Digital
In general, there are two types of telecommunication transmission--Analog transmission and Digital transmission.


Bandwidth
Bandwidth describes the amount of data that can be sent through a data-transmitting medium, such as a computer network, telephone line, or coaxial cable in a given amount of time.


Protocols and Architecture
The word protocol comes from the Greek word protocollon, which was a leaf of paper glued to a manuscript volume, describing its contents.


Compression and Multiplexing
Compression makes data "smaller" so more information can be transmitted over telephone lines. It is a technique to increase the capacity of telephone lines. With compression, data to be transmitted is made smaller by removing white spaces and redundant images, as well as by abbreviating the most frequently appearing letters


Bauds, Bits, Bytes and Codes
Bauds, Bits and Bytes. The basics to understanding telecommunication systems.


Telegraphy
Today, most long-distance communication signals are transmitted by communication satellites, broadcasting antennas and coaxial and fiber optic cables. The telegraph is the ancestor of all these devices.


Broadcasting
To broadcast means to cast something in many different directions at the same time. A radio or television broadcast is a program that is transmitted over airwaves for public reception by anyone with a receiver tuned to the right signal channel.


Media
Media is the material on which voice and data transmissions are carried. The media is a very important part of telecommunications as the characteristics of a particular media has a direct effect on the speed, accuracy, and distance at which the exchange can be carried


The Public Network
The public switched network was originally created by AT&T, who used Bell Laboratories standards to ensure that all central office switches and lines that carried calls met these preset standards