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Compare analog and digital communication
Short answer
Analog signals are continuous, noise accumulates, bandwidth lower, no error control, poor security, uses FDM, simple equipment. Digital signals are discrete, noise regenerated by repeaters, higher bandwidth, error detection/correction possible, strong encryption, TDM multiplexing, more complex circuitry.
Compare analog and digital communication systems with appropriate block diagrams.
Analog systems carry information as a continuously varying signal; digital systems carry it as a sequence of discrete values (bits).
Analog system:
Source -> Modulator (AM/FM) -> Channel -> Demodulator -> User
Digital system:
Source -> A/D (sample, quantize, encode) -> Channel encoder
-> Line coder / modulator -> Channel (+ noise)
-> Demodulator -> Channel decoder -> D/A -> User
| Point | Analog | Digital |
|---|---|---|
| Signal | Continuous in time and amplitude | Discrete levels (0 and 1) |
| Noise effect | Accumulates, cannot be removed | Regenerated by repeaters |
| Bandwidth | Less | More |
| Error control | Not possible | Detection and correction possible |
| Security | Poor | Easy encryption |
| Multiplexing | FDM | TDM (and FDM) |
| Equipment | Simple, low cost for short links | Needs ADC/DAC, more complex |
| Example | AM/FM radio, old telephone | Mobile phone, Internet, digital TV |
Digital systems are preferred today because of their noise immunity, flexibility and easy processing, even though they need more bandwidth.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
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