Networking Class - Analog and Digital Comparison Paper - Essay Example

Analog and Digital Comparison Paper Analog and Digital Comparison Paper From ancient times, people have been coming up with ways to improve their livelihoods. There are many ways improvements have been done in different sectors. Technology is one sector that has improved a lot in especially the last three decades. It all started with simple arts and by the 20th century, technology included arts, processes and tools that are used to change or manipulate the environment. Technology has been of great interest to not only science and technology gurus, but to other people as well.

There are many changes that have been witnessed in this broad field making its definition difficult. Some technology experts are of the view that technology is becoming more difficult to define. Technology involves so much today and the processes and activities included keep on increasing as technology changes (Buchanan, 2013). There are various forms of technology, of which the most common are analog and digital forms. Analog technology is process of recording data linearly from on-point to another which digital technology is the process of recording data using the binary system, which includes zeros and ones, and storing the data in digital devices.

The variations in the two forms create a number of benefits and disadvantages of each form. Analog technology is relatively easy to produce and data is well represented. However, it is difficult to transmit and receive data, there are a lot of interruptions especially noise, and analog devices are relatively expensive and data is not accurate. There are various forms of analog technology; Amplitude Modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), phase modulation (PM) and Quardrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) (Sharma, Mishra, & Rajiv, 2010).

Amplitude modulation is a technique in which the strength of the signal sent is changed or varied depending on the information being sent. AM bounces of the atmosphere and when conditions are optimal, it can be received across the world. However, this technique is usually affected by noise making it not clear. Frequency modulation is a technique in which the frequency of the signal being sent is modulated or changed depending on the information being sent. FM can broadcast a number of channels on the same signal.

This technique is limited to certain regions and areas and cannot be used out of the boundaries of that region. Phase modulation is a technique in which the phase angle of the information sent is changed to the proportion of the message sent. This technique is much simpler compared to the rest. However, it needs a frequency multiplier to enhance better reception. Quardrature Amplitude Modulation is a technique in which two analog or digital signals are conveyed by changing the amplitude or strength of the two signals.

The main advantage of this technique is that it can be used for both analog and digital signals broadcast. However, it requires expensive equipment for transmission and reception of messages (Sharma, Mishra, & Rajiv, 2010) On the other hand, using digital technology is advantageous because it is more accurate, easy to use and data can be represented in a number of version and devices. The main disadvantage of digital technology is that equipments are easily damaged, infrastructure is expensive and access to digital technology is limited to especially developing nations (Christensson, 2005).

Analog and digital forms of technology are important for various uses. Conversion of data from analog to digital and from digital to analog is possible. This depends on the nature of available data and the objective of a project. Change of analog to digital form is a two step process. First, the analog data is input in to sample and hold system, which changes the independent variable to discrete set. Each set sampled here is rounded off to the nearest integers through quantization process. The integers obtained are then encoded into bits, which are ones and zeros which indicate that signal is not digital.

The digital to analog conversion is simply the opposite of analog to digital conversion. The first step in this process is decoding the signal thereby changing it from bits to an impulse. The signal obtained is then filtered using a low pass filter. It is important to note that conversion of digital to analog creates a sinc effect. The filter should be designed to remove the sinc effect from the conversion. A multirate filter has to be used for downsampling and upsampling after which the zeroth order should be corrected.

This leads to production of an analog signal (DAC, n.d).ReferencesBuchanan, R. (2013). History of technology. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1350805/history-of-technologySharma, D., Mishra, A., & Rajiv, S. (2010). Analog and digital modulation techniques, An overview. Retrieved from http://www.techniajournal.com/attachments/article/128/ANALOG%20&%20DIGITAL%20MODULATION.pdf Christensson, P. (2005). What is the difference between analog and digital technology? Retrieved from http://pc.

net/helpcenter/answers/difference_between_analog_and_digital DAC (digital-to-analog conversion and ADC (analog-to-digital conversion) (n.d). Retrieved from faemino.ucsd.edu/~soniamartinez/teaching/143a_SignalsSystems/data/ADC-DAC.pdf