What is the difference between an analogue and a digital signal
An analogue signal
is an electronic copy of the original sound wave or light spectrum. It is what you see on an oscilloscope screen when you plug in a microphone. It might look something like diagram1:
The major problem with analogue signals is that they pick up interference or noise. This can come from poor connections, from other signals or from nearby electrical machinery. When that happens the signal might look like diagram 2 and it will sound distorted or mushy. If the signal carries video then you might see a lot of colour or white flecks that distorts the picture.
Converting to digital
To get around this we convert the analogue signal to a digital signal before we transmit it and then convert it back in the receiver. A sample of the analogue signal is taken at intervals as in diagrams 3 and 4.
The length of each line is then converted into a number. The number is written in binary and transmitted as a series of pulses, perhaps like this in diagram 5.
The receiver then converts these numbers back in a reverse of the process. As you can see, the wave in diagram 6 is similar but not exactly the same.
If the sampling was done much more often then the signal transmitted and received would be a very accurate copy- as you can hear and see from a CD or digital TV. There is a lot more information to send but the reconstructed signal is almost perfect.
It is the square wave signal that is transmitted. Even if it picks up interference
the number can still be recognised and reproduced exactly, so the digital signal is not distorted by electrical interference.
If you would like to learn more about digital signal processing there are some notes sheets in PDF format which you can download here:
- Bandwidth and bits per sample
- Digital signals - bandwidth and sampling
- Digital signals - Noise and sampling
- How a cd works
- Analogue and digital (as above)
There are two other notes pages here: