Difference Between Digital and Data Communications Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental definitions, components, and concepts of data communication and digital communication based on lecture notes by Dr. Rowena B. Nimuan.

Data Communication

A broad term referring to the transfer or sharing of a collection of facts, figures, or data between devices capable of exchange using a communication medium.

What are the five basic components of data communication?

Message, Sender, Receiver, Transmission Medium, Protocol.

Digital Communication

The physical transfer of data and information in the form of discrete digital signals over a communication channel, involving processes like encoding, decoding, compression, and error correction.

Message

The basic component of data communication representing the data or information to be exchanged, which can take forms such as text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.

Sender

The node or device intended to send information, equipped with mechanisms to encode the data into a format suitable for accurate and timely transfer over a transmission medium.

Receiver

The device responsible for receiving encoded information, decoding it into a specific format accurately, and sending feedback.

Transmission Medium

The physical path, such as a cable, serving as traveling media through which a message is transferred from the sender to the receiver.

Protocol

The set of agreed-upon rules between a sender and receiver that govern the entire data exchange process.

Source

Any point of data origin in a digital communication system that offers information, which may be in analog or digital form.

Input Transducer

A component in digital communication that converts a physical input from the source into an electrical signal and digitizes analog signals into binary 0s and 1s.

Source Encoder

A component that compresses digitized signal data by removing redundancy to minimize the number of bits while maintaining data correctness and bandwidth efficiency.

Channel Encoder

A component that adds redundant error-correcting bits to compressed data to prevent alteration of the signal due to channel noise during transmission.

Digital Modulator

A component that modulates the signal and converts it from digital format to analog so it is ready to travel along the medium.

Channel

The transmission medium through which signal transmission takes place in a digital communication system.

Digital Demodulator

A receiver-side component that demodulates the received signal, converts it from analog back to digital, and reconstructs the signal.

Channel Decoder

A receiver-side component that performs error corrections using redundancy bits after sequence detection.

Source Decoder

A component that converts the signal back into digital format using sampling and quantization.

Output Transducer

A component that converts the output signal from electrical form back into physical form.

Output Signal

The final signal produced after the complete process of digital communication.