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Does anyone understand Signal Theory

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Hi all

I'm currenly trying to do coursework for my BTEC National Diploma in ICT. I have to describe the basics of Signal Theory. Now I have been given a load of help files from my teacher, but it appears he hasn't read them that well because many of them contain information about Signalling theory which is used in the brain.

The other documentation contains massive amounts of graphs and alegebra with accompanying text to explain what it means, but its like foreign language.

Does anyone understand what Signal Theory used in IT is, and can explain in simple terms so I have somewhere to build on before I read the complex things.

Thanks in advance :)
«1

Comments

  • penrhyn
    penrhyn Posts: 15,215 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 16 July 2009 at 5:48PM
    Are you talking about the likes of SDH, DTMF pulse dialling, packet routing and such like?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_%28telecommunications%29

    What about a nice early system like the one that warned ship owners that their boat load a of goods was approaching the Mersey.

    telegraph.jpg
    Watson%20Telegraph.JPG

    The operator had to signal the remote station and get a reply before the message could be sent.
    That gum you like is coming back in style.
  • thewizard
    thewizard Posts: 659 Forumite
    penrhyn wrote: »
    Are you talking about the likes of SDH, DTMF pulse dialling, packet routing and such like?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_%28telecommunications%29

    What about a nice early system like the one that warned ship owners that their boat load a of goods was approaching the Mersey.

    telegraph.jpg
    Watson%20Telegraph.JPG

    The operator had to signal the remote station and get a reply before the message could be sent.

    If I'm completely honest, I'm not to sure, but that looks right.

    And thanks for the link I'll take a look :beer:
  • basmic
    basmic Posts: 1,043 Forumite
    Warning - possible information overload: http://www.cs.nccu.edu.tw/~lien/NIIslide/BasicCom/hardcopy.htm

    :D
    Everybody is equal; However some are more equal than others.
  • thewizard
    thewizard Posts: 659 Forumite
    basmic wrote: »

    This looks promising...Thanks :)
  • Joe_Bloggs
    Joe_Bloggs Posts: 4,535 Forumite
    There may links to the topics you have to cover on the Edexcel web page.
    If you can find your course on this site then you can find out what you are supposed to study and what you are supposed to learn.

    Eg. From Unit 8 Communication Technologies ( found here )
    Signal theory: digital signalling methods; representing data electronically (bits, bytes, packet structures); synchronous and asynchronous transmission; error correction and detection; effect of bandwidth limitation and noise; channel types eg telephone, high frequency (HF) radio, microwave, satellite; other issues eg bandwidth, data compression
    J_B.
  • thewizard
    thewizard Posts: 659 Forumite
    Joe_Bloggs wrote: »
    There may links to the topics you have to cover on the Edexcel web page.
    If you can find your course on this site then you can find out what you are supposed to study and what you are supposed to learn.

    Eg. From Unit 8 Communication Technologies ( found here )
    J_B.

    Thanks for the help, but maybe I'm being stupid, but I cant find where your quote is from on that link you gave me.
  • Joe_Bloggs
    Joe_Bloggs Posts: 4,535 Forumite
    I did not want to be accused of 'spoon feeding'. If you scroll down the page to the the documents section there is a + specification link that opens up to reveal a 700 page PDF document. This is where I found the reference I quoted. There are other things to read also on this page. I don't know if any of them are relevant.
    J_B.
  • thewizard
    thewizard Posts: 659 Forumite
    thanks JB...I'll take a look.
  • John_Gray
    John_Gray Posts: 5,843 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    You won't go far wrong by reading up about Claude Shannon, the main pioneer of information theory.
  • superscaper
    superscaper Posts: 13,369 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    John_Gray wrote: »
    You won't go far wrong by reading up about Claude Shannon, the main pioneer of information theory.

    And presumably Nyquist as well.
    "She is quite the oddball. Did you notice how she didn't even get excited when she saw this original ZX-81?"
    Moss
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