Analog and Digital are the different forms of signals. Signals are used to carry information from one device to another. Analog signal is a continuous wave that keeps on changing over a time period. Digital signal is discrete in nature. The fundamental difference between analog and digital signal is that analog signal is represented by the sine waves whereas, the digital signal is represented by square waves.
Analog Signal
Analog signal is a kind of continuous wave form that changes over time. An anlaog signal is further classified into simple and composite signals. A simple analog signal is a sine wave that cannot be decomposed further. On the other hand, a composite analog signal can be further decomposed into multiple sine waves. An analog signal is described using amplitude, period or frequency and phase. Amplitude marks the maximum height of the signal. Frequency marks the rate at which signal is changing. Phase marks the position of the wave with respect to time zero.
An analog signal is not immune to noise hence, it faces distortion and decrease the quality of transmission. The range of value in an analog signal is not fixed.
Digital Signal
Digital signals also carry information like analog signals but is somewhat is different from analog signals. Digital signal is noncontinuous, discrete time signal. Digital signal carries information or data in the binary form i.e. a digital signal represent information in the form of bits. Digital signal can be further decomposed into simple sine waves that are called harmonics. Each simple wave has different amplitude, frequency and phase. Digital signal is described with bit rate and bit interval. Bit interval describes the time require for sending a single bit. On the other hand, bit rate describes the frequency of bit interval.
A digital signal is more immune to the noise; hence, it hardly faces any distortion. Digital signals are easier to transmit and are more reliable when compared to analog signals. Digital signal has a finite range of values. The digital signal consists 0s and 1s.
One thought on “Analog and Digital Signal”