Principles Digital Communication System & Computer Networks (Charles River Media Computer Engineering)

Chapter 1: Basics of Communication Systems

Chapter 2: Information Theory

Chapter 3: Transmission Media

Chapter 4: Coding of Text, Voice, Image, and Video Signals

Chapter 5: Error Detection and Correction

Chapter 6: Digital Encoding

Chapter 7: Multiplexing

Chapter 8: Multiple Access

Chapter 9: Carrier Modulation

Chapter 10: Issues in Communication System Design

Chapter 11: Public Switched Telephone Network

Chapter 12: Terrestrial Radio Communication Systems

Chapter 13: Satellite Communication Systems

Chapter 14: Optical Fiber Communication Systems

The objective of any telecommunication system is to facilitate communication between people—who may be sitting in adjacent rooms or located in different corners of the world. Perhaps one of them is traveling. The information people may like to exchange can be in different forms—text, graphics, voice, or video. In broadcasting, information is sent from a central location, and people just receive the information; they are passive listeners (in the case of radio) or passive watchers (in the case of television). It is not just people; devices may have to communicate with each other—a PC to a printer, a digital camera to a PC, or two devices in a process control system.

The basic principles of all these types of communication are the same. In this part of the book, we will study the fundamentals of digital communication: the building blocks of a communication system and the mechanisms of coding various types of information. We will study Shannon's information theory which laid the foundation of digital communications. We also will cover the characteristics of various transmission media and how to utilize a medium effectively through multiplexing and multiple access techniques. The issues involved in designing telecommunication systems are also discussed. Finally, we will study representative telecommunication systems using cable, terrestrial radio, satellite radio, and optical fiber as the transmission media.

This part contains 14 chapters that cover all the fundamental aspects of telecommunications and representative telecommunication networks.