Analog vs Digital Communication

Analog vs Digital Communication

Analog

The signals which are continuous are called analog signals. For example a sound coming from a car is an analog signal.

Advantage

• Analog signals are less complicated and less expensive.
• Mathematical implementation of analog signal is easier.
• In presence of heavy noise, analog signals never completely degrades.
• Unlike digital signals analog signals does not have any quantization loss.
• It also does not require highly complicated ICs for processing. If some analog components will be present then it can be processed easily.

Disadvantage

• Analog signals are sensitive to noise.
• If analog signal undergoes degradation, it is difficult to verify where and when the degradation occurred.
• It is difficult to enhance the degraded analog signals as it may lead to amplification of noise as well.

Digital

The signals which are represented by binary values 0 and 1 is called digital signals. 0 and 1 corresponds to low voltage and high voltage respectively.

Advantage

• It is easier to store in memory as the entire signal comprises of a series of 0 and 1.
• Digital signal comparatively more immune to noise.
• There are a lot of channel coding and error correction codes are available for an effective and error free transmission of digital signals.
• Degraded digital signals can be easily reconstructed by using advanced algorithms and digital signal processors.

Disadvantage

• Digital signals may be completely lost at the presence of excessive noise.
• Digital signal processing is highly complicated and require a lot of mathematicalcalculation hence the digital processors are bit expensive.
• Digital signals undergoes quantization loss.
• Digital signals require a bunch of heavily complicated  ICs for its processing.