COMMUNICATION SYSTEM (Physical)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 515 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented |
The core of any communication system is a set of material devices organized in order to function in a sequential way: A transmitter, or sender, a channel and a receiver (or a multiplicity of receivers).
Visible, auditive or electro-magnetic signals circulate within the channel from transmitter to receiver, differentiated through the use of some code.
The correct transmission of the signals can be disturbed by some noise emitted by an outside source, which invades the channel.
It should again be stressed that “the technical system of cummunication does not take into account the meaning of the signals either at the encoding (transmitting) or the decoding (receiving) end” (O.S. AKHMANOVA, 1960, p.183).
However, communication systems as a whole are used to transmit messages, emitted by some sentient or intelligent being after previous codification through a language that must also be understandable by the receiver. In any intelligent communication there is thus at least a double sequential codification and, at the receiver's end, decodification.
In a telephone conversation, for example, three codes are succesively used: a language, the phonation and the electro-magnetic modulation.