Overview

This chapter presents explanations of concepts and terminology crucial to anyone with the need to intelligently select or use of the wide array of telecommunications systems and services now vital to the success of nearly all business, professional, and personal endeavors. The material is consistent with and builds on the high-level network and organizational definitions and descriptions just presented in Chapters 1 and 2. It establishes a framework permitting readers, even those with little or no engineering background, to grasp and fully comprehend pivotal attributes of advanced, and sometimes complex, technologies described in the remaining parts of this book.

Many introductory books do not attempt to furnish nontechnical readers with a level of knowledge that allows them to converse effectively with engineers or to understand the practical implications of technical proposals and solutions. While this was no easy task, the first edition of this book proved it could be accomplished by systematically presenting basic definitions as parts of explanations of larger concepts. This equips readers not only with terminology, but also with the rationale behind real-world applications, a tremendous advantage for thorough understanding and memory retention.

Beyond terminology familiarization, this chapter provides an invaluable, up-to-date summary of all basic concepts, techniques, and devices relevant to today's advanced technology telecommunications systems.

Analog Electrical Signals

In telecommunications networks, information is transferred in the form of signals. A signal is usually a time-dependent value attached to an energy-propagating phenomenon used to convey information. For example, an audio (sound) signal is one in...