Data Transmission - Baseband or Passband Transmission

Baseband or Passband Transmission

The physically transmitted signal may be one of the following:

1. A baseband signal ("digital-over-digital" transmission): A sequence of electrical pulses or light pulses produced by means of a line coding scheme such as Manchester coding. This is typically used in serial cables, wired local area networks such as Ethernet, and in optical fiber communication. It results in a pulse amplitude modulated signal, also known as a pulse train.
2. A passband signal ("digital-over-analog" transmission): A modulated sine wave signal representing a digital bit-stream. Note that this is in some textbooks considered as analog transmission, but in most books as digital transmission. The signal is produced by means of a digital modulation method such as PSK, QAM or FSK. The modulation and demodulation is carried out by modem equipment. This is used in wireless communication, and over telephone network local-loop and cable-TV networks.