In telecommunication, concerning the modulation of a carrier, a significant condition is one of the signal's parameters chosen to represent information.
A significant condition could be an electrical current (voltage, or power level), an optical power level, a phase value, or a particular frequency or wavelength. The duration of a significant condition is the time interval between successive significant instants. A change from one significant condition to another is called a signal transition. Information can be transmitted either during the given time interval, or encoded as the presence or absence of a change in the received signal.
Significant conditions are recognized by an appropriate device called a receiver, demodulator, or decoder. The decoder translates the actual signal received into its intended logical value such as a binary digit (0 or 1), an alphabetic character, a mark, or a space. Each significant instant is determined when the appropriate device assumes a condition or state usable for performing a specific function, such as recording, processing, or gating.
Read more about this topic: Symbol Rate
Famous quotes containing the words significant and/or condition:
“You gave me a significant look, but significant of what?”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The difference between tragedy and comedy is the difference between experience and intuition. In the experience we strive against every condition of our animal life: against death, against the frustration of ambition, against the instability of human love. In the intuition we trust the arduous eccentricities we’re born to, and see the oddness of a creature who has never got acclimatized to being created.”
—Christopher Fry (b. 1907)