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Diagram comparing three digital signal modulation methods. It shows a binary digital signal and carrier wave, then illustrates amplitude-shift keying (ASK), frequency-shift keying (FSK), and phase-shift keying (PSK) by how each alters the analog wave to encode binary data.
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Diagram comparing three digital signal modulation methods. It shows a binary digital signal and carrier wave, then illustrates amplitude-shift keying (ASK), frequency-shift keying (FSK), and phase-shift keying (PSK) by how each alters the analog wave to encode binary data.
digital signal modulation A digital signal, representing the binary digits 0 and 1 by a series of on and off amplitudes, is impressed onto an analog carrier wave of constant amplitude and frequency. In amplitude-shift keying (ASK), the modulated wave represents the series of bits by shifting abruptly between high and low amplitude. In frequency-shift keying (FSK), the bit stream is represented by shifts between two frequencies. In phase-shift keying (PSK), amplitude and frequency remain constant, and the bit stream is represented by shifts in the phase of the modulated signal.

In telecommunications, sampling is the initial step in analog-to-digital conversion. It involves measuring the amplitude of an analog waveform at regular time intervals. This process is crucial for converting continuous signals, like voice or video, into a binary format (1s and 0s) that can be transmitted with high fidelity, minimizing distortion and noise.1

The frequency at which sampling occurs is determined by the signal's bandwidth, which is the range of frequencies it occupies. According to the sampling theorem, an analog signal can be perfectly reconstructed from discrete samples if the sampling rate is at least twice the highest frequency component of the signal. This rate is known as the Nyquist interval.1

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