Communication channel

A physical or abstract medium through which a signal travels from sender to receiver. Its properties shape the signal’s reach, capacity, and susceptibility to noise.

Shannon–Hartley theorem: A formula giving the maximum data rate of a band-limited channel with additive white Gaussian noise. It quantifies how bandwidth and noise constrain this channel’s data rate.
Communication system: An arrangement of components that encodes, transmits, and decodes information between endpoints. The channel occupies the transmission link within this larger arrangement.
Optical fiber: A thin glass or plastic waveguide that transmits information as pulses of light. It is a high-capacity physical channel for long-distance data transmission.
Communication protocol: A set of rules governing how devices format, exchange, and interpret messages. Protocols govern exchanges; the channel is the medium carrying their signals.
Information theory: The mathematical study of information, uncertainty, compression, and reliable communication. It supplies the formal framework for measuring communication over channels.
Channel capacity: The maximum rate at which information can be transmitted reliably over a communication channel. It captures the fundamental information limit imposed by this channel.
Signal: A varying physical quantity or abstract sequence that represents information. The channel carries this changing representation between endpoints.
Radio communication: The transmission of information using radio-frequency electromagnetic waves. Radio waves provide channels without a continuous physical cable.
Encoding: The conversion of information into a representation suitable for storage or transmission. Encoding transforms a message before it enters the channel.
Communication network: A system of interconnected nodes and links that carries information between endpoints. Networks combine multiple channels into routes between communicating endpoints.

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