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# Introduction

Modern communication technology amalgamates many areas of knowledge such as electronics, radio-frequency engineering, information theory, cryptography, and signal processing. Nevertheless, some basic principles and recurring themes underpin much communications technology, and this free course, Exploring communications technology, concentrates on them. The first section focuses on digital modulation and on the widely used technique of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). The second section looks at error control, and the third at data compression. The fourth and final section looks at the way orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) underpins fourth generation mobile communications (4G), wi-fi and broadband.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course TM355 Communications technology.

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OpenLearn - Exploring communications technology
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