Multi-carrier modulation involves splitting data into components and routing them through multiple carrier signals, reassembling them at the end. It was used in mid-20th century military weapons and is now used in digital communication protocols, audio communications, and internet connectivity. It minimizes signal fading and noise but may have synchronization issues.
Multi-carrier modulation or MCM is an approach to data transmission that involves separating data into multiple roughly equal components. The individual components are then routed through several carrier signals. At the termination point, the individual components are reassembled and delivered.
The current history of multi-carrier modulation dates back to the mid-20th century. At the time, this method of data transmission was used by military weapons of the United States and many other countries. The actual process relied on each of the vectors used to route the components to have a narrow bandwidth. This made it possible to decompose the high bandwidth composite transmission into segments or components that could be securely routed and converted back into a single transmission that could be decrypted and understood at the receiving end. Using multi-carrier modulation in this method allowed the military to make effective but safe use of the analog technology of the time.
However, the use of multi-carrier modulation is not limited to the use of analog audio transmissions. Today, the concept of this process is also gaining attention as a means of using bandwidth in digital communication protocols. This is especially true in a modern communication of voice and images such as digital television. At the same time, the idea of multi-carrier modulation is also used in modern audio communications such as with wireless local area networks. When it comes to Internet connectivity, multi-carrier modulation can also be employed with high-speed methods such as asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL).
One of the more interesting advantages of transmitting data using multi-carrier modulation is that the process tends to minimize the incidence of signal fading and also appears to encounter fewer instances of noise than most single-carrier methods . While some problems with the use of multi-carrier modulation have been noted, such as problems in synchronizing the carriers, these are becoming less of an issue as the technology continues to evolve.
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