They all using frequencies to transmit signals so how RF is transmitting analog and Bluetooth and Wifi digital signals ? And why transmitting analog signals over long distances is easier than bluetooth ?
In: Technology
They are all basically the same thing: electromagnetic transmissions. Which you can imagine as water waves. Big and small.
The first significant difference is the frequency of said waves. The lower the frequency, the easier it is to be ‘caught’ from a larger distance but also it sends less information per second
Radio works in ~ thousands of signal/seconds. BT around a few million, and WiFi, depending on the type, in thousand millions.
Second difference is encrypted. You want radio to be heard by everyone, so what you send is what the receiver receives.
With BT and WiFi, you want only specific devices to be able to read the messages. You pair the two devices and they both agree on a code to interpret the information. So if ‘over the air’ signal reads ‘hello’, the end device knows to interpret it as ‘house’.
There is no such thing as “transmitting digital”. All RF signals are analog. Digital vs. analog is purely in how the receiver interprets the analog signal.
By “RF” I think you mean AM and FM radio, and related technologies like VHF voice. These are analog signals that are interpreted that way by the receiving equipment. WiFi and Bluetooth are also analog transmissions, albeit at a different frequency than AM, FM, or VHF. The receivers interpret it as a digital signal.
The range doesn’t really relate to analog vs. digital, satellite Internet is digital and it goes thousands of miles. Range is a function of frequency (lower goes farther) and power (higher power goes farther).
I have a limited understand –
Higher frequency light loses it’s intensity quicker than low frequency light. For this reason, IR will go much further than either of the others, because it is by far the lowest frequency. Also consumes less energy to produce.
Bluetooth and WiFi both transmit a lot of data. Because we store our data digitally, these signals are digital, meaning that the signal is interpreted to be in either a “high” state or a “low” state.
IR being analog does not have a “high” and “low” state but instead just provides the intensity (amplitude) of the signal. This is fine for devices that don’t need to be told much other than “perform action x” because all the electronics are in the device. The device just needs to get the go-ahead signal to start up.
RF just stands for Radio Frequency. Bluetooth is a protocol that was invented for low power short range communication. It doesn’t work for longer ranges because it wasn’t invented to do so. WiFi is another protocol that was invented for longer range. They both are just transmitting radio, but Bluetooth was made for lower power. It like the difference between a keychain light and a large flashlight. They both do the same thing, but one was meant to be low power for shorter distances.
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