A Communications channel (or channel for short), models the medium through which information is transmitted from a sender (or transmitter) to a receiver. For example, in wireless communications, the channel is often modelled by a random attennuation of the transmitted signal, followed by additive noise. The attennuation captures the loss in signal power over the course of the transmission, and the noise in the model captures external interference and/or electronic noise in the receiver. Hence, depending on the application, the mathematical model for the communication system includes a model for the distortion introduced by the tranmission medium, and termed the communication channel, or channel for short.

Types of Communications channels

• Simplex Communication
• Duplex Communication

Topics for Expansion/Linking

• Discuss transmission of bits of information, bandwidth, noise etc.
• Discuss the term's use in Business and Marketing communications

See Also: Claude Shannon, Information theory, Shannon capacity, Shannon-Hartley law, Binary symmetric channel