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Transceiver
View on WikipediaThis article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (August 2020) |
In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio transmitter and a receiver, hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. These two related functions are often combined in a single device to reduce manufacturing costs. The term is also used for other devices which can both transmit and receive through a communications channel, such as optical transceivers which transmit and receive light in optical fiber systems, and bus transceivers which transmit and receive digital data in computer data buses.
Radio transceivers are widely used in wireless devices. One large use is in two-way radios, which are audio transceivers used for bidirectional person-to-person voice communication. Examples are cell phones, which transmit and receive the two sides of a phone conversation using radio waves to a cell tower, cordless phones in which both the phone handset and the base station have transceivers to communicate both sides of the conversation, and land mobile radio systems like walkie-talkies and CB radios. Another large use is in wireless modems in mobile networked computer devices such laptops, pads, and cellphones, which both transmit digital data to and receive data from a wireless router. Aircraft carry automated microwave transceivers called transponders which, when they are triggered by microwaves from an air traffic control radar, transmit a coded signal back to the radar to identify the aircraft. Satellite transponders in communication satellites receive digital telecommunication data from a satellite ground station, and retransmit it to another ground station.
History
[edit]
The transceiver first appeared in the 1920s.[citation needed] Before then, receivers and transmitters were manufactured separately and devices that wanted to receive and transmit data required both components. Almost all amateur radio equipment today[when?] uses transceivers, but there is an active market for pure radio receivers, which are mainly used by shortwave listening operators.[citation needed]
Analog
[edit]Analog transceivers use frequency modulation to send and receive data. Although this technique limits the complexity of the data that can be broadcast, analog transceivers operate very reliably and are used in many emergency communication systems. They are also cheaper than digital transceivers, which makes them popular with the CB and HAM radio communities.
Digital
[edit]Digital transceivers send and receive binary data over radio waves. This allows more types of data to be broadcast, including video and encrypted communication, which is commonly used by police and fire departments. Digital transmissions tend to be clearer and more detailed than their analog counterparts. Many modern wireless devices operate on digital transmissions.
Usage
[edit]Telephony
[edit]
In a wired telephone, the handset contains the transmitter (for speaking) and receiver (for listening). Despite being able to transmit and receive data, the whole unit is colloquially referred to as a "receiver". On a mobile telephone or other radiotelephone, the entire unit is a transceiver for both audio and radio.
A cordless telephone uses an audio and radio transceiver for the handset, and a radio transceiver for the base station. If a speakerphone is included in a wired telephone base or in a cordless base station, the base also becomes an audio transceiver.
A modem is similar to a transceiver in that it sends and receives a signal, but a modem uses modulation and demodulation. It modulates the signal being transmitted and demodulates the signal being received.
Ethernet
[edit]
Transceivers are called Medium Attachment Units (MAUs) in IEEE 802.3 documents and were widely used in 10BASE2 and 10BASE5 Ethernet networks. Fiber-optic gigabit, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 40 Gigabit Ethernet, and 100 Gigabit Ethernet utilize GBIC, SFP, SFP+, QSFP, XFP, XAUI, CXP, and CFP transceiver systems.
Regulation
[edit]Because transceivers are capable of broadcasting information over airwaves, they are required to adhere to various regulations. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission oversees their use. Transceivers must meet certain standards and capabilities depending on their intended use, and manufacturers must comply with these requirements. However, transceivers can be modified by users to violate FCC regulations. For instance, they might be used to broadcast on a frequency or channel that they should not have access to. For this reason, the FCC monitors not only the production but also the use of these devices.
See also
[edit]- Two-way radio
- 4P4C, de facto standard connector for telephone handsets
- Duplex, two-way communications capability
- Radar beacon
- Transmitter
- Radio transmitter design
- Radio receiver
- Radio receiver design
- Transponder
References
[edit]- Rutledge, D. (1999). The electronics of radio. Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Reinhart, R. C. K. (2004). Reconfigurable transceiver and software-defined radio architecture and technology evaluated for NASA space communications. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20050215177
- Govinfo. (n.d.). Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CFR-2010-title47-vol1/CFR-2010-title47-vol1-sec2-926
- Haring, K. (2007). Ham radio's technical culture (Inside technology). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22. (in support of MIL-STD-188).
External links
[edit]- U.S. patent 0,716,136, John Stone Stone, "Apparatus for simultaneously transmitting and receiving space telegraph signals"
- 7 MHz SSB transceiver
Transceiver
View on GrokipediaFundamentals
Definition and Purpose
A transceiver, short for transmitter-receiver, is an electronic device or circuit that integrates both transmitting and receiving functions into a single unit, enabling bidirectional communication in either full-duplex mode—where signals are sent and received simultaneously—or half-duplex mode, where transmission and reception alternate.[3][6] This design allows the device to handle radio waves, electrical signals, or optical data for two-way interaction without requiring distinct hardware for each direction.[2] The core purpose of a transceiver is to facilitate efficient bidirectional data exchange in communication systems, especially where separate transmitter and receiver units would introduce unnecessary inefficiency in terms of space, power, or integration. In practical applications, walkie-talkies employ half-duplex transceivers for alternating voice transmission in short-range radio scenarios, while fiber optic modules use full-duplex transceivers to enable simultaneous high-speed data upload and download over optical networks.[3][7] By combining these functions, transceivers support diverse systems like radios, modems, and network interfaces, optimizing resource use in compact or mobile setups.[8] The term "transceiver" emerged in radio engineering in the early 20th century, first attested in 1934 as a blend of "transmitter" and "receiver" to denote compact units that superseded the cumbersome separate components prevalent in earlier wireless systems.[9] This integration offers key advantages, including reduced overall size and complexity, lower power consumption through shared circuitry, and decreased costs compared to discrete transmitter-receiver pairs, which historically required independent power supplies and tuning mechanisms.[10]Basic Components
A transceiver integrates a transmitter and receiver into a single unit to facilitate bidirectional communication, with core hardware elements divided into distinct sections for signal generation, processing, and isolation. Components vary depending on the type (e.g., RF, optical, or wired), but generally include elements for modulation, amplification, and signal recovery.[11] The transmitter section typically comprises an oscillator or signal source to generate a carrier, a modulator to encode the baseband information onto the carrier, and a power amplifier to boost the signal strength for transmission, with output levels ranging from milliwatts to watts based on the application and medium. For RF transceivers, this involves radio frequency carriers; in optical transceivers, a light source such as a laser diode or light-emitting diode (LED) converts electrical signals to optical pulses.[12][4] The receiver section includes an input interface (such as an antenna for RF or a photodiode for optical) to capture incoming signals, frequency conversion or processing stages to shift or condition the signal (e.g., mixers and local oscillators in many RF designs to down-convert to an intermediate or baseband frequency), filters to remove noise and interference, and a demodulator or detector to recover the original data. In wired Ethernet transceivers, components like equalizers handle signal integrity over copper cables.[13][4] In RF transceivers using a shared antenna, elements like the duplexer isolate the high-power transmit path from the sensitive receive path to prevent overload, enabling a single antenna for both directions. In half-duplex RF designs, RF switches or circulators manage path alternation or separation; switches use electronic control to toggle paths, while circulators route signals directionally via magnetic properties with low loss. Duplexers and shared antennas are less common in optical or wired transceivers, which often feature separate transmit and receive ports.[14][15] Automatic gain control (AGC) circuits in receivers adjust amplification dynamically to handle varying input strengths, typically providing 60-90 dB dynamic range in RF applications.[16] Power supply and control subsystems support operation across types, with voltage regulators delivering stable DC levels (e.g., 3.3 V or 5 V) to components from batteries or external sources for low-noise performance. Microcontrollers or digital logic manage mode switching, power control, and interfaces via protocols like serial buses.[11] A typical block diagram of an RF transceiver shows the transmit path from modulation and amplification to a duplexer or switch, merging with the receive path from the antenna through filtering and demodulation, often sharing a local oscillator for integration; architectures vary for other media like optical, where paths are parallel without shared elements.[13]Operating Principles
The operating principles of transceivers vary by type (e.g., RF, optical, wired), but the following describes the common processes in radio frequency (RF) transceivers, which are widely used in wireless applications. Optical transceivers involve electro-optical and opto-electrical conversions, while wired ones use baseband electrical signaling; see the Types section for specifics.Signal Transmission
In an RF transceiver, signal transmission initiates with the encoding of the input baseband signal, where raw data—analog or digital—is formatted and prepared for modulation to ensure compatibility with the transmission medium. This stage often involves digital-to-analog conversion for digital signals or direct processing for analog ones, setting the foundation for information embedding. Following encoding, up-conversion occurs through mixing the baseband signal with a carrier frequency from a local oscillator, translating the signal to the radio frequency (RF) band suitable for propagation, such as from baseband (up to several MHz) to RF (hundreds of MHz to GHz). The process concludes with amplification, where the up-converted signal is boosted by a power amplifier to attain the necessary output power for effective transmission distance and signal strength.[17][18] Key modulation techniques in RF transceivers imprint the encoded information onto the carrier wave, including amplitude modulation (AM) for varying carrier amplitude, frequency modulation (FM) for altering carrier frequency, and phase-shift keying (PSK) for discrete phase changes in digital systems. For AM, the resulting modulated signal is expressed aswhere represents the carrier amplitude, is the normalized message signal, and is the carrier frequency; this form preserves the message within the carrier's envelope for straightforward detection. FM maintains a constant amplitude while deviating frequency proportional to the message, ideal for noise-resistant analog transmission, whereas PSK, such as binary PSK (BPSK) or quadrature PSK (QPSK), encodes multiple bits per symbol via phase shifts, enabling efficient digital bandwidth use. These techniques balance spectral efficiency, power consumption, and robustness against channel impairments.[19][17] Power management during transmission optimizes energy use while meeting regulatory and performance requirements, with output levels typically in the milliwatt (mW) range—such as 1–100 mW—for short-range devices to minimize interference and battery drain, escalating to watts (W) for broadcast applications demanding wider coverage. Amplifier efficiency plays a pivotal role, with class-A configurations providing linear operation at 25–50% efficiency for signals with high peak-to-average power ratios (PAR), like those in AM or PSK, at the cost of higher power dissipation. In contrast, class-C amplifiers achieve near-100% theoretical efficiency for constant-envelope modulations like FM, though they introduce more distortion and require careful linearization.[17][20][21] To address non-linearities in power amplifiers that can distort the signal and expand bandwidth undesirably, pre-distortion techniques are employed as an error-handling measure. This involves applying an inverse distortion to the input signal prior to amplification, compensating for the amplifier's amplitude-to-amplitude (AM-AM) and amplitude-to-phase (AM-PM) nonlinear responses, thereby yielding a cleaner, more linear output that adheres to spectral masks and maintains signal integrity. Such methods are particularly vital in high-efficiency amplifiers to balance power savings with fidelity.[17]
