Kanaalruis

Kanaalruis is a Dutch term used in telecommunications and signal processing to describe the random disturbances that accompany a transmitted signal as it traverses a communications channel. The term translates literally to channel noise and is commonly used to analyze and quantify the degradation of signal quality.

In theory, kanaalruis is modeled as additive noise that is superimposed on the signal. The most common model is additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), which assumes the noise is statistically independent of the signal, has constant power across frequencies, and follows a Gaussian distribution. Real channels may exhibit additional noise types such as impulsive noise, interference, or frequency-selective fading.

Practically, the impact of kanaalruis is measured by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the resulting error rates (for digital systems, the bit-error rate, BER). Lower SNR means higher error probability and reduced throughput.

Mitigation strategies include increasing signal power, applying error-correcting codes, using robust modulation schemes, and employing filtering or equalization to reduce the channel's effect. In design and analysis, kanaalruis is a central consideration when determining channel capacity and system performance.

In Dutch texts, the term is generally confined to engineering and information theory contexts; outside these areas, "ruis" may refer to other forms of noise in equipment or environments.