informasjonssignalet

Informasjonssignalet is a term used in Norwegian-language communications and signal processing to refer to the information-bearing portion of a signal. It denotes the message or data that is intended to be conveyed, as distinct from the carrier waveform, noise, and other distortions that may affect transmission.

In analog systems, the informasjonssignalet is often the baseband signal m(t) that modulates a carrier. In amplitude modulation, the envelope carries the information; in frequency or phase modulation, the instantaneous frequency or phase encodes the data. In digital communications, the informasjonssignalet may be the encoded bitstream after source coding and error correction, or the recovered stream after demodulation and decoding, depending on the stage of analysis.

The fidelity of the informasjonssignalet is influenced by noise, interference, and distortion introduced by the channel. Key performance measures include signal-to-noise ratio, mutual information, channel capacity, and bit error rate. The receiver design focuses on reconstructing the information signal with as little error as possible, often through filtering, synchronization, and error-correcting techniques.

From a design perspective, the bandwidth required by the informasjonssignalet determines the channel specifications. In baseband transmission, the information signal occupies the central, low-frequency portion of the spectrum; in passband systems, it is shifted to a carrier frequency. Conceptually, models separate the informasjonssignalet from the carrier, noise, and distortion to analyze and optimize communication performance.