radio communication Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive

radio wave Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies of 300 gigahertz (GHz) and below. At 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm (short ...

s using an

antenna Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...

, 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 A communication channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking. A channel is used for informat ...

, such as ''optical transceivers'' which transmit and receive light in

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

systems, and ''bus transceivers'' which transmit and receive

digital data Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols each of which can take on one of only a finite number of values from some alphabet, such as letters or digits. An example i ...

in computer

data bus In computer architecture, a bus (shortened form of the Latin '' omnibus'', and historically also called data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers. This ex ...

es. Radio transceivers are widely used in

wireless devices Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

. One large use is in

two-way radio A two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive radio waves (a transceiver), unlike a broadcast receiver which only receives content. It is an audio (sound) transceiver, a transmitter and receiver in one unit, used for bidirecti ...

s, which are

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

transceivers used for bidirectional person-to-person voice communication. Examples are

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s, which transmit and receive the two sides of a phone conversation using radio waves to a

cell tower A cell site, cell tower, or cellular base station is a cellular-enabled mobile device site where antennas and electronic communications equipment are placed (typically on a radio mast, tower, or other raised structure) to create a cell, or adjac ...

cordless phone A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short ...

s in which both the phone handset and the base station have transceivers to communicate both sides of the conversation, and

land mobile radio system A land mobile radio system (LMRS) is a person-to-person voice communication system consisting of two-way radio transceivers (an audio transmitter and receiver in one unit) which can be stationary ( base station units), mobile (installed in vehicl ...

s like

walkie-talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...

s and

CB radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...

s. Another large use is in

wireless modem A mobile broadband modem, also known as wireless modem or cellular modem, is a type of modem that allows a personal computer or a router to receive wireless Internet access via a mobile broadband connection instead of using telephone or cable tel ...

s in mobile networked computer devices such

laptop A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

s, pads, and cellphones, which both transmit digital data to and receive data from a

wireless router A wireless router is a device that performs the functions of a router and also includes the functions of a wireless access point. It is used to provide access to the Internet or a private computer network. Depending on the manufacturer and mode ...

. Aircraft carry automated

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

transceivers called

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight trans ...

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 satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

s receive digital telecommunication data from a

satellite ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

, and retransmit it to another ground station.

History

The transceiver first appeared in the 1920s. 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 uses transceivers, but there is an active market for pure radio receivers, which are mainly used by

shortwave listening Shortwave listening, or SWLing, is the hobby of listening to shortwave radio broadcasts located on frequencies between 1700 kHz and 30 MHz. Listeners range from casual users seeking international news and entertainment programming, to hobbyist ...

operators.

Analog

Analog transceivers use

frequency modulation Frequency modulation (FM) is the encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave. The technology is used in telecommunications, radio broadcasting, signal processing, and Run-length limited#FM: .280. ...

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 Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

communities.

Digital

Digital transceivers send and receive

binary data Binary data is data whose unit can take on only two possible states. These are often labelled as 0 and 1 in accordance with the binary numeral system and Boolean algebra. Binary data occurs in many different technical and scientific fields, wher ...

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

Telephony

In a wired

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

, 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 A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

or other

radiotelephone A radiotelephone (or radiophone), abbreviated RT, is a radio communication system for conducting a conversation; radiotelephony means telephony by radio. It is in contrast to '' radiotelegraphy'', which is radio transmission of telegrams (mes ...

, the entire unit is a transceiver for both audio and radio. A

cordless telephone A cordless telephone or portable telephone has a portable telephone handset that connects by radio to a base station connected to the public telephone network. The operational range is limited, usually to the same building or within some short ...

uses an audio and radio transceiver for the handset, and a radio transceiver for the

base station Base station (or base radio station) is – according to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Radio Regulations (RR) – a "land station in the land mobile service." The term is used in the context of mobile telephony, wireless com ...

. If a

speakerphone A speakerphone is a telephone with a microphone and loudspeaker provided separately from those in the handset. This device allows multiple persons to participate in a conversation. The loudspeaker broadcasts the voice or voices of those on the ot ...

is included in a wired telephone base or in a cordless base station, the base also becomes an audio transceiver. A

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

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

Transceivers are called

Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

Attachment Units ( MAUs) in

IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.3 is a working group and a collection standards defining the physical layer and data link layer's media access control (MAC) of wired Ethernet. The standards are produced by the working group of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Eng ...

documents and were widely used in

10BASE2 10BASE2 (also known as cheapernet, thin Ethernet, thinnet, and thinwire) is a variant of Ethernet that uses thin coaxial cable terminated with BNC connectors to build a local area network. During the mid to late 1980s this was the dominan ...

and

10BASE5 10BASE5 (also known as thick Ethernet or thicknet) was the first commercially available variant of Ethernet. The technology was standardized in 1982 as IEEE 802.3. 10BASE5 uses a thick and stiff coaxial cable up to in length. Up to 100 stati ...

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

networks.

Fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...

gigabit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented a ...

10 Gigabit Ethernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE) is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unlike previous Eth ...

40 Gigabit Ethernet 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE) and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) are groups of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at rates of 40 and 100 gigabits per second (Gbit/s), respectively. These technologies offer significantly ...

, and

100 Gigabit Ethernet 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40GbE) and 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE) are groups of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at rates of 40 and 100 gigabits per second (Gbit/s), respectively. These technologies offer significantly ...

utilize

GBIC A gigabit interface converter (GBIC) is a standard for transceivers, first defined in 1995 and commonly used with Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel for some time. By offering a standard, hot swappable electrical interface, a single gigabit por ...

SFP SFP may refer to: Organizations * Salton Inc. (former stock symbol: SFP), now part of Russell Hobbs, Inc. * Swedish People's Party of Finland, a Swedish minority and mainly liberal party in Finland * Syrian Free Press, a Syrian social news networ ...

SFP+ Small Form-factor Pluggable connected to a pair of fiber-optic cables Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) is a compact, hot-pluggable network interface module format used for both telecommunication and data communications applications. An SF ...

QSFP Small Form-factor Pluggable connected to a pair of fiber-optic cables Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) is a compact, hot-pluggable network interface module format used for both telecommunication and data communications applications. An SFP ...

XFP The XFP (10 gigabit small form-factor pluggable) is a standard for transceivers for high-speed computer network and telecommunication links that use optical fiber. It was defined by an industry group in 2002, along with its interface to other e ...

XAUI 10 Gigabit Attachment Unit Interface (XAUI ) is a standard for extending the XGMII (10 Gigabit Media Independent Interface) between the MAC and PHY layer of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) defined in Clause 47 of the IEEE 802.3 standard. The name i ...

, CXP, and CFP transceiver systems.

Regulation

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 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

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.

References

* Rutledge, D. (1999). ''The electronics of radio''. Cambridge ngland 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. *

External articles

* ',

John Stone Stone John Stone Stone (September 24, 1869 – May 20, 1943) was an American mathematician, physicist and inventor. He initially worked in telephone research, followed by influential work developing early radio technology, where he was especially ...

, "Apparatus for simultaneously transmitting and receiving space telegraph signals"
7 MHz SSB transceiver
{{Authority control Networking hardware Radio electronics Telecommunications equipment