Amplifier and repeater are basically two types of electronic circuits used in a communication system. Usually, the communication happens between two points through a wired as well as wireless system. Basically, the transmitter sends a signal containing some information and traveling some distance, usually, a signal gets weekended due to energy loss in the medium. The amplifier is the circuit which magnifies the weak signal to signal with more power. Sometimes this signal attenuation happens much before the arrival to the destination. In this case, the signal is amplified and retransmitted with power gain in one or more midpoints. Those points are called as a repeater. So, therefore, an amplifier is an essential part of a repeater.
Definition of amplifier and repeater :
- The amplifier is an electronics circuit that increases the power of an input signal. There are many types of amplifier ranging from voice amplifiers to optical amplifiers at different frequencies. A transistor can be configured as a simple amplifier.
- The repeater is an electronic circuit that receives a signal and retransmits the same signal with high power. Different types of repeaters have different types of configurations depending on the which type of transmission medium. If the medium is optical it may contain photodetector and light emitters and if the medium is microwave repeater may consist of antenna and waveguides.
The main key difference between amplifier and repeater are listed below:
- Amplifier just increases the amplitude of the signal while the repeater is decoded the signal and extract the original signal and regenerate the signal the retransmit it.
- The amplifier is a low gain and high output power, the repeater is high gain and low output power.
- A repeater has an amplifier as a part of it.
- The amplifier amplifies the signal along with the noise while in repeater eliminates the noise by regenerating the signal.
- The amplifier is mainly used in a remote area and mobile environment, whereases repeaters is mainly used in a stationary environment.
- The amplifier has minimized the signal to noise levels, therefore, increases the noise while repeaters maximize the signal to noise ratio hence decreases the error associated with the signal.