Abstract

The need for communication amongst people and electrical systems motivated the emergence of a large number of telecommunications protocols. The advances in digital networks and the internet have contributed to the evolution of telecommunications worldwide. The purpose of this chapter is to provide students and researchers with a clear presentation of telecommunications core protocols that are utilised in different research domains including telephony, brain-computer interface (BCI) and voice and digital telecommunications. Indeed, BCI involves different electrical signals, communications concepts and telecommunications protocols. This chapter introduces the reader to the core concepts in communications including analogue and digital telecommunications protocols that are utilised generally in communications and in particular in BCI systems. The topics covered in this chapter include telecommunications protocols, communications media, electrical signals, analogue and digital modulation techniques in digital communications, softwaredefined radio, overview on 10-Mbps Ethernet protocol and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

Keywords: BCI, SDR, protocols, Ethernet, analogue modulation, digital modulation
