The degree of isochronous distortion, in data transmission

Data transmission

Data transmission, digital transmission, or digital communications is the physical transfer of data over a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication channel. Examples of such channels are copper wires, optical fibres, wireless communication channels, and storage media...

, is the ratio of the absolute value of the maximum measured difference between the actual and the theoretical intervals separating any two significant instants of modulation

Modulation

In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a high-frequency periodic waveform, called the carrier signal, with a modulating signal which typically contains information to be transmitted...

 (or demodulation

Demodulation

Demodulation is the act of extracting the original information-bearing signal from a modulated carrier wave.A demodulator is an electronic circuit that is used to recover the information content from the modulated carrier wave.These terms are traditionally used in connection with radio receivers,...

), to the unit interval

Unit interval

In mathematics, the unit interval is the closed interval , that is, the set of all real numbers that are greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 1...

. These instants are not necessarily consecutive. This value is usually expressed as a percentage.

The result of the measurement should be qualified by an indication if the period, usually limited, of the observation. For a prolonged modulation (or demodulation), it will be appropriate to consider the probability that an assigned value of the degree of distortion will be exceeded.