A Comparison of Techniques to Calculate Insertion Loss and Associated Parameters of Cascaded Components

摘要

It is common to find the terms attenuation, operational attenuation and insertion loss used interchangeably, which can lead to confusion or, worse, a comparison of results which are not actually compatible. The primary objective of this paper is to clarify the definitions of these terms. Similarly, there are a number of possible approaches to calculating the performance of cascaded channels, each with its own strengths. The second objective of this paper is to review these, extending the formulations to complex channels, where appropriate.