In order to reliably transmit over a noisy channel, what condition must hold between signal and noise?

• A. Signal strength exceeds noise
• B. Latency increases
• C. Jitter increases
• D. Bandwidth increases

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that reliable transmission over a noisy channel depends on a favorable signal-to-noise ratio. You need the signal strength to be higher than the noise floor so the receiver can distinguish the transmitted symbols. When the signal power dominates the noise, decoding becomes accurate and errors are rare; when noise approaches or exceeds the signal, errors surge.

In other words, the required condition is that the signal strength exceeds the noise level. Latency and jitter are timing characteristics and don’t directly ensure reliable decoding in the presence of noise. Increasing bandwidth can raise noise power as well as data rate, so it doesn’t guarantee reliability without also boosting signal power or adding other techniques.