Carrier Wave

In telecommunications, a carrier wave, carrier signal, or just carrier, is a periodic waveform that conveys information through a process called modulation. One or more of the wave's properties, such as amplitude or frequency, are modified by an information-bearing signal, called the message signal or modulation signal. The carrier frequency is usually much higher than the message signal frequency because it is usually impractical to transmit signals with low frequencies due to larger wavelength than antenna size.