(2) A waveform that has a fixed center frequency. It is used to
contain data and establish a unique channel that can be
identified independently of other channels. Carriers are the
primary method used to send wireless signals over the air in
order to differentiate between transmitting stations. For
example, AM and FM radio, TV, satellite and Wi-Fi all use
carriers. In fact, AM and FM radio actually use the carrier
frequency as their station's channel number. Multiple Carriers -
Multiple Data Streams Carriers are also used to transmit
multiple channels simultaneously within a wire or fiber. For
example, several voice, data and video signals can travel over
the same line, each residing in its own carrier vibrating at a
different frequency. See definition #2 in broadband. Multiple
Carriers - One Data Stream Instead of sending a separate stream
of data in each carrier, multiple carriers can be used for only
one channel of data. For example, the widely used orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) method