1) Modulation is the process of varying the characteristics of a high-frequency carrier signal in accordance with the message or baseband signal. This allows low-frequency signals to be transmitted over long distances.
2) There are three main types of modulation: amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, and phase modulation. Amplitude modulation varies the amplitude of the carrier signal, frequency modulation varies the frequency, and phase modulation varies the phase.
3) Demodulation or detection is the process of recovering the original message signal from the received modulated signal. Common detection methods for amplitude modulation include square law detection, envelope detection, and rectification.