Chapter 4 – Transmission Media

Text Book: Data and Computer Communications

Author: William Stallings
 Transmission Media
• Following factors determine data rate and distance (and
they are related to transmission medium and signal):

• Bandwidth  Greater bandwidth implies higher data rate

• Transmission Impairments  produces errors (BER)

• Interference  from other signals in same frequency band

• Number of Receivers 

• In case of multipoint link each connection/attachment

introduces attenuation and distortion
Electromagnetic Spectrum
 Twisted Pair
• Most widely used transmission medium
• Least expensive of all the other media
• Two insulated copper wires arranged in regular spiral pattern
making a pair
• Twisting tends to decrease low frequency interference
• Pairs are bundled together into a cable by wrapping them in
a tough protective sheath
• Neighboring pairs within a bundle have different twist length
• Varying twist length results in reduced crosstalk
• On long distance links twist length is varied between 5 cm to
15 cm
Twisted Pair
Attenuation Twisted Pair
Attenuation
 UTP and STP
• Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
• Used in ordinary telephone wire
• Least expensive of all the available media (For LANs)
• Easiest to install and easy to work with
• Suffers from external EM interference + near by pairs
• Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
• Shielding Metal braid or sheathing to reduce
interference
• Provides better performance and thus higher data rate
• Comparatively expensive
• Harder to handle (thick, heavy)
EIA (Electronic Industries Association)
• EIA in 1991 put forward EIA – 568 standard which specifies
about voice-grade UTP & STP cables
• The maximum achievable data rate was 16 Mbps
• Subsequently in 1995 (as per the need) EIA issued another
EIA – 568-A standard that
• Presented advances in cables, connector design and test
methods
• Three categories of UTP cables recognized by EIA-568-A are
CAT -3 (16 MHz), CAT – 4 (20 MHz) and CAT – 5 (100MHz)
• CAT 3 and CAT 5 got most of the attention
• CAT 3 is voice grade cable
• CAT 5 is data grade cable
 UTP Categories (EIA-568)

• A key difference between Category 3 and Category 5 cable

• Number of twists in cable per unit distance
• Category 5 is much more tightly twisted
• CAT 5 has twist length between 0.6 to 0.85 cm (Smaller)
• CAT 3 has twist length between 7.5 to 10 cm (Higher)
 Near End Crosstalk
• Coupling of signal from one pair to another
• Occurs when transmit signal entering the link
couples back to receiving pair
• Near end  near transmitted signal is picked up by
near receiver pair
UTP Categories (Ongoing Standard)
 Coaxial Cable

• It consists of a outer cylindrical conductor that surrounds a

single inner wire conductor
• Between the two conductors is either regularly spaced
insulating rings or solid dielectric material
• The outer conductor is covered with a jacket or shield.
 Applications
• Used for Television signals distribution at homes
• It can carry hundreds of TV channels at range of few tens of KM

• With the help of FDM, coaxial cable can carry 10,000 voice
channels simultaneously
• In case of digital signaling, coaxial cable can support high
speed communication between computers.
 Transmission Characteristics
• Both for Analog and Digital signals
• Due to its construction i.e. concentric conductors and shield
• It is less susceptible to interference and crosstalk than twisted pair

• Principal constraints on performance are

• Attenuation

• Thermal Noise

• Intermodulation Noise (when large frequency bands are used)

 Transmission Characteristics
Coaxial Cable
• For analog signals,
• Spectrum goes up to 500 MHz

• Amplifiers are used at few KM distance

• Higher frequencies implies lower distance between two amplifiers

• For digital signals,

• Repeater are used at every 1 KM distance

• Higher data rate  lower distance between two repeaters

 Optical Fiber
• It is thin flexible medium that allows propagation of optical
signals
• Various types of plastic and glass are used to produce optical
fiber
• Fiber made up of ultrapure fused silica incur lowest losses
• They are difficult to manufacture and are expensive

• Multicomponent glass fiber are

• Economical but incur higher losses

• Plastic fiber are even less costly but incur higher losses
 Optical Fiber

• Three concentric sections: Core, Cladding and Jacket

• Core - one or more very thin fibers, made of glass/plastic
• Core is surrounded by cladding, a glass or plastic coating
• Cladding has different optical properties than that of core
• Interface between core & cladding acts as a reflector
• to confine light that would otherwise escape the core.
 Advantage of Optical Fiber
• Greater Capacity
• data rates of hundreds of Gbps
• Smaller size & weight
• considerably thinner than coaxial cable or bundled twisted pair cable
• reduction in weight reduces structural support requirements
• Lower attenuation
• Attenuation is significantly lower and constant over a wide range
• Electromagnetic isolation
• Optical fiber system is not vulnerable to interference, impulse noise,
or crosstalk
• Greater repeater spacing
• At least tens of KM
 Categories of Application
• Long-haul Trunks (long distance and undersea)
• Averages about 1500 KM in length and can handle upto 60,000
voice channels
• Metropolitan Trunks (link metropolitan or cities)
• Averages about 12 KM in length and can handle up to 100, 000
voice channels
• Rural Exchange Trunks (link towns and villages)
• Length ranging from 40 - 160 KM & can handle 5000 voice channels
• Subscriber Loop (within city)
• Runs between central exchange to (business) subscriber
• Replacing TPC and Coaxial cable
• Local Area Network (within building)
• Capacity ranging between 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps
 Transmission Characteristics
• Total internal reflection is used to transmit light
• occurs in any transparent medium (i.e. core) that has a higher
refractive index than surrounding medium (i.e. cladding)
• effectively acts as wave guide for 1014 to 1015 Hz
• Light ray incidented on the core cladding boundary at an
angle greater than critical angle undergoes TIR
• Light propagates in optical in form of modes
 Modes In Optical Fiber
• Multimode transmission (multiple propagation path)
• Each with different path length and hence time to traverse the fiber
• This causes light pulse to spread in time
• Best suited for transmission over very short distances
 Modes In Optical Fiber
• Single-mode transmission (single propagation path)
• By reducing the radius of the core to the order of a wavelength, only a
single mode can pass i.e. the axial ray
• previous to below figure
• Single-mode provides superior quality
• Since it provides single transmission path thus distortion do not occur
• Single-mode is typically used for long distance applications
Step Index & Graded Index
 Light Sources in Optical Fiber
• Different light sources

• Light Emitting Diode (LED)

• cheaper, wider operating temp range, lasts longer

• Injection Laser Diode (ILD)

• more efficient, has greater data rate
 Wavelength in Optical Fiber
• Velocity of propagation is less than the speed of light in a
vacuum (c)

• So although the frequency of the signal is unchanged, the

wavelength is changed

• For a single mode fiber the velocity of propagation is v = 2.04

x 108 m/sec, if the frequency of signal is 193.4 THz, what will
be the wavelength of the signal?
 Wireless Transmission
• Three range of frequencies of interest
• Radio Frequencies
• 30 MHz to 1 GHz
• Suitable for omnidirectional applications
• Example - broadcast radio
• Microwave
• 1 GHz to 40 GHz
• Highly directional
• Point-to-point communication
• Satellite communications
• Infrared
• Approximately 300 GHz to 200 THz
• Suitable for local point-to-point and multipoint applications
 Antenna
• Defined as an electrical conductor (or system of conductors)
used to radiate or collect electromagnetic energy
• Transmission antenna
• Converts radio frequency electrical energy into electromagnetic
energy
• radiates into surrounding environment
• Reception antenna
• Converts electromagnetic energy impinging on antenna into radio
frequency electrical energy
• feds to receiver
• Same antenna is often used for both purposes
 Antenna Radiation Pattern
• Antenna can radiate power in all direction but not same
amount of radiation
• Radiation patter - way to characterize its performance
• Graphical representation of the radiation properties of an antenna
as a function of space coordinates

• Isotropic antenna is a (theoretical) point in space that

radiates in all directions equally
• Its has spherical radiation pattern
 Parabolic Reflective Antenna

• A parabola is the locus of all points equidistant from

• a fixed line (the directrix) and a fixed point (the focus) not on the
line
 Parabolic Reflective Antenna
• If a parabola is revolved about its axis, the surface generated
is called a paraboloid
• Paraboloid surfaces are used in headlights, optical and radio
telescopes, and microwave antennas
• If
• a point source of electromagnetic energy is placed at the focus of
the paraboloid and
• if the inner side of the paraboloid is a reflecting surface
then the wave will bounce back in lines parallel to the axis of
the paraboloid
• Theoretically, this leads to parallel beam without dispersion
• However, in practice, there will be some dispersion
• because the source of energy must occupy more than one point
 Antenna Gain & Effective Area
• Antenna gain is a measure of the directionality of an antenna
• Power output, in a particular direction, to that produced in
any direction by a perfect omnidirectional antenna
• More power is radiated in one direction by reducing the
power radiated in other directions
• Antenna gain refers to directional gain and not power gain

• Effective area Ae is related to the physical size of the antenna

and to its shape
• Effective area of a parabolic antenna with a face area of A is
0.56A
• Gain of isotopic antenna is 1 thus what should be Ae?
 Wireless Transmission
Wireless
Transmission

Microwave Radio Infrared

Terrestrial Broadcast
Microwave Radio

Satellite
Microwave
 Terrestrial Microwave
• Terrestrial microwave uses a parabolic dish (antenna) to
focus a narrow beam onto a receiver antenna
• Spectrum: 1-40GHz frequencies
• Higher frequencies give higher data rates
• Used for
• long haul telecommunications (alternate to coax and optical fiber)
• and short point-to-point links between the buildings
• It requires fewer repeaters but line-of-sight
• Main source of loss is attenuation
• distance, rainfall and also interference
 Loss In Microwave
• The main source of loss in Microwave and radio frequencies
is attenuation
• The loss is expressed as

• Loss varies with the square of the distance i.e. linear in dB

• Compared to twisted-pair and coaxial cable (where the loss
is exponential), microwave links suffer with less attenuation
• Thus repeaters or amplifiers could be placed farther apart
i.e. 10 KM to 100 KM
 Satellite Microwave
• Satellite is in-fact a microwave relay station
• Receives on one frequency, amplifies or repeats signal and
transmits on another frequency
• eg. uplink 5.925-6.425 GHz & downlink 3.7-4.2 GHz
• Operates on number of frequency bands called as
transponder channels or just transponders
• Typically requires geo-stationary orbit (for stationary position)
• height of 35,784km and spaced at least 3-4° apart
• Typical uses
• Television (Public Broadcasting Service & Direct Broadcast Satellite)
• Long distance telephone (international calls)
• Private business networks (Very Small Aperture Terminals VSAT)
• Global positioning (GPS)
Point-to-Point Link
Broadcast Link
 Broadcast Radio
• Is omnidirectional

• Transmission is limited to the line-of-sight

• Unlike microwave, broadcast radio waves are less sensitive

to attenuation from rainfall

• A prime source of impairment for broadcast radio waves is

multipath interference
 Infrared
• Modulate noncoherent infrared light

• Transceivers must be in line of sight (or reflection)

• Infrared are blocked by walls

• No licenses required

• Typical uses
• TV remote control
• IRD port
 Wireless Propagation

• A signal radiated from an antenna travels along one of three

routes:

• Ground Wave,

• Sky Wave,

• Line of Sight (LOS)

 Ground Wave Propagation

• This effect is found in low frequencies (i.e. up to about 2 MHz)

• Follows the contour of the earth
• Can propagate considerable distances (AM Radio)
• Electromagnetic wave are scattered by the atmosphere in such
a way that they do not penetrate the upper atmosphere
 Sky Wave Propagation

• Such EM waves are reflected from the ionized layer of the upper
atmosphere (ionosphere) back down to earth
• Though it appears to be reflection, however, in fact it is refraction
• Can have number of hops between ionosphere and earth’s
surface
 Line-of-Sight Propagation

• For ground-based communication, the transmitting and receiving

antennas must be within an effective line-of-sight
• The term effective is used because microwaves are bent i.e
refracted by the atmosphere.
• Bent with the curvature of the earth and will therefore
propagate farther than the optical line of sight
 Optical v/s Radio Line-of-Sight
• With intervening obstacles, the optical line of sight can be
expressed as
• d is the distance between an antenna and the horizon in kilometers
• h is the antenna height in meters
• The effective or radio line-of-sight

• K is an adjustment factor to account for the refraction

 Optical v/s Radio Line-of-Sight
• The effective or radio line-of-sight

K is an adjustment factor to account for the refraction

• Thus, the maximum distance between two antennas for LOS
propagation is

• A good rule of thumb is K = 4/3

• h1 and h2 are heights of the two antennas
Multipath Interference
 Refraction
• Velocity of electromagnetic wave is a function of density of
material
~3 x 108 m/s in vacuum, less in anything else
• Speed changes as EMW moves between media
• Gradual bending if medium density varies
• density of atmosphere decreases with height
• results in bending towards earth of radio waves (bends away from
the normal)
• hence optical and radio horizons differ
• Index of refraction (refractive index) is
• sin(incidence)/sin(refraction)
• varies with wavelength