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Lesson 3 Transmission Media
Lesson 3 Transmission Media
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 1
1. Twisted-Pair Cable
A twisted consist of two conductors (usually copper), each with its own colored plastic
insulation. In the past, two parallel wires were used for communication. However,
electromagnetic interference from devices such as a motor can create over noise those wires. If
the two wires are parallel, the wire closest to the source of the noise gets more interference than
the wire further away. Which results in an uneven load and a damaged signal.
If, however, the two wires are twisted around each other at regular intervals (between 2 to 12
twist per foot), each wire is the closer to the noise source for half the time and the further away
the other half. With the twisting interference can be equalized for both wires. Twisting does not
always eliminate the impact of noise, but does significantly reduce it Twisted cable comes in two
forms: unshielded and shielded.
Advantages:
Least expensive
Easy to install
High speed capacity
Disadvantages:
Susceptible to external interference
Lower capacity and performance in comparison to STP
Short distance transmission due to attenuation
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 2
The Electrical Industry Association (EIA) divides UTP into different categories by quality grade.
The rating for each category refers to conductor size, electrical characteristics, and twists per
foot.
This shield improves the cable's transmission and interference characteristics, which, in tern,
support higher bandwidth over longer distance than UTP.
Advantages:
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 3
More expensive
Bulky
2. Coaxial Cable:
Coaxial cable, commonly called coax, has two conductors that share the same axis. A solid
copper wire runs down the center of the cable, and this wire is surrounded by plastic foam
insulation. The foam is surrounded by a second conductor, wire mesh tube, metallic foil, or both.
The wire mesh protects the wire from EMI. It is
often called the shield. A tough plastic jacket forms the cover of the cable, providing protection
and insulation
Where Ethernet is concerned, there are two types of coaxial cable, called this Ethernet (also
known as thinnet or thinwire,) and thick Ethernet (also known as thinnet or thickwire). The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) designates these cable types as 10Base2
and 10Base5, respectively, where these notations indicates: Total bandwidth for the technology:
in this case, 10 means 10Mbps Base: indicates that the network uses baseband signaling and
this applies to both types
of cable.
2 or 5: a rough indicator of maximum segment length, measured in hundreds of meters; thinwire
support a maximum segment length of 185 meters, which rounds up to 200; thickwire supports a
maximum segment length of 500 meter
Advantages:
High Bandwidth
Better noise Immunity
Easy to install and expand
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 4
Inexpensive
Disadvantages:
Single cable failure can disrupt the entire network
A light pulse can be used to signal a ‗1‘ bit; the absence of a pulse signals a ‗0‘ bit.
Visible light has a frequency of about 108 MHz, so the bandwidth of an optical transmission
system is potentially enormous.
An optical transmission system has three components: the transmission medium, the
light source and the detector. The transmission medium is an ultra-thin fiber of glass or
fused silica. The light source is either a LED (Light Emit Diode) or a laser diode, both of
which emits light pulses when a electrical current is applied. The detector is a photo
A cable may contain a single fiber, but often fibers are bundled together in the center of the
cable. Optical fiber are smaller and lighter than copper wire. One optical fiber is approximately
the same diameter as a human hair.
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 5
Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic known as a core. A core is a
light transmission area of the fibre. The more the area of the core, the more light will be
transmitted into the fibre.
Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding. The main functionality of the
cladding is to provide the lower refractive index at the core interface as to cause the reflection
within the core so that the light waves are transmitted through the fibre.
Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket. The main purpose of a
jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb shock and extra fibre protection.
Advantages of Fiber Optic
Noise resistance: it is immune to Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)
Less signal attenuation: signal can run for miles without requiring regeneration
Higher bandwidth: fiber optic cable can support dramatically higher bandwidths (and
hence data rate) than all other cables. Currently, data rates and bandwidth utilization over
fiber-optic cable are limited not by the medium but by the signal generation and reception
technology available. A typical bandwidth for fiber optic is 100Mbps to 1Gbps.
UnGuided Transmission
An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves without using any physical
medium. Therefore it is also known as wireless transmission.
In unguided media, air is the media through which the electromagnetic energy can flow
easily.
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 6
Radio waves
Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all the directions of free
space.
Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all the directions.
The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 khz.
In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not aligned, i.e., the wave
sent by the sending antenna can be received by any receiving antenna.
An example of the radio wave is FM radio.
Microwaves
Microwaves are of two types:
o Terrestrial microwave
o Satellite microwave communication.
Characteristics of Microwave:
o Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is from 4-6 GHz to 21-23
GHz.
o Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 7
o Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
o Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a longer distance.
o Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by environmental conditions
and antenna size.
Advantages Of Microwave:
o Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.
o It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the installation of cables.
o Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as the installation of
cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
o Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave transmission.
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 8
o It is easy to install.
o It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting, radio/TV signal
broadcasting, mobile communication, etc.
Infrared
o An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for communication over short
ranges.
o The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
o It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer between two cell phones, TV
remote operation, data transfer between a computer and cell phone resides in the same
closed area.
Characteristics Of Infrared:
o It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
o Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared communication in one
room cannot be interrupted by the nearby rooms.
o An infrared communication provides better security with minimum interference.
o Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the sun rays will
interfere with the infrared waves.
BY: MR. KEVIN NJAGI (LECTURER - MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY) @ SEP - DEC 2020 9