Lecture

Computer Communications
& Networks 05
Transmission Media

Muhammad Yousaf
Transmission Media:
Transmission medium
Physical path between transmitter and receiver
Transmission is in the form of electromagnetic waves
Guided/wired media
Signal is guided along a solid path
e.g. twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber optic
Unguided/wireless media
Signal is not guided along a certain path, rather
propagates around all the directions
e.g. air, water, vacuum

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Electromagnetic Spectrum:

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Communication Spectrum:

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Wired Media:
Most commonly used wired medias:
Twisted Pair
Shielded Twisted Pair
Unshielded Twisted Pair
Coaxial cable
Optical fiber

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Twisted Pair:

RJ-45 Jack

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TP physical description:
Two insulated copper wires
Wire thickness = from 0.4 to 0.9mm
Arranged in spiral pattern
Pair of wires act as a single communication link
Number of pairs can be bundles together
Twisting decreases the interference due to
crosstalk
Neighboring pairs have different twist length
Twist length = from 0.5 to 15cm

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Twisted Pair applications:
Most common medium
Telephone network
Between house and local exchange (subscriber loop)
Within buildings
To private branch exchange (PBX)
For local area networks (LAN)
10Mbps or 100Mbps

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TP Pros and Cons:
Cheap
Easy to work with
Low data rate
Short range

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TP Transmission Characteristics:
Analog
Needs Amplifiers every 5 to 6km
Digital
Needs Repeater every 2 to 3km
Limited distance
Limited bandwidth
Limited data rate
Susceptible to interference and noise

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UTP & STP:
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Ordinary telephone wire
Cheapest
Easiest to install
Suffers from external
electromagnetic (EM)
interference

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UTP & STP: cont…
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
Metal braid or sheathing that reduces interference
More expensive
Harder to handle (thick, heavy)

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UTP Categories:
Category Description
Bandwidth up to 16MHz
Twist length of 7.5 cm to 10 cm
Cat-3 Voice grade cable, have been used for telephony networks
Link cost = 0.7 (Normalized to cat 5)
Bandwidth up to 20 MHz
Cat-4 Not so much used
Bandwidth up to 100MHz
Twist length 0.6 cm to 0.85 cm
Cat-5 Data grade cable, most commonly used medium for LANs
Link cost = 1 (Normalized to cat 5)
Bandwidth up to 250 MHz
Cat-6 Link cost = 1.5 (Normalized to cat 5)
Bandwidth up to 600 MHz
Cat-7 Link cost = 2.2 (Normalized to cat 5)
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Coaxial Cable:

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Coax physical description:
Consists of two conductors
Outer conductor, cylindrical hollow
Inner conductor, surrounded by outer conductor
Both separated by some insulating material
Outer conductor also covered by protecting shield
Coax diameter = from 1 to 2.5cm
Less susceptible to interference and crosstalk

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Coax Applications:
Most versatile medium
Television distribution (Cable TV)
Can carry hundreds of TV channels up to 10s of Km
Long distance telephone transmission
Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously
Now being replaced by fiber optic
Local area networks
Also, have been used for high speed I/O for
computer systems

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Coax Transmission Characteristics:
Analog
Amplifiers every few km
Close Amplifier spacing if higher frequency signals are
used
Bandwidth up to 500MHz
Digital
Repeater every 1km
Closer for higher data rates

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Optical Fiber:

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Optical Fiber physical description:
Thin, flexible medium
Data transmit as optical ray (light)
Various materials can be used to make fiber
Ultra pure fused Silica
Multi-component glass
Plastic fiber
Optical Fiber consists of 3 concentric components
Core (inner most section, diameter = 8 to 100µm)
Cladding (of different optical characteristics than core)
Jacket (surrounds one or more claddings)

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Optical Fiber – Benefits:
Greater capacity
Data rates of hundreds of Gbps
Smaller size & weight
Lower attenuation
Repeater spacing up to 40Km
Reducing cost and error rate
Electromagnetic isolation
Not vulnerable to interference and noise
Security
Can’t be taped

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Optical Fiber – Applications:
Long-haul trunks of telecom networks
Increasingly replacing coax and microwave
Submarine optical fibers getting more popularity
FLAG = Fiber Link Around Globe
A global fiber optic connectivity project

Subscriber loops
NayaTel & COMSATS providing fiber connectivity to
subscribers
LANs
FDDI = Fiber Distributed Data Interface
A LAN standard similar to token ring

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Optical Fiber - Trans Char:
Principle: Total internal reflection
Portions of infrared and visible light is used
Spectrum 1014 to 1015 Hz
Light sources for fiber:
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
Injection Laser Diode (ILD)
Wavelength Division Multiplexing:
Multiple light waves of different frequencies are
transmitted through single fiber
Bell Lab demonstration:
100 beams x 10Gbps fiber => 1Tbps data rate
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Wavelength Division Multiplexing:

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 Wireless Media

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Wireless Transmission:
Antenna is required for every wireless
communication
For transmission antenna radiates electromagnetic waves
For reception it picks these electromagnetic waves
Omnidirectional
Signal spreads in all directions
Can be received by many antennas
Directional
Focused beam
Careful alignment is required
Higher the frequency, more it is possible to focus
the EM beam
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Omnidirectional Antenna:

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Directional Antenna:

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Sectorized Antenna:

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Wireless Propagation:
Wireless signals can travel in three ways:
Ground wave
Follows contour of earth
Up to 2MHz
AM radio
Sky wave
From 2MHz to 30MHz
Signal reflected from ionosphere layer of upper atmosphere
Ionosphere = Ionized region of atmosphere >50Km above earth’s surface
BBC world service, Voice of America
Line of sight
Above 30MHz
Line of Sight (LoS) limitation

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Ground Wave Propagation:

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Sky Wave Propagation:

Ionosphere > 50Km

Stratosphere >10Km, <50Km , *Ozone layer here
Troposphere <10Km
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Line of Sight Propagation:

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Wireless Impairments:
Free space losses
Signal disperses with distance
Atmospheric Absorption
Water vapour and oxygen absorb radio signals
Water absorption, greatest at 22GHz, less below 15GHz
Oxygen absorption, greater at 60GHz, less below 30GHz
Rain & fog scatter radio waves
Multipath interference
Better to get line of sight if possible
Signal can be reflected causing multiple copies to be received
May be no direct signal at all
May reinforce or cancel direct signal

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Multipath Interference:

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Wireless Frequency spectrum:
Broadcast radio
1MHz to 1GHz
Omni-directional
Microwave
2GHz to 40GHz
Directional
Terrestrial / Satellite
Infrared
300GHz to 200THz
Highly directional
Short distance communication
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Broadcast Radio:
Omnidirectional
AM & FM radio
UHF and VHF television
Doesn’t requires Line of Sight
Suffers from multipath interference
Less sensitive from attenuation due to rain

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Broadcast Radio: cont…
Maximum distance between two antennas:

d7.14Kh
d = distance in kilometers
h = height in meters
K = adjustment factor, = 4/3
Losses (L) due to attenuation:


4
d
2

L 10 dB
log
d = distance
 
λ = wavelength

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Effect of Height on Distance:

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Terrestrial Microwave:
Parabolic dish
Focused beam
Line of sight requirements
Long haul telecommunications
Higher frequencies give higher data rates
Distance and losses equations same as broadcast
radio

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Satellite Microwave:
Satellite acts as relay station
Receives on one frequency, amplifies it and transmits on
another frequency
4 / 6 GHz band:
Angular spacing between satellites 4o, maximum 90 satellites
4.2 to 4.7GHz for downlink
5.9 to 6.4GHz for uplink
12 / 14 GHz band:
Angular spacing between satellites 3o, maximum 120 satellites
11.7 to 12.2GHz for downlink
14.0 to 14.5GHz for uplink
19 / 29 GHz band:
For future requirements
17.7 to 21.2GHz for downlink
27.5 to 31.0GHz for uplink
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Satellite Point to Point Link:

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Satellite Broadcast Link:

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Satellite orbits:
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)
Height = 35,784km
Latency = 240ms
Needs 3 satellites to cover the whole globe
Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
Height = from 7000 to 18000km
Latency = from 35 to 85ms
Global Positioning System (GPS) comprises of 24 satellites
Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Height = <5000km
Latency = from 1 to 7ms
Iridium(Motorola) used set of 66 satellites at 750Km height

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Satellite orbits: cont…

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Infrared:
Modulated non-coherent infrared light
Line of sight (either directed or reflected)
Blocked by walls
Require no licensing
Remote control, IRDA port
IRDA = Infrared Data Association

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ISM band:

• Industrial, Scientific, Medical (ISM) Band

• License free frequency spectrum
• WLAN IEEE 802.11 (uses both 2.4 and 5GHz bands)
• Bluetooth IEEE 802.15 (uses 2.4GHz band)

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 Questions ???

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