University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar

Data Communication

Assignment 2
Guided and Unguided Media

Submitted by:
Muhammad Maaz Khan
19PWBCS0687
Section B
4th semester

Submitted to:
Amer Taj
Data transmission occurs between a transmitter and a receiver
over some transmission medium. On the basis of nature of
Medium we have two types of media
 Guided Media
 Unguided Media

Guided Media:
When the transmission medium is a physical path, it is called as
Guided Media. It is also called as wired or bounded media.
Guided Media has three types namely twisted pair cables, Optical
fiber, coaxial cables etc.

Twisted Pair Cables:

A Twisted Pair Cable consists of multiple twisted pairs of
conductor wires. Each wire is insulated. The two wires in each
pair are twisted together. One wire carries signals to the receiver,
while the other is used as ground reference. The receiver uses
the difference between the two. In addition to the signal sent by
the sender on one of the wires, interference(noise) and crosstalk
may affect both wires and create unwanted signals. So, for more
effective signal transmission each twisted pair of wires is wrapped
inside a coil or metal covering. This covering is called as
shielding. This shielding prevents interference and noise.
So, we have two types of Twisted Pair Cable:
1. Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable which doesn’t have any coil
or metal wrap around pair of twisted wires.
 2. Shielded Twisted Pair Cable which do have any coil or
metal wrap around pair of twisted wires.

Advantages of Shielded Twisted Pair Cable:

 Easy to install
 Performance is adequate
 Can be used for Analog or Digital transmission
 Increases the signaling rate
 Performance is adequate
  Can be used for Analog or Digital transmission
Disadvantages of Twisted Pair Cable:
 Bandwidth is low when compared with Coaxial Cable
 Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable Provides less protection from
interference.
 Shielded Twisted Pair Cable are difficult to manufacture.
 Shielded Twisted Pair Cable are Heavy

Coaxial Cables:
As the name suggests coaxial contains two conducting wires
parallel to each other wrapped around an axis. Copper is used as
the inner conductor. It can be a solid wire or a standard one. It is
insulated by a PVC Layer. Then we have the outer conductor
usually a foil or a metallic gauze that encases the PVC layer. This
outer metallic wrapping protects the inner conductor from
interference and noise and also acts as the second conductor to
complete the circuit. Outermost part of coaxial cable is an
insulation of some plastic which protects the whole cable.
Advantages of Coaxial Cable:
 Carries signals of higher data rate and bandwidth.
 Transmits digital signals at a very high rate of 10Mbps.
 Much higher noise immunity
 Data transmission without distortion.
 They can span to longer distance at higher speeds as they
have better shielding when compared to twisted pair cable
 Used in analog telephone networks and traditional Cable TV
networks.
Disadvantages of Coaxial Cable:
 The network depends on a single cable. Single cable failure
can fail the entire network.
 Difficult to install and expensive when compared with twisted
pair.
 If the shield is imperfect, it can lead to grounded loop.

Fiber-Optic Cable:
A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits
signals in the form of light. It’s transmission of data is based on
the concept of reflection of light through glass. In fiber-optic, a
glass or plastic core is surrounded by a cladding of less dense
glass or plastic. The difference in density of the two materials
must be such that a beam of light moving through the core is
reflected off the cladding instead of being refracted into it.
Propagation Modes:
Optical Fiber has two types of propagation modes.
1. Multimode mode
Multiple light beams from a light source move through the
core in different paths.

It is implemented in two forms: step-index and graded-index.

(a) Step-index: density of the core remains constant from the
center to the edges.
(b) Graded-index: decreases this distortion of the signal
through the cable

2. Single mode
Single-mode uses step-index fiber and a focused source of
light which limits beams to a small range of angles, all close
to the horizontal.

Advantages of Fiber Optic Cable:

Fiber optic has several advantages over metallic cable:
 Higher bandwidth
 Less signal attenuation
 Immunity to electromagnetic interference
 Resistance to corrosive materials
  Light weight
 Greater immunity to tapping

Disadvantages of Fiber Optic Cable:

There are some disadvantages in the use of optical fiber:
 Installation and maintenance
 Unidirectional light propagation
 High Cost

Unguided Media
When the transmission medium is electromagnetic wave, it is
called as Guided Media. It is also called as wireless or unbounded
media.
Unguided Media can be propagated in three ways.
1. Ground Propagation: In this, radio waves travel through
the lowest portion of the atmosphere, hugging the Earth.
These low-frequency signals emanate in all directions from
the transmitting antenna and follow the curvature of the
planet.
2. Sky Propagation: In this, higher-frequency radio waves
radiate upward into the ionosphere where they are
reflected back to Earth. This type of transmission allows for
greater distances with lower output power.
3. Line-of-sight Propagation: in this type, very high-
frequency signals are transmitted in straight lines directly
from antenna to antenna.
Unguided media has three types namely Radio waves,
Microwaves, Infrared waves.
Radio Waves:
Electromagnetic waves from frequencies between 3 kHz and 1
GHz are called as Radio Waves.
Radio waves are omnidirectional. When an antenna transmits
radio waves, they are propagated in all directions. This means
that the sending and receiving antennas do not have to be
aligned. A sending antenna send waves that can be received by
any receiving antenna. Radio waves, particularly with those of low
and medium frequencies, can penetrate walls.
Advantages of Radio Waves:
 Radio waves are omnidirectional (propagated in all
directions).
 It can penetrate walls.
Disadvantages of Radio Waves:
  They cannot transmit a lot of data simultaneously because
they're low frequency.

Microwaves:
Electromagnetic waves from frequencies between 1 GHz and 300
GHz are called microwaves. Micro waves are unidirectional.
When an antenna transmits microwaves, they can be narrowly
focused. This means that the sending and receiving antennas
need to be aligned. Microwave propagation is line-of-sight. Since
the towers with the mounted antennas need to be in direct sight of
each other, towers that are far apart need to be very tall.

Characteristics of Microwaves:
 Micro waves are unidirectional. When an antenna transmits
microwaves, they can be narrowly focused. This means that
the sending and receiving antennas need to be aligned.
Microwave propagation is line-of-sight. Since the towers with
the mounted antennas need to be in direct sight of each
other, towers that are far apart need to be very tall.
  Very high-frequency microwaves cannot penetrate walls.
This characteristic can be a disadvantage if receivers are
inside the buildings.
 Very high-frequency microwaves cannot penetrate walls.
This characteristic can be a disadvantage if receivers are
inside the buildings.
Advantages of Microwave Transmission
 Used for long distance telephone communication
 Carries 1000's of voice channels at the same time
Disadvantages of Microwave Transmission
 It is very costly

Infrared radiation:
Electromagnetic waves from frequencies between 300 GHz and
400 GHz are called Infrared rays. They have longer wavelengths
than those of visible light, and invisible to the human eye.
Advantages of IR:
 Infrared waves are used for short distance communication
having high frequencies.
 IR cannot penetrate through walls. This advantageous
characteristic prevents interference between one system and
another, a short-range communication system in on room
cannot be affected by another system in the next room.
Disadvantages of IR:
 Infrared waves at high power can damage eyes.
 The signal can be blocked by any foreign material that is in
front of the transmission.