UNIT3

Unit
3
Link Layer
Topics to be Covered
Transmission Media
Classes of transmission media
• Transmission Medium: Physical path between
transmitter and receiver.
– Guided Media
• Waves are guided along a solid medium.
• E.g., copper twisted pair, copper coaxial cable, optical fiber.
– Unguided Media
• Provides means of transmission but does not guide
electromagnetic signals.
• Usually referred to as wireless transmission.
• E.g., atmosphere, outer space.
Computer Communication
Network
Coaxial cable
• Better shielding than twisted pair ->travels longer distances at higher
speeds
• 2 types of Coax cables:
– 50-ohm- digital transmission.
– 75-ohm- analog transmission and cable TV.
• Consists of:
– Stiff copper wire as core
– Surrounded by an insulating material
– Cylindrical conductor as braided mesh
– Protective plastic sheath
• Gives high bandwidth and excellent noise immunity
• Bandwidth depends on:
– Cable quality, Length, Signal to noise ratio of the data signal
• Bandwidth close to 1GHz, used for cable TV and MAN
Network
Coaxial cable
Category Use
RG-59 Cable TV
RG-58 Thin Ethernet (LAN)

RG-11 Thick Ethernet (LAN)
Network
Network
Coaxial Cable Connectors
• BNC connectors
• Bayonet Neill – Concelman is a miniature quick connect/disconnect radio
frequency connector used for coaxial cable.
• The most common type of connector used today is the Bayone-Neill-Concelman
(BNe), connector. The figure shows three popular types of these connectors: the
BNC connector, the BNC T connector, and the BNC terminator.
• The BNC connector is used to connect the end of the cable to a device, such as a
TV set.
• The BNC T connector is used in Ethernet networks to branch out to a connection
to a computer or other device.
• The BNC terminator is used at the end of the cable to prevent the reflection of the
signal.
Network
Coaxial Cable Applications
• Television distribution
• Long distance telephone transmission
– Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously.
– Being replaced by fiber optic.
• Short distance computer systems links.
• Local area networks
• Traditional cable TV network, being replaced by fiber
optic cables
Network
Twisted-pair cable
Network
Twisted-pair cable
• If the two wires are parallel, the effect of these unwanted signals is not
the same in both wires because they are at different locations relative to
the noise or crosstalk sources
• Twisting makes it probable that both wires are equally affected by external
influences. The unwanted signals are mostly canceled out
• Bandwidth (the amount of data that can be carried from one point to
another in a given time period, usually a second). Usually expressed
in bits per second (bps);
• Used widely because
– Adequate performance
– Low cost
Network
Unshielded vs Shielded Twisted Pair
Unshielded Twisted Shielded Twisted Pair

Pair (UTP) (STP)
Cheapest More expensive
Harder to handle (thick,
Easiest to install.
heavy).
Metal braid or sheathing
Suffers from external
that reduces interference.
EM interference.
Network
UTP Categories
Categories by quality lowest-1 and 5 -highest
• Category 1:
– In telephone systems-> fine for voice communication
• Category 2:
– For voice and data of up to 4Mbps
• Category 3:
– At least 3 twists per foot. Upto 10 Mbps. Standard for most
telephone systems.
• Category 4:
– Like cat 3. up to 16 Mbps
• Category 5:
– Up to 100 Mbps
Network
Twisted pair cables
This image cannot currently be displayed.
Network
UTP connector
Network
UTP connector RJ45 and twisted pair cable
Network
Twisted Pair - Applications
• Telephone lines to provide voice and data channels
• The DSL lines used by the telephone companies to
provide high-data-rate connections also use the high-
bandwidth capability of unshielded twisted-pair
cables.
• Within buildings
– To private branch exchange (PBX).
• For local area networks (LAN)
– 10Mbps or 100Mbps.
Network
Twisted Pair - Transmission Characteristics
• Limited distance
• Limited bandwidth (16MHz - cat 3).
• Limited data rate (10Mbps – cat 3).
• Susceptible to interference and noise.
Network
Fibre Optic Cable
• A fibre-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits
signals in the form of light
• Optical transmission medium:
– Light source, transmission medium, detector
• Pulse of light: 1, absence of light: 0
• Detector generates electric pulse when light falls on it.
• Light source----optical fiber------detector
• Unidirectional data transmission system:
– Accepts electrical signal, converts and
Transmits it by light pulses and then
Reconverts the o/p to an electrical
Signal at the receiving end.
Optical Transmission :
Total Internal reflection (Bending of light ray)
Network
Optical Transmission :
Total Internal reflection (Bending of light ray)
• Light travels in a straight line as long as it is moving through a single

uniform substance.
• If a ray of light traveling through one substance suddenly enters another
substance (of a different density), the ray changes direction
• If the angle of incidence is equal to the critical angle, the light bends along
the interface.
• If the angle is greater than the critical angle, the ray reflects (makes a turn)
and travels again in the denser substance.
• Optical fibers use reflection to guide light through a channel. 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
Optical Fibre – Light Sources
Light Emitting Diode (LED)
Cheaper.
Wider operating temp range.
Last longer.
Used with multimode fibers.
Injection Laser Diode (ILD)

More efficient.
Greater data rate.
Mostly used with single mode fibers.
Network
Optical fibre
Network
Optical fibre
Fibre-optic cable connectors
Subscriber Connector Straight Tip
Mechanical Transfer Registered Jack
Network
Fibre cables
• Similar to coax, except without the braid.
• Centre glass core- through which light propagates
• Multimode- core is 50 microns (thickness of human hair)
• Single mode- 8-10 microns
• Core surrounded by glass cladding of low Refractive Index (RI)
than the core to keep the light inside the core
• Plastic sheath helps protect the cladding
• Fibres are grouped in bundles, protected by outer sheath
Network
Fibre cables
• Terrestrial fibre sheaths laid in ground within
meter of the surface
• Near the shore, transoceanic fibre sheaths are
buried in trenches
• Deep water-> just lie on the bottom
• 2 types of light sources used to do signalling
– LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes)
– Semiconductor laser
Network
Network
Propagation Modes
• Multimode – multiple beams move through
the core in different paths- depends on the
structure of the core.
• Single Mode-limits the beams to small range
of angles all close to the horizontal.
Network
Propagation Modes
Network
4
5
Fiber types
Type Core Cladding Mode
Multimode, graded-
50/125 50 125
index
Multimode, graded-
62.5/125 62.5 125
index
Multimode, graded-
100/125 100 125
index
7/125 7 125 Single-mode
Use single mode fiber for

Greater distance
Higher Bandwidth (50 Gbps for 100kms
without amplification).
Network
Optical Fiber - Advantages
• Higher bandwidth:
– support higher bandwidths (and hence data rates) than either
twisted-pair or coaxial cable.
• Less signal attenuation:
– Transmission distance is significantly greater than that of other
guided media.
– A signal can run for 50 km without requiring regeneration.
– We need repeaters every 5 km for coaxial or twisted-pair cable.
• Immunity to electromagnetic interference: Electromagnetic noise
cannot affect fiber-optic cables.
• Resistance to corrosive materials: Glass is more resistant to
corrosive materials than copper.
• Light weight: Fiber-optic cables are much lighter than copper
cables
• Greater immunity to tapping:
– More immune to tapping than copper cables.
– Copper cables create antenna effects that can easily be tapped.
Network
Optical Fiber - Disadvantages
• Installation and maintenance: Fiber-optic cable is a relatively
new technology. Its installation and maintenance require
expertise that is not yet available everywhere.
• Unidirectional light propagation: Propagation of light is
unidirectional. If we need bidirectional communication, two
fibers are needed.
• Cost: The cable and the interfaces are relatively more
expensive than those of other guided media. If the demand for
bandwidth is not high, often the use of optical fiber cannot be
justified
• Fragile: fibre optic cables are delicate and can easily get
damaged
Fiber Optics verses Copper
Fiber Copper
Low attenuation. Repeaters Higher attenuation. Repeaters

after 30 K.m, Higher bandwidth. after 5 K.m.
Not affected by power surges, Affected
electromagnetic interferences.
Not affected by corrosive Affected
chemicals, water, etc in the
environment.
Thin and lightweight.
qBulkier
More secure
Less Secure
Unidirectional
Bidirectional
More expensive
Less expensive
Installation requires more
Less complex installation.
expertise.
Network
Optical Fiber - Applications
• Long-haul trunks
• Metropolitan trunks
• Rural exchange trunks
• Subscriber loops
• LANs
Note: A trunk is a line or link designed to handle many signals

simultaneously, and that connects major switching centers or
nodes in a communications system.
Network
Optical Fiber - Applications
• A long-haul telephone route covers a large distance (a few hundred miles)
in a telephone n/w and offers a very high capacity (20,000 to 65,000 voice-
grade channels).
• Metropolitan telephone route offers a short distance of a few miles and
accommodates over 10,000 voice-grade channels.
• Typically, the routes are installed underground and are connected to long-
haul telephone routes.
• The rural-exchange telephone trunks offer a route of a few miles covering
a small village or town and accommodate over 5000 voice-grade channels.
• With LANs optical fiber offers a higher data rate of 100 Mbps and allows a
large no. of stations within a building or office to share resources at that
rate.
• The subscriber loop connects a subscriber phone with an exchange
(central office) and offers a higher data rate for video, images and audio
compared with the twisted pair cable.
Network
Unguided Media(Wireless)
• Unguided media transport electromagnetic
waves without using a physical conductor.
• This type of communication is often referred to
as wireless communication.
• Signals are normally broadcast through free
space and thus are available to anyone who has a
device capable of receiving them.
• Unguided signals can travel from the source to
destination in several ways: ground propagation,
sky propagation, and line-of-sight propagation.
Electromagnetic Spectrum for Wireless
Communication
Propagation Methods
• Ground Propagation
• Sky Propagation
• Line-of-Sight Propagation
Propagation Methods
• In ground propagation, 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.
– Distance depends on the amount of power in the signal: The greater the
power, the greater the distance.
• In sky propagation, higher-frequency radio waves radiate upward into the
ionosphere (the layer of atmosphere where particles exist as ions) where
they are reflected back to earth.
– This type of transmission allows for greater distances with lower output
power.
• In line-or-sight propagation, very high-frequency signals are transmitted in
straight lines directly from antenna to antenna.
– Antennas must be directional, facing each other, and either tall enough or
close enough together not to be affected by the curvature of the earth.
– Line-of-sight propagation is tricky because radio transmissions cannot be
completely focused.
Wireless Transmission
Radio waves
• Electromagnetic waves ranging in frequencies between 3 kHz and 1 GHz are
normally called radio waves;
• Radio waves are omnidirectional.
• When an antenna transmits radio waves, they are propagated in all directions.
• A sending antenna sends waves that can be received by any receiving antenna.
• Radio waves, particularly those waves that propagate in the sky mode, can travel
long distances.
• This makes radio waves a good candidate for long-distance broadcasting such as
AM radio.
• These waves can penetrate walls.
– Advantage: an AM radio can receive signals inside a building.
– Disadvantage: we cannot isolate a communication to just inside or outside a building.
• Applications:
– Used for multicasting, in which there is one sender but many receivers.
– AM and FM radio, television, maritime radio, cordless phones, and paging are examples of
multicasting.
Microwaves
• Waves ranging in frequencies between 1 and 300 GHz are called
microwaves
• Microwaves are unidirectional.
• When an antenna transmits microwave waves, they can be
narrowly focused.
– sending and receiving antennas need to be aligned.
– Advantage: A pair of antennas can be aligned without interfering with
another pair of aligned antennas
• Characteristics:
– line-of-sight: The curvature of the earth as well as other blocking
obstacles do not allow two short towers to communicate by using
microwaves. Repeaters are often needed for long distance
communication.
– Very high-frequency microwaves cannot penetrate walls
– The microwave band is relatively wide, almost 299 GHz. Therefore
wider sub-bands can be assigned
Unidirectional Antenna
Infrared
• Frequencies from 300 GHz to 400 THz
• Infrared waves, having high frequencies, cannot penetrate walls.
– Advantage: prevents interference between one system and another
• we cannot use infrared waves outside a building because the sun's
rays contain infrared waves that can interfere with the
communication
• Applications:
– The infrared band, almost 400 THz, has an excellent potential for data
transmission
– The Infrared Data Association (IrDA), an association for sponsoring the
use of infrared waves, has established standards for using these
signals for communication between devices such as keyboards, mice,
PCs, and printers.
– For example, some manufacturers provide a special port called the
IrDA port that allows a wireless keyboard to communicate with a PC.
– The standard originally defined a data rate of 75 kbps for a distance up
to 8 m.
– The recent standard defines a data rate of 4 Mbps.
Transmission Technology
• Do we send 1 bit at a time; or do we group bits
into larger groups and, if so, how?
• The transmission of binary data across a link
can be accomplished in either parallel or serial
mode.
• Transmission modes:
Ø Parallel Transmission
Ø Serial Transmission
Parallel Transmission
• In parallel mode, multiple bits are sent with each clock
tick
• Binary data, consisting of 1s and 0s, may be organized
into groups of n bits each
• By grouping, we can send data ‘n’ bits at a time instead
of 1 bit at a time
Parallel Transmission
• Advantage:
– Speed: All else being equal, parallel transmission
can increase the transfer speed by a factor of ‘n’
over serial transmission.
• Disadvantage:
– Cost: Parallel transmission requires ‘n’
communication lines just to transmit the data
stream. Because this is expensive, parallel
transmission is usually limited to short distances.
Serial Transmission
• In serial transmission one bit follows another, so we
need only one communication channel rather than n to
transmit data between two communicating devices
Serial Transmission
• Advantage:
– with only one communication channel, serial
transmission reduces the cost of transmission over
parallel by roughly a factor of ‘n’.
• Since communication within devices is parallel,
conversion devices are required at the interface
between the sender and the line (parallel-to-
serial) and between the line and the receiver
(serial-to-parallel).
• Serial transmission occurs in one of three ways:
asynchronous, synchronous, and isochronous.
Asynchronous Serial Transmission
• Data bits can be sent at any point in time.
• Stop bits and start bits are used between data bytes to synchronize the transmitter
and receiver and to ensure that the data is transmitted correctly.
• The time between sending and receiving data bits is not constant, so gaps are used
to provide time between transmissions.
• The advantage of using the asynchronous method is that no synchronization is
required between the transmitter and receiver devices.
• It is also a more cost effective method.
• A disadvantage is that data transmission can be slower, but this is not always the
case.
Synchronous Serial Transmission
• Data bits are transmitted as a continuous stream in time with a master
clock.
• The data transmitter and receiver both operate using a synchronized clock
frequency; therefore, start bits, stop bits, and gaps are not used.
• This means that data moves faster and timing errors are less frequent
because the transmitter and receiver time is synced.
• However, data accuracy is highly dependent on timing being synced
correctly between devices.
• In comparison with asynchronous serial transmission, this method is
usually more expensive.
Isochronous Transmission
• Designed to provide a steady bit flow for
multimedia applications
– Voice and video
• Enables network jitter to be managed
• With an isochronous network, data are accepted
and sent at a fixed rate, R
• Sender and receiver want to see a continuous
stream of data without delays
• Usually an underlying synchronous mechanism
operating at slightly more than R bits per second
Signal Transmission
• Signals can be of two types:
– Analog
– Digital
• The term analog data refers to information that is continuous;
digital data refers to information that has discrete states.
– For example, an analog clock that has hour, minute, and second hands
gives information in a continuous form; the movements of the hands
are continuous.
– On the other hand, a digital clock that reports the hours and the
minutes will change suddenly from 8:05 to 8:06
• An analog signal has infinitely many levels of intensity over a period
of time. As the wave moves from value A to value B, it passes
through and includes an infinite number of values along its path.
• A digital signal can have only a limited number of defined values.
Although each value can be any number, it is often as simple as 1
and O.
Transmission of Digital Signals
• A digital signal is a composite analog signal with
frequencies between zero and infinity.
– A single frequency sine wave is not useful in data
communications;
– we need to send a composite signal, a signal made of
many simple sine waves.
– any composite signal is a combination of simple sine waves
with different frequencies, amplitudes, and phases.
• We can transmit a digital signal by using one of two
different approaches:
– baseband transmission
– broadband transmission (using modulation)
Baseband Transmission
• Baseband transmission means sending a digital signal
over a channel without changing the digital signal to an
analog signal.
• Baseband transmission requires that we have a low-
pass channel, a channel with a bandwidth that starts
from zero.
• This is the case if we have a dedicated medium with a
bandwidth constituting only one channel.
– For example, the entire bandwidth of a cable connecting
two computers is one single channel.
– Another example, we may connect several computers to a
bus, but not allow more than two stations to communicate
at a time.
Broadband Transmission (Using
Modulation)
• Broadband transmission or modulation means
changing the digital signal to an analog signal
for transmission.
• Modulation allows us to use a bandpass
channel-a channel with a bandwidth that does
not start from zero.
• This type of channel is more available than a
low-pass channel.
• To understand the basic differences between both technologies, consider
the baseband as a railway track and the broadband as a highway.
• Like, at a time, only one train can go on a railway track, in the baseband
transmission only one data signal can be transmitted at a time.
• Unlike a railway track on a highway, multiple vehicles can go
simultaneously.
• For example, on a 3 lanes highway, 3 vehicles can go at the same time.
• Same as a highway, in the broadband transmission, multiple data signals
can be transmitted at the same time.
Baseband v/s Broadband Transmission
Baseband transmission Broadband transmission
Transmit digital signals Transmit analog signals
To boost signal strength, use repeaters To boost signal strength, use amplifiers
Can transmit only a single data stream at a Can transmit multiple signal waves at a
time time
Support bidirectional communication Support unidirectional communication

simultaneously only
Support TDM based multiplexing Support FDM based multiplexing

Use coaxial, twisted-pair, and fiber-optic Use radio waves, coaxial cables, and fiber
cables optic cables
Mainly used in Ethernet LAN networks Mainly used in cable and telephone
networks
Line Encoding Schemes
• Refers to technique used to translate bits to
signal for transmissions over a data channel.
• Digital data may be transferred using either
analog or digital signals.
• Here we look at how digital data is
transmitted using digital signals.
• Two basic approaches
– Line encoding – Stream of Bits
– Block encoding – Blocks of Bits
Line encoding
Network
Block Encoding
Manchester and Differential Manchester
• Manchester and differential Manchester Coding are the two common Bi-phase
techniques in use.
• Bi-phase technique:
– The signal level is checked twice for every bit time, both initially and in the middle. Hence, the clock
rate is double the data transfer rate and thus the modulation rate is also doubled.
– The bandwidth required for this coding is greater.
• The duration of the bit is divided into two halves. The voltage remains at one level
during the first half and moves to the other level in the second half.
• In Manchester coding the transition at the middle of the bit provides
synchronization
• In the standard Manchester encoding there is a transition at the middle of each bit
period. A binary 1 corresponds to a low-to-high transition and a binary 0 to a
high-to-low transition in the middle.
• In Differential Manchester, There is always a transition at the middle of the bit,
but the bit values are determined at the beginning of the bit.
• If the next bit is 0, there is a transition; if the next bit is 1, there is none.
Network
Manchester and differential
Manchester
Network
• Manchester
– Transition in middle of each bit period. Transition serves as clock and data.
– Low to high represents one.
– High to low represents zero.
– Used by IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet).
• Differential Manchester
– Mid-bit transition is clocking only. Transition at start of a bit period represents
zero.
– No transition at start of a bit period represents one.
– Transition at the start at middle indicates a zero.
– Used by IEEE 802.5 (Token Ring).
Network
Wireless LAN: IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi)
• Need to connect wirelessly.
• Different companies with different wireless LANs
can lead to compatibility issue.
• IEEE committee given task to come up with
wireless LAN standard.
• Issues:
– Name-> based on other LANs like 802.3 , 802.4 etc.
hence called 802.11
– Finding frequency band that was available worldwide.
Network
Introduction
• Unlike mobile phone networks, 802.11 used unlicensed band.
• All devices are allowed to use this spectrum provided that they
limit their transmit power to let different devices coexist.
• Instead of expensive, licensed spectrum, 802.11 systems
operate in unlicensed bands such as the ISM (Industrial,
Scientific, and Medical) bands defined by ITU-R (International
Telecommunication Union- Radiocommunicaiton sector) (e.g.,
902-928 MHz, 2.4-2.5 GHz, and 5.725-5.825 GHz).
Network
Arrangement
• 802.11 networks are made up of clients, such as laptops and
mobile phones, and infrastructure called APs (access points)
that is installed in buildings.
• Access points are sometimes called base stations.
• The access points connect to the wired network, and all
communication between clients goes through an access point.
• It is also possible for clients that are in radio range to talk
directly, such as two computers in an office without an access
point.
• This arrangement is called an ad hoc network. It is used much
less often than the access point mode.
Network
IEEE 802.11 Architecture - BSS
Ad-Hoc Wireless Infrastructure Wireless
Basic Service Set

Network
IEEE 802.11 Architecture - ESS
Extended Service Set
Network
BSS and ESS Configurations
• Simplest: each station belongs to single BSS

– Within range only of other stations within BSS
• Can have two BSSs overlap

– Station could participate in more than one BSS
• ESS Two or more BSS interconnected by DS

– Typically, DS is wired backbone but can be any
network
Network
Network
Bluetooth
• Bluetooth was originally started as a project by
the Ericsson Company.
• It is named for Harald Blaatand, the king of
Denmark (940-981) who united Denmark and
Norway.
– Blaatand translates to Bluetooth in English.
• Today, Bluetooth technology is the
implementation of a protocol defined by the IEEE
802.15 standard.
• The standard defines a wireless personal-area
network (PAN) operable in an area the size of a
room or a hall.
Bluetooth
• Bluetooth is a wireless LAN technology designed to
connect devices of different functions such as
telephones, notebooks, computers (desktop and
laptop), cameras, printers, coffee makers, and so on.
• A Bluetooth LAN is an ad hoc network, which means
that the network is formed spontaneously; the devices,
sometimes called gadgets, find each other and make a
network called a piconet.
• A Bluetooth LAN can even be connected to the Internet
if one of the gadgets has this capability.
• A Bluetooth LAN, by nature, cannot be large. If there
are many gadgets that try to connect, there is chaos.
Bluetooth Applications
• Peripheral devices such as a wireless mouse or
keyboard can communicate with the computer
through this technology.
• Monitoring devices can communicate with sensor
devices in a small health care center.
• Home security devices can use this technology to
connect different sensors to the main security
controller.
• Conference attendees can synchronize their
laptop computers at a conference.
Bluetooth Architecture
Bluetooth defines two types of networks: piconet and
scatternet.
Piconets
• A Bluetooth network is called a piconet, or a small net.
• A piconet can have up to eight stations, one of which is
called the primary; t the rest are called secondaries.
• All the secondary stations synchronize their clocks and
hopping sequence with the primary.
• Note that a piconet can have only one primary station.
• The communication between the primary and the
secondary can be one-to-one or one-to-many.
Scatternet
• Piconets can be combined to form what is
called a scatternet. A secondary station in one
piconet can be the primary in another piconet.
• This station can receive messages from the
primary in the first piconet (as a secondary)
and, acting as a primary, deliver them to
secondaries in the second piconet.
• A station can be a member of two piconets.
Local Area Networks: IEEE 802.3
(Ethernet)
• The original Ethernet was created in 1976 at Xerox's
Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
• Since then, it has gone through four generations:
Standard Ethernet (10 Mbps), Fast Ethernet (100
Mbps), Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps), and Ten-Gigabit
Ethernet (l0 Gbps).
Network
Categories of Traditional Ethernet
Network
10Base5: Thick Ethernet
• The first implementation is called 10Base5,
thick Ethernet, or Thicknet.
• The nickname derives from the size of the
cable, which is roughly the size of a garden
hose and too stiff to bend with your hands.
• 10Base5 was the first Ethernet specification to
use a bus topology with an external
transceiver (transmitter/receiver) connected
via a tap to a thick coaxial cable.
Network
Connection of a Station to the Medium using
10Base5
Network
• The transceiver is responsible for transmitting, receiving,
and detecting collisions.
• The transceiver is connected to the station via a transceiver
cable that provides separate paths for sending and
receiving.
• This means that collision can only happen in the coaxial
cable.
• The maximum length of the coaxial cable must not exceed
500 m, otherwise, there is excessive degradation of the
signal.
• If a length of more than 500 m is needed, up to five
segments, each a maximum of 500-meter, can be
connected using repeaters.
Network
10Base2: Thin Ethernet
• The second implementation is called 10Base2,

thin Ethernet, or Cheapernet.
• 10Base2 also uses a bus topology, but the
cable is much thinner and more flexible.
• In this case, the transceiver is normally part of
the network interface card (NIC), which is
installed inside the station.
Network
• Note that the collision here occurs in the thin coaxial cable.
• This implementation is more cost effective than 10Base5
because thin coaxial cable is less expensive than thick coaxial
and the connections are much cheaper than taps.
• Installation is simpler because the thin coaxial cable is very
flexible.
• However, the length of each segment cannot exceed 185 m
(close to 200 m) due to the high level of attenuation in thin
coaxial cable.
Connection of Stations to the Medium using
10Base2
Network
10Base-T: Twisted-Pair Ethernet
• The third implementation is called 10Base-T or twisted-pair
Ethernet.
• 10Base-T uses a physical star topology.
• The stations are connected to a hub via two pairs of twisted
cable.
• Note that two pairs of twisted cable create two paths (one
for sending and one for receiving) between the station and
the hub. Any collision here happens in the hub.
• Compared to 10Base5 or 10Base2, the hub actually
replaces the coaxial cable as far as a collision is concerned.
• The maximum length of the twisted cable here is defined as
100 m, to minimize the effect of attenuation in the twisted
cable.
10Base-T
Hubs/Switches can be cascaded or stacked.

10Base-F: Fiber Ethernet
• Although there are several types of optical
fiber 10-Mbps Ethernet, the most common is
called 10Base-F.
• 10Base-F uses a star topology to connect
stations to a hub.
• The stations are connected to the hub using
two fiber-optic cables.
10Base-FL
Standard Ethernet Summary:
Other Ethernet Implementations
IEEE 802.3 Frame format
IEEE 802.3 Frame format
• PREAMBLE – Ethernet frame starts with 7-Bytes Preamble. This is a pattern of alternative 0’s and 1’s which
indicates starting of the frame and allow sender and receiver to establish bit synchronization. Initially, PRE
(Preamble) was introduced to allow for the loss of a few bits due to signal delays. But today’s high-speed
Ethernet don’t need Preamble to protect the frame bits.
PRE (Preamble) indicates the receiver that frame is coming and allow the receiver to lock onto the data
stream before the actual frame begins.
• Start of frame delimiter (SFD) – This is a 1-Byte field which is always set to 10101011. SFD indicates that
upcoming bits are starting of the frame, which is the destination address. Sometimes SFD is considered the
part of PRE, this is the reason Preamble is described as 8 Bytes in many places. The SFD warns station or
stations that this is the last chance for synchronization.
• Destination Address – This is 6-Byte field which contains the MAC address of machine for which data is
destined.
• Source Address – This is a 6-Byte field which contains the MAC address of source machine. As Source
Address is always an individual address (Unicast), the least significant bit of first byte is always 0.
• Length – Length is a 2-Byte field, which indicates the length of entire Ethernet frame. This 16-bit field can
hold the length value between 0 to 65534, but length cannot be larger than 1500 because of some own
limitations of Ethernet.
• Data – This is the place where actual data is inserted, also known as Payload. Both IP header and data will
be inserted here if Internet Protocol is used over Ethernet. The maximum data present may be as long as
1500 Bytes. In case data length is less than minimum length i.e. 46 bytes, then padding 0’s is added to
meet the minimum possible length.
• Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) – CRC is 4 Byte field. This field contains a 32-bits hash code of data, which
is generated over the Destination Address, Source Address, Length, and Data field. If the checksum
computed by destination is not the same as sent checksum value, data received is corrupted.
Devices
• Hubs
• Repeaters
• Bridges
Connecting Devices
Hubs
• A hub is a physical layer
networking device which is
used to connect multiple
devices in a network.
• They are generally used to
connect computers in a LAN.
• A hub has many ports in it.
• A computer which intends to
be connected to the network
is plugged in to one of these
ports.
• When a data frame arrives at
a port, it is broadcast to every
other port, without
considering whether it is
destined for a particular
destination or not.
Repeater
• Repeaters are network devices operating at physical layer of the OSI
model that amplify or regenerate an incoming signal before
retransmitting it.
• They are incorporated in networks to expand its coverage area.
They are also known as signal boosters.
Why are Repeaters needed?
• When an electrical signal is transmitted via a channel, it gets
attenuated depending upon the nature of the channel or the
technology.
• This poses a limitation upon the length of the LAN or coverage area
of cellular networks. This problem is alleviated by installing
repeaters at certain intervals.
• Repeaters amplifies the attenuated signal and then retransmits it.
Digital repeaters can even reconstruct signals distorted by
transmission loss
Repeater
Repeater
A repeater connects segments of a LAN.
A repeater forwards every frame; it has no filtering capability

Bridge
• Operate in both physical and the data link layers of the OSI model.
• As a physical layer device, it regenerates the signal it receives.
• As a data link layer device, the bridge can check the physical (MAC)
addresses (source and destination) contained in the frame.
A Network with and without a Bridge
Collision Domain
• A collision domain is a section of a network
connected by a shared medium or
through repeaters where data
packets can collide with one another when being
sent, particularly when using early versions
of Ethernet.
• A network collision occurs when more than one
device attempts to send a packet on a network
segment at the same time.
Collision Domain
• Only one device in the collision domain may transmit
at any one time, and the other devices in the domain
listen to the network in order to avoid data collisions.
• Because only one device may be transmitting at any
one time, total network bandwidth is shared among
all devices.
• Collisions also decrease network efficiency on a
collision domain; if two devices transmit
simultaneously, a collision occurs, and both devices
have to abort transmission and must retransmit at a
later time.
Collision Domains in a non Bridged and Bridged
Network
Bridge
• A bridge operates at the data link layer, giving it access to the
physical (MAC) addresses of all the stations connected to it.
• When a frame enters a bridge, the bridge not only
regenerates the signal but checks the address of the
destination and forwards the new copy only to the segment to
which the address belongs.
• As a bridge encounters a packet, it reads the address
contained in the frame and compares it with a table of all the
stations on both segments.
• When it finds a match, it discovers to which segment the
station belongs and relays the packet only to that segment.
Filtering
• What is the difference in functionality between a
bridge and a repeater?
• A bridge has filtering capability. It can check the
destination address of a frame and decide if the
frame should be forwarded or dropped.
• If the frame is to be forwarded, the decision must
specify the port.
• A bridge has a table that maps addresses to ports.
Bridge
A bridge has a table used in filtering decisions.

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RG-58 Thin Ethernet (LAN)

Unshielded Twisted Shielded Twisted Pair

• Light travels in a straight line as long as it is moving through a single

Injection Laser Diode (ILD)

Mechanical Transfer Registered Jack

Type Core Cladding Mode

Use single mode fiber for

Low attenuation. Repeaters Higher attenuation. Repeaters

Note: A trunk is a line or link designed to handle many signals

Support bidirectional communication Support unidirectional communication

Support TDM based multiplexing Support FDM based multiplexing

Ad-Hoc Wireless Infrastructure Wireless

Basic Service Set

• Simplest: each station belongs to single BSS

• Can have two BSSs overlap

• ESS Two or more BSS interconnected by DS

• The second implementation is called 10Base2,

Hubs/Switches can be cascaded or stacked.

A repeater connects segments of a LAN.

A repeater forwards every frame; it has no filtering capability

A bridge has a table used in filtering decisions.

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