IS 171 - Introduction to

Computer Networks
Network Media
Overview of LAN Cabling
Local Area Networks

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Network Media
• Overview of LAN cabling
• Twisted pair cables
• Coaxial cables
• Fibre optic cables
• Unguided media

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Introduction
• Network traffic must flow through some form of a medium - wired or
is wireless
• The choice of a medium is based on factors
• Each medium has tradeoffs over data rate, distance and attenuation
• Data rate – the amount of data transmitted per unit time (seconds) – e.g. 10
Mbits/s – ten million bits transmitted in one second
• Distance – the distance that data can travel before losing strength – cable
length limitation
• Attenuation : weakening of signal over distance
• Common forms of network media are twisted-pair, coaxial and fiber-
optic cable
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Classification of transmission media
• Guided media – provide a conduit
from one device to another
• There is a physical connection
• E.g. twisted-pair cable, coaxial
cable and fiber-optic cable
• Unguided media – transport
electromagnetic waves without using
a physical conductor
• Often referred to as wireless
communication
• E.g. Radio waves, microwaves,
infra-red
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Twisted Pair
• Consists of a pair of twisted cables
• Uses electrostatics to transfer data
• Causes electromagnetic interference
• Network goals when using electrostatic
media - reduce the effect of
electromagnetic interference
• Techniques include
• Shielding around the cables/wires
• Twisting the wires within the cable

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Twisted Pair
• Two copper conductors – one carries signals, the other is the ground reference
• Receiver operates on the difference between the signals
• Twisted to minimize electromagnetic interference – more twists means better
quality
• Separately insulated , often bundled into cables
• Usually installed in building construction

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Twisted Pair
• Twisted pair cable comes in two forms
• Unshielded twisted pair cable (UTP)
• Ordinary telephone wire
• Cheapest
• Easiest to install
• Suffers from external electromagnetic
interference
• Shielded twisted pair cable (STP)
• Metal braid or sheathing that reduces
interference
• More expensive
• Harder to handle (thick, heavy)
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Twisted Pair
• UTP
• Typically wrapped inside
a plastic cover (for
mechanical protection)
• A sample UTP cable with
5 unshielded twisted
pairs of wires Insulator Metal

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Twisted Pair
• STP
• STP cables are similar to UTP cables, except there is a metal foil or braided-
metal-mesh cover that encases each pair of insulated wires

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UTP Categories
• Cat 1 - Used for audio frequencies, speaker wire, etc. Not for
networking
• Cat 2 – carry signals of up to 1.5 MHz
• Used for analog phones, not for networking
• Cat 3 - carry signals of up to 16 MHz
• Voice grade found in most offices
• Twist length of 7.5 cm to 10 cm
• Cat 4 - carry signals of up to 20 MHz
• Not frequently used today, was used for Token Ring

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UTP Categories – cont’d
• Cat 5 - carry signals of up to 100 MHz
• Twist length 0.6 cm to 0.85 cm
• Commonly pre-installed in new office buildings
• Cat 5e “Enhanced”
• carry signals of up to 100Mhz
• Cat 6 - carry signals of up to 250 MHz
• Cat 7
• Proposed standard can carry signals of up to 600 MHz

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Typical usage of Twisted pair

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UTP connectors

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Making connections
• Cat5e cable Steps
• RJ45 connectors 1. Strip cable end
2. Untwist wire ends
• Cable stripper 3. Arrange wires
• Crimping tool 4. Trim wires to size
5. Attach connector
6. Check
7. Crimp
8. Test

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Making connections
• Step 1
• Strip 1 – 1½” of insulating sheath
• Avoid cutting into conductor insulation

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Making connections
• Step 2
• Untwist wire ends
• Sort wires by insulation colors
• Step 3
• Arrange wires

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Making connections
• Each of the wire pair has a unique name,
tip or ring
• The "primary color" in a four-pair cable,
such as Category 5e, is the tip, which is
usually white with a tracer, or stripe, that
is the same color as the pair's solid color Color Pin (T568B) Usage
wire, which is the ring White/Orange 1 Transmission (Tx+)
Orange 2 Transmission (Tx-)
White/Green 3 Receive (Rx+)
Blue 4 --
White/Blue 5 --
Green 6 Receive (Rx-)
White/Brown 7 --
Brown 8 --

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Making connections
• Step 4
• Trim wire to size (evenly),
about 2-2.5 cm
• Leave about ½ inch wires
exposed
• Step 5
• Attach connector
• Maintain wire order, left-to-
right, with RJ45 tab facing
downward

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Making connections
• How to wire
• Straight- through – all order of the wirings is the same as the other side

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Making connections
• Crossover – the order of transmitting and receiving wirings are
changed

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Making connections
• Step 6 – check
• Do all wires extend to the end?
• Is the sheath well inside the connector?

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Making connections
• Step 7 – crimp
• Squeeze firmly to crimp connector onto cable end

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 Making connections
• How to crimp
• Crimp the RJ45 plug with
the crimping tool
• Verify that the order of
the wires is correct and all
the wires are correctly
making good contact with
the metal contacts in the
RJ45 plug

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Making connections
• Step 8 – test
• Cut the cable into suitable length and
repeat the steps for the other side
• Does the cable work?

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Twisted pair cable applications
• Most common used medium
• Used in telephone networks
• Within buildings
• To private branch exchange (PBX)
• For local area networks (LAN)
• 10Mbps or 100Mbps
• Possible to cycle up to 1Gbps – Gigabit Ethernet

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Twisted pair cable applications
• Advantages
• Cheap
• Easy to implement
• Easy to manage
• Lots of different applications
• Easy to terminate
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• Disadvantages
• Susceptible to Electromagnetic
Field (EMF), Radio Frequency
(RF) interference
• Limited distance – 100 meters
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Coaxial cables
• In general, coaxial cables, or coax, carry signals of higher frequencies
• 100KHz–500MHz
• The physical medium consists of an inner wire, surrounded by an insulator, which
is also surrounded by a shield

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Coaxial cables
• Most versatile medium
• Used for television distribution
• Cable TV
• Long distance telephone transmission
• Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously
• Being replaced by fiber optic
• Short distance computer systems links
• Local area networks
• More expensive than twisted pair, not as popular for LANs

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 Coaxial cables
• Two types of coaxial cables
• Thin coax cable – thinnet
• Popular in linear bus networks
• Thick coax cable – thicknet
• Has an extra protective plastic cover to
keep moisture away from the conductor
• Useful for longer distances
• Does not bend easily and difficult to install
• Categorised by RG(radio government) rating

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Coaxial cables
• Characteristics
• Analog – Broadband Coaxial Cable
• Broadband – multiple signals on a single line
• Amplifiers every few km, closer if higher frequency
• Up to 500MHz
• Cable TV, Cable Modems (~10Mbps)
• Digital – Baseband Coaxial Cable
• Baseband – only one signal is carried on the line
• Repeater every 1km
• Closer for higher data rates

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Coaxial cables
• Connectors
• BNC connector – usually used for networking and video applications
• F-series connector – used for modulated radio frequency applications, such as
cable-TV

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Coaxial cables
• Applications
• Local Area Networks (LANs)
• Thinnet (10base2) – 200 meters
• Thicknet (10base5) – 500 meters
• Baseband transmissions only
• XbaseY – data rate = X Mbps, baseband mode, Y x 100 meters = cable
length
• Wide Area Networks (WANs)
• Broadband transmissions

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Coaxial cables
• Advantages
• Highly shielded from EMF, RF
interference
• Signals propagate much
farther than TP cable
• Conforms to standards
• More channels than TP cable
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• Disadvantages
• One cable for all computers
• To add additional computers,
the network must be taken
down
• Must properly terminate
• Expensive
• Low channel count compared
to fiber
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Fiber cable
• Long, thin strands of very pure glass about the diameter of a human hair
• Arranged in bundles called optical cables and used to transmit light signals
over long distances
• Use light to send information through the optical medium
• Fiber uses the principal of total internal reflection

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Fiber cable
• Characteristics • Applications
• Provides extremely high • High bandwidth voice applications
bandwidths • Backbone applications
• Has much lower attenuation • Very fast data transfer between
• Carry signals to longer distances network devices
• Not affected by EMI • Disadvantages
• Has higher cost • Cost of implementation
• Difficult and tedious installation • Fragile
• Supports point-to-point only
• Failure affects network immensely
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Fiber cable
• Parts of a (single) optical fiber
• Core - Thin glass centre of the fiber
where the light travels
• Cladding - Outer optical material
surrounding the core that reflects the
light back into the core
• Buffer coating (sheath) - Plastic coating
that protects the fiber from damage
and moisture

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Fiber cable
• The diameters of the core and cladding determine the optical and physical
characteristics of the fiber
• Diameter of a fiber should be large enough to allow splicing and the
attachment of connectors
• If the diameter is too large, the fiber will be too stiff to bend and will take up
too much material and space
• In practice, the diameter of fiber cores ranges from 5 to 500 μm, and outer
diameters of fiber 1 claddings vary from 100 to 700 μm

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Fiber cable
• How does an optical fiber transmit light?
• Suppose you want to shine a flashlight beam
down a long, straight hallway - just point the
beam straight down the hallway - light travels in
straight lines
• If the hallway has a bend in it - you could place a
mirror at the bend to reflect the light beam
around the corner
• If the hallway is very winding with multiple bends
- line the walls with mirrors and angle the beam
so that it bounces from side-to-side all along the
hallway
• This is what happens in optical fiber

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Fiber cable
• The light in a fiber-optic cable
travels through the core (hallway)
by constantly bouncing from the
cladding (mirror-lined walls) - total
internal reflection
• Cladding does not absorb any light
from the core, the light wave can
travel great distances
• Some of the light signal degrades
within the fiber, mostly due to
impurities in the glass
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 Fiber cable
• Types of fiber
• Single mode fiber
• Uses laser light as source
• Carries light pulses along a single path
• Light can propagate only in a straight
line without bouncing
• The diameter of glass core is very small
ranging from 8 to 10 microns
• Can transmit data at 50 Gbps for 100 km
without amplification
• More expensive; used for long distance
communication

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Fiber cable
• Types of fiber
• Multi-mode fiber
• Source of light is LED
• Beams travel at different
angles hence different paths
• The diameter of core is about
50 microns
• Support less bandwidth than
in single mode

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Fiber cable
• Connectors

FC connector

SC connector

ST connector

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Fiber cable
• Splicing
• A splice is a device to connect one fiber optic cable to another permanently
• It is the attribute of permanence that distinguishes a splice from connectors
• Some vendors offer splices that can be disconnected that are not permanent so that
they can be disconnected for repairs or rearrangements
• Used when several cables have to realise a particular length
• Cables offered at 1 to 6 km – a link of 10 km can be installed by slicing several cables
together
• Connecting two fiber optic cables requires precise alignment of the mated fiber
cores in a single-mode fiber optic cable so that nearly all of the light is coupled from
one fiber optic cable across a junction to the other fiber optic cable

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Unguided media
• Unguided media transport electromagnetic waves without using a physical
conductor
• This type of communication is often referred to as wireless communication
• Three types
• Radio waves
• Microwaves
• Infrared

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Unguided media
• Radio waves
• Used for multicast communications such as radio and television
• Multicast - one to many
• Microwaves
• Used for unicast communication such as cellular telephones, satellite
networks, and wireless LANs
• Unicast – one to one
• Infrared
• Used for short-range communication in a closed area using line-of-sight
propagation; e.g. remote control, PDAs, notebooks

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Local Area Networks

46
Local Area Networks
• Introduction
• Functions of LANs
• Characteristics of LANs
• Advantages and disadvantages of LANs
• Types of LANs
• Topologies and transmission media
• Transmission techniques
• LAN systems
• LANs connection
• Internetworking Devices

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Introduction
• A LAN is a communication network that interconnects a variety of data
communicating devices
• Operates within a small geographic area
• Broadcasts data at high data transfer rates with very low error rates
• Since its appearance in the 1970s, its use has become widespread in commercial
and academic environments
• Initial introduction of LANs – based on sharing of information and resources
within a local workgroup or department
• E.g. a small department with a LAN connecting PCs, printers and file servers may
wish to share information with users in another department, connected to
another LAN
• A backbone LAN may link these two networks
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Primary Functions of a LAN
• To provide access to hardware and software resources that will allow
users to perform one or more of the following activities:
• File serving - A large storage disk drive acts as a central storage
repository.
• Print serving - Providing the authorization to access a particular
printer, accept and queue print jobs, and providing a user access
to the print queue to perform administrative duties.
• Video transfers - High speed LANs are capable of supporting
video image and live video transfers.
• Academic support – In classrooms, labs, and wireless.
• E-mail support etc
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Characteristics

• Limited distance within a few miles

• High data rate - 2 to 100 Mbps
• Low error rate
• Good response time
• Private owned
• Share hardware, software, and data files

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Advantages of Local Area Networks

• Ability to share hardware and software resources

• Individual workstations might survive network failure
• Support for heterogeneous forms of hardware and software
• Access to other LANs and WANs
• Private ownership
• Secure transfers at high speeds with low error rates

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Disadvantages of Local Area Networks

• Equipment and support can be costly

• Level of maintenance continues to grow
• Some types of hardware may not interoperate

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Types of LANs
• The operation of a LAN can be separated into two main aspects:
• Physical medium (connector types, voltage and electrical signals) and
the method of placing data onto the network (Layers 1 and lower part
of Layer 2 of the OSI reference model)
• Operating software – establishes end-to-end transmission with
guaranteed data delivery between two devices (upper part of Layer 2,
layer 3 and 4 of the OSI reference model)

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Topologies and transmission media

• Topologies
• Bus
• Ring as star
• Transmission media
• Unshielded twisted pair (inexpensive)
• Coaxial cable (faster, expensive)
• Optical fiber (fastest, expensive)

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Types of Transmission Techniques

• Baseband transmission
• Digital signal or digitized signals for voice or video
• 1Mbps or higher
• Simple and easy
• Broadband transmission
• Analog form
• Frequency division multiplexing (FDM)
• Simultaneously transmitting data, voice and video
• Expensive, difficult to install, and needs modems

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LAN Systems Technologies

• Ethernet
• Token Ring
• ARCnet
• FDDI
• WLAN

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Ethernet
• The most common form of LAN technology used today
• The term derives from the original network which was defined by Xerox
and adopted by other organisations (DEC – Digital Equipment Corporation,
and Intel)
• Original published specifications were known as DIX (Dec, Intel and Xerox)
Ethernet Specifications Versions 1 and 2
• The IEEE adopted, improved and modified the DIX version 2 specification
and this has become the IEEE 802.3 standard (ISO 8802/3 standard)

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Ethernet
• Ethernet uses Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection
(CSMA/CD)
• Operates using a bus structure – a single line of cable to which all
devices connect
• Uses baseband communication at 10 Mbps
• Only one signal can travel on the cable at one time
• Now there are 100 Mbps, even 1, 10 and 100 Gbps

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Ethernet
• All devices free to communicate whenever they need to without any
precedence or order.
• A device wishing to send monitors the network (Carrier Sense);if no
other device is sending, it begins to transmit.
• Other devices may also start to transmit at that moment (Multiple
Access).
• The device checks for collision (Collision Detection).

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Ethernet
• If a collision occurs, all devices involved in the collision stop, the
device that was transmitting transmits a jam signal and pauses for a
period of time before attempting to transmit again.
• Probabilistic access – the ability of any one station to transmit is
based on the level of activity of the network.
• Non-deterministic access – the level of performance and delay
experienced by devices in the network is not guaranteed.

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Ethernet

61
Ethernet
• Original 10Base5 topology of Ethernet – branching tree structure with
interconnecting segments.
• Each segment – 500 m in length, maximum of 100 network nodes.
• Repeaters are used to extend beyond maximum length and number
of devices.
• Further extension can be achieved using bridges and routers.

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Token Ring
• Closed loop, uses a token.
• Token circulates around the loop, with each station on the ring
receiving and regenerating the token.
• A station wishing to transmit
• Awaits for the token.
• Adds addressing information and data.
• Marks the token busy.
• Sends the token to the next station.
• A station which receives a token addressed to itself copies the data
and regenerates the token frame.
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Token Ring

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Token Ring
• Networks employing Token Ring
• IEEE 802.5 standard, e.g. IBM Token Ring System operating at 4 Mbps
and 16 Mbps.
• Uses a twisted pair cable running baseband communication at
4Mbps.
• Cheaper than the original Ethernet, which operated on co-axial cable.
• Unlike Ethernet, Token Ring is not naturally resilient – the removal of
a station in the ring would cause all data to stop.

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Token Ring
• A Multi-Station Access Unit (MAU) acts as the centre of a star-based ring
topology.
• The MAU monitors each attached device and heals the ring should a break
occur.
• The MAU supports a number of attached devices and then attaches to
other MAUs in the network.
• The MAU maintains an active configuration path so that any failure is
detected and circumvented immediately, causing the ring to recover
gracefully.

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Token Ring
• One of the consequences of this type of configuration is:
• Device could fail or become disconnected while it still has the token.
• The token may become lost, or
• A device may fail after transmitting a busy token and therefore be
unable to release the token.
• In both cases an arbiter is responsible for detecting the anomalous
condition and taking corrective action.

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Token Ring
• Benefits of Token Ring
• A station can only hold the token for a predetermined period, thus giving all
stations an opportunity to transmit on a regular basis whatever the level of
traffic on the network.
• There are no collisions and therefore the performance degrades linearly
under heavy loading.

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Token Bus
• Combines the bus structure of Ethernet and token system in Token
Ring.
• Uses broadband communication on co-axial cable.
• Broadband communication divides the signals on the network into
different frequencies, allowing more than one signal to travel on the
cable at any one time.
• Can be compared with the use of co-axial cable for carrying several television
signals simultaneously.

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Token Bus
• Signals are normally generated in pairs and one cable may support
several different pairs.
• A variety of speeds may be used: four 1 Mbps pairs, one 5 Mbps pair
or one 10Mbps pair.
• The most common form currently is the 5 Mbps pair.

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Token Bus

71
Token Bus
• The use of broadband requires a more complicated signalling system and
involves a form of modem for each device attached to the network.
• The network also requires a device at the head end to re-modulate and
regenerate the signals.
• It can therefore be more expensive to implement than baseband.
• The specification is covered by the IEEE 802.4 standard; not widely used.

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FDDI
• Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
• A standard issued by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
• Based on fibre optic cable, token passing access method and ring
topology.
• An effective token ring network, which can be up to 100km in length,
and operates at 120Mbps.
• Can be regarded as a backbone, linking buildings and central resources
to a series of small, lower cost LANS in each department.

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FDDI
• Such reasonable capacity, long distance, backbone networks are often
referred to as Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs).
• Another application area for FDDI:
• More specialised workstations such as those used in Computer Aided Design
(CAD) where large amounts of data may need to be transferred from host
computer to terminals on a frequent basis.

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FDDI

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FDDI
• Benefits
• The specifications implements dual counter rotating optical rings bestowing
fault tolerance to the ring and attached nodes.
• More than one packet can travel the network at the same time, allowing
better use of the large size of the network and capability of the optical cable.
• The maximum packet size is much larger than other networks, thus enabling
efficient data transfer.
• Since fibre optic cable uses light it is free from all normal forms of electrical
interference.
• The use of token passing eliminates collision problems.

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ARCnet
• Attached Resource Computer NETwork
• Developed by the Datapoint Corporation and is a proprietary LAN.
• The first commercially available LAN and was introduced in 1977.
• Uses baseband transmission at a speed of 2.5Mbps.
• Token passing is used as the access method and either a ring or bus topology
can be used.

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ARCnet
• Originally designed to operate on thin co-axial cable – later developments
have incorporated both twisted pair and optical fibre support.
• Not standards-based and is also a lot slower than the standard networks of
today.
• Inexpensive to install and, due to its early entry in the market, it has
established a large installed base.
• However it is rarely chosen today.

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WLAN
• Wireless LAN (WLAN)
• Uses radio waves as its carrier: the last link with the users is wireless, to give a
network connection to all users in the surrounding area.
• Areas may range from a single room to an entire campus.
• Backbone network usually uses cables, with one or more wireless access
points connecting the wireless users to the wired network.

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WLAN

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WLAN
• WLANs have been installed in universities, airports, and other major
public places.
• Decreasing costs of WLAN equipment has also brought it to many
homes.
• Originally WLAN hardware was too expensive - it was only used as an
alternative to cabled LAN in places where cabling was difficult or
impossible.

81
WLAN Standards
• 802.11
• Original version, released in 1997 specifies two raw data rates: 1 and 2 Mbps
to be transmitted via infrared (IR) signals or in the Industrial Scientific Medical
frequency band at 2.4 GHz.
• IR remains a part of the standard but has no actual implementations.
• Media access method: CSMA/CA – carrier sense multiple access with collision
avoidance.

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WLAN Standards
• 802.11b
• Amendment to the original standard ratified in 1999.
• Maximum raw data rate of 11 Mbps and uses the same CSMA/CA media
access method defined in the original standard.
• Usually used in a point-to-multipoint configuration; an access point
communicates via an omni-directional antenna with one or more clients
that are located in a coverage area around the access point.

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WLAN Standards
• 802.11a
• Uses the same core protocol as the original standard, with a maximum raw
data rate of 54 Mbps, which yields realistic achievable throughput in the mid-
20 Mbps.
• The data rate is reduced to 48, 36, 24, 18, 12, 9 then 6 Mbps if required.
• Has 12 non-overlapping channels, 8 dedicated to indoor and 4 to point to
point.

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WLAN Standards
• 802.11g
• Ratified in 2003.
• Works in 2.4GHz band and operates at 54 Mbps.
• 802.11n
• Ratified in 2004.
• Data throughput at least 100 Mbps.
• Offer better operating distance than others.

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LAN Connection
• LAN interconnection factors
• Technologies (protocol)
• Distance
• Volume of communication
• Equipment types (Networking devices)
• Repeaters
• Bridges
• Switches
• Routers
• Gateways

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 Repeater
• Regenerates and propagates all electrical transmissions between 2 or more LAN
segments
• Allows extension of a network beyond physical length limitations
• Layer 1 of the “OSI model”

Network A Network B

Higher Higher
Layers Layers
Repeater
Physical Physical Physical

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 Hubs
• Physical Layer devices: essentially repeaters operating at bit levels: repeat
received bits on one interface to all other interfaces
• Hubs can be arranged in a hierarchy (or multi-tier design), with backbone hub at
its top

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 Hubs
• Each connected LAN referred to as LAN segment
• Hubs do not isolate collision domains: node may collide with any node residing at any
segment in LAN
• Hub Advantages:
• Simple, inexpensive device
• Multi-tier provides graceful degradation: portions of the LAN continue to operate
if one hub malfunctions
• Extends maximum distance between node pairs (100m per Hub)

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 Bridge
• Connects 2 or more LAN segments and uses data link layer addresses (e.g. MAC
addresses) to make data forwarding decisions
• Copies frames from one network to the other
• Layer 2 of the “OSI model”

Node in Network A Node in Network B

Higher Higher
Layers Bridge Layers
Data Link Data Link
23-01-88-A8-77-45 Data Link Data Link 53-F1-A4-AB-67-4F
Physical Physical 1 Physical 2 Physical

90
Bridges

• Link Layer devices: operate on Ethernet frames, examining frame

header and selectively forwarding frame based on its destination
• Bridge isolates collision domains since it buffers frames
• When frame is to be forwarded on segment, bridge uses CSMA/CD to
access segment and transmit

• Exercise:
• Describe the advantages of Bridges

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Switches

• Faster than bridges

• OSI layer 2
• No routing function
• Types
• Cut-through switch (fast with collision and error)
• Store-and-forward switch (slow, more expensive, fewer errors)
• Exercise
• Describe the operations of cut-through and store-and-forward switching
mechanisms

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 Router
• Connects 2 or more networks and uses network layer addresses (IP address) to make
data forwarding decisions
• Layer 3 of the “OSI model”
• Inter network address, routing table & routing algorithm (cost, number of links,
bandwidth, delay, & traffic load)

A node in Network A A node in Network B

Higher Higher
Layers Router Layers
Network Network
137.22.144.6 145.65.23.102
Network Network
Data Link Data Link Data Link Data Link
Physical Physical 1 Physical 2 Physical

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 Gateway
• Connects 2 or more networks that can be of different types and provides protocol
conversion so that end devices with dissimilar protocol architectures can interoperate
• OSI layer 4 and up
• Translate different data codes

137.22.144.6

Netware
Gateway
TCP/IP 145.65.23.102

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Performance Factors

• Protocol (CSMA/CD, token ring)

• Speed of transmission (line)
• Amount of traffic
• Error rate
• LAN Software
• Speed of hardware(CPU or disk)

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