Data Communictions and Networking

Physical Layer and Media

Dr. Pradeep K V
Assistant Professor
VIT - Chennai

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Contents

Data and Signals

Analog and Digital
Periodic Signals
Digital Signals
Transmission Impairment
Data Rate Limits
Performance
Multiplexing and
Spread Spectrum.

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Scenario : Communication at the physical layer

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Scenario : Communication at the physical layer

Communication at Application, Transport, Network, or Data-link is

Logical;

Communication at the Physical layer is Physical.

Although Alice and Bob need to exchange data, communication at

the physical layer means exchanging Signals.

Data need to be transmitted and received, but the media have to

change data to signals.

Both data and the signals that represent them can be either
Analog or Digital in form.

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Analog and Digital Data

Data can be Analog or Digital.

The Analog data refers to information that is continuous;
The 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.
Analog data, such as the sounds made by a human voice, take on
continuous values. When someone speaks, an analog wave is created
in the air. This can be captured by a microphone and converted to
an analog signal or sampled and converted to a digital signal.
Digital data take on discrete values. For example, data are stored in
computer memory in the form of 0’s and 1’s. They can be converted
to a digital signal or modulated into an analog signal for
transmission across a medium.

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Analog and Digital Signals

Signals can be either Analog or Digital.

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 0.

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Periodic and Nonperiodic

Both Analog and Digital signals can take one of two forms: periodic
or nonperiodic (sometimes referred to as aperiodic);
Periodic Signal :
It completes a pattern within a measurable time frame, called a
period, and repeats that pattern over subsequent identical periods.
The completion of one full pattern is called a cycle.

Non-Periodic Signal :
It changes without exhibiting a pattern or cycle that repeats over
time.

Both analog & digital signals can be periodic / nonperiodic

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Simple Periodic - Sine Wave

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or composite.

A simple periodic analog signal (sine wave), cannot be decomposed
into simpler signals.
A composite periodic analog signal is composed of multiple sine
waves.

Figure: A Simple sine wave

A sine wave can be represented by three parameters

Peak Amplitude, Frequency, and Phase.

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Peak Amplitude

It is the absolute value of its highest intensity, proportional to the

energy it carries.
For electric signals, peak amplitude is normally measured in volts

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Period (t), Frequency(f) and Phase
Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a signal needs to
complete 1 cycle.
Frequency refers to the number of periods in 1s.
Period(t)is the inverse of Frequency(f), and frequency is the inverse of
period, as the following formulas show.
t = f1 , f= 1
t

Frequency and Period are the inverse of each other.

The Phase, or Phase shift, describes the position of the waveform relative
to time 0.

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Examples-1 Peak Amplitude, Frequency and Phase

Figure: Two signals with the same amplitude and phase, but different
frequencies

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Examples-2 Peak Amplitude, Frequency and Phase

Figure: 3 sine waves with the same amplitude & frequency, but different phases

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Wavelength

It is another characteristic of a signal traveling through a transmission

medium.
It binds the period or the frequency of a simple sine wave to the
propagation speed of the medium

Wavelength = (Propagation Speed) * Period

c
λ= f

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Composite Signals
A Composite signal is made of many simple sine waves.

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.

According to Fourier analysis, any composite signal is a combination of

simple sine waves with different frequencies, amplitudes, and phases.

If the composite signal is periodic, the decomposition gives a series of

signals with discrete frequencies; if the composite signal is nonperiodic,
the decomposition gives a combination of sine waves with continuous
frequencies.

A composite signal can be periodic or nonperiodic. A periodic composite

signal can be decomposed into a series of simple sine waves with discrete
frequencies— frequencies that have integer values (1, 2, 3, and so on).

A nonperiodic composite sig- nal can be decomposed into a combination

of an infinite number of simple sine waves with continuous frequencies,
frequencies that have real values.

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Composite Signals

Figure: A composite periodic signal

Figure: Decomposition of a composite periodic signal in the time and frequency domains

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Digital Signals

In addition to being represented by an analog signal, information can

also be represented by a digital signal.
For Eg: ’1’ can be encoded as a positive voltage and ’0’ as zero
voltage.
A digital signal can have more than two levels. So, can send more
than 1 bit for each level.

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Digital Signals

In general, if a signal has ’L’ levels, each level needs log2 L bits.
i.e., if L = 4, then we can send log2 4 = 2 bits
i.e., if L = 8, then we can send log2 8 = 3 bits and soon...
Bit Length : is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium.

Bit length = Propagation speed * Bit duration

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Transmission Impairment

Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect.

The imperfection causes signal impairment.
This means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is not
the same as the signal at the end of the medium.
What is sent is not what is received
Three causes of impairment are attenuation, distortion, and noise

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Attenuation

Attenuation means a loss of energy.

When a signal(simple/composite), travels through a medium, it
loses some of its energy in overcoming the resistance of the medium.
To compensate this loss, amplifiers are used to amplify the signal.
The decibel (dB) measures the relative strengths of two signals or
one signal at two different points and is negaive(-VE) - if a signal is
attenuated, positive(+VE)- if a signal is amplified

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Distoration

Distortion means that the signal changes its form or shape.

It can occur in a composite signal made of different frequencies.
Each signal component has its own propagation speed through a medium
and, therefore, its own delay in arriving at the final destination.
Differences in delay may create a difference in phase, if the delay is not
exactly the same as the period duration. Therefore, shape of the
composite signal is therefore not the same

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Noise

Noise is another cause of impairment.

Several types of noise, such as thermal noise,induced noise,
crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the signal.
Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other. One wire acts as a
sending antenna and the other as the receiving antenna. Impulse
noise is a spike (a signal with high energy in a very short time) that
comes from power lines, lightning, and soon.

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Data Rate

In Data Communications, Data Rate is the one how fast we can

send data, in bits per second, over a channel.

Data rate depends on three factors:

The bandwidth available
The level of the signals we use
The quality of the channel (the level of noise)

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Performance

One important issue in networking is the performance of the

network—how good is it, quality of service(QoS).
The Following Parameters measures the Network Performance :
Bandwidth : The range of frequencies contained in a composite
signal or the range of frequencies a channel can pass the
signal(Hertz). The number of bits per second that a channel, a link,
or even a network can transmit (bps).
Throughtput : is a measure of how fast we can actually send data
through a network.
Delay or Latency : defines how long it takes for an entire message to
completely arrive at the destination from the time the first bit is sent
out from the source.
Bandwidth-Delay : the number of bits that can fill the link.
Jitter : s the variation in periodicity of a signal or periodic event from
its target or true frequency or refers to the variation in latency of
packets carrying voice or video data over a communications channel.

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Multiplexing

Whenever the bandwidth of a medium linking two devices is greater than

the bandwidth needs of the devices, the link can be shared, otherwise the
bandwidth is wasted.
Multiplexing is the set of techniques that allow the simultaneous
transmission of multiple signals across a single data link.
In a multiplexed system, ’n’ lines share the bandwidth of one link.

Multipler (MUX) : combines all the different transmission streams into

one single stream (many-to- one).
Demultiplexer (DEMUX) : separates the stream back into its component
transmissions (one-to-many) and directs them to their corresponding lines

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Types of Multiplexing

There are three basic multiplexing techniques

FDM - Frequency Division Multiplexing (Analog Signals)
WDM - Wavelength Division Multiplexing (Analog Signals)
TDM - Time Division Mulitplexing (Digital Signals)

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Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

Frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) is an analog technique that

can be applied when the bandwidth of a link (in hertz) is greater
than the combined bandwidths of the signals to be transmitted.
In FDM, signals generated by each sending device modulates
different carrier frequencies, which are then combined into a single
composite signal that can be transported by the link.
Carrier frequencies are separated by sufficient bandwidth to
accommodate the modulated signal. These bandwidth ranges are
the channels through which the various signals travel.
Channels can be separated by strips of unused bandwidth—guard
bands—to prevent signals from overlapping and will not interfere
with the original data frequencies

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Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

From the Fig, the transmission path is divided into three parts, each
representing a channel that carries one transmission.
Each source generates a signal of a similar frequency range.
Inside the multiplexer, these similar signals modulate different carrier
frequencies ( f1 , f2 , and f3 ).
The resulting modulated signals are then combined into a single
composite signal that is sent out over a media link that has enough
bandwidth to accommodate it (Next Figure...).

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Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM)

Figure: Multiplexing Figure: Demultiplexing

The demultiplexer uses a series of filters to decompose the multiplexed

signal into its constituent component signals.
The individual signals are then passed to a demodulator that separates
them from their carriers and passes them to the output lines.

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FDM - Example-1

Problem : Assume that a voice channel occupies a bandwidth of 4 kHz.

We need to combine three voice channels into a link with a bandwidth of
12 kHz, from 20 to 32 kHz. Show the configuration, using the frequency
domain. Assume there are no guard bands.

Solution : We shift (modulate) each of the three voice channels to a

different bandwidth. We use the 20- to 24-kHz bandwidth for the first
channel, the 24- to 28-kHz bandwidth

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FDM - Example-1

Figure: Multiplexing and DeMulitplexing Process

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Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

It is an analog multiplexing, combines optical signals and is complex.

It is designed to use the high-data-rate capability of fiber-optic cable,
which is higher than the data rate of metallic transmission cable, but
using a fiber-optic cable for a single line wastes the available bandwidth.
Multiplexing allows us to combine several lines into one. WDM is
conceptually the same as FDM, except that the multiplexing and
demultiplexing involve optical signals transmitted through fiber-optic
channels.
The idea is the same: We are combining different signals of different
frequencies. The difference is that the frequencies are very high

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Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

We combine multiple light sources into one single light at the multiplexer
and do the reverse at the demultiplexer.
The combining and splitting of light sources are easily handled by a prism.
Using this technique, a multiplexer can be made to combine several input
beams of light, each containing a narrow band of frequencies, into one
output beam of a wider band of frequencies. A demultiplexer can also be
made to reverse the process.
One application of WDM is the SONET network

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Time Division Multiplexing

It is a digital process that allows several connections to share the high

bandwidth of a link.
Instead of sharing a portion of the bandwidth as in FDM, Time is shared.
Each connection occupies a portion of time in the link.
TDM is a digital multiplexing technique for combining several lowrate
channels into one highrate one.

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Types of TDM

TDM into two different schemes:

Synchronous : The time slots are pre-assigned and fixed. This slot is
even given if the source is not ready with data at this time. In this
case the slot is transmitted empty. It is used for multiplexing
digitized voice stream

ASynchronous/Statistical : The slots are allocated dynamically

depending on the speed of source or their ready state. It dynamically
allocates the time slots according to different input channel’s needs,
thus saving the channel capacity.

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Spread Spectrum

Multiplexing combines signals from several sources to achieve

bandwidth efficiency; the available bandwidth of a link is divided
between the sources.

In Spread Spectrum (SS), we combine signals from different sources

to fit into a larger bandwidth.

It is designed to be used in wireless applications (LANs and WANs).

In wireless applications, all stations use air (or a vacuum) as the

medium for communication. Stations must be able to share this
medium without interception by an eavesdropper and without being
subject to jamming from a malicious intruder

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Types of Spread Spectrum
Spread spectrum achieves its goals through two principles:

The bandwidth allocated to each station needs to be, by far, larger than
what is needed. This allows redundancy.
he expanding of the original bandwidth B to the bandwidth B ss must be
done by a process that is independent of the original signal. In other
words, the spreading process occurs after the signal is created by the
source

There are two techniques to spread the bandwidth:

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
Direct Sequence Spread spectrum (DSSS).

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Advantages of Spread Sprecturm

Following are the advantages of spread spectrum

Cross-talk elimination
Better output with data integrity
Reduced effect of multipath fading
Better security
Reduction in noise
Co-existence with other systems
Longer operative distances
Hard to detect
Not easy to demodulate/decode
Difficult to jam the signals

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FHSS and DSSS
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum:
This is frequency hopping technique, where the users are made to change
the frequencies of usage, from one to another in a specified time interval,
hence called as frequency hopping.
For example, a frequency was allotted to sender 1 for a particular period
of time. Now, after a while, sender 1 hops to the other frequency and
sender 2 uses the first frequency, which was previously used by sender 1.
This is called as frequency reuse.
The frequencies of the data are hopped from one to another in order to
provide a secure transmission.
The amount of time spent on each frequency hop is called as Dwell time.
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum :
Whenever a user wants to send data using this DSSS technique, each and
every bit of the user data is multiplied by a secret code, called as chipping
code. This chipping code is nothing but the spreading code which is
multiplied with the original message and transmitted. The receiver uses
the same code to retrieve the original message.

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Comparision b/w FHSS and DSS

FHSS DSSS / CDMA

Multiple frequencies are used Single frequency is used
Hard to find the user’s frequency User frequency, once allotted
at any instant of time is always the same
Frequency reuse is allowed Frequency reuse is not allowed
Sender has to wait
Sender need not wait
if the spectrum is busy
Power strength of the
Power strength of the signal is high
signal is low
Stronger and penetrates
It is weaker compared to FHSS
through the obstacles
It is never affected by interference It can be affected by interference
It is cheaper It is expensive
This technique is not
This is the commonly used technique
frequently used

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Thanks

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