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Communication/Transmission Media

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1 Communication/ Transmission Media

n networking, any kind of communication requires some media.
Here we are discussing some most common network transmission
media which can be classified like give below:

Characteristics of Transmission Media

Every transmission media has special characteristics that make it
equitable for a specific type of service. These characteristics are
(1) Cost : My networking components can be considered on the
basic of cost. Otego the fastest and most robust transmission
media is desired, but a network designer mu5t often settle for
something that is slower and less robust. Because it more than
sufficeS for the business solution at hand.

(2) Installation Requireme :

These requirements depend on the transmii0 media. Some
transmission media require skilled labour to install and some
haven’t. Another thing is the actual physical layout of the network
(3) Bandwidth :
Bandwidth refers to the measure of the capacity of a medium to
transmit data. A medium has a high capacity, for example, has a
high bandwidth, whereas a medium that has hinted capacity has a
low bandwidth. In communication industry, bandwidth refers
to the range of available frequencies between lower frequency
limit and upper frequency limit.
(4) Band Usage (Baseband or Broadband):
The two ways to allocate the capacity of transmission media are
with baseband and broadband transmissions. Baseband devotes

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the entire capacity of the medium to one immunization channel.

Broadband enables two or more communications channels to
share the bandwidth of the communications medium.
(5) AttenuatIon :
Attenuation is a measure of how much signal weakens as it travels
through a medium.
(6) Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) :
EMI Consists of outside ectr0magtæ noise that distorts the signal
in a medium. When we listen to an AM radio, for example. we
often hear EMI in the form of noise caused by nearby motors Ol
lighting. Crosstalk is a special kind of interference Caused by
adjacent wires and it the signal from one wire is picked up by
another wire

2.Cable Media
There are three types of cables media are very Commonly used
and they are
(1) Coaxial Cable (2) Twisted pa Cable (3) Fiber optic Cable

(1) Coaxial Cable

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Coaxial cable gels Its name because two conductors share a

common axis; the cable is most frequently referred to as a ‘coax.
A type of coaxial cable that we may be familiar With is our
television cable. Its components are as follows:
•A centre conductor, although usually solid copper wire is
sometimes made of standard wire.
•An outer conductor forms a tube surrounding the center
conductor. This conductor can consist of braided wires, metallic
foil, or both. The outer conductor frequently called the shield,
server as a ground and also protects the inner conductor from
EMI.
•An insulation layer keeps the outer conductor spaced evenly
from the centre conductor.
• A plastic encasement (jacket) protects the cable from damage

The two basic class /captions for coaxial cable are as follows:
(1)Thinnet (2)Thicknet

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(1)Thinnet : Thinnet is a light flexible cabling medium that is

inexpensive and easy to install it
Is approximately 0.25 inches (6mm) in thickness Thinnet cable
cari reliably transmit a signal for 185 meters (about 610 feet).
(ii)ThIcknet : Thicknet coaxial cable is approximately 0.5 inches
(13mm) In diameter. It can transmit a signal approximately 500
meters (1,650 feet) and often called standard Ethernet, Thicknet
can he used to connect two or more small thinnet LANs into a
large network.
(2) Twisted Pair Cable:

Twisted Pair Cable is popular very much because of its

inexpensiveness and ease of installation. A basic twisted pair
cable consists of two strands of copper wire twisted together. The
twisting reduces the sensitivity of the cable to EMI and also
reduces the tendency of the cable to radiate radio frequency
noise that interferes with nearby cables and electronic

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components. because the radiated signals from the twisted wires

tend to cancel each other out. Twisted Pair Cable classified as
follows:
(i) Shielded Twisted Pair Cable (STP)
(ii) Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable (UTP)
(I) Shielded Twisted-Pair’ (STP) Cable :

Shielded Twisted-Pair’ cabling of one or more twisted pairs of

cables enclosed In a toll wrap and woven copper 5hielding Early
LAN designers used shielded twisted-pair cable because the shield
performed double duty.
reducing the tendency of the cable to radiate EMI and reducing
the cablo’s sensitivity lo outside inteilerence
Coaxial íind STP cables use shields for (ho same purpose. The
shield is connected to (he ground portion of (he electronic device
to which the cable is connected. A ground is a portion of
the device that serves as an electrical reference point and usually,
it is literally connected to a metal stake driven into the ground. A
properly grounded shield prevents signals from getting into or out
of the cable.

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(ii) Unshielded Twisted-Pair (UTP) Cable :

Unshielded twisted-pair cable doesn’t incorporate a braided

shield into its structure. However, the characteristics of UTP are
similar in many ways to STP, differing primarily in attenuation and
EMI.
Telephone systems commonly use UTP cabling. Network
engineers can sometimes use existing UTP telephone cabling if it
is new enough and of a high enough quality to support network
communications for network cabling

UTP cable 5 available in the following live

grades or categories

categories 1 and 2, These voice-grade cables are suitable only for

voice and for low data rates (below4MbPS). Category 1 was once
the standard voice grade cable for telephone systems.
category 3. This type of cable generally is suited for data rates up
to 10Mbps. Category 3, WhICh uses four twisted pairs with three
twists now the standard cable used for most telephone
installations.

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category 4. This data-grade cable. Which COflSIStS of four twisted-

pairs, is suitable for data rates up to 16Mbps.
category 5, This data-grade cable has four twisted-pairs, ¡s
suitable for data rates up to 100Mbps. Most new cabling systems
for 100Mbps data rates are designed around Category 5 cable.
(3) Fiber-Optic cable

In any respect, fiber-optic cable is the ideal cable for data

transmission. Not only does this type of cable accommodate
extremely high bandwidths, but it also presents no problems with

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EMI and supports durable cables and cable runs as long as several
kilometers. The two disadvantages of fiber—Optic cable however
are cost and installation difficulty.
The center conductor of a fiber Opt cable ¡s a fiber that consists
of highly refined glass O’ p’astic designed to transmit light signals
with little loss. A glass core supports a longer cabling
Distance but a plastic core Is typically easler to work with the fiber
is coated with a cladding or a gal that reflects signals back into the
fiber to reduce signal loss A plastic sheath protects the fiber

A fiber-optic network cable consists of two strands separately

enclosed ifl plastic sheaths. One strand sends and It e other
receives. To types of cable configurations are available; loose and
tight configurations Loose configurations incorporate a space
between the liber & sheath and the outer plastic encasernent;
this space is filled with a get or other material. Tight
configurations contain strength res between the conductorance
the outer plastic encasement. In both case the plastic encasement
must supply the strength of the cable while (he get layer or
strength wires protect the delicate fiber from mechanical damage.
Optical fiber cables don’t transmit electrical signals. Instead; the
data signals must be converted into light signals. Light sources
include lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs 1 are
inexpensive but produce a fairly poor quality I of light suitable for
only less-stringent applications. The end of the cable that receives
I the light signal must convert the signal back to an electrical
form. Several types of solid-state components can perform this
service,

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3. Wireless Media
Wireless med la is relatively newer media that is gaining
popularity now a days. This kind of transmission uses radio waves
or Infrared light to transmit data. These days many major
network Vendors offer wireless family inbuilt into the network
devices It is assumed that future only two kinds of media will be in
use (1) Fiber optins for non mobile commition1 and (2) Wireless
media for the oiie users. For mobile users It Is not worth while to
use media like coaxial cable or twisted pair. users need their bits
of data to be transferred on their mobiles. laptoPs, palmtopsor to
the PDA’s.
This need is fulfilled by wireless media Another major advantage
of wireless media i that it can work in the conditions where
physical ground connection of devices is not possible like in
aeroplanes, train Grin rs. ltcoversa large area thout any use of
wire.
Microwave Transmission
Microwave technology has applications in all three of the wireless
networking scenarios: LAN, extended LAN and mobile networking.
Microwave communication can take two forms: (i) terrestrial
(ground) links and (ii) satellite links. The frequencies and
technologies employed by these two forms are similar, but,
distinct differences exist between them.
(1) Terrestrial Microwave transmission
Terrestrial microwave transmission employs Earth-based
transmitters and receivers. The frequencies used are in the low-
gigahertz range, Which limits all communications to line-of sight.
All of us have seen terrestrial microwave equipment in the form
of telephone relay towers

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Which are placed every few miles to relay telephone signals

across the COUI
(Ii) Satellite Microwave Transmission
Satellite microwave system relay transmissions through
commination satellites that operate in geosynchronous orbits
22300 miles above the earth satellites orbiting at this distance
remain located above a fixed point on earth To remain stationary
the satellite must have
a penod of rotation equal to the earth’s penol or rotation This
match take place at a distance of 22300 miles.
Earth-stations use parabolic antennas (tellite dishes) to
communicate with satellites. The satellite receives transmission
on one frequency band (uplink), amplifies the signal and transmits
it on another frequency (downlink). A single orbiting satellite
works on a number of frequency bands called transponders.

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When the destination is on the opposite side of the earth, for

example, the first satellite cannot transmit directly to the receiver
and thus must relay the signals through another satellite.
1 Introduction
Connectivity devices are used in the networking to form a
network or internetwork. Here we are discussing some important
connectivity devices and they are :

Modem A remote connectivity device for Internet.

Repeater It regenerates the signals.
Hub It works as a Junction for devices
Bridge it connects similar architecture networks but with
dissimilar media
Router It connects different types of architecture based
netwroks
Switch It is a multiport bridge with buffer
Brouter It works a Bridge as well as router for different
different protocols
Gateway It works as a protocol converter

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