COMPUTER NETWORKS UNIT 02

Physical Layer in OSI Model

The physical Layer is the bottom-most layer in the Open System

Interconnection (OSI) Model which is a physical and electrical representation
of the system. It consists of various network components such as power plugs,
connectors, receivers, cable types, etc.

Functions Performed by Physical Layer

The following are some important and basic functions that are performed by the
Physical Layer of the OSI Model –
1. The physical layer maintains the data rate (how many bits a sender can send per
second).
2. It performs the Synchronization of bits.
3. It helps in Transmission Medium decisions (direction of data transfer).
4. It helps in Physical Topology (Mesh, Star, Bus, Ring) decisions (Topology
through which we can connect the devices with each other).
5. It helps in providing Physical Medium and Interface decisions.
6. It provides two types of configuration Point Point configuration and Multi-Point
configuration.
7. It provides an interface between devices (like PCs or computers) and
transmission medium.
8. It has a protocol data unit in bits.
9. Hubs, Ethernet, etc. device is used in this layer.
10. This layer comes under the category of Hardware Layers (since the hardware
layer is responsible for all the physical connection establishment and processing
too).
11. It provides an important aspect called Modulation, which is the process of
converting the data into radio waves by adding the information to an electrical or
optical nerve signal.
12. It also provides a Switching mechanism wherein data packets can be forwarded
from one port (sender port) to the leading destination port.

The physical layer’s major function is to move data in the form of electromagnetic
signals over a transmission medium. The data which is used by a person is not in
a form that can be transmitted over a network.

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For example, a photograph has to be changed to a form that transmission media

can accept. Transmission media works by conducting energy along a physical
path.

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

Analog Data

Analog data refers to information which is continuous.

For Example, an Analog clock which is having hour, minute, and second hands
that gives information in a continuous form; the movement of the hands are
continuous.

Digital Data

Digital data refers to information which has discrete states.

For Example, a digital clock which reports the hours and minutes that will change
suddenly from 10:05 to 10:06.

In this way the data can represent, signals can also represent either Analog or
digital.

Analog Signal

Analog signals have infinitely so many levels of intensity over a period of time.
When the wave moves from value A to value B, it passes through and it includes
an infinite number of values along its path.

Digital Signal

Digital signals can have only a limited number of defined values. Although each
value can be any number, it is often as simple as 0 or 1.

The easiest way to show signals is by plotting them on a pair of perpendicular

axes.

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 The vertical axis represents the value or strength of a signal.

 The horizontal axis represents time.

The above figure shows the Analog signal and a digital signal. The curve
represents the Analog signal through an infinite number of points. The vertical
lines of the digital signal, however, demonstrate the sudden jump that the signal
makes from value to value.

Transmission Impairments

Transmission impairment occurs when the received signal is different from the
transmitted signal. As we know, a signal can be transmitted as Analog signal or
it can be transmitted as a digital signal.

In Analog signals due to transmission impairment the resulting received signal

gets different amplitude or the shape. In the case of digitally transmitted signals
at the receiver side we get changes in bits (0's or 1's).

Causes

There are various causes of transmission impairments −

 Noise
 Distortion
 Attenuation

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Noise

Noise is the major factor for the transmission distortion as any unwanted signal
gets added to the transmitted signal by which the resulting transmitted signal gets
modified and at the receiver side it is difficult to remove the unwanted noise
signal. These noises are various kinds like shot noise, impulse noise, thermal
noise etc.

Noise is diagrammatically represented as follows −

Distortion

This kind of distortion is mainly appearing in case of composite signals in which

a composite signal has various frequency components in it and each frequency
component has some time constraint which makes a complete signal.

But while transmitting this composite signal, if a certain delay happens between
the frequencies components, then there may be the chance that the frequency
component will reach the receiver end with a different delay constraint from its
original which leads to the change in shape of the signal. The delay happens due
to environmental parameters or from the distance between transmitter and
receiver etc.

Distortion is diagrammatically represented as follows −

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Attenuation

Attenuation is generally decreased in signal strength, by which the received signal

will be difficult to receive at the receiver end. This attenuation happens due to the
majority factor by environment as environment imposes a lot of resistance and
the signal strength decreases as it tries to overcome the resistance imposed.

The above picture shows that the signal loses power at its travels time.

Attenuation is diagrammatically represented as follows −

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Data Transmission Media:

o Guided Transmission Media

o UnGuided Transmission Media

Guided Media

It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are transmitted. It
is also known as Bounded media.

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Types Of Guided media:

Twisted pair:

Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted with each
other. A twisted pair cable is cheap as compared to other transmission media.
Installation of the twisted pair cable is easy, and it is a lightweight cable. The
frequency range for twisted pair cable is from 0 to 3.5KHz.

A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular spiral
pattern.

The degree of reduction in noise interference is determined by the number of turns

per foot. Increasing the number of turns per foot decreases noise interference.

Types of Twisted pair:

Unshielded Twisted Pair:

An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in telecommunication. Following are

the categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable:

o Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone lines that have low-speed

data.
o Category 2: It can support upto 4Mbps.
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o Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.

o Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for
long-distance communication.
o Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.

Advantages Of Unshielded Twisted Pair:

o It is cheap.
o Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
o It can be used for high-speed LAN.

Disadvantage:

o This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of attenuation.

Shielded Twisted Pair

A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire that
allows the higher transmission rate.

Characteristics Of Shielded Twisted Pair:

o The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very
low.
o An installation of STP is easy.
o It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
o It has a higher attenuation.
o It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.

Disadvantages

o It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.

o It has a higher attenuation rate.

Coaxial Cable

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o Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example, TV

wire is usually a coaxial cable.
o The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to
each other.
o It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
o The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the
outer conductor is made up of copper mesh. The middle core is made up of
non-conductive cover that separates the inner conductor from the outer
conductor.
o The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper
mesh prevents from the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).

Coaxial cable is of two types:

1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a

single signal at high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting
multiple signals simultaneously.

Advantages Of Coaxial cable:

o The data can be transmitted at high speed.

o It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
o It provides higher bandwidth.

Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:

o It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.

o If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.
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Fibre Optic
o Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
o Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that are
used to send the data by pulses of light.
o The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold,
electromagnetic interference from other types of wiring.
o Fibre optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.

Diagrammatic representation of fibre optic cable:

Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

o Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic

known as a core. A core is a light transmission area of the fibre. The more
the area of the core, the more light will be transmitted into the fibre.
o Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding. The main
functionality of the cladding is to provide the lower refractive index at the
core interface as to cause the reflection within the core so that the light
waves are transmitted through the fibre.
o Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket.
The main purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb shock
and extra fibre protection.

Following are the advantages of fibre optic cable over copper:

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o Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable provides more bandwidth as

compared copper. Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as compared
to copper cable.
o Faster speed: Fibre optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This
allows the fibre optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
o Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries the data at a longer
distance as compared to copper cable.
o Better reliability: The fibre optic cable is more reliable than the copper
cable as it is immune to any temperature changes while it can cause
obstruct in the connectivity of copper cable.
o Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight
so it can withstand more pull pressure than copper cable.

Magnetic Media in Computer Network

The physical layer's goal is to convey a raw bit stream from one computer to another.
For the actual transmission, many physical mediums might be employed. The part
that follows will go over magnetic media in depth.
The term 'magnetic media' refers to any record format in which analog or digital
information is recorded to and recovered from a magnetically coated matrix.
Magnetic media refers to any storage medium that uses magnetic patterns to represent
information. Magnetic media and systems use small magnetised dots to store data.
Magnetic fields generated by very small electromagnets are used to make, read, and
delete these dots.
One of the most frequent methods of transferring data from one computer to another
is to write it on magnetic tape or removable media (e.g., recordable DVDs),
physically carry it to the destination machine, and then read it back in.

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The following are examples of magnetic media:

 HDD (Hard Disk Drive)

 Fixed Hard Drive
 Portable Hard Drive
 Magnetic Tape
 Floppy diskettes

A plastic carrier covered with a matrix of metal or metal oxide particles, a resin
binder, and additional substances such as lubricants and fungicides comprise
magnetic tape. The reverse of the tape may include an antistatic coating to
prevent static charge buildup and increase winding capabilities.
Magnetic hard disks are typically constructed with an aluminium base that is
covered on both sides with a metallic or metallic oxide matrix. They are widely
used in computers as the primary storage media. Diskettes and floppy disks are
made up of a plastic base with a magnetic matrix on one or both sides. They are
protected by a hard plastic jacket.
Despite being an outmoded medium, they are nevertheless likely to be found in
collections and should be prioritized for conversion to new media.
In the case of magnetic discs (e.g., floppy discs or hard drives), the dots are
placed in circles on the surface of a magnetisable plastic, metal, or glass disc.
Hard Disk Drive

Hard disks offer enormous storage capacities (up to 1TB). They can store
massive quantities of data. Hard drives are random access memory devices that
can store all sorts of media, including large files such as movies. Data access
times are really quick.

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Data is stored on rotating metal or glass discs (called 'platters') within a hard
drive.

Fixed Hard Disk Drive

A 'fixed' hard disk is one that is incorporated into the casing of a computer.
Almost every computer comes standard with a hard disk. The disk mechanism
of a fixed harddrive is "permanently" attached within a drive case, computer, or
other device. The drive cannot be physically changed or removed until the
device or case it is housed in is opened, unscrewed, and any related data and
power lines are disconnected. The majority of internal hard drives are fixed hard
disks.
Fixed hard drives are practically all computers' primary backup storage option
because they allow almost rapid access to files (random access and high access
speeds).
Portable Hard Drive
A portable hard drive is one that is housed in a compact casing and is equipped
with circuitry that allows the hard disk to be accessible through a USB or
similar connection. Portable hard drives enable the transfer of very large
quantities of data from one computer to another.
Many portable music players, like the iPod, have small hard drives. These tiny
gadgets are little larger than a stamp, but they can hold more than 100MB of
data.

Magnetic Tape

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Magnetic tape is a serial access medium with a huge capacity. Individual file
access on a tape is sluggish since it is a serial access media. Tapes are used
when huge volumes of data must be stored yet individual files cannot be
accessed quickly.
A common use is data backup (large amounts of data that are rarely accessed
except in an emergency). Tapes are also utilized in some batch-processing
systems (for example, to store the list of data to be processed).

Floppy Disc

Floppy disc is a portable, detachable, low-capacity (Standard storage capacity

1.44MB) storage media. Floppy discs are random access memory devices that
are used to transport tiny quantities of data between computers or to back up
small files, among other things. The access times are long.
Almost every computer had a floppy disc drive. These are now outdated, having
been superseded by larger capacity technologies like CD-ROMs, DVDs, and
USB memory sticks.

Power lines:
Power lines in computer networks refer to the use of existing electrical
power lines for data communication in addition to their primary function
of delivering electrical power. This technology is often referred to as Power
Line Communication (PLC) or Broadband over Power Lines (BPL). Here's
an overview of power lines in computer networks:

Power line communications (PLC) allows data communications over conductors

that are simultaneously used for transmission of electrical power.

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PLCs work by adding a modulated carrier signal, formed by superimposing data

signal over low frequency power signal. Electrical signals transmit at 50 – 60 Hz,
while the data signals transmit in the order of MHz.

PLCs are also known as power line carrier, power line digital subscriber line
(PDSL), or power line networking (PLN).

Types of PLC:

 Narrowband PLC: They work at lower frequencies of 3-500KHz. Their

data rates are low but have high range of several kilometres. They are used
in the Smart Grid.
 Broadband PLC: They work at high frequencies of 2 – 250MHz and have
high data rates of more than 100 Mbps. They are used for short ranges.
They are used for home automation.

Applications of Power Lines

 Home Networking (LAN): The existing electrical wiring of a home can be

used for LAN connection within the home, thus avoiding the need for
setting up dedicated network cables. The communicating devices should
have an Ethernet port. Ethernet connection is established by plugging in
power line adapter into a power outlet.
 Broadband over power lines (BPL): It transmits two – way signals between
transformers over AC medium voltage electrical distribution wiring, and
between transformers and customer outlets over AC low voltage wirings.
 In-vehicle network communication: Digital signals are transmitted over
direct current battery lines in vehicles.

Wireless Transmission in Computer Network

Wireless transmission is a form of unguided media. Wireless communication

involves no physical link established between two or more devices,
communicating wirelessly. Wireless signals are spread over in the air and are
received and interpreted by appropriate antennas.

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When an antenna is attached to electrical circuit of a computer or wireless

device, it converts the digital data into wireless signals and spread all over
within its frequency range. The receptor on the other end receives these signals
and converts them back to digital data.

A little part of electromagnetic spectrum can be used for wireless transmission.

Radio Transmission

Radio frequency is easier to generate and because of its large wavelength it can
penetrate through walls and structures alike.Radio waves can have wavelength
from 1 mm – 100,000 km and have frequency ranging from 3 Hz (Extremely
Low Frequency) to 300 GHz (Extremely High Frequency). Radio frequencies
are sub-divided into six bands.

Radio waves at lower frequencies can travel through walls whereas higher RF
can travel in straight line and bounce back.The power of low frequency waves
decreases sharply as they cover long distance. High frequency radio waves have
more power.

Lower frequencies such as VLF, LF, MF bands can travel on the ground up to
1000 kilometers, over the earth’s surface.

Radio waves of high frequencies are prone to be absorbed by rain and other
obstacles. They use Ionosphere of earth atmosphere. High frequency radio

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waves such as HF and VHF bands are spread upwards. When they reach
Ionosphere, they are refracted back to the earth.

Microwave Transmission

Electromagnetic waves above 100 MHz tend to travel in a straight line and
signals over them can be sent by beaming those waves towards one particular
station. Because Microwaves travels in straight lines, both sender and receiver
must be aligned to be strictly in line-of-sight.

Microwaves can have wavelength ranging from 1 mm – 1 meter and frequency

ranging from 300 MHz to 300 GHz.

Microwave antennas concentrate the waves making a beam of it. As shown in

picture above, multiple antennas can be aligned to reach farther. Microwaves
have higher frequencies and do not penetrate wall like obstacles.

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Microwave transmission depends highly upon the weather conditions and the
frequency it is using.

Infrared Transmission

Infrared wave lies in between visible light spectrum and microwaves. It has
wavelength of 700-nm to 1-mm and frequency ranges from 300-GHz to 430-
THz.

Infrared wave is used for very short range communication purposes such as
television and it’s remote. Infrared travels in a straight line hence it is
directional by nature. Because of high frequency range, Infrared cannot cross
wall-like obstacles.

Light Transmission

Highest most electromagnetic spectrum which can be used for data transmission
is light or optical signaling. This is achieved by means of LASER.

Because of frequency light uses, it tends to travel strictly in straight line.Hence

the sender and receiver must be in the line-of-sight. Because laser transmission
is unidirectional, at both ends of communication the laser and the photo-detector
needs to be installed. Laser beam is generally 1mm wide hence it is a work of
precision to align two far receptors each pointing to lasers source.

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Laser works as Tx (transmitter) and photo-detectors works as Rx (receiver).

Lasers cannot penetrate obstacles such as walls, rain, and thick fog.
Additionally, laser beam is distorted by wind, atmosphere temperature, or
variation in temperature in the path.

Laser is safe for data transmission as it is very difficult to tap 1mm wide laser
without interrupting the communication channel.

Digital modulation and Multiplexing

Digital Modulation

Digital modulation is the process of converting a digital bit stream into an analog
carrier wave for transmission via a communication channel.

Digital modulation is broadly divided into two categories −

 Bandpass Modulation as in baseband transmission:

Here, the bits are converted directly into signals.
 Passband Modulation as in passband transmission:
Here, the amplitude, phase or frequency of the carrier signal is regulated to
transmit the bits.
Digital Modulation Techniques

Amplitude Shift Keying

The amplitude of the resultant output depends upon the input data whether it
should be a zero level or a variation of positive and negative, depending upon
the carrier frequency.

Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) is a type of Amplitude Modulation which

represents the binary data in the form of variations in the amplitude of a signal.

Following is the diagram for ASK modulated waveform along with its input.

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Any modulated signal has a high frequency carrier. The binary signal when
ASK is modulated, gives a zero value for LOW input and gives the carrier
output for HIGH input.

Frequency Shift Keying

The frequency of the output signal will be either high or low, depending upon
the input data applied.

Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) is the digital modulation technique in which

the frequency of the carrier signal varies according to the discrete digital
changes. FSK is a scheme of frequency modulation.

Following is the diagram for FSK modulated waveform along with its input.

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The output of a FSK modulated wave is high in frequency for a binary HIGH
input and is low in frequency for a binary LOW input. The binary 1s and 0s are
called Mark and Space frequencies.

Phase Shift Keying

The phase of the output signal gets shifted depending upon the input. These are
mainly of two types, namely BPSK and QPSK, according to the number of
phase shifts. The other one is DPSK which changes the phase according to the
previous value.

Phase Shift Keying (PSK) is the digital modulation technique in which the
phase of the carrier signal is changed by varying the sine and cosine inputs at a
particular time. PSK technique is widely used for wireless LANs, bio-metric,
contactless operations, along with RFID and Bluetooth communications.

PSK is of two types, depending upon the phases the signal gets shifted. They are
−

Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK)

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This is also called as 2-phase PSK (or) Phase Reversal Keying. In this
technique, the sine wave carrier takes two phase reversals such as 0° and 180°.

BPSK is basically a DSB-SC (Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier) modulation

scheme, for message being the digital information.

Following is the image of BPSK Modulated output wave along with its input.

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK)

This is the phase shift keying technique, in which the sine wave carrier takes
four phase reversals such as 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°.

If this kind of techniques are further extended, PSK can be done by eight or
sixteen values also, depending upon the requirement. The following figure
represents the QPSK waveform for two bits input, which shows the modulated
result for different instances of binary inputs.

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QPSK is a variation of BPSK, and it is also a DSB-SC (Double Sideband

Suppressed Carrier) modulation scheme, which send two bits of digital
information at a time, called as bigits.

Instead of the conversion of digital bits into a series of digital stream, it converts
them into bit-pairs. This decreases the data bit rate to half, which allows space
for the other users.

Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK)

In DPSK (Differential Phase Shift Keying) the phase of the modulated signal is
shifted relative to the previous signal element. No reference signal is considered
here. The signal phase follows the high or low state of the previous element.
This DPSK technique doesn’t need a reference oscillator.

The following figure represents the model waveform of DPSK.

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It is seen from the above figure that, if the data bit is LOW i.e., 0, then the phase
of the signal is not reversed, but is continued as it was. If the data is HIGH i.e.,
1, then the phase of the signal is reversed, as with NRZI, invert on 1 (a form of
differential encoding).

If we observe the above waveform, we can say that the HIGH state represents
an M in the modulating signal and the LOW state represents a W in the
modulating signal.

Multiplexing

This is a method of combining more than one signal over a shared medium.
Multiplexing divides the capacity of a communication channel into several
logical channels, each for a data stream. The method of extracting the original
data streams from the multiplexed signal is called demultiplexing.

The methods of multiplexing are as follows −

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1. Frequency Division Multiplexing :

Frequency division multiplexing is defined as a type of multiplexing where the
bandwidth of a single physical medium is divided into a number of smaller,
independent frequency channels.

Input Output
Lines Lines

Frequency Division Multiplexing is used in radio and television transmission.

In FDM, we can observe a lot of inter-channel cross-talk, due to the fact that in
this type of multiplexing the bandwidth is divided into frequency channels. In
order to prevent the inter-channel cross talk, unused strips of bandwidth must be
placed between each channel. These unused strips between each channel are
known as guard bands.

2. Time Division Multiplexing :

Time-division multiplexing is defined as a type of multiplexing wherein FDM,
instead of sharing a portion of the bandwidth in the form of channels, in TDM,
time is shared. Each connection occupies a portion of time in the link.
In Time Division Multiplexing, all signals operate with the same frequency
(bandwidth) at different times.

Data Flow

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Output
Input
Lines
Lines

There are two types of Time Division Multiplexing .

1. Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
2. Statistical (or Asynchronous) Time Division Multiplexing

3. Wavelength Division Multiplexing :

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is a multiplexing technology used to
increase the capacity of optical fiber by transmitting multiple optical signals
simultaneously over a single optical fiber, each with a different wavelength.
Each signal is carried on a different wavelength of light, and the resulting
signals are combined onto a single optical fiber for transmission. At the
receiving end, the signals are separated by their wavelengths, demultiplexed and
routed to their respective destinations.

4. Space-division multiplexing (SDM) :

Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) is a technique used in wireless
communication systems to increase the capacity of the system by exploiting the
physical separation of users.
In SDM, multiple antennas are used at both the transmitter and receiver ends to
create parallel communication channels. These channels are independent of
each other, which allows for multiple users to transmit data simultaneously in
the same frequency band without interference. The capacity of the system can
be increased by adding more antennas, which creates more independent
channels.

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SDM is commonly used in wireless communication systems such as cellular

networks, Wi-Fi, and satellite communication systems. In cellular networks,
SDM is used in the form of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)
technology, which uses multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver
ends to improve the quality and capacity of the communication link.

5. Code-division multiplexing (CDM) :

Code division multiplexing (CDM) is a technique used in telecommunications
to allow multiple users to transmit data simultaneously over a single
communication channel. In CDM, each user is assigned a unique code that is
used to modulate their signal. The modulated signals are then combined and
transmitted over the same channel. At the receiving end, each user's signal is
demodulated using their unique code to retrieve their original data.
In CDM, each user is assigned a unique spreading code that is used to spread
the data signal. This spreading code is typically a binary sequence that is much
longer than the original data signal. The spreading code is multiplied with the
data signal to generate a spread spectrum signal that has a much wider
bandwidth than the original data signal. The spread spectrum signals of all users
are then combined and transmitted over the same channel.

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is an agglomeration of an

interconnected network of telephone lines owned by both governments as well as
commercial organizations.

Properties of PSTN

 It is also known as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS)

 It has evolved from the invention of telephone by Alexander Graham Bell.

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 The individual networks can be owned by national government, regional

government or private telephone operators.
 Its main objective is to transmit human voice in a recognizable form.
 It is an aggregation of circuit-switched networks of the world.
 Originally, it was an entirely analog network laid with copper cables and
switches.
 Presently, most part of PSTN networks is digitized and comprises of a wide
variety communicating devices.
 The present PSTNs comprises of copper telephone lines, fibre optic cables,
communication satellites, microwave transmission links and undersea
telephone lines. It is also linked to the cellular networks.
 The interconnection between the different parts of the telephone system is
done by switching centres. This allows multiple telephone and cellular
networks to communicate with each other.
 Present telephone systems are tightly coupled with WANs (wide area
networks) and are used for both data and voice communications.
 The operation of PSTN networks follows the ITU-T standards.

Switching

o When a user accesses the internet or another computer network outside

their immediate location, messages are sent through the network of
transmission media. This technique of transferring the information from
one computer network to another network is known as switching.

Switching techniques

In large networks, there can be multiple paths from sender to receiver. The
switching technique will decide the best route for data transmission.

Switching technique is used to connect the systems for making one-to-one

communication.

Classification Of Switching Techniques

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Circuit Switching
o Circuit switching is a switching technique that establishes a dedicated path
between sender and receiver.
o In the Circuit Switching Technique, once the connection is established then
the dedicated path will remain to exist until the connection is terminated.
o Circuit switching in a network operates in a similar way as the telephone
works.
o A complete end-to-end path must exist before the communication takes
place.
o In case of circuit switching technique, when any user wants to send the
data, voice, video, a request signal is sent to the receiver then the receiver
sends back the acknowledgment to ensure the availability of the dedicated
path. After receiving the acknowledgment, dedicated path transfers the
data.
o Circuit switching is used in public telephone network. It is used for voice
transmission.
o Fixed data can be transferred at a time in circuit switching technology.

Communication through circuit switching has 3 phases:

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o Circuit establishment
o Data transfer
o Circuit Disconnect

Circuit Switching can use either of the two technologies:

Space Division Switches:

o Space Division Switching is a circuit switching technology in which a

single transmission path is accomplished in a switch by using a physically
separate set of crosspoints.
o Space Division Switching can be achieved by using crossbar switch. A
crossbar switch is a metallic crosspoint or semiconductor gate that can be
enabled or disabled by a control unit.
o The Crossbar switch is made by using the semiconductor. For example,
Xilinx crossbar switch using FPGAs.
o Space Division Switching has high speed, high capacity, and nonblocking
switches.

Space Division Switches can be categorized in two ways:

o Crossbar Switch
o Multistage Switch

Crossbar Switch

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The Crossbar switch is a switch that has n input lines and n output lines. The
crossbar switch has n2 intersection points known as crosspoints.

Disadvantage of Crossbar switch:

The number of crosspoints increases as the number of stations is increased.

Therefore, it becomes very expensive for a large switch. The solution to this is to
use a multistage switch.

Multistage Switch

o Multistage Switch is made by splitting the crossbar switch into the smaller
units and then interconnecting them.
o It reduces the number of crosspoints.
o If one path fails, then there will be an availability of another path.

Advantages Of Circuit Switching:

o In the case of Circuit Switching technique, the communication channel is

dedicated.
o It has fixed bandwidth.

Disadvantages Of Circuit Switching:

o Once the dedicated path is established, the only delay occurs in the speed
of data transmission.
o It takes a long time to establish a connection approx 10 seconds during
which no data can be transmitted.
o It is more expensive than other switching techniques as a dedicated path is
required for each connection.
o It is inefficient to use because once the path is established and no data is
transferred, then the capacity of the path is wasted.
o In this case, the connection is dedicated therefore no other data can be
transferred even if the channel is free.

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Message Switching

o Message Switching is a switching technique in which a message is

transferred as a complete unit and routed through intermediate nodes at
which it is stored and forwarded.
o In Message Switching technique, there is no establishment of a dedicated
path between the sender and receiver.
o The destination address is appended to the message. Message Switching
provides a dynamic routing as the message is routed through the
intermediate nodes based on the information available in the message.
o Message switches are programmed in such a way so that they can provide
the most efficient routes.
o Each and every node stores the entire message and then forward it to the
next node. This type of network is known as store and forward network.
o Message switching treats each message as an independent entity.

Advantages Of Message Switching

o Data channels are shared among the communicating devices that improve
the efficiency of using available bandwidth.
o Traffic congestion can be reduced because the message is temporarily
stored in the nodes.
o Message priority can be used to manage the network.
o The size of the message which is sent over the network can be varied.
Therefore, it supports the data of unlimited size.

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Disadvantages Of Message Switching

o The message switches must be equipped with sufficient storage to enable

them to store the messages until the message is forwarded.
o The Long delay can occur due to the storing and forwarding facility
provided by the message switching technique.

Packet Switching

o The packet switching is a switching technique in which the message is sent

in one go, but it is divided into smaller pieces, and they are sent
individually.
o The message splits into smaller pieces known as packets and packets are
given a unique number to identify their order at the receiving end.
o Every packet contains some information in its headers such as source
address, destination address and sequence number.
o Packets will travel across the network, taking the shortest path as possible.
o All the packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o If any packet is missing or corrupted, then the message will be sent to
resend the message.
o If the correct order of the packets is reached, then the acknowledgment
message will be sent.

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Approaches Of Packet Switching:

There are two approaches to Packet Switching:

Datagram Packet switching:

o It is a packet switching technology in which packet is known as a datagram,

is considered as an independent entity. Each packet contains the
information about the destination and switch uses this information to
forward the packet to the correct destination.
o The packets are reassembled at the receiving end in correct order.
o In Datagram Packet Switching technique, the path is not fixed.
o Intermediate nodes take the routing decisions to forward the packets.
o Datagram Packet Switching is also known as connectionless switching.

Virtual Circuit Switching

o Virtual Circuit Switching is also known as connection-oriented switching.

o In the case of Virtual circuit switching, a preplanned route is established
before the messages are sent.
o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish the connection
between sender and receiver.
o In this case, the path is fixed for the duration of a logical connection.

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o In the above diagram, A and B are the sender and receiver respectively. 1
and 2 are the nodes.
o Call request and call accept packets are used to establish a connection
between the sender and receiver.
o When a route is established, data will be transferred.
o After transmission of data, an acknowledgment signal is sent by the
receiver that the message has been received.
o If the user wants to terminate the connection, a clear signal is sent for the
termination.

Differences b/w Datagram approach and Virtual Circuit approach

Datagram approach Virtual Circuit approach

Node takes routing decisions to Node does not take any routing decision.
forward the packets.

Congestion cannot occur as all the Congestion can occur when the node is busy, and
packets travel in different directions. it does not allow other packets to pass through.

It is more flexible as all the packets are It is not very flexible.

treated as an independent entity.

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Advantages Of Packet Switching:

o Cost-effective: In packet switching technique, switching devices do not

require massive secondary storage to store the packets, so cost is
minimized to some extent. Therefore, we can say that the packet switching
technique is a cost-effective technique.
o Reliable: If any node is busy, then the packets can be rerouted. This
ensures that the Packet Switching technique provides reliable
communication.
o Efficient: Packet Switching is an efficient technique. It does not require
any established path prior to the transmission, and many users can use the
same communication channel simultaneously, hence makes use of
available bandwidth very efficiently.

Disadvantages Of Packet Switching:

o Packet Switching technique cannot be implemented in those applications

that require low delay and high-quality services.
o The protocols used in a packet switching technique are very complex and
requires high implementation cost.
o If the network is overloaded or corrupted, then it requires retransmission
of lost packets. It can also lead to the loss of critical information if errors
are nor recovered.

Data Rate limits and performance

Data rate refers to the speed of data transfer through a channel. It is generally
computed in bits per second (bps). Higher data rates are expressed as Kbps
("Kilo" bits per second, i.e.1000 bps), Mbps ("Mega" bits per second, i.e.1000
Kbps), Gbps ("Giga" bits per second, i.e. 1000 Mbps) and Tbps ("Tera" bits per
second, i.e. 1000 Gbps).

One of the main objectives of data communications is to increase the data rate.
There are three factors that determine the data rate of a channel:

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 Bandwidth of the channel

 Number of levels of signals that are used
 Noise present in the channel

Data rate can be calculated using two theoretical formulae:

 Nyquist Bit Rate – for noiseless channel

 Shannon’s Capacity – for noisy channel

Nyquist Bit Rate

Nyquist bit rate was developed by Henry Nyquist who proved that the
transmission capacity of even a perfect channel with no noise has a maximum
limit.

The theoretical formula for the maximum bit rate is:

maximum bit rate = 2 × Bandwidth × log2V

Here, maximum bit rate is calculated in bps

Bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel

V is the number of discrete levels in the signal

For example, if there is a noiseless channel with a bandwidth of 4 KHz that is

transmitting a signal with 4 discrete levels, then the maximum bit rate will be
computed as, maximum bit rate = 2 × 4000 × log24 = 16,000 bps = 16 kbps

Shannon's Capacity

Claude Shannon extended Nyquist's work for actual channels that are subject to
noise. Noise can be of various types like thermal noise, impulse noise, cross-talks
etc. Among all the noise types, thermal noise is unavoidable. The random
movement of electrons in the channel creates an extraneous signal not present in
the original signal, called the thermal noise. The amount of thermal noise is
calculated as the ratio of the signal power to noise power, SNR.

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Signal-to-Noise Ratio,SNR = Average Signal Power/Average Noise Power

Since SNR is the ratio of two powers that varies over a very large range, it is often
expressed in decibels, called SNRdb and calculated as: SNRdb = 10log10SNR.

Shannon's Capacity gives the theoretical maximum data rate or capacity of a

noisy channel. It is expressed as:

Capacity = Bandwidth × log2( 1+SNR )

Here, Capacity is the maximum data rate of the channel in bps

Bandwidth is the bandwidth of the channel

SNR is the signal – to – noise ratio

For example, if the bandwidth of a noisy channel is 4 KHz, and the signal to noise
ratio is 100, then the maximum bit rate can be computed as:

Capacity = 4000 × log2( 1+100 ) = 26,633 bps = 26.63 kbps

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