Chapter 7

Transmission Media

7.1 Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.
 Figure 7.1 Transmission medium and physical layer

7.2
 Figure 7.2 Classes of transmission media

7.3
Electromagnetic Spectrum

4
 Conducted or guided media
✔ use a conductor such as a wire or a fiber optic cable
to transmit the signal from sender to receiver

Wireless or unguided media

✔ use radio waves of different frequencies and do not
need a wire or cable conductor to transmit signals

3.5
7-1 GUIDED MEDIA

Guided media, which are those that provide a conduit from one device to another,
include twisted-pair cable, coaxial cable, and fiber-optic cable.
Topics discussed in this section:
Twisted-Pair Cable
Coaxial Cable
Fiber-Optic Cable
 1. Twisted-Pair Cable
A twisted pair consists of two conductors (normally copper), each with its own
plastic insulation, twisted together, as shown in Fig. 7.3

Figure 7.3 Twisted-pair cable

• One of the wires is used to carry signals to

the receiver, and the other is used only as
a ground reference.
• The twisted wires are helpful in reducing
3.7 noise and crosstalk.
 Types of Twisted Pair

UTP
◦each wire is insulated with plastic wrap, but the pair is
encased in an outer covering.

STP
◦the pair is wrapped with metallic foil or braid to insulate
the pair from electromagnetic interference
3.8
 Figure 7.4 UTP and STP cables

7.9
 Table 7.1 Categories of unshielded twisted-pair cables

7.10
 Figure 7.5 UTP connector

RJ45 (RJ stands for registered jack)

7.11
Attenuation

• Loss of energy to overcome the resistance of the medium: heat

 Figure 7.6 UTP performance

7.13
Why Twisting?
■ In Flat Wire - Electromagnetic interference can create noise
■ The noise over parallel wires results in an uneven load and a
damaged signal
Noise/Interference Effect on Twisted-Pair
■ Cumulative effect of noise is equal on both sides
■ Twisting does not always eliminate the noise, but does
significantly reduce it
■ The twisting is necessary to minimize electromagnetic radiation and
resist external interference in general. It also helps to limit interference
with other adjacent twisted pairs (cross-talk).
Twisted Pair - Applications
■ Most common medium
■ Telephone network
■ Individual residential telephone sets are connected to the local telephone
exchange (or “end office”) by twisted-pair wire. These are referred to as
subscriber loop.
■ Within an office building
■ Each telephone is connected to a twisted pair, which goes to the in-house
private branch exchange (PBX) system.
■ These twisted-pair installations were designed to support voice traffic using
analog signaling. However, by means of a modem, these facilities can
handle digital data traffic at modest data rates.
■ For digital signaling: connections to a digital data switch or a digital PBX
■ For local area networks (LAN)
■ Data rates can be around 10Mbps, 100Mbps, or even 1Gbps.

16
Twisted Pair - Pros and Cons
■ Pros
■ Twisted pair is much less expensive than other commonly

used guided transmission media.

■ Twisted pair is easier to work with.

■ Cons: limited in distance, bandwidth, and data rate

■ Short range: not good for long-distance

■ E.g., the data rate of ADSL depends on the distance

■ 1.5Mbps for 18,000ft

■ 2.0Mbps for 16,000ft

■ 6.0Mbps for 12,000ft

■ 9.0Mbps for 9000ft

17
2. Coaxial Cable

✔ Coaxial cable (or coax) carries signals of higher

frequency ranges than those in twisted pair cable, in
part because the two media are constructed quite
differently.

✔ Used for cable television, LANs, telephony.

3.18
 Figure 7.7 Coaxial cable

7.19
 Table 7.2 Categories of coaxial cables

7.20
 Figure 7.9 Coaxial cable performance

7.21
 3. Fiber-Optic Cable
A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals
in the form of light.

3.22
Optical Fiber
■ Optical fiber is made of glass or plastic
■ It transmits signals in the form of light

The Nature of Light

■ The speed of light

■ 300,000 Km/sec in a vacuum

■ Depends on the density of the medium through which
it is traveling
■ Other properties of light
■ Refraction, Critical angle, Reflection
 Figure 7.10 Fiber optics: Bending of light ray

7.24
 Figure 7.11 Optical fiber

• Optical fibers use reflection to guide light through a channel.

• A glass or plastic core is surrounded by a cladding of less dense
glass or plastic.
• The difference in density of the two materials must be such that a
beam of light moving through the core is reflected off the cladding
instead of being refracted into it.

7.25
 Figure 7.14 Fiber construction

• The outer jacket is made of

either PVC or Teflon.
• Inside the jacket are Kevlar
strands to strengthen the
cable. Kevlar is a strong
material used in the
fabrication of bulletproof
vests.
• Below the Kevlar is another
plastic coating to cushion the
fiber.
• The fiber is at the center of
the cable. It consists of
cladding and core.

7.26
 Figure 7.12 Propagation modes

7.27
 Figure 7.13 Modes

7.28
 Figure 7.16 Optical fiber performance

7.29
 Figure 7.15 Fiber-optic cable connectors

7.30
 Advantages Fiber-optic cable has several advantages over metallic
cable (twisted- pair or coaxial):

• Higher bandwidth.
• Less signal attenuation.
• Immunity to electromagnetic interference.
• Resistance to corrosive materials.
• Light weight.
• Greater immunity to tapping.
3.31
 Disadvantages There are some disadvantages in the use of optical
fiber.

•Installation and maintenance. Fiber-optic cable is a relatively new

technology. Its installation and maintenance require expertise that is
not yet available everywhere.

•Unidirectional light propagation. Propagation of light is unidirectional. If

we need bidirectional communication, two fibers are needed.

•Cost. The cable and the interfaces are relatively more expensive than
3.32
 7-2 UNGUIDED MEDIA: WIRELESS

Unguided media transport electromagnetic waves without using a physical

conductor. This type of communication is often referred to as wireless
communication.

Topics discussed in this section:

Radio Waves
Microwaves
Infrared

7.33
✔Unguided media transport electromagnetic waves without using a physical
conductor. This type of communication is often referred to as wireless
communication.

✔ Radio, satellite microwave, Bluetooth, and infrared light are all different
forms of electromagnetic waves that are used to transmit data.

Transmission and reception are achieved by means of an antenna

3.34
 Unidirectional Antenna
✔transmitting antenna puts out focused beam
✔send out signals in one direction
✔unicast communication such as cellular telephones, satellite
networks, and wireless LANs.

Omnidirectional Antenna
✔signal spreads out in all directions can be received by many
3.35
 Figure 7.20 Omnidirectional antenna

7.36
 Figure 7.21 Unidirectional antennas

7.37
 Figure 7.17 Electromagnetic spectrum for wireless communication

7.38
 Figure 7.18 Propagation methods

7.39
 Table 7.4 Bands / Frequency

7.40
 Figure 7.19 Wireless transmission waves

7.41
 Note

Radio waves are used for multicast

communications, such as radio and television, and
paging systems. They can penetrate through walls.
Highly regulated. Use omni directional antennas
7.42
 Note

Microwaves are used for unicast communication such

as cellular telephones, satellite networks,
and wireless LANs.

Higher frequency ranges cannot penetrate walls.

Use directional antennas - point to point line of sight
7.43
 Note

Infrared signals can be used for short-range

communication in a closed area using line-of-sight
propagation.

7.44
 RADIO WAVES:
▪
Between 3 KHz – 1 GHz.
▪
Radio waves use omnidirectional antenna.
▪
Radio waves used for multicast communication, such as radio and television.
MICROWAVES:
▪
Between 1 – 300 GHz.
▪
Microwaves use unidirectional antenna.
▪
Microwaves used for unicast communication, such as telephone, satellite,
INFRARED WAVES:
wireless LAN
▪
Between 300 GHz-400 THz
▪
Used for short-range communication, line-of-sight communication
▪
3.45Very common with remote control devices, but can also be used for
 Wireless Channels

■ Are subject to a lot more errors than guided

media channels.
■ Interference is one cause for errors, can be
circumvented with high SNR.
■ The higher the SNR the less capacity is
available for transmission due to the
broadcast nature of the channel.
■ Channel also subject to fading and no
coverage holes.

7.46
 Thank you!!!

3.47