DATA

COMMUNICATION
CONCEPTS
Dr. SHUCHITA UPADHYAYA BHASIN
Professor
Department of Computer Science & Applications
 CONTENTS

•Guided Transmission Media;

• Wireless transmission;
•Satellite communication.
 GUIDED MEDIA
• signal energy is contained and
guided within a solid medium
• Eg. Copper twisted pair, copper
coaxial cable and optical fiber.
• provide point-to-point
communication.
• lead to well-defined discrete
network topologies.
• Additional transmission capacity
can be procured by adding more
wires.
• require establishing a right-of-way
through the land that is traversed by
the cable
UNGUIDED MEDIA
• signal propagates in the form of unguided
electromagnetic signals
• Eg. The atmosphere and outer space – Radio waves,
microwaves, infrared waves, Laser waves
• achieve only limited directionality making the
medium broadcast in nature.
In addition, all users within receiving range of each other
must share the frequency band that is available and can thus
interfere with each other.
A given frequency band can be reused only in a sufficiently
distant geographical area.
• leads to a network topology that is continuous in
nature.
• the ratio spectrum is finite, and it is not possible to
procure additional capacity.
• do not require the right-of-way and can be deployed
by procuring only the sites where the antennas are
located. Wireless system can therefore be deployed
more quickly and at lower cost.
 Guided Transmission Media

Guided media, which are those that provide a channel from one device
to another include:
• Copper Media
Twisted-pair cable
Coaxial Cable
• Fiber-optic Cable.

Twisted-pair and Coaxial cable are Copper media which use metallic
(copper) conductors that accept and transport signals in the form of
electrical current.
 Optical fiber is a glass or plastic cable that accepts and transports
signals in the form of light.
 TWISTED PAIR CABLES
• Twisted pair wire is the copper wire Unshielded Twisted Pair
commonly used to connect telephone
devices.
• The wire is twisted to enhance signal
transmission relative to straight wire.
• Twisted pair wire can be either
shielded or unshielded. Shielded Twisted Pair
• Shielded twisted pair permits higher
data transmission speed and is less
susceptible to interference, but is also
more expensive than unshielded.
• Unshielded twisted pair is more
common in homes and businesses
(LANs)
 TWISTED PAIR CABLES contd.
Physical Description:
• A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular
spiral pattern. A wire pair acts as a single communication link. Typically, a
number of these pairs are bundled together into a cable by wrapping them
in a tough protective sheath.
• Over longer distances, cables may contain hundreds of pairs. The signal is
transmitted through one wire in the pair while a ground reference is
transmitted through the other.
• The twisting tends to decrease the cross talk interference between adjacent
pairs in a cable. Cross talk refers to the picking up of electrical signals from
other adjacent wires.
• Because the wires are unshielded, there is also a tendency to pick up noise,
or interference from other electromagnetic sources such as broadcast radio.
 TWISTED PAIR CABLES contd.
Transmission Characteristics:
• Twisted pair may be used to transmit both analog and digital signals.
For analog signals, amplifiers are required about every 5 to 6 km. For
digital signals, repeaters are required every 2 or 3 km.
• Compared to other commonly uses guided transmission media
(coaxial cable, optical fiber), twisted pair is limited in distance,
bandwidth and date rate.
• Twisted pair are more prone to attenuation, noise and interference.
Shielding the wire with metallic braid or sheathing reduces
interference.
• The twisting of the wire reduces low-frequency interference, and the
use of different twist lengths in adjacent pairs reduces cross talk.
 Unshielded Twisted-pair cable (UTP)
• Unshielded twisted-pair cable is the most common type
of telecommunication medium in use today. Its usage is
most familiar in telephone systems and its frequency
range (from 100 Hz to 5 MHz) is suitable for
transmitting both data and voice.
• The two conductors (copper wires) have their own
colored plastic insulation. The plastic insulation is color-
banded for identification
• Colors are used both to identify the specific conductors
in a cable and to indicate which wires belong in pairs
and how they relate to other pairs in a larger bundle.
• Advantages of UTP are cost and ease of use.
• Higher grades of UTP are used in many LAN
technologies, including Ethernet and Token ring.
 Unshielded Twisted-pair cable (UTP)
The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) standards

• The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) standards to grade UTP

cables by quality.
• Categories are determined by cable quality, with 1 as lowest and 5
(now 6 and 7) as highest.
• The optimal choice for any use is the cable with the minimal quality
necessary to do the desired job safely and effectively.
• Each EIA category is suitable for certain uses and not for others.
• Category 6 and 7 are not EIA standards.
 Unshielded Twisted-pair cable (UTP) - The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) standards
• Category 1: The basic twisted-pair cabling used
in telephone systems. This level of quality is fine
for voice but inadequate for data
communication
• Category 2: Suitable for voice and for low- speed
digital data transmission of up to 4Mbps.
• Category 3: Required to have at least 3-4 twists
per foot, four pairs grouped together in a plastic
sheath for protection, and can be used for data
transmission of up to 16 Mbps.
It is now the standard cable for most
telephone systems. Can be used for Ethernet,
Fast Ethernet, and token ring.
• Category 4: Must also have at least three twists
or more per foot as well as other conditions to
bring the possible transmission rate from 16 to
20 Mbps.
Used for data and voice transmission.
Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit
Ethernet, token ring.
•Category 5: Used for voice and data transmission up to 100 Mbps. Much
more tightly twisted - 3 to 4 twists per inch for less cross talk and better
quality signal over longer distances.
Contains four pair of wires. Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit
Ethernet, token ring, and ATM.
•Enhanced Category 5(developing nonstandard cabling): Same as Cat 5 but
manufacturing process is refined. Data rates of 1000Mbps.
Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, token ring, and
ATM. Also known as Cat 5E.
•Category 6: 250 MHz rating (more than 1 Gbps).
Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, token ring, and
ATM. Also can handle 550 MHz broadband video.
•Category 6 (Class E): Similar to Cat6 and is proposed international
standard.
•Category 6 (STP): Shielded twisted pair. Rated at 600 MHz for data
transmission.
Suitable for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, token ring, and
high speed ATM.
•Category 7: 600MHz rating. Can achieve higher speeds than Cat6.
Will probably require new connectors instead of current RJ-45. Cat7 (Class E) is
the proposed international standard.
 Shielded Twisted pair (STP)

• STP cable has a metal foil or braided-mesh

covering that encases each pair of insulated
conductors .
• The metal casing prevents the penetration of
electromagnetic noise.
• It also can eliminate a phenomenon called cross
talk, which is the undesired effect of one circuit
(or channel) on another circuit (or channel).
• Materials and manufacturing requirements
make STP more expensive than UTP but less
susceptible to noise.
• STP can carry data at a faster speed than UTP.
• it is more difficult to handle and less flexible.
 UTP Connectors
• UTP is most commonly connected to
network devices via a type of snap-in
plug like that used with telephone
jacks.
• The most frequently used in
networking applications (LANs) is an
RJ45 (registered jack 45) connector
with 8 conductors, one for each wire of
four twisted pair.
• Only four wires are used for slower
speed LANs (10BaseT), but all are used
when the speed is increased
(100BaseT).
• For telephones, the registered jack 11
(RJ-11) is normally used.
RJ-45 Connector
 Applications of Twisted Pair
• Telephone System and Digital
Subscriber Loops: Individual residential
telephone sets are connected to the
local telephone exchange, or ‘end-
office’, by twisted-pair wire. These are
referred to as subscriber loops.
• 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.
 Applications of Twisted Pair
Used within a building for local area networks supporting
personal computers where maximum distance between a
computer and a network device is in the order of 100
meters.
• 10Base-T ETHERNET LAN: The most widely deployed
version of Ethernet LAN uses the 10Base-T physical layer.
The designation 10Base-T denotes 10 Mbps operation
using base band (digital) transmission over twisted-pair
wire.
• 100Base-T ETHERNET LAN: The 100Base-T Ethernet LAN is
also known as Fast Ethernet. 100Base-T Ethernet
operates at a speed of 100Mbps using twisted-pair wire.
• Operating 100 Mbps on UTP is challenging, and so three
options for doing so were developed, one for category 3
UTP, one for shielded twisted-pair, and one for category 5
UTP.
 10Base-T Specifications

10Base-T Quick Overview

IEEE-spec 802.3
Wire speed 10 Mbps
Cable type UTP CAT 3, 4 and 5
Connector type RJ45
Used pins 1 & 2, 3 & 6
Max. length of a segment 100m/328ft
Max. number of taps per
2
segment
Max. amount of stations per
1024
network
Max. amount of repeaters 4
Topology Star
Coaxial Cable

• Physical Description: Coaxial cable (or coax) carries

signals of higher frequency ranges than twisted-pair
cable, and so it can span longer distances at higher
speeds.
• Its frequency ranges are 100 KHz to 500 MHz.
• Instead of having two wires, coax has a central core
conductor of solid (stiff) or stranded wire (usually
copper) enclosed in an insulating sheath, which in
turn, encased in an outer conductor of metal foil,
braid or a combination of the two (also usually
copper).
• The outer metallic wrapping serves both as a shield
against noise and as the second conductor, which
completes the circuit.
• This outer conductor is also enclosed in an
insulating sheath and the whole cable is protected
by a plastic cover
Coaxial Cable contd.

• Transmission characteristics: The construction and shielding of the

coaxial cable give it a good combination of high bandwidth and excellent
noise immunity.
• The bandwidth possible depends on the cable length. For 1-km cables, a
data rate of 1 to 2 Gbps is feasible.
• Longer cables can also be used, but only at lower data rates or with
periodic amplifiers.
Two kinds of coaxial cables are widely used:
• Base band- 50-0hm cable, commonly used for digital transmission.
• Broad band- 75-0hm cable, commonly used for analog transmission.
• (Base band means digital and broadband means analog)
Baseband Coaxial is widely used in Local Area Networks.
10Base 5 (popularly called Thick Coax) and 10Base 2 (Thin Coax) are the
popular baseband cables used in 802.3 (Ethernet LAN) cabling.
 Baseband Coaxial (10Base2 Thin net)
• 10Base 2 means it can support segments of up
to 200 meters with same characteristics of
10Base 5.
• Connections to 10Base 2 are made using
industry standard BNC (bayonet network
connector) connector to form T junction with a
T-connector.
• BNC connector pushes on and locks into place
with a half turn into a T-connector. Thin
Ethernet is much cheaper and easier to install,
but it can run for only 200 meters and can
handle only 30 machines per cable segment.
• Terminators are another type of connectors,
which are required for bus topologies where
one main cable acts as a backbone with
branches to several devices but does not itself
terminate in a device. If the main cable is left
unterminated, any signal transmitted over the
line echoes back and interferes with the original
signal. A terminator absorbs the wave at the
end, and eliminates echo-back.
Baseband Coaxial (10Base5 Thick net)
• 10Base 5 means that it operates at 10
Mbps, uses baseband (digital) signaling
and can support segments of up to 500
meters.
• Connections to 10Base 5 are generally
made using vampire taps, in which a pin
is carefully forced halfway into the
coaxial cable’s core.
• It can support 100 machines per cable
segment.
• Thick coaxial cable is awkward to
handle and install. It requires the use of
a transceiver to attach the NIC card to
the coaxial cable.
Applications
• Local Area Networks & Ethernet LANS
 10BASE-5 Thick Ethernet 10BASE-2 Thin Ethernet
10Base-5 Quick Overview 10BASE-2 Quick Overview
IEEE-spec 802.3 IEEE-norm 802.3
Max. speed 10 Mbps Maximum speed 10 Mbps
Cable Standard Ethernet Coax Cable Cable RG58
Connectors N-type Connectors BNC
Terminators 50 ohm Terminators 50 ohm
Max. length of a segment 500m/1640ft Max. length of a segment 185m/607ft
Max. number of taps per segment 100 Max. number of taps per segment 30
Max. number of stations per network 1024
Max. amount of stations per network 1024
Min. distance between taps 2.5m/8.3ft
Max. length of tranceiver cable 50m/164ft Min. distance between taps 0.5m/1.65ft
Max. number of repeaters 4 Max. number of repeaters 4
Topology Bus Topology Bus
10BASE-5 application
 BROADBAND COAXIAL CABLE
• Broadband coaxial cable system uses analog transmission on standard
cable television cabling.
• Coaxial Cable is used by cable operators, telephone companies and
internet providers. If you have cable television, you have a coaxial
cable installed in your home. Coaxial cables are also used for
connecting VCRs to a television or connecting your television set or
digital convertor box to a personal antenna.
• The cables can run for nearly 100 km due to the analog signaling
• Broadband systems are divided up into multiple channels, frequently
the 6 MHz channels used for television broadcasting.
• Each channel can be used for analog television, CD-quality audio (1.4
Mbps), or a digital bit stream at, say 3 Mbps, independent of the
others.
• Television and data can be mixed on one cable.
BROADBAND COAXIAL CABLE - Applications
• Cable Television distribution & Cable Modem
• Long-distance telephone transmission
 "RG" Numbers for Coaxial Cables 

• "RG" means "Radio Guide" and was the original military specification for coax cable. RG-1
turned out to be pretty unpopular, whereas RG-6 became wildly successful!
• Coaxial Cable RG Numbers are generally just an indicator of size.
• Most RG numbers refer to cables made with specific diameters (as thicker diameters typically
have lower attenuation over long lengths), but also shielding, jacket type, and dielectric type
• The three most common coax cable types for video applications - RG6/U, RG11/U and RG59/U.
• RG-6 is the industry standard for cable and satellite signal transmission. The RG-6 is a thin cable
which is ideal when you need to coil or bend within a wall. Its great for home installations.
(cable TV and broadband internet)
• The RG-11 is thicker and inflexible. You can use it to minimize signal loss in long runs, so it is
typically used outside or underground.(satellite, TV, or cable TV)
• The RG-59 has a thinner centre conductor than the RG-6. This makes the RG-59 the best choice
for short runs and low frequency transmissions indoors, but in other ways it is inferior to the
RG-6.
• The higher the number the thicker and heavier the cable, and the less attenuation over the
length.
 Co-Axial Connectors

• At each end of a
cable, connectors
are required for
further interface
of cable with
other system.
• The various kind
of connectors
used are BNC,
SMA, SMB, F, etc.
A coaxial cable (coax) brings TV and internet signals into homes and other buildings. These cables need connectors on the end to hook up to appliances like TVs
and transmit signal. If you have a coax cable without a connector, installing your own is a simple task. Strip the wire and expose its inner conductor. Then push a
connector over it and crimp it in place. For tight spaces, use a right-angle connector to avoid bending the cable too much.

Determine whether you have an RG59 or RG6 cable- The main difference between the cables is that RG6 is thicker and has more padding than
RG59. This makes it more durable, and a more common choice for cable and internet wiring.
Get a connector that matches your cable type.
Attaching a Crimp
Connector
 Installing a Right-Angle Connector

Loosen the screw Touch the conductor to

inside the connector. the screw and tighten it. 

Install the back housing of

the connector. Twist the connector base
around the connector.
 Fiber-Optic Cable
• Made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the form of light.
• The typical T-1 or coaxial system requires repeaters about every 2 km.
Optical fiber systems, on the other hand, have maximum repeater
spacing in the order of ten to hundreds of kilometers.
• A single fiber strand is much thinner than twisted pair or coaxial cable.
• Because a single optical fiber can carry much higher transmission rates
than copper systems, a single cable of optical fibers can replace many
cables of copper wires.
• In addition, optical fibers do not radiate significant energy and do not
pick up interference from external sources. Thus compared to electrical
transmission, optical fibers are more secure from tapping and are also
immune to interference and cross talk.
 Optical Fiber – Physical Description
Optical transmission system has three
components:
The light source
The transmission medium
The detector
• Conventionally, a pulse of light indicates a 1 bit
and the absence of light indicates a zero bit.
• The transmission medium is an ultra-thin fiber
of glass , flexible, and capable of conducting an
optical ray.
• Various glasses and plastics can be used to
make optical fibers.
Ultra pure fused silica is also used as optical fiber and
gives lowest losses but it is difficult to manufacture.
 
• An optical fiber cable has a cylindrical shape
and consists of three concentric sections: the
core, the cladding and the jacket
• At the center is the glass core through
which light propagates. The core is
surrounded by a glass cladding with a
lower index of refraction than the
core, to keep all the light in the core.
• Next comes a thin plastic jacket to
protect the cladding.
• Fibers are typically grouped together
in bundles, protected by an outer
sheath.
• The detector or the receiving end of
an optical fiber consists of a
photodiode, which gives off an
electrical pulse when struck by light.
Optical Fiber – Physical Description contd.

• Two kinds of light sources can be used to do the signaling, LEDs (Light
Emitting Diodes) and semiconductor lasers. They have different
properties as shown below:
LED Semiconductor Laser

Data rate Low High

Mode Multimode Multimode or Single mode

Distance Short Long

Lifetime Long life Short life

Temperature Sensitively Minor Substantial

Cost Low cost Expensive

Focusing Provide unfocused light Focused to a very narrow range

Laser Light Versus LED Light Power Sources
Optical Fiber - Transmission Characteristics

Propagation Modes:
• Since any light ray incident on the
boundary above the critical angle will
be reflected internally, many different
rays will be bouncing around at
different angles.
• Each ray is said to have a different
mode so a fiber having this property is
called a multimode fiber.
• Single Mode fiber optic cable has a
small diametric core that allows only
one mode of light to propagate. This
application is typically used in long
distance, higher bandwidth runs
Fiber Optic Connectors

• SC, also called a square

connector, stands for subscriber
connector - widely applied in
single mode fiber optic cable,
• LC refers to Lucent Connector –
used in FTTH.
• FC is short for Ferrule
Connector - applied for single-
mode optic fiber but now
mostly replaced by SC and LC
• ST refers to Straight Tip - mainly
used in multimode fiber optic
cable, campuses and buildings.
 Optical Fibers - Applications
Long – Haul Trunks:
Telephone network Backbone
Fiber-To-Home Broadband
Cable Television
Local Area Networks:
10 BASE-FP Ethernet physical layer standard;
Fiber Distribution Data Interface (FDDI) ring-topology LAN,
100 BASE-FX Fast Ethernet physical layer standard,
Gigabit Ethernet (1000 BASE-X standards; 1000 BASE-SX & 1000
BASE-LX)
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
• When electrons move, they create electromagnetic waves that can propagate
through free space (even in vacuum).
• By attaching an antenna of the appropriate size to an electrical circuit, the
electromagnetic waves can be broadcast efficiently and received by a receiver some
distance away. All wireless communication is based on this principle.
• There are basically two types of configurations for wireless transmission: directional
or omni directional.
• For the directional configuration, the transmitting antenna puts out a focused
electromagnetic beam; the transmitting and receiving antennas must therefore be
carefully aligned.
• In the omni directional case, the transmitted signal spreads out in all directions and
can be received by many antennas. In general, the higher, the frequency of a signal,
the more it is possible to focus it into a directional beam.
• Electromagnetic transmission in air can be radio or microwave transmission
depending on the frequency.
 •
Radio Transmission

Properties:
• Radio waves are easy to generate,
• Can travel long distances
• Can penetrate buildings easily, so they are widely used for communication, both indoors
and outdoors.
• Radio waves also are omni directional, meaning that they travel in all directions from the
source, so that the transmitter and receiver do not have to be carefully aligned physically.
• The properties of radio waves are frequency dependent.
• At low frequencies, radio waves pass through obstacles well, but the power falls off
sharply with distance from the source.
• At high frequencies, radio waves tend to travel in straight lines and bounce off obstacles.
They are also absorbed by rain.
• At all frequencies, radio waves are subject to interference from motors and other
electrical equipment.
 Radio Wave Propagation

• In Radio communication systems, we use wireless electromagnetic

waves as the channel.
• The antennas of different specifications can be used for these
purposes. The sizes of these antennas depend upon the bandwidth
and frequency of the signal to be transmitted.
• The mode of propagation of electromagnetic waves in the
atmosphere and in free space may be divided in to the following three
categories −
Line of sight (LOS) propagation
Ground wave propagation
Sky wave propagation
 Follow contour of the earth
 Can propagate considerable
distances
 Example – AM radio, Military
applications
 In the VLF, LF and MF bands
the propagation of waves, also
called as ground waves follow
the curvature of the earth.
 The maximum transmission
ranges of these waves are of
the order of a few hundred
kilometers.
 Signal reflected from ionized layer of atmosphere
back down to earth
 Signal can travel a number of hops back and forth
 Examples – Amateur radio, CB radio, International
broadcasts
 The HF and VHF band transmissions are absorbed by
the atmosphere, near the Earth's surface. However,
a portion of the radiation, called the sky wave, is
radiated outward and upward to the ionosphere in
the upper atmosphere.
 Transmitting and receiving antennas  The ionosphere contains ionized particles formed
must be within line-of-sight due to the Sun's radiation. These ionized particles
 infrared or microwave transmissions. reflect the sky waves back to the Earth. A powerful
sky wave may be reflected several times between
the Earth and the ionosphere.
 Microwave Transmission
• Directional: Above 100MHz, the waves travel in
straight lines and can therefore be narrowly
focused.
• Parabolic Antennas: All the energy is
concentrated into a small beam using a parabolic
antenna (like the familiar satellite TV dish)
• Alignment: The transmitting and receiving
antennas must be accurately aligned with each
other.
• Penetration: Unlike radio waves at lower
frequencies, microwaves do not pass through
obstacles well

Types:
Terrestrial Microwave
Satellite Microwave
 Terrestrial propagation of microwaves
• Directionality allows multiple transmitters lined up in a row to
communicate with multiple receivers in a row without
interference.
• Since the microwaves travel in a straight line, if the towers are
too far apart, the earth will get in the way. Consequently,
repeaters are needed periodically.
• The higher the towers are, the further apart they can be.

• Repeaters: To increase the distance served by terrestrial

microwave a system of repeaters can be installed with
each antenna. A signal received by one antenna can be
converted back into transmittable form and relayed to
the next antenna
• Terrestrial microwave with repeaters provides the basis
for most contemporary telephone systems worldwide.
• Use Parabolic dish to focus a narrow beam
 Satellite Communication
• A communication satellite can
be thought of as a big
microwave repeater in the sky.
• It contains several
transponders, each of which
listens to some portion of the
spectrum, amplifies the
incoming signal, and then
rebroadcasts it at another  Satellite relays allow microwave signals to span
frequency, to avoid interference continents and oceans with a single bounce.
with the incoming signal.  Satellite microwave can provide transmission capability to
• The downward beam can be and from any location on earth, no matter how remote.
 This advantage makes high-quality communication
broad, covering a substantial
available to undeveloped parts of the world without
fraction of the earth’s surface, or
requiring a huge investment in ground-based
narrow, covering an area only infrastructure.
hundreds of kilometers in  Satellite are extremely expensive, but leasing time or
distance. frequencies on one can be relatively cheap.
Based on the location of the orbit, satellites can be divided
into three categories:
•GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) at about
36,000km above the earth's surface.

•LEO (Low Earth Orbit) at about 500-

1500km above the earth's surface.

•MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) or ICO

(Intermediate Circular Orbit) at about
6000-20,000 km above the earth's surface.

•HEO (Highly Elliptical Orbit)

Geosynchronous Satellites (GEO):
• Line-of-sight propagation requires that the sending and receiving
antennas be locked onto each other’s location at all times (one
antenna must have the other in sight).
• To ensure constant communication, the satellite must move at the
same speed as the earth so that it seems to remain fixed above a
certain spot. Such satellites are called geosynchronous.
• Geostationary satellites remain in the same position relative to the
surface of earth.
• Geostationary satellites have a distance of almost 36,000 km to the
earth.
• Applications are
 TV and radio broadcast satellites,
 weather satellites and
 satellites operating as backbones for the telephone network.
• Three Geostationary satellites are enough for a complete coverage
of almost any spot on earth.
• Receivers and senders can use fixed antenna positions, no
adjusting is needed.
• Lifetime expectations for GEOs are rather high, at about 15 years.
• Geostationary satellites have a 24 hour view of a particular area.
• Transferring a GEO into orbit is very expensive.
MEO Satellites:
• At much lower orbits we have MEO
(Medium-Earth Orbit) satellites.
• As viewed from earth, these drift slowly
taking 6 hours to circle the earth.
• Because they are lower than GEOs, they
have a smaller footprint on ground and
require less powerful transmitters to reach
them.
• Used for GPS: GPS is used by military
forces, navigation (a driver of a car can
find location of car), and clock
synchronization ( cellular telephone
system uses GPS to create time
synchronization between the base
stations.
LEO Satellites:
• Moving down in altitude, we have LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) satellites.
• Due to their rapid motion, large numbers of them are needed for a complete system.
• Because the satellites are so close to the earth, the ground stations do not need much power.
• Three examples of LEOs are Iridium, Globalstar, and Teledesic
• Iridium is targeted at telephone users located at odd places. The system has 66 Iridium
satellites arranged in north-south necklaces (orbits), with one satellite every 32 degrees of
latitude.
• These are used for paging, navigation, voice and data.
• Iridium relays calls from satellite to satellite in space
• Globalstar routes call from satellite to ground based terrestrial network where it is switched
from one to another to reach the destination satellite and from there to the user.
• Globalstar is based on 48 LEO satellites in six polar orbits with each orbit having eight satellites.
• Teledesic is targeted at Internet users all over the world providing broadband services. The
system is packet-switched in space with each satellite routing packets to its neighboring
satellites. Bandwidth is assigned to users dynamically.
• It has 288 satellites in 12 polar orbits with each orbit hosting 24 satellites. Communication is also possible
between a satellite and an earth gateway station.
With 66 Low-Earth Orbit satellites, Iridium offers
satellite communications voice and data
connectivity anywhere in the world
The following table lists number of Indian satellites launched
decade-wise.

Country of origin of launch vehicle

          
 Soviet Union/ Total
Decad  India  European Union  Russia  United States
e
Succes Failure Succes Failure Succes Failure Succes Failure Succes Failure
s s s s s

1970s 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 1
1980s 3 2 2 0 2 0 2 0 9 2
1990s 6 1 6 0 2 0 1 0 15 1
2000s 17 1 6 0 0 0 0 0 23 1
2010s 52 3 10 0 0 0 2 0 64 3
2020s 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Total 78 8 25 0 6 0 5 0 114 8
 Infrared Waves

• Unguided infrared waves are widely used for short-range communication.

• The remote controls used on televisions, VCRs and stereos all use infrared communication.
They are relatively directional,
 cheap and easy to build,
they do not pass through solid objects.
• An advantage of this is that an infrared system in one room of a building will not interface
with a similar system in adjacent rooms.
• Security of infrared systems against eaves dropping is better than radio systems.
• No government license is needed to operate an infrared system, in contrast to radio systems.
• Infrared communication cannot be used outdoors because the sun shines as brightly in the
infrared as in the visible spectrum.
Applications:
• Used in indoor wireless LANs.
When several people show up for a meeting with their portables, they can just sit down in the
conference room and be fully connected without having to plug in.