SRI KRISHNA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India

An Autonomous Institution, Affiliated to Anna University,
Accredited by NAAC with “A” Grade & Accredited by NBA (CSE, ECE, IT, MECH ,EEE, CIVIL& MCT)

Course : Computer
Networks
Module :1
Topic : Types of transmission media
Faculty :S.Sureshkumar
Dept : CSE
TRANSMISSION MEDIA
 Definition
• Data is represented by computers and other telecommunication devices
using signals.
• Signals are transmitted in the form of electromagnetic energy from one
device to another.
• Electromagnetic signals travel through vacuum, air or other transmission
mediums to move from one point to another(from sender to receiver).
• Electromagnetic energy (includes electrical and magnetic fields) consists
of power, voice, visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet light, gamma rays etc.
• Transmission medium is the means through which we send our data from
one place to another. The first layer (physical layer) of Communication
Networks OSI Seven layer model is dedicated to the transmission media,
we will study the OSI Model later.
TYPES OF TRANSMISSION MEDIA
 Classes of Transmission Media
• Conducted or guided media
– use a conductor such as a wire or a fiber optic cable to move 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
 Design Factors for Transmission Media
• Bandwidth: All other factors remaining constant, the greater the band-width
of a signal, the higher the data rate that can be achieved.

• Transmission impairments: Limit the distance a signal can travel.

• Interference:
• Competing signals in overlapping
frequency bands can distort or
wipe out a signal.

MILITARY
SCENARIO
Number of receivers:
Each attachment introduces some attenuation and distortion,
limiting distance and/or data rate.
Electromagnetic Spectrum for Transmission Media
The metric prefixes are as follows, using Hz as an
example:

Prefix Example of unit

kilo 1 kHz = 103 Hz

Mega 1 MHz = 106 Hz
Giga 1 GHz = 109 Hz
Tera 1 THz = 1012 Hz
Peta 1 PHz = 1015 Hz
Exa 1 EHz = 1018 Hz
Zetta 1 ZHz = 1021 Hz
Yotta 1 YHz = 1024 Hz
 Guided Transmission Media
• Transmission capacity depends on the distance and on whether the medium
is point-to-point or multipoint
• Examples
– Twisted Pair wires
– Coaxial Cables
– optical Fiber
 Twisted Pair Wires
• Consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular spiral pattern to
minimize the electromagnetic interference between adjacent pairs
• Often used at customer facilities and also over distances to carry voice as
well as data communications
• Low frequency transmission medium
Twisted-Pair Cable
 Types of Twisted Pair
• STP (shielded twisted pair)
– the pair is wrapped with metallic foil or braid to insulate the pair from
electromagnetic interference
• UTP (unshielded twisted pair)
– each wire is insulated with plastic wrap, but the pair is encased in an
outer covering
 Twisted Pair Cable

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP).

• Used for telephonic applications.

Advantages :
• Least expensive
• Easy to install
• High speed capacity

Disadvantages:
• Lower capacity and performance in comparison to STP
 Twisted Pair Cable

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP).

• This type of cable consists of a special jacket to block external interference.
• Used in fast-data-rate Ethernet and in voice and data channels of telephone
lines.

Advantages:
• Comparatively faster.
• Eliminates crosstalk

Disadvantage :
• Comparatively difficult to install and manufacture.
• More expensive
 UTP and STP cables

7.22
Unshielded Twisted-Pair Cable
UTP Connectors
Shielded Twisted-Pair Cable
 Ratings of Twisted Pair
• Category 3 UTP
– data rates of up to 16mbps are achievable

• Category 5 UTP
– data rates of up to 100mbps are achievable
– more tightly twisted than Category 3 cables
– more expensive, but better performance

• STP
– More expensive, harder to work with
 Twisted Pair Advantages
• Inexpensive and readily available
• Flexible and light weight
• Easy to work with and install
 Twisted Pair Disadvantages
• Susceptibility to interference and noise
• Attenuation problem
– For analog, repeaters needed every 5-6km
– For digital, repeaters needed every 2-3km
• Relatively low bandwidth (3000Hz)
 Coaxial Cable (or Coax)
• It has an outer plastic covering containing 2 parallel conductors each having
a separate insulated protection cover.
• Carries higher frequency range compared to twisted pair.
• Used for cable television, LANs, telephony.
• Both conductors share a common center axial, hence the term “co-axial”.
• Coaxial cable transmits information in two modes:
– Baseband mode(dedicated cable bandwidth) and
– Broadband mode(cable bandwidth is split into separate ranges).
Coaxial Cable
 BNC connectors
• To connect coaxial cable to any device we need a coaxial connectors.
• Most common type of connector used today is Bayone-Neill-concelman
(BNC) connector.
• Types :
• BNC Connector (Used for cable TV set).
• BNC T Connector (Ethernet connection to the end device).
• BNC Terminator (end of the cable to prevent the reflection signal).
 Coax Application and Advantages
• Application:
– Long distance telephone transmission.
– Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously.
– Cable TV.
– LAN.
• Advantages :
– Higher bandwidth
– 400 to 600Mhz
– up to 10,800 voice conversations.
– Easy to wire and easy to expand.
– Can be tapped easily (pros and cons)
– Much less susceptible to interference than twisted pair
 Coax Disadvantages
• High attenuation rate makes it expensive over long distance
• Cost of installation and maintenance of the wire is high .
• Bulky
•
Fiber Optic Cable
Relatively new transmission medium used by telephone companies in place
of long-distance trunk lines
• Also used by private companies in implementing local data communications
networks
• Require a light source with injection laser diode (ILD) or light-emitting
diodes (LED)
• Made of Glass or Plastic and transmits the signal in the form of light.
• It uses the concept of reflection of light through a core made up of glass or
plastic. The core is surrounded by a less dense glass or plastic covering
called the cladding.
Fiber Construction
OPTICAL FIBER CABLE MODES
 Fiber Optic Types
• multimode step-index fiber
– the reflective walls of the fiber move the light pulses to the receiver
• multimode graded-index fiber
– acts to refract the light toward the center of the fiber by variations in the
density
• single mode fiber
– the light is guided down the center of an extremely narrow core
 Reflection
Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between
two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which
it originated.
 Refraction
A transition from one medium to another results in the bending of radio
waves, just as it does with light
 Fiber optics: Bending of light ray
• If light goes from one substance to another then the ray of light will changes the
direction due to dense of the substance.
• Angle of Incidence : The angle, the ray makes with the line perpendicular to the
interface Between the two substance.
• Critical Angle : The angle of incidence which provides the angle of refraction of
90 degree.
Critical Angle
Single Mode
Multimode Step-Index
Multimode Graded-Index
Fiber Optic Signals
fiber optic multimode
step-index

fiber optic multimode

graded-index

fiber optic single mode

 Fiber Optic Advantages
• greater capacity (bandwidth of up to 2 Gbps)
• smaller size and lighter weight
• lower attenuation
• immunity to environmental interference
• highly secure due to tap difficulty and lack of signal radiation
 Fiber Optic Disadvantages & Applications
DISADVANTAGES
• expensive over short distance
• requires highly skilled installers
• adding additional nodes is difficult
APPLICATIONS
• Tele communications.
• Local Area Networks.
• Cable TV.
• Medical Education.
 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
Electromagnetic spectrum for
wireless communication
THREE PROPAGATION TYPES
Propagation methods
 Ground Propagation
• In ground propagation, radio waves travel through the lowest portion of
the atmosphere, hugging the earth.
• These low-frequency signals emanate in all directions from the
transmitting antenna and follow the curvature of the planet.
• Wave that propagates close to the surface of the Earth.
• Distance depends on the amount of power in the signal: The greater the
power, the greater the distance.
 Sky Propagation
• In sky propagation, higher-frequency radio waves radiate upward into
the ionosphere (the layer of atmosphere where particles exist as ions)
where they are reflected back to earth.
• This type of transmission allows for greater distances with lower output
power.
 Ionosphere
• The region of the atmosphere extending from 30 miles to 300 miles
above the surface of the earth.
• Solar radiation causes atoms in the ionosphere to become ionized.
• Electrons freed up, resulting in weak conduction
 Line-of-Sight propagation
• In line-of-sight propagation, very high-frequency signals are transmitted in
straight lines directly from antenna to antenna.
• Antennas must be directional, facing each other, and either tall enough or
close enough together not to be affected by the curvature of the earth.
Bands
 Wireless (Unguided Media) Transmission
• Transmission and reception are achieved by means of an antenna
• Directional
– transmitting antenna puts out focused beam
– transmitter and receiver must be aligned
– Transmits Micro wave

• Omnidirectional
– signal spreads out in all directions
– can be received by many antennas
– Transmits Radio Wave
Wireless transmission waves
 Radio Wave
• Electromagnetic waves ranging in frequencies between 3 kHz and 1
GHz are normally called radio waves.
• Radio waves, for the most part, are omnidirectional.
• Radio waves, particularly those of low and medium frequencies, can
penetrate walls.
• When an antenna transmits radio waves, they are propagated in all
directions.
• A sending antenna sends waves that can be received by any receiving
antenna.
 Omnidirectional antenna

Applications
• One sender but many Receivers.
• FM Radio.
• Cordless Phone.
 Omnidirectional antenna
• The omnidirectional property has a disadvantage too.
• The radio waves transmitted by one antenna are susceptible to interference
by another antenna that may send signals using the same frequency or
band.
 RADIO WAVE PROPAGATION
• The radio wave band is relatively narrow, just under 1 GHz, compared to
the microwave band.
• When this band is divided into sub bands, the sub bands are also
narrow, leading to a low data rate for digital communications.
• Almost the entire band is regulated by authorities.
• Using any part of the band requires permission from the authorities.
 RADIO WAVES APPLICATIONS
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
 MICROWAVES
• Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between I and 300 GHz are
called microwaves.
• Microwaves are unidirectional. When an antenna transmits microwave
waves, they can be narrowly focused.
• This means that the sending and receiving antennas need to be aligned.
 MICROWAVES PROPAGATION
• Microwave propagation is line-of-sight. Since the towers with the
mounted antennas need to be in direct sight of each other, towers that
are far apart need to be very tall.
• Very high-frequency microwaves cannot penetrate walls.
• The microwave band is relatively wide, almost 299 GHz. Therefore wider
sub bands can be assigned, and a high data rate is possible
Unidirectional antennas
 Unidirectional Antennas

• Microwaves need unidirectional antennas that send out signals in one

direction.
• Two types of antennas are used for microwave communications:
✔ The parabolic dish and
✔ The horn
 Parabolic Dish Antenna
• A parabolic dish antenna is based on the geometry of a parabola:
• Every line parallel to the line of symmetry (line of sight) reflects off the curve
at angles such that all the lines intersect in a common point called the focus.
• The parabolic dish works as a funnel, catching a wide range of waves and
directing them to a common point.
• In this way, more of the signal is recovered than would be possible with a
single-point receiver.
 Horn Antenna
• Outgoing transmissions are broadcast through a horn aimed
at the dish.
• Received transmissions are collected by the scooped shape
of the horn, in a manner similar to the parabolic dish, and are
deflected down into the stem.
 MICROWAVE APPLICATIONS
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 communications.
 INFRARED WAVES
• Infrared waves, with frequencies from 300 GHz to 400 THz can be used
for short-range communication.
• Infrared waves, having high frequencies, cannot penetrate walls.
• Using Infrared, a short-range communication system in one room cannot
be affected by another system in the next room.
• However, this same characteristic makes infrared signals useless for
long-range communication.
• we cannot use infrared waves outside a building because the sun's rays
contain infrared waves that can interfere with the communication.
Note

Infrared signals can be used for short-range communication in a closed

area using line-of-sight propagation .
Fiber Vs Satellite
 Summary
• Transmission medium is the means through which we send our data from one
place to another.
• Wired transmission-use a conductor such as a wire or a fiber optic cable to move
the signal from sender to receiver.
– Twisted pair
– Commonly used network cable standard
– Twisted pair types- shielded and un shielded
– Fibre optic cable
– Fibre optic methods- single mode and multi mode
• Wireless transmission-use radio waves of different frequencies and do not need a
wire or cable conductor to transmit signals.
– Micro wave-Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between I and 300 GHz are called
microwaves.
– The radio wave band is relatively narrow, just under 1 GHz, compared to the microwave band.
– Infrared waves, with frequencies from 300 GHz to 400 THz can be used for short-range
communication.
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 Review questions
1. Calculate the bandwidth of the light for the following wavelength ranges
(assume a propagation speed of 2*(10^8) m):
a) 1000 to 1200 nm
b) 1000 to 1400 nm
2. What is the achievable data rate of Category 3 UTP?

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