Physical Layer

Unit 2
 Classes of Transmission Media
• Conducted or guided media
– Guided media also known as Wired or Bounded
transmission 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.
• The maximum amount of data transmitted over an internet
connection in a given amount of time.
• Transmission impairments. Limit the distance a signal can
travel.
• Interference: Competing signals in overlapping frequency
bands can distort or wipe out a signal.
• Number of receivers: Each attachment introduces some
attenuation and distortion, limiting distance and/or data rate.
 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
• Twisting is done to avoid the exterior
electromagnetic interference.
• Often used at customer facilities and also over
distances to carry voice as well as data
communications
• Low frequency transmission medium
 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
 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)
• Used for cable television, LANs, telephony
• Has an inner conductor surrounded by a braided
mesh(Braided wire is a type of shielding that
gets built into a cable for two reasons: To
protect the cable from electromagnetic
interference (EMI). To increase the flex life and
mechanical strength of a cable.)
• Both conductors share a common center axial,
hence the term “co-axial”
Coax Layers
outer jacket
(polyethylene)
shield
(braided wire)

insulating material

copper or aluminum
conductor
 Coax Advantages
• Higher bandwidth
– 400 to 600Mhz
– up to 10,800 voice conversations
• 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
• Bulky
 Fiber Optic Cable
• Fiber optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for
communication.
• Fiber optic is a cable that holds the optical fibers coated
in plastic that are used to send the data by pulses of light.
• The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat,
cold, electromagnetic interference from other types of
wiring.
• Fiber optics provide faster data transmission than copper
wires.
 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)
 Fiber Optic Layers
• consists of three concentric sections

plastic jacket glass or plastic

fiber core
cladding
 Fiber Optic Layers
• Core: The optical fiber consists of a narrow strand of glass or
plastic known as a core. A core is a light transmission area of
the fiber. The more the area of the core, the more light will be
transmitted into the fiber.
• 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 fiber.
• Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known
as a jacket. The main purpose of a jacket is to preserve the
fiber strength, absorb shock and extra fiber protection.
 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
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
• expensive over short distance
• requires highly skilled installers
• adding additional nodes is difficult
 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
• omnidirectional
– signal spreads out in all directions
– can be received by many antennas
 Wireless Examples
• terrestrial microwave
• satellite microwave
• broadcast radio
• infrared
 Terrestrial Microwave
• In this type of microwave transmission, both the sender
and receiver antennas are in direct sight with each
other.
• used for long-distance telephone service
• uses radio frequency spectrum, from 2 to 40 Ghz
• parabolic dish transmitter, mounted high
• used by common carriers as well as private networks
• requires unobstructed line of sight between source and
receiver
• curvature of the earth requires stations (repeaters) ~30
miles apart
 Satellite Microwave
Applications

• Television distribution
• Long-distance telephone transmission
• Private business networks
Microwave Transmission Disadvantages

• line of sight requirement

• expensive towers and repeaters
• subject to interference such as passing
airplanes and rain
 Satellite
Microwave Transmission
• This type of communication uses the satellite antenna for
communication. The sender antenna sends the signal to
the satellite antenna which is revolving around the earth at
a known height. The satellite antenna then amplifies the
received signal and sends it to the receiver antenna.
• a microwave relay station in space
• can relay signals over long distances
• geostationary satellites
– remain above the equator at a height of 22,300 miles
(geosynchronous orbit)
– travel around the earth in exactly the time the earth takes to
rotate
 Satellite Transmission Links
• earth stations communicate by sending signals
to the satellite on an uplink
• the satellite then repeats those signals on a
downlink
• the broadcast nature of the downlink makes it
attractive for services such as the distribution
of television programming
 Satellite Transmission Process
satellite
transponder

dish
dish
22,300 miles

uplink station downlink station

Satellite Transmission Applications
• television distribution
– a network provides programming from a central
location
– direct broadcast satellite (DBS)
• long-distance telephone transmission
– high-usage international trunks
• private business networks
 Principal Satellite Transmission Bands

• C band: 4(downlink) - 6(uplink) GHz

– the first to be designated
• Ku band: 12(downlink) -14(uplink) GHz
– rain interference is the major problem
• Ka band: 19(downlink) - 29(uplink) GHz
– equipment needed to use the band is still very
expensive
Fiber vs Satellite
 Radio
• In radio transmissions, the antennas need not be in
aligned nor required to be set in a particular manner to
send and receive signals.
• Since radio waves are omnidirectional (all directions), it
is not possible to isolate the communication inside a
building. Radio is omnidirectional and microwave is
directional
• Radio is a general term often used to encompass
frequencies in the range 3 kHz to 300 GHz.
• Mobile telephony occupies several frequency bands just
under 1 GHz.
 Infrared
• Uses transmitters/receivers (transceivers) that
modulate noncoherent infrared light.
• Suitable for short distance communication.
• Transceivers must be within line of sight of
each other (directly or via reflection ).
• Unlike microwaves, infrared does not
penetrate walls.
 Switching
• A switched network is made up of a collection of
interconnected nodes known as switches.
• Switches are devices that may establish temporary
connections between two or more devices that are
attached to the switch.
• Some of these nodes are connected to the end devices in
a switched network. Others are solely used for routing.
• Switching is the process of transmitting packets from one
port to another that leads to the destination.

Generally, there are three switching techniques:

1.Circuit Switching
2.Message Switching
3.Packet Switching
 Types of switching elements
• Telephone switches
– switch samples
• Datagram routers
– switch datagrams
• ATM switches
– switch ATM cells
 Switching Techniques
In large networks there might be multiple paths linking sender
and receiver. Information may be switched as it travels through
various communication channels. There are three typical
switching techniques available for digital traffic.

• Circuit Switching
• Message Switching
• Packet Switching
 Circuit Switching
• Circuit switching is a technique that directly connects the
sender and the receiver in an unbroken path.
• Telephone switching equipment, for example, establishes a
path that connects the caller's telephone to the receiver's
telephone by making a physical connection.
• With this type of switching technique, once a connection is
established, a dedicated path exists between both ends until
the connection is terminated.
• Routing decisions must be made when the circuit is first
established, but there are no decisions made after that time.
 Circuit Switching

• Circuit switching in a network operates almost the same way as

the telephone system works.
• A complete end-to-end path must exist before communication
can take place.
• The computer initiating the data transfer must ask for a
connection to the destination.
• Once the connection has been initiated and completed to the
destination device, the destination device must acknowledge that
it is ready and willing to carry on a transfer.
– Connection established
– Data transfer
– Connection disconnection
 Circuit switching
Advantages:
• The communication channel (once established) is dedicated.

Disadvantages:
• Possible long wait to establish a connection, (10 seconds,
more on long- distance or international calls.) during which
no data can be transmitted.
• More expensive than any other switching techniques,
because a dedicated path is required for each connection.
• Inefficient use of the communication channel, because the
channel is not used when the connected systems are not
using it.
 Message Switching

• With message switching there is no need to establish a

dedicated path between two stations.
• When a station sends a message, the destination address is
appended to the message.
• The message is then transmitted through the network, in its
entirety, from node to node.
• Each node receives the entire message, stores it in its
entirety on disk, and then transmits the message to the next
node.
• This type of network is called a store-and-forward network.
 Message Switching

A message-switching node is typically a general-purpose

computer. The device needs sufficient secondary-storage
capacity to store the incoming messages, which could be
long. A time delay is introduced using this type of scheme due
to store- and-forward time, plus the time required to find the
next node in the transmission path.
 Message Switching
Advantages:
• Channel efficiency can be greater compared to circuit-switched systems, because
more devices are sharing the channel.
• Traffic congestion can be reduced, because messages may be temporarily stored
in route.
• Message priorities can be established due to store-and-forward technique.
• Message broadcasting can be achieved with the use of broadcast address
appended in the message.
Disadvantages
• Message switching is not compatible with interactive applications.
• Store-and-forward devices are expensive, because they must have large disks to
hold potentially long messages.
 Packet Switching

• Packet switching can be seen as a solution that tries to combine the advantages
of message and circuit switching and to minimize the disadvantages of both.
• There are two methods of packet switching: Datagram and virtual circuit.
• In packet switching, the entire message is divided into smaller bits known as
packets. The switching information is included in the header of each packet and
is delivered separately. A packet does not have any resources assigned to it.
This indicates that the connections have no allocated bandwidth and no
planned processing time for each packet. The allocation of resources is based
on the demand. The allocation is done on a first-come, first-served basis.
 Packet Switching
• In both packet switching methods, a message is broken into small parts,
called packets.
• Each packet is tagged with appropriate source and destination addresses.
• Since packets have a strictly defined maximum length, they can be stored
in main memory instead of disk, therefore access delay and cost are
minimized.
• Also the transmission speeds, between nodes, are optimized.
• With current technology, packets are generally accepted onto the network
on a first-come, first-served basis. If the network becomes overloaded,
packets are delayed or discarded (``dropped‘’).
• Message is broken into individual chunks called as packets.
• Each packet is sent individually.
• Each packet will have source and destination IP address with sequence
number.
 Packet switching

• In packet switching, the analog signal from your phone is

converted into a digital data stream. That series of digital bits is
then divided into relatively tiny clusters of bits, called packets.
Each packet has at its beginning the digital address -- a long
number -- to which it is being sent. The system blasts out all
those tiny packets, as fast as it can, and they travel across the
nation's digital backbone systems to their destination: the
telephone, or rather the telephone system, of the person you're
calling.
• They do not necessarily travel together; they do not travel
sequentially. They don't even all travel via the same route. But
eventually they arrive at the right point -- that digital address
added to the front of each string of digital data -- and at their
destination are reassembled into the correct order, then
converted to analog form, so your friend can understand what
you're saying.
 Packet Switching: Datagram
• Datagram packet switching is similar to message
switching in that each packet is a self-contained unit with
complete addressing information attached.
• This fact allows packets to take a variety of possible paths
through the network.
• So the packets, each with the same destination address,
do not follow the same route, and they may arrive out of
sequence at the exit point node (or the destination).
• Reordering is done at the destination point based on the
sequence number of the packets.
• It is possible for a packet to be destroyed if one of the
nodes on its way is crashed momentarily. Thus all its
queued packets may be lost.
 Packet Switching:Virtual Circuit
• In the virtual circuit approach, a preplanned route is established
before any data packets are sent.
• A logical connection is established when
 a sender send a "call request packet" to the receiver and
 the receiver send back an acknowledge packet "call accepted
packet" to the sender if the receiver agrees on conversational
parameters.
• The conversational parameters can be maximum packet sizes,
path to be taken, and other variables necessary to establish and
maintain the conversation.
• Virtual circuits imply acknowledgements, flow control, and error
control, so virtual circuits are reliable.
• That is, they have the capability to inform upper-protocol layers if
a transmission problem occurs.
 Packet Switching:Virtual Circuit
• In virtual circuit, the route between stations does not mean that
this is a dedicated path, as in circuit switching.
• A packet is still buffered at each node and queued for output over
a line.
• The difference between virtual circuit and datagram approaches:

 With virtual circuit, the node does not need to make a routing
decision for each packet.
 It is made only once for all packets using that virtual circuit.
 Packet Switching: Virtual Circuit

VC's offer guarantees that

 the packets sent arrive in the order sent

 with no duplicates or omissions
 with no errors (with high probability)
regardless of how they are implemented internally.
 Advantages of packet switching

Advantages:
• Packet switching is cost effective, because switching devices do not need
massive amount of secondary storage.
• Packet switching offers improved delay characteristics, because there are
no long messages in the queue (maximum packet size is fixed).
• Packet can be rerouted if there is any problem, such as, busy or disabled
links.
• The advantage of packet switching is that many network users can share
the same channel at the same time. Packet switching can maximize link
efficiency by making optimal use of link bandwidth.
Disadvantages:
• Protocols for packet switching are typically more complex.
• It can add some initial costs in implementation.
• If packet is lost, sender needs to retransmit the data.
• Another disadvantage is that packet-switched systems still can’t deliver
the same quality as dedicated circuits in applications requiring very little
delay - like voice conversations or moving images.
 Circuit Switching

Figure. (a) Circuit switching. (b) Packet switching.

52
 What is Modulation
• Modulation
– In the modulation process, some characteristic of a high-
frequency carrier signal (bandpass), is changed according to
the instantaneous amplitude of the information (baseband)
signal.
• Why Modulation
– Suitable for signal transmission (distance…etc)
– Multiple signals transmitted on the same channel
– Capacitive or inductive devices require high frequency AC
input (carrier) to operate.
– Stability and noise rejection

CSULB May 22, 2006 53

Figure Types of analog-to-analog modulation

5.54
 Amplitude Modulation
• A carrier signal is modulated only in amplitude
value
• The modulating signal is the envelope of the
carrier
• The required bandwidth is 2B, where B is the
bandwidth of the modulating signal
• Since on both sides of the carrier freq. f c, the
spectrum is identical, we can discard one half, thus
requiring a smaller bandwidth for transmission.

5.55
Figure 5.16 Amplitude modulation

5.56
 Frequency Modulation

• The modulating signal changes the freq. fc

of the carrier signal
• The bandwidth for FM is high
• It is approx. 10x the signal frequency

5.57
Figure 5.18 Frequency modulation

5.58
Figure 5.19 FM band allocation

5.59
 Phase Modulation (PM)

• The modulating signal only changes the

phase of the carrier signal.
• The phase change manifests itself as a
frequency change but the instantaneous
frequency change is proportional to the
derivative of the amplitude.
• The bandwidth is higher than for AM.

5.60
Figure 5.20 Phase modulation

5.61
What is modulation ?

• Modulation = Adding information to a carrier signal

• The sine wave on which the characteristics of the
information signal are modulated is called a carrier signal
Analog modulation
Digital modulation and demodulation
Signal characteristics that can be modified
signal x(t) = A cos(2πft + Φ)
• A – amplitude
• f – frequency
• Φ – phase (initial angle of the sinusoidal function at its
origin
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