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Unit 2:-
The Physical Layer

Transmission Media

A transmission medium can be broadly defined as anything that can carry

information from a source to a destination. For example, the transmission medium
for two people having a dinner conversation is the air. The air can also be used to
convey the message in a smoke signal or semaphore. For a written message, the
transmission medium might be a mail carrier, a truck, or an airplane. In data
communications the definition of the information and the transmission medium is
more specific.
The transmission medium is usually free space, metallic cable, or fiberoptic cable.
The information is usually a signal that is the result of a conversion of data from
another form.
It can be classified as shown in Fig

Guided and Unguided as shown below:

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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. Twisted Pair Cable:

Twisted pair cable:-

A twisted pair consists of two conductors (normally copper), each with itsown
plastic insulation, twisted together. One of the wires is used to carry signals to the
receiver, and the other is used only as a ground reference. The receiver uses the
difference between the two. Twisted-pair cables are used in telephone lines to
provide voice and data channels. The local loop-the line that connects subscribers to
the central telephone office commonly consists of unshielded twisted-pair cables.
The DSL lines that are used by the telephone companies to provide high-data-rate
connections also use the high-bandwidth capability of unshielded twisted pair
cables. Twisted pair Cable is shown below in Fig.

There are two types of twisted pair cables −

 Unshielded Twisted Pair ( UTP ): These generally comprise of wires and
insulators.
 Shielded Twisted Pair ( STP ): They have a braided wired mesh that
encases each pair of insulated wires.

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Coaxial Cable

Coaxial cable (or coax) carries signals of higher frequency ranges than
those in twisted pair cable
Coaxial cable is a type of copper cable specially built with a metal shield and
other components engineered to block signal interference. It is primarily used
by cable TV companies to connect their satellite antenna facilities to customer
homes and businesses. It is also sometimes used by telephone companies to
connect central offices to telephone poles near customers. Coaxial cable was
widely used in analog telephone networks where a single coaxial network
could carry 10,000 voice signals. Later it was used in digital telephone
networks where a single coaxial cable could carry digital data up to 600 Mbps.

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Fiber-optic cable:

A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the form of
light.
A fiber-optic cable is composed of very thin strands of glass or plastic known
as optical fibers; one cable can have as few as two strands or as many as
several hundreds of them. These optical fiber cables carry information in the
form of data between two places using optical or light-based technology. Once
the light beams travel down the optical fiber cable (OFC), they would emerge
at the other end Fiber-optic cable is often found in backbone networks because
its wide bandwidth is cost effective. Today, with wavelength-division
multiplexing (WDM), we can transfer data at a rate of 1600 Gbps.Fiber
cable offers many advantages, the prime ones being higher bandwidth and
reach.The telecom industry is among the primary applications of optical fiber
communication.

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Unguided Media

Unguided media transport electromagnetic waves without using a physical

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

Signals are normally broadcast through free space and thus are available to anyone
who has a device capable of receiving them Unguided signals can travel from the
source to destination in several ways: ground propagation, sky propagation, and line-
of-sight propagation

 Wireless transmission is of three types

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Radio Waves: Although there is no clear-cut demarcation between radio waves and
microwaves, electromagnetic waves ranging in frequencies between 3 kHz and 1
GHz are normally called radio waves; However, the behavior of the waves, rather
than the frequencies, is a better criterion for classification. Radio waves use omni-
directional antennas that send out signals in all directions. The omni-directional
characteristics of radio waves make them useful for multicasting, in which there is
one sender but many receivers. AM and FM radio,television, cordless phones, and
paging are examples of multicasting.

Microwaves: Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between 1 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. The unidirectional property has an obvious
advantage. A pair of antennas can be aligned without interfering with another pair
of aligned antennas. Microwaves, due to their unidirectional properties, are very
useful when unicast (one-to-one) communication is needed between the sender and
the receiver. They are used in cellular phones, satellites and wireless LANs.

Infrared: Infrared waves, with frequencies from 300 GHz to 400 THz (wavelengths
from 1 mm to 770 nm), can be used for short-range communication. Infrared waves,
having high frequencies, cannot penetrate walls. This advantageous characteristic
prevents interference between one system and another; a short-range communication
system in one room cannot be affected by another system in the next room. When
we use our infrared remote control, we do not interfere with the use of the remote by

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our neighbors. However, this same characteristic makes infrared signals useless for
long-range communication. In addition, we cannot use infrared waves outside a
building because the sun's rays contain infrared waves that can interfere with the
communication. The infrared band, almost 400 THz, has an excellent potential for
data transmission. Such a wide bandwidth can be used to transmit digital data with
a very high data rate. The Infrared Data Association (IrDA), an association for
sponsoring the use of infrared waves, has established standards for using these
signals for communication between devices such as keyboards, mice, PCs, and
printers. For example, some manufacturers provide a special port called the IrDA
port that allows a wireless keyboard to communicate with a PC. The standard
originally defined a data rate of 75 kbps for a distance up to 8 m. The recent standard
defines a data rate of 4 Mbps.

Switching

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 is the mechanism in computer networks that helps in deciding the

best route for data transmission if there are multiple paths in a larger network.

o Switching in a computer network is achieved by using switches. A switch is

a small hardware device which is used to join multiple computers together
with one local area network (LAN).
o Network switches operate at layer 2 (Data link layer) in the OSI model.
o Switching is transparent to the user and does not require any configuration in
the home network.
o Switches are used to forward the packets based on MAC addresses.
o A Switch is used to transfer the data only to the device that has been addressed.
It verifies the destination address to route the packet appropriately.
o It is operated in full duplex mode.

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o Packet collision is minimum as it directly communicates between source and

destination.
o It does not broadcast the message as it works with limited bandwidth

Switching Network

There are three types of Switched Network namely

 Circuit Switched Network

 Packet Switched Network
 Message Switched Network

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MessageSwitching:- –

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.

OR

Message switching is a network switching technique in which data is

routed in its entirety from the source node to the destination node, one
hope at a time.

o During message routing, every intermediate switch in the network stores

the whole message.
o If the entire network's resources are engaged or the network becomes blocked,
the message-switched network stores and delays the message until ample
resources become available for effective transmission of the message.
o In Message Switching technique, there is no establishment of a dedicated path
between the sender and receiver.

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o The destination address is appended to 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.

They provide 2 distinct and important characteristics:

Store and forward – The intermediate nodes have the responsibility of

transferring the entire message to the next node. Hence, each node must have
storage capacity. A message will only be delivered if the next hop and the link
connecting it are both available, otherwise, it’ll be stored indefinitely. A store-
and-forward switch forwards a message only if sufficient resources are available
and the next hop is accepting data. This is called the store-and-forward
property.

1. Message delivery – This implies wrapping the entire information in a single

message and transferring it from the source to the destination node. Each
message must have a header that contains the message routing information,
including the source and destination.

Message switching network consists of transmission links (channels), store-and-

forward switch nodes, and end stations as shown in the following picture:

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Advantages of Message Switching –

 It helps in reducing the traffic congestion in the network.

 Data channels are shared among the communicating devices that improve
the efficiency of using available bandwidth.
 Message priority can be used to manage the network.
 The size of the message which is sent over the network can be varied.
Therefore, it supports the data of unlimited size.

–
Disadvantages of Message Switching-

 Message switching cannot be used for real-time applications as storing

messages causes delay.
 In message switching, the message has to be stored for which every
intermediate device in the network requires a large storing capacity.

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 The Long delay can occur due to the storing and forwarding facility provided
by the message switching technique.

Applications –
The store-and-forward method was implemented in telegraph message switching
centres. Today, although many major networks and systems are packet-switched
or circuit-switched networks, their delivery processes can be based on message
switching. For example, in most electronic mail systems the delivery process is
based on message switching, while the network is in fact either circuit-switched or
packet-switched.

Multiplexing

Multiplexing is a technique used to combine and send the multiple data streams over
a single medium. The process of combining the data streams is known as
multiplexing and hardware used for multiplexing is known as a multiplexer.

Multiplexing is achieved by using a device called Multiplexer (MUX) that combines

n input lines to generate a single output line. Multiplexing follows many-to-one, i.e.,
n input lines and one output line.

Demultiplexing is achieved by using a device called Demultiplexer (DEMUX)

available at the receiving end. DEMUX separates a signal into its component signals
(one input and n outputs). Therefore, we can say that demultiplexing follows the
one-to-many approach.

Why Multiplexing?
o The transmission medium is used to send the signal from sender to receiver.
The medium can only have one signal at a time.
o If there are multiple signals to share one medium, then the medium must be
divided in such a way that each signal is given some portion of the available
bandwidth. For example: If there are 10 signals and bandwidth of medium
is100 units, then the 10 unit is shared by each signal.

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o When multiple signals share the common medium, there is a possibility of

collision. Multiplexing concept is used to avoid such collision.
o Transmission services are very expensive.

Concept of Multiplexing

o The 'n' input lines are transmitted through a multiplexer and multiplexer
combines the signals to form a composite signal.
o The composite signal is passed through a Demultiplexer and demultiplexer
separates a signal to component signals and transfers them to their respective
destinations.

Advantages of Multiplexing:
o More than one signal can be sent over a single medium.
o The bandwidth of a medium can be utilized effectively.

Multiplexing Techniques

Multiplexing techniques can be classified as:

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Frequency-division Multiplexing (FDM)

o It is an analog technique.
o Frequency Division Multiplexing is a technique in which the available
bandwidth of a single transmission medium is subdivided into several
channels.

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o In the above diagram, a single transmission medium is subdivided into several

frequency channels, and each frequency channel is given to different devices.
Device 1 has a frequency channel of range from 1 to 5.
o The input signals are translated into frequency bands by using modulation
techniques, and they are combined by a multiplexer to form a composite
signal.
o The main aim of the FDM is to subdivide the available bandwidth into
different frequency channels and allocate them to different devices.
o Using the modulation technique, the input signals are transmitted into
frequency bands and then combined to form a composite signal.
o The carriers which are used for modulating the signals are known as sub-
carriers. They are represented as f1,f2..fn.
o FDM is mainly used in radio broadcasts and TV networks.

Applications Of FDM:

o FDM is commonly used in TV networks.

o It is used in FM and AM broadcasting. Each FM radio station has different
frequencies, and they are multiplexed to form a composite signal. The
multiplexed signal is transmitted in the air.

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Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM)

o Wavelength Division Multiplexing is same as FDM except that the optical

signals are transmitted through the fibre optic cable.
o WDM is used on fibre optics to increase the capacity of a single fibre.
o It is used to utilize the high data rate capability of fibre optic cable.

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o It is an analog multiplexing technique.

o Optical signals from different source are combined to form a wider band of
light with the help of multiplexer.
o At the receiving end, demultiplexer separates the signals to transmit them to
their respective destinations.
o Multiplexing and Demultiplexing can be achieved by using a prism.
o Prism can perform a role of multiplexer by combining the various optical
signals to form a composite signal, and the composite signal is transmitted
through a fibre optical cable.
o Prism also performs a reverse operation, i.e., demultiplexing the signal.

Applications of WDM

 Optical Transport Networks

 Transporting large amounts of data between sites.
 Local exchange network.

Time Division Multiplexing

o It is a digital technique.
o In Frequency Division Multiplexing Technique, all signals operate at the same
time with different frequency, but in case of Time Division Multiplexing
technique, all signals operate at the same frequency with different time.
o In Time Division Multiplexing technique, the total time available in the
channel is distributed among different users. Therefore, each user is allocated
with different time interval known as a Time slot at which data is to be
transmitted by the sender.
o A user takes control of the channel for a fixed amount of time.
o In Time Division Multiplexing technique, data is not transmitted
simultaneously rather the data is transmitted one-by-one.
o In TDM, the signal is transmitted in the form of frames. Frames contain a
cycle of time slots in which each frame contains one or more slots dedicated
to each user.
o It can be used to multiplex both digital and analog signals but mainly used to
multiplex digital signals.

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There are two types of TDM:

o Synchronous TDM
o Asynchronous TDM

Synchronous TDM
o A Synchronous TDM is a technique in which time slot is preassigned to every
device.
o In Synchronous TDM, each device is given some time slot irrespective of the
fact that the device contains the data or not.
o If the device does not have any data, then the slot will remain empty.

Asynchronous TDM
o An asynchronous TDM is also known as Statistical TDM.
o An asynchronous TDM is a technique in which time slots are not fixed as in
the case of Synchronous TDM. Time slots are allocated to only those devices
which have the data to send. Therefore, we can say that Asynchronous Time
Division multiplexor transmits only the data from active workstations.

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o An asynchronous TDM technique dynamically allocates the time slots to the

devices.

Applications Of Time Division Multiplexing

 It is used in ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) telephone lines.

 It is used in PSTN (public switched telephone network).
 It is used for some telephone systems.
 It is used in wireline telephone lines.

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