Chapter 2

Physical Layer
Dr. Nilesh M. Patil
Associate Professor, DJSCE
 Unit Description Duration CO Marks

II Physical Layer: 06 CO2 15

Introduction to Digital Communication System
Guided Transmission Media: Twisted pair, Coaxial, Fiber optics.
Unguided Media (Wireless Transmission): Radio Waves,
Microwave, Bluetooth.

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Introduction to Communication System
• Data refers to the raw facts that are collected while information refers to processed data that
enables us to take decisions.
• Example: When result of a particular test is declared it contains data of all students, when you
find the marks you have scored you have the information that lets you know whether you have
passed or failed.
• Data Communication is a process of exchanging data or information.
• In case of computer networks this exchange is done between two devices over a transmission
medium.
• This process involves a communication system which is made up of hardware and software.
• The hardware part involves the sender and receiver devices and the intermediate devices through
which the data passes.
• The software part involves certain rules which specify what is to be communicated, how it is to be
communicated and when. It is also called as a Protocol.

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Characteristics of Data Communication
• Delivery: The data should be delivered to the correct destination and correct user.
• Accuracy: The communication system should deliver the data accurately, without introducing any
errors. The data may get corrupted during transmission affecting the accuracy of the delivered
data.
• Timeliness: Audio and Video data has to be delivered in a timely manner without any delay; such
a data delivery is called real-time transmission of data.
• Jitter: It is the variation in the packet arrival time. Uneven Jitter may affect the timeliness of data
being transmitted.

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Components of Data Communication

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Components of a data communication system
1. Message. The message is the information (data) to be communicated. Popular forms of information include text,
numbers, pictures, audio, and video.
2. Sender. The sender is the device that sends the data message. It can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset,
video camera, and so on.
3. Receiver. The receiver is the device that receives the message. It can be a computer, workstation, telephone handset,
television, and so on.
4. Transmission medium. The transmission medium is the physical path by which a message travels from sender to receiver.
Some examples of transmission media include twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, fiber-optic cable, and radio waves.
5. Protocol. A protocol is a set of rules that govern data communications. It represents an agreement between the
communicating devices. Without a protocol, two devices may be connected but not communicating, just as a person
speaking French cannot be understood by a person who speaks only Japanese. The key elements of a protocol are syntax,
semantics and timing.
a) Syntax : Refers to the structure or format of the data, means the order in which they are presented.
b) Semantics : Refers to the meaning of each section of bits, means how a particular pattern is to be
interpreted, and what action is to be taken based on that interpretation.
c) Timing : Means that data should be sent and how fast they can be sent.

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Digital Communication System

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Maximum Data Rate of a Channel
• The maximum data rate limit over a medium is decided by following
factors:
1. Bandwidth of channel
2. Signal levels
3. Channel quality
• Depending upon the channel type (noiseless channel or noisy
channel), the data rate is calculated by two different formulas.
1. For noiseless channel – Nyquist Bit Rate
2. For noisy channel – Shannon Capacity
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Nyquist Bit Rate

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Shannon Capacity

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 Electromagnetic Spectrum

• Electromagnetic spectrum in Type of Radiation Frequency Range (Hz) Wavelength Range

simple terms is defined as the
range of all types of gamma-rays
20
10 – 10
24
< 10
-12
m
electromagnetic radiation. x-rays
17
10 – 10
20
1 nm – 1 pm

• The entire range (electromagnetic Ultraviolet

15
10 – 10
17
400 nm – 1 nm

spectrum) is given by radio waves, Visible 4 – 7.5x10

14
750 nm – 400 nm
microwaves, infrared radiation, near-infrared
14
1x10 – 4x10
14
2.5 μm – 750 nm
visible light, ultra-violet radiation, Infrared
13
10 – 10
14
25 μm – 2.5 μm
X-rays, gamma rays and cosmic 11 13
Microwaves 3x10 – 10 1 mm – 25 μm
rays in the increasing order of 11
frequency and decreasing order of radio waves < 3x10 > 1 mm

wavelength.

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1. Radio: Radio waves are mainly used for TV/mobile
communication.
2. Microwave: This type of radiation is found in microwaves
and helps in cooking at home/office. It is also used by
astronomers to determine and understand the structure of
nearby galaxies and stars.
3. Infrared: It is used widely in night vision goggles. These
devices can read and capture the infrared light emitted by
our skin and objects with heat.
4. X-ray: X-rays can be used in many instances. For example,
a doctor can use an x-ray machine to take an image of our
bone or teeth. Airport security personnel use it to see
through and check bags.
5. Gamma-ray: It has a wide application in the medical field.
Gamma-ray imaging is used to see inside our bodies.
6. Ultraviolet: Sun is the main source of ultraviolet radiation.
It causes skin tanning and burns.
7. Visible: Visible light can be detected by our eyes. Light
bulbs, stars, etc. emit visible light.

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Transmission Media
• Transmission media is a communication channel that carries information
from the sender to the receiver.
• Data is transmitted through electromagnetic signals.
• The electrical signals can be sent through the copper wire, fiber optics,
atmosphere, water, and vacuum.
• Transmission media is of two types: guided (also called wired or bounded)
media and unguided (also called wireless or unbounded) media.
• In wired media, medium characteristics are more important whereas, in
wireless media, signal characteristics are more important.
• Different transmission media have different properties such as bandwidth,
delay, cost and ease of installation and maintenance.

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Selection of Transmission Media
• The selection of transmission media depends on following factors:
1. Design factors
2. Guided or unguided media

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Design Factors
• Some factors need to be considered for designing the transmission media:

 Bandwidth: The greater the bandwidth of a medium, the higher the data transmission rate of a signal.
 Transmission impairment: When the received signal is not identical to the transmitted one, it is due to the
transmission impairment. The quality of the signals will get destroyed due to transmission impairment.
 Interference: An interference is defined as the process of disrupting a signal when it travels over a communication
medium on the addition of some unwanted signal.
 Number of receivers: A guided media is used either for point-to-point link or a shared link with multiple
attachments. In multiple attachments, each attachment introduces some attenuation and distortion on the link; this
limits the distance and data rate.

• Causes of Transmission Impairment:

 Attenuation: Attenuation means the loss of energy, i.e., the strength of the signal decreases with increasing the
distance which causes the loss of energy.
• Distortion: Distortion occurs when there is a change in the shape of the signal.

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Guided Transmission Medium
 It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are
transmitted.
 It is also known as Bounded media or wired media.
 Types of Guided Media
1. Magnetic Media
2. Twisted Pair
3. Coaxial Cable
4. Fiber Optic Cable

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Magnetic Media

 Data is written on magnetic tape or floppy disk or CD ROM.

 Bandwidth is excellent i.e. upto 19 Gbps.
 Cost effective way to transmit large amount of data.
 High delay in accessing data. It takes minutes to hours to days to
physically transport cassette from one location to another.

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Twisted Pair

 Twisted pair cable is the most common transmission medium for LANs.
 It is comprised of copper wires individually surrounded by a PVC insulating
layer and twisted around each other in a spiral.
 The wires are twisted to improve the transmission characteristics by reducing the
interference.
 It can be used for either analog or digital transmission.
 Bandwidth depends on the thickness of the wire and the distance travelled.
 Twisted pair is relatively inexpensive and easy to install and terminate.
 There are two types of twisted pair cable: Unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and
shielded twisted pair (STP).

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Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)

 UTP is a set of twisted pairs of cable within a plastic

sheet. Advantages of UTP
 There is no additional shielding for the twisted pairs.  UTP is easy to terminate.
 It is used for telephonic applications.  Cost of installation is less.
 UTP has data rate of 10 – 100 Mbps. Disadvantages of UTP
 UTP is less expensive than fiber optic cable and coaxial  It is very noisy.
cable.  It covers less distance.
 Maximum cable segment of UTP is 100 metres.  UTP suffers from interference.
 UTP cable is very flexible and easy to work.
 UTP cables consist of 2 or 4 pairs of twisted cable. Cable
with 2 pair use RJ-11 connector and 4 pair cable use RJ-
45 connector.
 Most susceptible to electrical interference or crosstalk.

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 RJ11 Male & Female Telephone / Computer Connectors

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Categories of UTP

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 Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

 STP cable consists of twisted pair of wires that are not only
individually insulated, but also surrounded by a shield made of a
metallic substance such as aluminium foil.
Advantages of STP
 The shielding also ensures that the electromagnetic field
 Can be used for Analog or Digital
generated in one pair will not interfere with the signal in an
adjacent pair. transmission
 Increases the signaling rate
 STP has data rate of 150 Mbps.  Higher capacity than unshielded twisted pair
 Maximum cable segment of STP is 500 metres.  Eliminates crosstalk
 Less susceptible to interference or crosstalk. Disadvantages of STP
 Very easy to install.  Difficult to manufacture
 Little costly as compared to UTP.  Heavy

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 Coaxial Cable

 Coaxial is called by this name because it contains two conductors that are parallel to
each other.
 Copper is used in this as centre conductor which can be a solid wire or a standard one.
 It is surrounded by PVC installation, a sheath which is encased in an outer conductor of
metal foil, braid or both.
 Outer metallic wrapping is used as a shield against noise and as the second conductor
which completes the circuit.
 The outer conductor is also encased in an insulating sheath.
 The outermost part is the plastic cover which protects the whole cable.
 To connect coaxial cable to devices, we need coaxial connectors. The most common
type of connector used today is the Bayonet Neill-Concelman (BNC) connector.

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Classification of Coaxial Cable

1. Based on Impedance
a. 50 Ohm: Used for digital transmission
b. 75 Ohm: Used for analog transmission
2. Based on Frequency
a. Baseband (0 – 4 kHz): Used for telephone cabling
b. Broadband (4 kHz): Used for cable television cabling

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 Advantages of Coaxial Cable:
 Bandwidth is high.
 Used in long distance telephone lines.
 Transmits digital signals at a very high rate of 10Mbps.
 Much higher noise immunity
 Data transmission without distortion.
Disadvantages of Coaxial Cable:
 Single cable failure can fail the entire network.
 Difficult to install and expensive when compared with twisted pair.
 If the shield is imperfect, it can lead to grounded loop.

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Fiber Optic Cable
 Fiber optic cable consists of bundled fiber strands.
 Each fiber strand has a thin, inner core of optical fiber and a cladding, which is a concentric glass
covering, surrounding the core.
 The core and cladding are surrounded by a protective covering.
 Fiber optic cable is able to transmit signals over long distances at very high bandwidth.
 Data is transmitted via pulsing light sent from a laser through the central fiber.
 Cladding reflects light back to the core.
 Plastic coating (or buffer) protects the fiber from damage and moisture.
 Fiber optics is not susceptible to electromagnetic or radio frequency interference.
 Fiber optic cable uses two types of connectors for connection. They are Subscriber Channel (SC)
connector and Straight Line (ST) connector.

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 Types of Fiber Optic Cable
1. Single-mode fiber
 Have a single strand of glass fiber.
 Have small core with diameter of 8.3 to 10 microns.
 Transmit infrared laser light having wavelength 1310 or 1550nm.
 Bandwidth is nearly infinity.

2. Multimode fiber
 Have a multiple strands of glass fiber.
 Have larger core with diameter of 62.5 microns i.e. about thickness
of human hair.
 Transmit infrared light having wavelength 850 to 1300nm.
 Bandwidth is 2 GHz.

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Advantages of Fibre Optic Cable
 Higher bandwidth
 Less signal attenuation
 Immune to electromagnetic interference
 Resistance to corrosive materials
 Light weight
 Greater immunity to tapping
Disadvantages of Fiber Optic Cable
 Installation and maintenance is difficult
 Unidirectional light propagation
 High Cost

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Unguided Transmission Medium
 It is also referred to as Wireless or Unbounded transmission media.
 No physical medium is required for the transmission of electromagnetic signals.
 The signal is broadcasted through air.
 Less Secure.
 Used for larger distances.
 Types of Guided Media
1. Radio Waves
2. Microwave
3. Infrared
4. Bluetooth

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Radio Waves
• These are easy to generate and can penetrate through buildings.
• The sending and receiving antennas need not be aligned.
• Frequency Range:3KHz – 1GHz.
• AM and FM radios and cordless phones use radio waves for
transmission.

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 Microwave
 It is a line of sight transmission i.e. the sending and receiving
antennas need to be properly aligned with each other.
 The distance covered by the signal is directly proportional to the
height of the antenna.
 Frequency Range:1GHz – 300GHz.

 These are majorly used for mobile phone communication and

television distribution.
 Can pass through thin solids but has difficulty in passing through
buildings.

 Further Categorized as (i) Terrestrial and (ii) Satellite.

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Terrestrial Microwave

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Satellite Microwave

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Infrared
 Infrared waves are used for very short distance
communication.
 They cannot penetrate through obstacles.
 This prevents interference between systems.
 Frequency Range:300GHz – 400THz.
 It is used in TV remotes, wireless mouse, keyboard,
printer, etc.

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Bluetooth

 It is a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) technology and is used for exchanging data over smaller
distances.
 This technology was invented by Ericson in 1994.
 It operates in the unlicensed, industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band at 2.4 GHz to 2.485 GHz.
 Bluetooth lets devices discover and connect to each other (by pairing), and then securely transfer data.
 Maximum devices that can be connected at the same time are 7.
 Bluetooth ranges upto 10 meters.
 It provides data rates upto 1 Mbps or 3 Mbps depending upon the version.
 A Bluetooth network is called Piconet and a collection of interconnected piconets is called Scatternet.

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 Piconet and Scatternet
Piconet
 Piconet is a type of Bluetooth network that contains one
primary node called master node and seven active
secondary nodes called slave nodes.
 Thus, we can say that there are total of 8 active nodes which
are present at a distance of 10 metres.
 The communication between the primary and secondary
node can be one-to-one or one-to-many.
 Possible communication is only between the master and
slave; Slave-slave communication is not possible.
 It also has 255 parked nodes, these are secondary nodes
and cannot take participation in communication unless it
gets converted to the active state.

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 Scatternet
 It is formed by using various piconets.
 A slave that is present in one piconet can be act as master or
we can say primary in other piconet.
 This kind of node can receive message from master in one
piconet and deliver the message to its slave into the other
piconet where it is acting as a slave.
 This type of node is called as bridge node.
 A station cannot be master in two piconets.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Bluetooth
Advantages of Bluetooth:

 Low cost.
 Easy to use.
 It can also penetrate through walls.
 It creates an adhoc connection immediately without any wires.
 It is used for voice and data transfer.

Disadvantages of Bluetooth:

 It can be hacked and hence, less secure.

 It has slow data transfer rate: 3 Mbps.
 It has small range: 10 meters.

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