UNIT V: DATA-LINK & PHYSICAL LAYER

Data Link-Layer – Framing – Flow Control – Error Control – Data-Link Layer

Protocols – HDLC – PPP – Media Access Control – Ethernet Basics – CSMA/CD –
Virtual LAN – Wireless LAN 802.11 – Physical Layer: Data and Signals – Performance
_ Transmission Media – Switching – Circuit Switching

1. DATA LINK-LAYER

 In the OSI model, the data link layer is the 2nd layer from the bottom.
 It is responsible for transmitting frames from one node to next node.
 The main responsibility of the Data Link Layer is to transfer the datagram across an
individual link.
 An important characteristic of a Data Link Layer is that datagram can be handled by
different link layer protocols on different links in a path.
 The other responsibilities of this layer are
o Framing - Divides the stream of bits received into data units called frames.
o Physical addressing – If frames are to be distributed to different systems on the
same network, data link layer adds a header to the frame to define the sender and
receiver.
o Flow control- If the rate at which the data are absorbed by the receiver is less
than the rate produced in the sender ,the Data link layer imposes a flow control
mechanism.
o Error control- Used for detecting and retransmitting damaged orlost frames
and to prevent duplication of frames. This is achieved through a trailer added at
the end of the frame.
o Medium Access control - Used to determine which device has control over the
link at any given time.

Nodes and Links

 Communication at the data-link layer is node-to-node.
 The communication channel that connects the adjacent nodes is known as links, and in
order to move the datagram from source to the destination, the datagram must be moved
across an individual link.
 A data unit from one point in the Internet needs to pass through many networks (LAN
and WAN) to reach another point.
 Theses LANs and WANs are connected by routers.
 The two end hosts and the routers are nodes and the networks in- between are links.
  The first node is the source host; the last node is the destination host.
 The other four nodes are four routers.
 The first, the third, and the fifth links represent the three LANs; the second and the
fourth links represent the two WANs.

Two Categories of Links

Point- to-Point link and Broadcast link.
 In a point-to-point link, the link is dedicated to the two devices
 In a broadcast link, the link is shared between several pairs of devices.

Data Link Layer Services

 The data-link layer is located between the physical and the network layers.
 The datalink layer provides services to the network layer; it receives services from the
physical layer.
 When a packet is travelling, the data-link layer of a node (host or router) is responsible
for delivering a datagram to the next node in the path.
 For this purpose, the data-link layer of the sending node needs to encapsulate the
datagram and the data-link layer of the receiving node needs to decapsulate the
datagram.

 The datagram received by the data-link layer of the source host is encapsulated in a
frame.
 The frame is logically transported from the source host to the router.
  The frame is decapsulated at the data-link layer of the router and encapsulated at
another frame.
 The new frame is logically transported from the router to the destination host.

Sublayers in Data Link layer

 We can divide the data-link layer into two sublayers: data link control(DLC) and
media access control (MAC).
 The data link control sublayer deals with all issues common to both point-to-point and
broadcast links
 The media access control sublayer deals only with issues specific tobroadcast links.

2. LINK-LAYER ADDRESSING

 A link-layer address is sometimes called a link address, sometimes a physical address,

and sometimes a MAC address.
 Since a link is controlled at the data-link layer, the addresses need to belong to the data-
link layer.
 When a datagram passes from the network layer to the data-link layer, the datagram will
be encapsulated in a frame and two data-link addresses are added to the frame header.
 These two addresses are changed every time the frame moves from one link to another.

THREE TYPES OF ADDRESSES

The link-layer protocols define three types of addresses: unicast, multicast, and broadcast.

Unicast Address:
Each host or each interface of a router is assigned a unicast address. Unicasting means
one-to-one communication. A frame with a unicast address destination is destined only
for one entity in the link.

Multicast Address:
Link-layer protocols define multicast addresses. Multicasting means one-to- many
Communication but not all.
Broadcast Address:
Link-layer protocols define a broadcast address. Broadcasting means one- to-all
communication. A frame with a destination broadcast address is sent to all entities in the
link.

3. DLC SERVICES

 The data link control (DLC) deals with procedures for communication between two
adjacent nodes—node-to-node communication—no matter whether the link is dedicated
or broadcast.
 Data link control service include
(1) Framing (2) Flow Control (3) Error Control

(1) FRAMING
 The data-link layer packs the bits of a message into frames, so that each frame is
distinguishable from another.

 Although the whole message could be packed in one frame, that is not normally
done.
 One reason is that a frame can be very large, making flow and error control very
inefficient.
 When a message is carried in one very large frame, even a single-bit error would
require the retransmission of the whole frame.
 When a message is divided into smaller frames, a single-bit error affects only that
small frame.
 Framing in the data-link layer separates a message from one source to a destination
by adding a sender address and a destination address.
 The destination address defines where the packet is to go; the sender address helps the
recipient acknowledge the receipt.

Frame Size
 Frames can be of fixed or variable size.
 Frames of fixed size are called cells. In fixed-size framing, there is no need for defining
the boundaries of the frames; the size itself can be used as a delimiter.
 In variable-size framing, we need a way to define the end of one frame and the
beginning of the next. Two approaches were used for this purpose: a character-oriented
approach and a bit-oriented approach.

Character-Oriented Framing
 In character-oriented (or byte-oriented) framing, data to be carried are 8-bitcharacters.
 To separate one frame from the next, an 8-bit (1-byte) flag is added at the beginning
 and the end of a frame.
 The flag, composed of protocol-dependent special characters, signals the start or end
of a frame.

 Any character used for the flag could also be part of the information.
 If this happens, when it encounters this pattern in the middle of the data,the receiver
thinks it has reached the end of the frame.
 To fix this problem, a byte-stuffing strategy was added to character-oriented framing.

Byte Stuffing (or) Character Stuffing

 Byte stuffing is the process of adding one extra byte whenever there is a flag or
escape character in the text.
 In byte stuffing, a special byte is added to the data section of the framewhen there
is a character with the same pattern as the flag.
 The data section is stuffed with an extra byte. This byte is usually called the escape
character (ESC) and has a predefined bit pattern.
 Whenever the receiver encounters the ESC character, it removes it from thedata section
and treats the next character as data, not as a delimiting flag.

Bit-Oriented Framing
 In bit-oriented framing, the data section of a frame is a sequence of bits to be
interpreted by the upper layer as text, graphic, audio, video, and so on.
 In addition to headers and trailers), we still need a delimiter to separate one frame from
the other.
 Most protocols use a special 8-bit pattern flag, 01111110, as the delimiter to define the
beginning and the end of the frame
  If the flag pattern appears in the data, the receiver must be informed that this is not the
end of the frame.
 This is done by stuffing 1 single bit (instead of 1 byte) to prevent the pattern from
looking like a flag. The strategy is called bit stuffing.

Bit Stuffing
 Bit stuffing is the process of adding one extra 0 whenever five consecutive 1s follow
a 0 in the data, so that the receiver does not mistake the pattern 0111110 for a flag.
 In bit stuffing, if a 0 and five consecutive 1 bits are encountered, an extra 0 is added.
 This extra stuffed bit is eventually removed from the data by the receiver.
 The extra bit is added after one 0 followed by five 1’s regardless of the
value of the next bit.
 This guarantees that the flag field sequence does not inadvertently appear inthe frame.

(2) FLOW CONTROL

o Flow control refers to a set of procedures used to restrict the amountof data that
the sender can send before waiting for acknowledgment.
o The receiving device has limited speed and limited memory to store thedata.
o Therefore, the receiving device must be able to inform the sending device to stop the
transmission temporarily before the limits are reached.
o It requires a buffer, a block of memory for storing the information until they are
processed.

Two methods have been developed to control the flow of data:

o Stop-and-Wait
o Sliding Window

STOP-AND-WAIT
o The simplest scheme is the stop-and-wait algorithm.
o In the Stop-and-wait method, the sender waits for an acknowledgement after every
frame it sends.
 o When acknowledgement is received, then only next frame is sent.
o The process of alternately sending and waiting of a frame continues until the sender
transmits the EOT (End of transmission) frame.

o If the acknowledgement is not received within the allotted time, then the sender assumes
that the frame is lost during the transmission, so it will retransmit the frame.
o The acknowledgement may not arrive because of the following three scenarios :
1. Original frame is lost
2. ACK is lost
3. ACK arrives after the timeout

Advantage of Stop-and-wait
o The Stop-and-wait method is simple as each frame is checked and acknowledged before
the next frame is sent

Disadvantages of Stop-And-Wait
o In stop-and-wait, at any point in time, there is only one frame that is sent and waiting
to be acknowledged.
o This is not a good use of transmission medium.
o To improve efficiency, multiple frames should be in transition whilewaiting for ACK.
PIGGYBACKING

o A method to combine a data frame

with ACK.
o Piggybacking saves bandwidth
o Station A and B both have data to
send.
o Instead of sending separately,
station A sends a data frame that
includes an ACK.
o Station B does the same thing.

SLIDING WINDOW
o The Sliding Window is a method of flow control in which a sender can transmit the
several frames before getting an acknowledgement.
o In Sliding Window Control, multiple frames can be sent one after the another due to
which capacity of the communication channel can be utilized efficiently.
o A single ACK acknowledge multiple frames.
o Sliding Window refers to imaginary boxes at both the sender and receiver end.
o The window can hold the frames at either end, and it provides the upper limit on the
number of frames that can be transmitted before the acknowledgement.
o Frames can be acknowledged even when the window is not completely filled.
o The window has a specific size in which they are numbered as modulo-n means that
they are numbered from 0 to n-1.
o For example, if n = 8, the frames are numbered from
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1........
o The size of the window is represented as n-1. Therefore, maximum n-1 frames can
be sent before acknowledgement.
o When the receiver sends the ACK, it includes the number of the next framethat it wants
to receive.
o For example, to acknowledge the string of frames ending with frame number 4, the
receiver will send the ACK containing the number 5.
o When the sender sees the ACK with the number 5, it got to know that theframes from
0 through 4 have been received.
 Sender Window Receiver Window

o At the beginning of a transmission, the o At the beginning of transmission, the

sender window contains n-1 frames. receiver window does not contain n frames,
o When a frame is sent, the size of the but it contains n-1 spaces for frames.
window shrinks. o When the new frame arrives, the size of the
o For example, if the size of the window window shrinks.
is ‘w’ and if three frames are sent out, o For example, the size of the window is w
then the number of frames left out in and if three frames are received then the
the sender window is w-3. number of spaces available in the window
o Once the ACK has arrived, then the is (w-3).
sender window expands to the number o Once the acknowledgement is sent, the
which will be equal to the number of receiver window expands by the number
frames acknowledged by ACK. equal to the number of frames
acknowledged.

Example of Sliding Window

 (3) ERROR CONTROL

Data can be corrupted during transmission. For reliable communication, errors must be detected
and corrected. Error Control is a technique of error detection and retransmission.

TYPES OF ERRORS
Single-bit error
The term Single-bit error means that only one bit of a given data unit (such as byte, character,
data unit or packet) is changed from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1.

Burst error
The term Burst Error means that two or more bits in the data unit have changed from 1 to 0
or from 0 to 1.

ERROR DETECTION TECHNIQUES / METHODS

The basic idea behind any error detection scheme is to add additional information to a frame
that can be used to determine if errors have been introduced.

PARITY CHECK
 One bit, called parity bit is added to every data unit so that the total number
of 1’s in the data unit becomes even (or) odd.
 The source then transmits this data via a link, and bits are checked and verified at
the destination.
 Data is considered accurate if the number of bits (even or odd) matches the number
transmitted from the source.
 This techniques is the most common and least complex method.
1. Even parity – Maintain even number of 1s
E.g., 1011 → 1011 1
2. Odd parity – Maintain odd number of 1s
E.g., 1011 → 1011 0
CYCLIC REDUNDANCY CHECK
 Cyclic codes refers to encoding messages by adding a fixed-length checkvalue.
 CRCs are popular because they are simple to implement, easy to analyze
mathematically and particularly good at detecting common errors caused in transmission
channels.

Steps Involved:
 Consider the original message (dataword) as M(x) consisting of ‘k’ bits and the divisor
as C(x) consists of ‘n+1’ bits.
 The original message M(x) is appended by ‘n’ bits of zero’s. Let us call this zero-
extended message as T(x).
 Divide T(x) by C(x) and find the remainder.
 The division operation is performed using XOR operation.
 The resultant remainder is appended to the original message M(x) as CRCand sent by
the sender (codeword).

Example 1:
 Consider the Dataword / Message M(x) = 1001
 Divisor C(x) = 1011 (n+1=4)
 Appending ‘n’ zeros to the original Message M(x).
 The resultant messages is called T(x) = 1001 000. (here n=3)
 Divide T(x) by the divisor C(x) using XOR operation.
Sender Side:
Receiver Side:
(For Both Case – Without Error and With Error)

Polynomials
 A pattern of 0s and 1s can be represented as a polynomial with coefficientsof 0 and 1.
 The power of each term shows the position of the bit; the coefficient showsthe value of
the bit.

INTERNET CHECKSUM
 Checksum is a calculated value that is used to determine the integrity ofdata.
Example : Let the message to be transmitted be 7,11,12,0,6.

 Error control includes both error detection and error correction.

 Whenever an error is detected, specified frames are retransmitted
 It allows the receiver to inform the sender if a frame is lost or damaged during
transmission and coordinates the retransmission of those frames by the sender.
 Includes the following actions:
o Error detection
o Positive Acknowledgement (ACK): if the frame arrived with noerrors
o Negative Acknowledgement (NAK): if the frame arrived with errors
o Retransmissions after Timeout: Frame is retransmitted after certain amount of
time if no acknowledgement was received
 Error control in the data link layer is based on automatic repeat request(ARQ).

Categories of Error Control

STOP-AND-WAIT ARQ
 Stop-and-wait ARQ is a technique used to retransmit the data in case of damaged or lost
frames.
 This technique works on the principle that the sender will not transmit the next frame
until it receives the acknowledgement of the last transmitted frame.

Two possibilities of the retransmission in Stop and Wait ARQ:

o Damaged Frame: When the receiver receives a damaged frame(i.e., the frame contains
an error), then it returns the NAK frame. For example, when the frame DATA 1 is sent,
and then the receiver sends the ACK 0 frame means that the data 1 has arrived correctly.
The sender transmits the next frame: DATA 0. It reaches undamaged, and the
receiver returns ACK 1. The sender transmits the third frame: DATA 1. The receiver
reports an errorand returns the NAK frame. The sender retransmits the DATA 1 frame.

o Lost Frame: Sender is equipped with the timer and starts when the frame is transmitted.
Sometimes the frame has not arrived at the receiving end so that it cannot be
acknowledged either positively or negatively. The sender waits for acknowledgement
until the timer goes off. If the timer goes off, it retransmits the last transmitted frame.
SLIDING WINDOW ARQ
Sliding Window ARQ is a technique used for continuous transmission error control.

Two protocols used in sliding window ARQ:

1. GO-BACK-N ARQ
o In Go-Back-N ARQ protocol, if one frame is lost or damaged, then it retransmits
all the frames after which it does not receive the positive ACK.

o In the above figure, three frames (Data 0,1,2) have been transmitted before an error
discovered in the third frame.
o The receiver discovers the error in Data 2 frame, so it returns the NAK 2frame.
o All the frames including the damaged frame (Data 2,3,4) are discarded as it is
transmitted after the damaged frame.
o Therefore, the sender retransmits the frames (Data 2,3,4).

2. SELECTIVE-REJECT(REPEAT) ARQ

o Selective-Reject ARQ technique is more efficient than Go-Back-n ARQ.

o In this technique, only those frames are retransmitted for which negative
acknowledgement (NAK) has been received.
o The receiver storage buffer keeps all the damaged frames on hold until the frame in
error is correctly received.
o The receiver must have an appropriate logic for reinserting the frames in a correct
order.
o The sender must consist of a searching mechanism that selects only the requested
frame for retransmission.
 o In the above figure, three frames (Data 0,1,2) have been transmitted before an error
discovered in the third frame.
o The receiver discovers the error in Data 2 frame, so it returns the NAK 2frame.
o The damaged frame only (Data 2) is discarded.
o The other subsequent frames (Data 3,4) are accepted.
o Therefore, the sender retransmits only the damaged frame (Data2).

4. DATA-LINK LAYER PROTOCOLS

Four protocols have been defined for the data-link layer controls.They are
1. Simple Protocol
2. Stop-and-Wait Protocol
3. Go-Back-N Protocol
4. Selective-Repeat Protocol

1. SIMPLE PROTOCOL
o The first protocol is a simple protocol with neither flow nor error control.
o We assume that the receiver can immediately handle any frame it receives.
o In other words, the receiver can never be overwhelmed with incomingframes.
o The data-link layers of the sender and receiver provide transmissionservices for their
network layers.

o The data-link layer at the sender gets a packet from its network layer, makes a frame out
of it, and sends the frame.
o The data-link layer at the receiver receives a frame from the link, extracts the packet
from the frame, and delivers the packet to its network layer.

NOTE :
2. STOP-AND-WAIT PROTOCOL
REFER STOP AND WAIT FROM FLOW CONTROL
3. GO-BACK-N PROTOCOL
REFER GO-BACK-N ARQ FROM ERROR CONTROL
4. SELECTIVE-REPEAT PROTOCOL
REFER SELECTIVE-REPEAT ARQ FROM ERROR CONTROL
 5. HDLC (HIGH-LEVEL DATA LINK CONTROL)

o High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) is a bit-oriented protocol

o HDLC is used for communication over point-to-point and multipoint links.
o HDLC implements the Stop-and-Wait protocol.

HDLC CONFIGURATIONS AND TRANSFER MODES

HDLC provides two common transfer modes that can be used in different configurations:
1. Normal response mode (NRM)
2. Asynchronous balanced mode (ABM).

Normal response mode (NRM)

o In normal response mode (NRM), the station configuration is unbalanced.
o We have one primary station and multiple secondary stations.
o A primary station can send commands; a secondary station can onlyrespond.
o The NRM is used for both point-to-point and multipoint links.

Asynchronous balanced mode (ABM)

o In ABM, the configuration is balanced.
o The link is point-to-point, and each station can function as a primary and a secondary
(acting as peers).
o This is the common mode today.

HDLC FRAMES
HDLC defines three types of frames:
1. Information frames (I-frames) - used to carry user data
2. Supervisory frames (S-frames) - used to carry control information
3. Unnumbered frames (U-frames) – reserved for system management

Each type of frame serves as an envelope for the transmission of a different type ofmessage.
Each frame in HDLC may contain up to six fields:
1. Beginning flag field
2. Address field
3. Control field
4. Information field (User Information/ Management Information)
 5. Frame check sequence (FCS) field
6. Ending flag field

In multiple-frame transmissions, the ending flag of one frame can serve as the beginning
flag of the next frame.

o Flag field - This field contains synchronization pattern 01111110, which identifies both
the beginning and the end of a frame.
o Address field - This field contains the address of the secondary station. If a primary
station created the frame, it contains a ‘to’ address. If a secondary station creates the
frame, it contains a ‘from’ address. The address field can be one byte or several bytes
long, depending on the needs of the network.
o Control field. The control field is one or two bytes used for flow and error control.
o Information field. The information field contains the user’s data from the network
layer or management information. Its length can vary from one network to another.
o FCS field. The frame check sequence (FCS) is the HDLC error detection field. It can
contain either a 16- bit or 32-bit CRC.

CONTROL FIELD FORMAT FOR THE DIFFERENT FRAME TYPES

Control Field for I-Frames
o I-frames are designed to carry user data from the network layer. In addition, they can
include flow-control and error-control information

o The first bit defines the type. If the first bit of the control field is 0, this means the
frame is an I-frame.
o The next 3 bits, called N(S), define the sequence number of the frame.
o The last 3 bits, called N(R), correspond to the acknowledgment number when
piggybacking is used.
o The single bit between N(S) and N(R) is called the P/F bit. If this bit is 1 it means poll
(the frame is sent by a primary station to a secondary).
 o If this bit is 0 it means final (the frame is sent by a secondary to a Primary).

Control Field for S-Frames

o Supervisory frames are used for flow and error control whenever piggybacking is
either impossible or inappropriate.
o S-frames do not have information fields

o If the first 2 bits of the control field are 10, this means the frame is an S- frame.
o The last 3 bits, called N(R), correspond to the acknowledgment number (ACK) or
negative acknowledgment number (NAK), depending on the type of S-frame.
o The 2 bits called code are used to define the type of S-frame itself.
o With 2 bits, we can have four types of S-frames – Receive ready (RR), Receive not
ready (RNR), Reject (REJ) and Selective reject (SREJ).

Control Field for U-Frames

o Unnumbered frames are used to exchange session management and controlinformation
between connected devices.
o U-frames contain an information field, but used only for system
management information and not user data.

o If the first 2 bits of the control field are 11, this means the frame is an U-frame.
o U-frame codes are divided into two sections: a 2-bit prefix before the P/Fbit and a 3-
bit suffix after the P/F bit.
o Together, these two segments (5 bits) can be used to create up to 32different types of U-
frames.

6. POINT-TO-POINT PROTOCOL (PPP)

o Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) was devised by IETF (Internet EngineeringTask Force)

in 1990 as a Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP).
o PPP is a data link layer communications protocol used to establish a direct connection
between two nodes.
o It connects two routers directly without any host or any other networking device in
between.
o It is used to connect the Home PC to the server of ISP via a modem.
o It is a byte - oriented protocol that is widely used in broadband communications
having heavy loads and high speeds.
o Since it is a data link layer protocol, data is transmitted in frames. It is also known as
RFC 1661.
Services Provided by PPP
The main services provided by Point - to - Point Protocol are
1. Defining the frame format of the data to be transmitted.
2. Defining the procedure of establishing link between two points andexchange of data.
3. Stating the method of encapsulation of network layer data in the frame.
4. Stating authentication rules of the communicating devices.
5. Providing address for network communication.
6. Providing connections over multiple links.
7. Supporting a variety of network layer protocols by providing a range osservices.

PPP Frame
PPP is a byte - oriented protocol where each field of the frame is composed of one or more
bytes.

1. Flag − 1 byte that marks the beginning and the end of the frame. The bit
pattern of the flag is 01111110.
2. Address − 1 byte which is set to 11111111 in case of broadcast.
3. Control − 1 byte set to a constant value of 11000000.
4. Protocol − 1 or 2 bytes that define the type of data contained in the payload field.
5. Payload − This carries the data from the network layer. The maximum
length of the payload field is 1500 bytes.
6. FCS − It is a 2 byte(16-bit) or 4 bytes(32-bit) frame check sequence for error detection.
The standard code used is CRC.

Byte Stuffing in PPP Frame

Byte stuffing is used is PPP payload field whenever the flag sequence appears in the message,
so that the receiver does not consider it as the end of the frame. The escape byte, 01111101, is
stuffed before every byte that contains the same byte as the flag byte or the escape byte. The
receiver on receiving the message removes the escape byte before passing it onto the network
layer.

Transition Phases in PPP

The PPP connection goes through different states as shown in a transition phase
diagram.
  Dead: In dead phase the link is not used. There is no active carrier and the line is quiet.
 Establish: Connection goes into this phase when one of the nodes start communication.
In this phase, two parties negotiate the options. If negotiation is successful, the system
goes into authentication phase or directly to networking phase.
 Authenticate: This phase is optional. The two nodes may decide whether they need this
phase during the establishment phase. If they decide to proceed with authentication, they
send several authentication packets. If the result is successful, the connection goes to the
networking phase; otherwise, it goes to the termination phase.
 Network: In network phase, negotiation for the network layer protocols takes place.PPP
specifies that two nodes establish a network layer agreement before data at the network
layer can be exchanged. This isbecause PPP supports several protocols at network layer.
If a node is running multiple protocols simultaneously at the network layer, the
receiving node needs to know which protocol will receive the data.
 Open: In this phase, data transfer takes place. The connection remains in this phase until
one of the endpoints wants to end the connection.
 Terminate: In this phase connection is terminated.

Components/Protocols of PPP
Three sets of components/protocols are defined to make PPP powerful:
 Link Control Protocol (LCP)
 Authentication Protocols (AP)
 Network Control Protocols (NCP)

Link Control Protocol (LCP) − It is responsible for establishing, configuring, testing,

maintaining and terminating links for transmission. It also provides negotiation mechanisms to
set options between the two endpoints. Both endpoints of the link must reach an agreement
about the options before the link can be established.

Authentication Protocols (AP) − Authentication means validating the identity of a user who
needs to access a set of resources. PPP has created two protocols for authentication -Password
Authentication Protocol and Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol.

PAP
The Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) is a simple authentication procedure with a two-
step process:
a. The user who wants to access a system sends an authentication identification (usually
the user name) and a password.
b. The system checks the validity of the identification and password and either accepts
or denies connection.

CHAP
The Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is a three-way handshaking
authentication protocol that provides greater security than PAP. In this method, the password is
kept secret; it is never sent online.
a. The system sends the user a challenge packet containing a challenge value.
b. The user applies a predefined function that takes the challenge value and the user’s
own password and creates a result. The user sends the result in the response packet
to the system.
c. The system does the same. It applies the same function to the password of the user
 (known to the system) and the challenge value to create a result. If the result created
is the same as the result sent in the response packet, access is granted; otherwise, it is
denied.

CHAP is more secure than PAP, especially if the system continuously changes the challenge
value. Even if the intruder learns the challenge value and the result, the password is still secret.

Network Control Protocols (NCP) − PPP is a multiple-network-layer protocol. It can carry a

network-layer data packet from protocols defined by the Internet. PPP has defined a specific
Network Control Protocol for each network protocol. These protocols are used for negotiating
the parameters and facilities for the network layer. For every higher-layer protocol supported by
PPP, one NCP is there.

7. MEDIA ACCESS CONTROL (MAC)

 When two or more nodes transmit data at the same time, their frames will collide and the
link bandwidth is wasted during collision.
 To coordinate the access of multiple sending/receiving nodes to the shared link, we need
a protocol to coordinate the transmission.
 These protocols are called Medium or Multiple Access Control (MAC) Protocols.
MAC belongs to the data link layer of OSI model
 MAC defines rules for orderly access to the shared medium. It tries to ensure that no
two nodes are interfering with each other’s transmissions, and deals with the situation
when they do.

Issues involved in MAC

The key issues involved are –
 Where the control is exercised - refers to whether the control is exercised in a
centralized or distributed manner
 How the control is exercised - refers to in what manner the control is exercised

Goals of MAC
1. Fairness in sharing
2. Efficient sharing of bandwidth
3. Need to avoid packet collisions at the receiver due to interference

MAC Management
 Medium allocation (collision avoidance)
 Contention resolution (collision handling)
MAC Types
 Round- Robin : – Each station is given opportunity to transmit in turns. Either a central
controller polls a station to permit to go, or stations can coordinate among themselves.
 Reservation: - Station wishing to transmit makes reservations for time slots in advance.
(Centralized or distributed).
 Contention (Random Access): No control on who tries; If collision occurs,
retransmission takes place.

MECHANISMS USED
 Wired Networks :
o CSMA / CD – Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection
 Wireless Networks :
o CSMA / CA – Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance

CARRIER SENSE MULTIPLE ACCESS / COLLISION DETECTION(CSMA / CD)

 Carrier Sense in CSMA/CD means that all the nodes sense the medium to check
whether it is idle or busy.
 If the carrier sensed is idle, then the node transmits the entireframe.
 If the carrier sensed is busy, the transmission is postponed.

 Collision Detect means that a node listens as it transmits and can therefore detect when
a frame it is transmitting has collided with a frame transmitted by another node.

Flowchart of CSMA/CD Operation

Transmitter Algorithm in CSMA/CD

 Transmitter Algorithm defines the procedures for a node that senses a busy medium.
 Three types of Transmitter Algorithm exist.
 They are
1. Non-Persistent Strategy
2. Persistent Strategy : 1-Persistent & P-Persistent
Non-Persistent Strategy
 In the non-persistent method, a station that has a frame to send senses theline.
 If the line is idle, it sends immediately.
 If the line is not idle, it waits a random amount of time and then senses theline again.

 The non-persistent approach reduces the chance of collision because it is unlikely that
two or more stations will wait the same amount of time and retry to send
simultaneously.
 However, this method reduces the efficiency of the network because the medium
remains idle when there may be stations with frames to send.

Persistent Strategy
1- Persistent:
 The 1-persistent method is simple and straightforward.
 In this method, after the station finds the line idle, it sends its frame immediately (with
probability 1).

 This method has the highest chance of collision because two or more stations may find
the line idle and send their frames immediately.

P-Persistent:
 In this method, after the station finds the line idle it follows these steps:
 With probability p, the station sends its frame.
 With probability q = 1 − p, the station waits for the beginning of the next time slot
and checks the line again.
  The p-persistent method is used if the channel has time slots with a slot duration
equal to or greater than the maximum propagation time.
 The p-persistent approach combines the advantages of the other two strategies. It
reduces the chance of collision and improves efficiency.
.
EXPONENTIAL BACK-OFF
 Once an adaptor has detected a collision and stopped its transmission, it waits a certain
amount of time and tries again.
 Each time it tries to transmit but fails, the adaptor doubles the amount of time it waits
before trying again.
 This strategy of doubling the delay interval between each retransmission attempt is a
general technique known as exponential back-off.
 CARRIER SENSE MULTIPLE ACCESS / COLLISION AVOIDANCE(CSMA/CA)
 Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) was invented for
wireless networks.
 Wireless protocol would follow exactly the same algorithm as the Ethernet—Wait until
the link becomes idle before transmitting and back off should a collision occur.
 Collisions are avoided through the use of CSMA/CA’s three strategies: the
interframe space, the contention window, and acknowledgments

Interframe Space (IFS) - First, collisions are avoided by deferring transmission even if the
channel is found idle. When an idle channel is found, the station does not send immediately. It
waits for a period of time called the interframe space or IFS.

Contention Window - The contention window is an amount of time divided into slots. A
station that is ready to send chooses a random number of slots as its wait time. The number of
slots in the window changes according to the binary exponential backoff strategy. This means
that it is set to one slot the first time and then doubles each time the station cannot detect an idle
channel after the IFS time.

Acknowledgment - In addition, the data may be corrupted during the transmission.The positive
acknowledgment and the time-out timer can help guarantee that the receiver has received the
frame.

8. ETHERNET BASICS (IEEE 802.3)

 Ethernet was developed in the mid-1970’s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research
Center (PARC),
 IEEE controls the Ethernet standards.
 The Ethernet is the most successful local area networking technology, that uses bus
topology.
 The Ethernet is multiple-access networks that is set of nodes send and receive
frames over a shared link.
 Ethernet uses the CSMA / CD ( Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision
Detection) mechanism.

EVOLUTION OF ETHERNET

Standard Ethernet (10 Mbps)

The original Ethernet technology with the data rate of 10 Mbps as the StandardEthernet.
Standard Ethernet types are
1. 10Base5: Thick Ethernet,
2. 10Base2: Thin Ethernet ,
3. 10Base-T: Twisted-Pair Ethernet
4. 10Base-F: Fiber Ethernet.
 10Base5: Thick Ethernet 10Base2: Thin Ethernet

 The first implementation is called

10Base5, thick Ethernet, or  The second implementation is
Thicknet. called 10Base2, thin Ethernet, or
 10Base5 was the first Cheapernet.
Ethernet specification to use a bus  10Base2 also uses a bus topology,
topologywith an but the cable is much thinner and
external more flexible.
transceiver(transmitter/receiver)  In this case, the transceiver is
connected via a tap to a thick normally part of the network
coaxialcable. interface card (NIC), which is
installed inside the station.

10Base-T: Twisted-Pair Ethernet 10Base-F: Fiber Ethernet

 The third implementation is called

 Although there are several types of
10Base-T or twisted-pair Ethernet.
optical fiber 10-Mbps Ethernet, the
 10Base-T uses a physical star most common is called 10Base-F.
topology. The stations are connected
 10Base-F uses a star topology to
to a hub via two pairs of twisted
connect stations to a hub.
cable.
 The stations are connected to the
hub using two fiber-optic cables.

Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps)

Fast Ethernet or 100BASE-T provides transmission speeds up to 100 megabits per second
and is typically used for LAN backbone systems.
The 100BASE-T standard consists of three different component specifications –
1. 100 BASE-TX
2. 100BASE-T4
3. 100BASE-FX
 100 BASE-TX 100BASE-T4 100BASE-FX
100Base-TX uses two A new standard, called 100Base-FX uses two
pairs of twisted-pair 100Base-T4, pairs of fiber-optic
cable either UTP or cables. Optical fiber can
STP. A 100Base-TX was designed to use four easily handle high
network can provide a pairs of UTP for bandwidthrequirements.
data rate of100 Mbps. transmitting 100 Mbps.

Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps)

 The Gigabit Ethernet upgrades the data rate to 1 Gbps(1000 Mbps).
 Gigabit Ethernet can be categorized as either a two-wire or a four-wire
implementation.
 The two-wire implementations use fiber-optic cable (1000Base-SX, short- wave, or
1000Base-LX, long-wave), or STP (1000Base-CX).
 The four-wire version uses category 5 twisted-pair cable (1000Base-T).

10 Gigabit Ethernet(10 Gbps)

10 Gigabit Ethernet is an upcoming Ethernet technology that transmits at 10Gbps.
10 Gigabit Ethernet enables a familiar network technology to be used in LAN,
MAN and WAN architectures.
10 Gigabit Ethernet uses multimode optical fiber up to 300 meters and single
mode fiber up to 40 kilometers.
Four implementations are the most common: 10GBase-SR, 10GBase-LR, 10GBase-
EW, and 10GBase-X4.

ACCESS METHOD/ PROTOCOL OF ETHERNET

The access method of Ethernet is CSMA/CD.
Note: Refer CSMA/CD from MAC

COLLISION DETECTION IN ETHERNET

 As the Ethernet supports collision detection, senders are able to determine a collision.
 At the moment an adaptor detects that its frame is colliding with another, it first makes
sure to transmit a 32-bit jamming sequence along with the 64- bit preamble (totally
96 bits) and then stops the transmission.
 These 96 bits are sometimes called Runt Frame.

FRAME FORMAT OF ETHERNET

The Ethernet frame is defined by the format given in the Fig.
  The 64-bit preamble allows the receiver to synchronize with the signal; it is
a sequence of alternating 0’s and 1’s.
 Both the source and destination hosts are identified with a 48-bit address.
 The packet type field serves as the demultiplexing key.
 Each frame contains up to 1500 bytes of data(Body).
 CRC is used for Error detection

Ethernet Addresses
 Every Ethernet host has a unique Ethernet address (48 bits – 6 bytes).
 Ethernet address is represented by sequence of six numbers separated bycolons.
 Each number corresponds to 1 byte of the 6 byte address and is given by pair of
hexadecimal digits.
 Eg: 8:0:2b:e4:b1:2 is the representation of
00001000 00000000 00101011 11100100 10110001 00000010
 Each frame transmitted on an Ethernet is received by every adaptor connected to the
Ethernet.
 In addition to unicast addresses an Ethernet address consisting of all 1s is treated as
broadcast address.
 Similarly the address that has the first bit set to 1 but it is not the broadcast address is
called multicast address.

ADVANTAGES OF ETHERNET
Ethernets are successful because
 It is extremely easy to administer and maintain. There are no switches that can fail,
no routing or configuration tables that have to be kept up-to-date, and it is easy to add a
new host to the network.

 It is inexpensive: Cable is cheap, and the only other cost is the network adaptor on each
host.

9. WIRELESS LAN ( IEEE 802.11)

Wireless communication is one of the fastest-growing technologies.

The demand for connecting devices without the use of cables is increasingeverywhere.
Wireless LANs can be found on college campuses, in office buildings, and in many
public areas.

ADVANTAGES OF WLAN / 802.11

1. Flexibility: Within radio coverage, nodes can access each other as radio waves can
penetrate even partition walls.
2. Planning : No prior planning is required for connectivity as long as devices follow
standard convention
3. Design : Allows to design and develop mobile devices.
4. Robustness : Wireless network can survive disaster. If the devices survive,
communication can still be established.
DISADVANTAGES OF WLAN / 802.11
1. Quality of Service : Low bandwidth (1 – 10 Mbps), higher error rates due to
interference, delay due to error correction and detection.
2. Cost : Wireless LAN adapters are costly compared to wired adapters.
3. Proprietary Solution : Due to slow standardization process, many solution are
proprietary that limit the homogeneity of operation.
4. Restriction : Individual countries have their own radio spectral policies. This restricts
the development of the technology
5. Safety and Security : Wireless Radio waves may interfere with other devices. Eg; In a
hospital, radio waves may interfere with high-tech equipment.

TECHNOLOGY USED IN WLAN / 802.11

WLAN’s uses Spread Spectrum (SS) technology.
The idea behind Spread spectrum technique is to spread the signal over a wider
frequency band than normal, so as to minimize the impact of interference from other
devices.
There are two types of Spread Spectrum:
 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)
 Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)

Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS)

 Frequency hopping is a spread spectrum technique that involves transmitting the signal
over a random sequence of frequencies.
 That is, first transmitting at one frequency, then a second, then a third, and so on.
 The random sequence of frequencies is computed by a pseudorandom number
generator.
 The receiver uses the same algorithm as the sender and initializes it with the same seed
and hence is able to hop frequencies in sync with the transmitter to correctly receive the
frame.
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
 Each bit of data is represented by multiple bits in the transmitted signal.
 DSSS takes a user data stream and performs an XOR operation with a pseudo –
random number.
 This pseudo random number is called as chipping sequence.

TOPOLOGY IN WLAN / 802.11

WLANs can be built with either of the following two topologies /architecture:
Infra-Structure Network Topology
Ad Hoc Network Topology

Infra-Structure Topology Ad-Hoc Topology

(AP based Topology) (Peer-to-Peer Topology)

 An infrastructure network is the  An adhoc network is the architecture

network architecture for providing that is used to support mutual
communication between wireless communication between wireless
clients and wired network resources. clients.
 The transition of data from the  Typically, an ad- hoc network is
wireless to wired medium occurs via created spontaneously and does not
a Base Station called AP(Access support access to wired networks.
Point).  An adhoc network does not require
 An AP and its associated wireless an AP.
clients define the coverage area.
ARCHITECURE OF WLAN / 802.11
 The standard defines two kinds of services: the Basic Service Set (BSS) and the Extended
Service Set (ESS).

Basic Service Set (BSS)

 IEEE 802.11 defines the basic service set (BSS) as the building blocks of awireless LAN.
 A basic service set is made of stationary or mobile wireless stations and an optional central
base station, known as the access point (AP).

Extended Service Set (ESS)

 An extended service set (ESS) is made up of two or more BSSs with APs.
 In this case, the BSSs are connected through a distribution system, which is a wired or a
wireless network.
 The distribution system connects the APs in the BSSs. The extended service set uses two
types of stations: mobile and stationary.
 The mobile stations are normal stations inside a BSS.
 The stationary stations are AP stations that are part of a wired LAN.

Station Types
IEEE 802.11 defines three types of stations based on their mobility in a wirelessLAN:
1. No-transition - A station with no-transition mobility is either stationary(not moving) or
moving only inside a BSS.
2. BSS-transition - A station with BSS-transition mobility can move from one BSS
to another, but the movement is confined inside one ESS
ESS-transition - A station with ESS-transition mobility can move from one ESS to
another.
COLLISION AVOIDANCE IN WLAN / 802.11
Wireless protocol would follow exactly the same algorithm as the Ethernet—Wait until the
link becomes idle before transmitting and back off should a collision occur.

Hidden Node Problem

 Consider the situation shown in the Figure.

 Here A and C are both within range of B but not with each other.
 Suppose both A and C want to communicate with B and so they each send aframe to B.
 A and C are unaware of each other since their signals do not carry that far.
 These two frames collide with each other at B, but neither A nor C is aware of this
collision.
 A and C are said to be hidden nodes with respect to each other.

Exposed Node Problem

 Each of the four nodes is able to send and receive signals that reach just the nodes to its
immediate left and right.
 For example, B can exchange frames with A and C but it cannot reach D,while C can
reach B and D but not A.
 Suppose B is sending to A. Node C is aware of this communication because it hears B’s
transmission.
 If at the same time, C wants to transmit to node D.
 It would be a mistake, however, for C to conclude that it cannot transmit to anyone just
because it can hear B’s transmission.
  This is not a problem since C’s transmission to D will not interfere with A’s ability to
receive from B.
 This is called exposed problem.
 Although B and C are exposed to each other’s signals, there is no interference
if B transmits to A while C transmits to D.

MULTIPLE ACCESS WITH COLLISION AVOIDANCE (MACA)

 MACA is used to avoid collisions caused by the hidden terminal problemand exposed
terminal problem.
 MACA uses short signaling packets called RTS and CTS for collisionavoidance.
 The RTS and CTS signals helps us to determine who else is in the transmission range
or who is busy.
 When a sender wants to transmit, it sends a signal called Request-To-Send(RTS).
 If the receiver allows the transmission, it replies to the sender a signal called Clear-To-
Send (CTS).
 Any node that sees the CTS frame knows that it is close to the receiver, and therefore
cannot transmit for the period of time.
 Any node that sees the RTS frame but not the CTS frame is not close enough to the
receiver to interfere with it, and so is free to transmit.
 The Signaling packets RTS and CTS contains information such as
 sender address
 receiver address
 length of the data to be sent/received

 The receiver sends an ACK to the sender after successfully receiving a frame.
 All nodes must wait for this ACK before trying to transmit.
 When two or more nodes detect an idle link and try to transmit an RTS frame at the same
time, their RTS frames will collide with each other.
 802.11 do not support collision detection, but instead, the senders realize the collision has
happened when they do not receive the CTS frame after a periodof time.
 Each node waits for a random amount of time before trying again.
 The amount of time a given node delays is defined by exponential back-off algorithm.

DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IN WLAN / 802.11

In wireless network, nodes can move freely. Some nodes are allowed to roam and some are
connected to a wired network infrastructure called access points (AP), and they are connected to
each other by a so-called distribution system.
  Two nodes can communicate directly with each other if they are within reach of each
other,
 When the nodes are at different range, for example when node A wish to communicate
with node E, A first sends a frame to its access point (AP-1), which forwards the frame
across the distribution system to AP-3, which finally transmits the frame to E.

Scanning Process in Distribution System

 The technique for selecting an Access Point is called scanning.
 Scanning will take place whenever a node joins the network as well as when it is
not satisfied with the current access point signal.
 It involves the following four steps:
 The node sends a Probe Request frame.
 All AP’s within reach reply with a Probe Response frame.
 The node selects one of the access points and sends that AP an
Association Request frame.
 The AP replies with an Association Response frame.

 There are two types of Scanning. They are

1. Active Scanning
2. Passive Scanning

Active Scanning
When node C moves from the cell serviced by AP-1 to the cell serviced by AP-2. As it moves, it
sends Probe frames, which eventually result in Probe Response. Since the node is actively
searching for an access point it is called active scanning.
Passive Scanning
AP’s periodically send a Beacon frame to the nodes that advertises the capabilities of the
access point which includes the transmission rates supported by the AP. This is called passive
scanning and a node can change to this AP based on the Beacon frame simply by sending it an
Association Request frame back to the access point.

FRAME FORMAT OF WLAN / 802.11

 Control field - contains three subfields :

 Type field - Indicates whether the frame carries data, RTS or CTS frame
 To DS - Data frame sent to DS
 From DS – ACK sent from DS
When both the DS bits are set to 0, it indicates that one node is sending
directly to another . Addr l identifies the target node and Addr2 identifies the
source node.

When both the DS bits are set to 1, it indicates that one node is sending the
message to another indirectly using the distribution system.
 Duration - contains the duration of time the medium is occupied by the nodes.
 Addr l - identifies the final original destination
 Addr 2 - identifies the immediate sender (the one that forwarded the frame from the
distribution system to the ultimate destination)
 Addr 3 - identifies the intermediate destination (the one that accepted the frame from a
wireless node and forwarded it across the distributionsystem)
 Addr 4 - identifies the original source
 Sequence Control - to avoid duplication of frames sequence number is
assigned to each frame
 Payload - Data from sender to receiver
 CRC - used for Error detection of the frame.
 10. DATA AND SIGNALS

Analog and Digital Data

Data can be analog or digital. The term analog data refers to information that is continuous; digital
data refers to information that has discrete states. Analog data, such as the sounds madeby a human
voice, take on continuous values. When someone speaks, an analog wave is created in the air. This
can be captured by a microphone and converted to an analog signal or sampled and converted to a
digital signal. Digital data take on discrete values. For example, data are stored in computer
memory in the form of Os and ls.

Analog and Digital Signals

Like the data they represent, signals can be either analog or digital. An analog signal has infinitely
many levels of intensity over a period of time. As the wave moves from value A to value B, it
passes through and includes an infinite number of values along its path. A digital signal, on the
other hand, can have only a limited number of defined values. Although each value can be any
number, it is often as simple as 1 and 0. The curve representing the analog signal passes through
an infinite number of points. The vertical lines of the digital signal, however, demonstrate the
sudden jump that the signal makes from value to value.
Periodic and Nonperiodic
Both analog and digital signals can take one of two forms: periodic or nonperiodic sometimes
referred to as aperiodic; A periodic signal completes a pattern within a measurable time frame,
called a period, and repeats that pattern over subsequent identical periods. The completion of one
full pattern is called a cycle. A nonperiodic signal changes without exhibiting a pattern or cycle that
repeats over time. Both analog and digital signals can be periodic or nonperiodic. In data
communications, we commonly use periodic analog signals and nonperiodic digital signals.

Periodic analog signals

Periodic analog signals can be classified as simple or composite. A simple periodic analog signal,
a sine wave, cannot be decomposed into simpler signals. A composite periodic analog signal is
composed of multiple sine waves.

Sine Wave
The sine wave is the most fundamental form of a periodic analog signal. When we visualize it as a
simple oscillating curve, its change over the course of a cycle is smooth and consistent, a
continuous, rolling flow. Each cycle consists of a single arc above the time axis followed by a
single arc below it.

A sine wave can be represented by three parameters: the peak amplitude, the frequency, and the
phase. These three parameters fully describe a sine wave.

Peak Amplitude
The peak amplitude of a signal is the absolute value of its highest intensity, proportional to the
energy it carries. For electric signals, peak amplitude is normally measured in volts.
Period and Frequency
Period refers to the amount of time, in seconds, a signal needs to complete 1 cycle. Frequency
refers to the number of periods in 1 s. Note that period and frequency are just one characteristic
defined in two ways. Period is the inverse of frequency, and frequency is the inverse of period, as
the following formulas show.

Phase
The term phase, or phase shift, describes the position of the waveform relative to time 0. If wethink
of the wave as something that can be shifted backward or forward along the time axis, phase
describes the amount of that shift. It indicates the status of the first cycle.
Phase is measured in degrees or radians [360° is 2pi rad; 1° is 2pi/360 rad, and 1 rad is 360/(2pi)].
A phase shift of 360° corresponds to a shift of a complete period; a phase shift of 180°
corresponds to a shift of one- half of a period; and a phase shift of 90° corresponds to a shift of
one-quarter of a period.

Wavelength
Wavelength is another characteristic of a signal traveling through a transmission medium.
Wavelength binds the period or the frequency of a simple sine wave to the propagation speed of the
medium

While the frequency of a signal is independent of the medium, the wavelength depends on boththe
frequency and the medium. Wavelength is a property of any type of signal. In data
communications, we often use wavelength to describe the transmission of light in an optical fiber.
The wavelength is the distance a simple signal can travel in one period.

Wavelength can be calculated if one is given the propagation speed (the speed of light) and the
period of the signal.
Wavelength = (propagation speed) * period= propagation speed / frequency
The propagation speed of electromagnetic signals depends on the medium and on the frequency of
the signal. For example, in a vacuum, light is propagated with a speed of 3 x 10 8 m/ s. That speed
is lower in air and even lower in cable. The wavelength is normally measured in
micrometers (microns) instead of meters. For example, the wavelength of red light (frequency= 4 x
1014) in air is
Time and Frequency Domains
We have been showing a sine wave by using what is called a time- domain plot. The time- domain
plot shows changes in signal amplitude with respect to time.

To show the relationship between amplitude and frequency, we can use what is called a frequency-
domain plot. A frequency- domain plot is concerned with only the peak value and the frequency.
Changes of amplitude during one period are not shown.

Bandwidth
The range of frequencies contained in a composite signal is its bandwidth. The bandwidth is
normally a difference between two numbers. For example, if a composite signal contains
frequencies between 1000 and 5000, its bandwidth is 5000— 1000, or 4000. The figure depicts two
composite signals, one periodic and the other nonperiodic. The bandwidth of the periodic signal
contains all integer frequencies between 1000 and 5000( 1000, 1001, 1002,..). The bandwidth of
the nonperiodic signals has the same range, but the frequencies are continuous
DIGITAL SIGNALS
In addition to being represented by an analog signal, information can also be represented by a
digital signal. For example, a 1 can be encoded as a positive voltage and a 0 as zero voltage. A
digital signal can have more than two levels. In this case, we can send more than 1 bit for each level

Bit Rate
Most digital signals are nonperiodic, and thus period and frequency are not appropriate
characteristics. Another term-bit rate is used to describe digital signals. The bit rate is the number
of bits sent in 1s, expressed in bits per second (bps). The above Figure shows the bit rate for two
signals.

Bit Length
We discussed the concept of the wavelength for an analog signal: the distance one cycle occupies
on the transmission medium. We can define something similar for a digital signal: the bit length.
The bit length is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium.

Bit length =propagation speed * bit duration

Transmission of Digital Signals

A digital signal, periodic or nonperiodic, is a composite analog signal with frequencies between zero
and infinity. Let us consider the case of a nonperiodic digital signal, similar to the ones we
encounter in data communications. We can transmit a digital signal by using one of two different
approaches: baseband transmission or broadband transmission (using modulation).

Baseband transmission
Baseband transmission means sending a digital signal over a channel without changing the digital
signal to an analog signal. Requires that we have a low-pass channel, a channel with a bandwidth
that starts from zero. This is the case if we have a dedicated medium with a bandwidth
constituting only one channel. The figure shows two low-pass channels: one witha narrow
bandwidth and the other with a wide bandwidth.

11. TRANSMISSION MEDIA

o Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the information fromthe
sender to the receiver.
o Data is transmitted through the electromagnetic signals.
o The main functionality of the transmission media is to carry the information inthe
form of bits (Either as Electrical signals or Light pulses).
o It is a physical path between transmitter and receiver in data communication.
o The characteristics and quality of data transmission are determined by the
characteristics of medium and signal.
o Transmission media is of two types : Guided Media (Wired) and UnGuidedMedia
(wireless).
o In guided (wired) media, medium characteristics are more important whereas, in
unguided (wireless) media, signal characteristics are more important.
o Different transmission media have different properties such as bandwidth, delay, cost
and ease of installation and maintenance.
o The transmission media is available in the lowest layer of the OSI reference
model, i.e., Physical layer.
FACTORS FOR DESIGNING THE TRANSMISSION MEDIA
o Bandwidth: All the factors are remaining constant, the greater the bandwidth of a
medium, the higher the data transmission rate of a signal.
o Transmission impairment: When the received signal is not identical to the transmitted
one due to the transmission impairment. The quality of the signals will get destroyed
due to transmission impairment.
o 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.

CAUSES OF TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

o 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.
o Distortion: Distortion occurs when there is a change in the shape of the signal. This
type of distortion is examined from different signals having different frequencies. Each
frequency component has its own propagation speed, so they reach at a different time
which leads to the delay distortion.
o Noise: When data is travelled over a transmission medium, some unwanted signal is
added to it which creates the noise.

TYPES / CLASSES OF TRANSMISSION MEDIA

GUIDED MEDIA
 It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are transmitted.
 It is also known as Bounded media.
 Types of Guided media: Twisted Pair Cable, Coaxial Cable , Fibre Optic Cable

TWISTED PAIR CABLE

 Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted with eachother.
  A twisted pair cable is cheap as compared to other transmission media.
 Installation of the twisted pair cable is easy, and it is a lightweight cable.
 The frequency range for twisted pair cable is from 0 to 3.5KHz.
 A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular spiral
pattern.

Unshielded Twisted Pair

An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in telecommunication.
Following are the categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable:
o Category 1: Suports low-speed data.
o Category 2: It can support upto 4Mbps.
o Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.
o Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps.
o Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.

Advantages:
o It is cheap.
o Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
o It can be used for high-speed LAN.

Disadvantage:
o This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of attenuation.

Shielded Twisted Pair

A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire that allowsthe
higher transmission rate.
Advantages:
o The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very low.
o Installation of STP is easy.
o It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
o It has a higher attenuation.
o It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.

Disadvantages:
o It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.
o It has a higher attenuation rate.

COAXIAL CABLE

o Coaxial cable (Coax) is a very commonly used transmission media, for example,TV
wire is usually a coaxial cable.
o The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to eachother.
o It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
o The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the outer
conductor is made up of copper mesh.
o The middle core is made up of non-conductive cover that separates the inner
conductor from the outer conductor.
o The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper mesh
prevents from the EMI (Electromagnetic interference).
o Common applications of coaxial cable are Cable TV networks and traditional
Ethernet LANs.

Coaxial Cable Standards

 Coaxial cables are categorized by their Radio Government (RG) ratings.
 Each RG number denotes a unique set of physical specifications, including the wire
gauge of the inner conductor, the thickness and type of the inner insulator, the
construction of the shield, and the size and type of the outer casing.
 Each cable defined by an RG rating is adapted for a specialized function.
Types of Coaxial cable:
1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single
signal at high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting multiple
signals simultaneously.
Advantages:
o The data can be transmitted at high speed.
o It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
o It provides higher bandwidth.
Disadvantages:
o It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.
o If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.

FIBRE OPTIC CABLE

o Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
o Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that are used tosend
the data by pulses of light.
o The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold, electromagnetic
interference from other types of wiring.
o Fibre optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.

Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

o Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic known as a core. A
core is a light transmission area of the fibre. The more the area of thecore, the more
light will be transmitted into the fibre.
o 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 fibre.
o Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket. The main
purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb shock and extra fibre
protection.
Advantages:
o Greater Bandwidth
o Less signal attenuation
o Immunity to electromagnetic interference
o Resistance to corrosive materials
o Light weight
o Greater immunity to tapping
 Disadvantages:
o Requires Expertise for Installation and maintenance
o Unidirectional light propagation.
o Higher Cost.

Propagation Modes of Fibre Optics

 Current technology supports two modes (multimode and single mode) for propagating
light along optical channels, each requiring fiber with different physical characteristics.
 Multimode can be implemented in two forms: step-index or graded-index.

Multimode Propagation
 Multimode is so named because multiple beams from a light source move throughthe
core in different paths.
 How these beams move within the cable depends on the structure of the core.

Multimode Step-index fiber Multimode Graded-index fiber

In multimode step-index fiber, the density  The multimode graded-index fiber,

of the core remains constant from the decreases this distortion of the signal
center to the edges. through the cable.
A beam of light moves through this  The word index here refers to the index
constant density in a straight line until it of refraction.
reaches the interface of the core and the  The index of refraction is related to
cladding. density.
 At the interface, there is an abrupt change  A graded index fiber, therefore, is one
due to a lower density; this alters the angle with varying densities.
of the beam’s motion.  Density is highest at the center of the
The term step-index refers to the core and decreases gradually to its
suddenness of this change, which lowest at the edge.
contributes to the distortion of the signal
as it passes through the fiber.
 Single-Mode Propagation

 Single-mode uses step-index fiber and a highly focused source of light that limits beams
to a small range of angles, all close to the horizontal.
 The single-mode fiber itself is manufactured with a much smaller diameter than that of
multimode fiber, and with substantially lower density (index of refraction).
 The decrease in density results in a critical angle that is close enough to 90° to make the
propagation of beams almost horizontal.
 In this case, propagation of different beams is almost identical, and delays are
negligible. All the beams arrive at the destination “together” and can be recombined
with little distortion to the signal.

UNGUIDED MEDIA
o An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves without using any
physical medium. Therefore it is also known as wireless transmission.
o In unguided media, air is the media through which the electromagnetic energycan
flow easily.

o Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three categories :

Radio Waves, Microwaves , Infrared

RADIO WAVES

o Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all thedirections of
free space.
o Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all thedirections.
o The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1Khz.
o In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not aligned, i.e.,the
wave sent by the sending antenna can be received by any receiving antenna.
o An example of the radio wave is FM radio.
Applications of Radio waves:
o A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and many
receivers.
o An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio wave.

Advantages of Radio waves:

o Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile cellular
phones.
o Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
o Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.

MICROWAVES
Microwaves are of two types - Terrestrial microwave & Satellite microwave

Terrestrial Microwave
o Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the focused beam of a
radio signal from one ground-based microwave transmission antenna toanother.
o Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in the range from
1GHz to 1000 GHz.
o Microwaves are unidirectional as the sending and receiving antenna is to be aligned,
i.e., the waves sent by the sending antenna are narrowly focused.
o In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to another antenna
which is km away.
o It works on the line of sight transmission, i.e., the antennas mounted on the
towers are at the direct sight of each other.

Characteristics of Terrestrial Microwave:

o Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is from 4-6 GHzto 21-
23 GHz.
o Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
o Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
o Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a longer distance.
o Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by environmental
conditions and antenna size.

Advantages of Terrestrial Microwave:

o Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.
o It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the installation of
cables.
 o Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as theinstallation
of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
o Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave transmission.

Disadvantages of Terrestrial Microwave:

o Eaves dropping.
o Out of phase signal
o Susceptible to weather condition
o Bandwidth limited

Satellite Microwave
o A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known height.
o Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more flexibilitythan
cable and fibre optic systems.
o We can communicate with any point on the globe by using
satellitecommunication.
o The satellite accepts the signal that is transmitted from the earth station, and it
amplifies the signal. The amplified signal is retransmitted to another earth station.

Advantages of Satellite Microwave:

o The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial microwave.
o The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance from the
centre of the coverage area.
o Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication
applications.
o It is easy to install.
o It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting, radio/TVsignal
broadcasting, mobile communication, etc.

Disadvantages of Satellite Microwave:

o Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher cost.
o The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so that it
remains in orbit.
o The life of the satellite is about 12-15 years. Due to this reason, another launch ofthe
satellite has to be planned before it becomes non-functional.
INFRARED WAVES
o An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for communication over short
ranges.
o The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
o It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer between two cell phones,
TV remote operation, data transfer between a computer and cell phone and devices that
resides in the same closed area.

Characteristics of Infrared:
o It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
o Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared communicationin one
room cannot be interrupted by the nearby rooms.
o An infrared communication provides better security with minimum interference.
o Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the sun rays will
interfere with the infrared waves.

12. SWITCHING & PACKET SWITCHING

REFER UNIT III