Computer Networks

UNIT-I: INTRODUCTION AND PHYSICAL LAYER

Introduction:
I. Network Hardware
II. Network Software
III. Reference Models - OSI, TCP/IP
IV. Example Networks – Internet; Wireless LANs - 802.11.
Physical Layer:
V. Guided Transmission Media
VI. Wireless Transmission.
 Introduction
• The Historical Perspective
– The 18th century: the great mechanical systems
accompanying the Industrial Revolution.
– The 19th century: steam engine.
– The 20th century: information gathering,
processing, and distribution.
– The 21th century: Internet, large distributed
systems (e.g., Grid), heavy reliance on computers.
 Introduction (Cont’d)
• What is Computer Network?
– we will use the term ''computer network'' to mean
a collection of autonomous computers
interconnected by a single technology.
– Two computers are said to be interconnected if they
are able to exchange information.
– copper wire; fiber optics, microwaves, infrared, and
communication satellites, etc.
 USE OF COMPUTER NETWORKS

1. Business applications.
2. Home Applications.
3. Mobile Users .
4. Social Issues.
1. Business applications- Resource sharing

A network with two clients and one server.

Computer Network Goals:
1. Client-server model- Web application.
2. A second goal of a computer network can provide a powerful
communication medium among employees.- email
(electronic mail).
Telephone calls between employees may be carried by the
computer network instead of by the phone company. This
technology is called IP telephony or Voice over IP (VoIP).
3. A third goal for many companies is doing business
electronically, especially with customers and suppliers. This
new model is called e-commerce (electronic commerce)
This reduces the need for large inventories and enhances
 The client-server model involves requests and
replies.
2. Home Applications
• Internet access provides home users with connectivity to
remote
computers.
The more popular uses of the internet for home users are as
follows:
1. Access to remote information.
2. Person-to-Person Communication.- peer-to-peer
communication
3. Interactive Environment.
4. Electronic Commerce.
peer-to-peer communication:

In a peer-to-peer system there are no fixed clients and

servers

Some forms of e-commerce

3. Mobile User

Combinations of wireless networks and mobile

computing
PDAs’
WAP 1.0 Wireless Application Protocol.
WAP 2.0
Mobile Commerce- M-commerce

4. Social Issues
I. Network Hardware
2 types of transmission technologies
– Broadcast
• Broadcast networks have a single communication
channel that is shared by all the machines on the
network.
• Short messages, called packets in certain contexts, sent
by any machine are received by all the others. (Address
Checking required)
– Point-to-point
• In point-to-point networks, there consist of many
connections between individual pairs of machines.
– As a general rule (although there are many exceptions),
smaller, geographically localized networks tend to use
broadcasting, whereas larger networks usually are point-to-
point.
• Point-to-point transmission with exactly one sender and
exactly one receiver is sometimes called unicasting.
Classification of interconnected processors by
scale
• LAN: local area network
– Local area networks, generally called LANs, are
privately-owned networks within a single
building or campus of up to a few kilometers in
size.
– LANs may use a transmission technology
consisting of a cable to which all the machines
are attached.
– Traditional LANs run at speeds of 10 Mbps to
1000 Mbps, have low delay (microseconds or
nanoseconds), and make very few errors.
– Various topologies are
possible for broadcast
LANs.

(a) Bus (b) Ring

MAN: metropolitan area network
• WAN and Internet
– Hosts, The hosts are owned by the customers
(e.g., people's personal computers).
– Subnet, typically owned and operated by a
telephone company or Internet service provider
(ISP).
– The hosts are connected by subnets.
– the subnet consists of two distinct components:
transmission lines and switching elements.
Transmission lines move bits between machines.
Switching elements (routers) are specialized
computers that connect three or more
transmission lines.
WAN and Internet

Simple WAN (Internet) illustrated

Packets
• Wireless Networks
– Bluetooth: short range wireless network
(<10m).
– Wireless LANs: for moderate range, becomes
more and more common today (<100m).
– network used for cellular telephones: distances
involved are much greater and the bit rates
much lower (above 1km).
 II. Network Software
Network Software
1. Protocol Hierarchies
2. Design Issues for the Layers
3. Connection-Oriented and
Connectionless Services
4. Service Primitives
5. The Relationship of Services to
Protocols
 Network Software (Cont’d)
1. Protocol Hierarchies
– To reduce their design complexity, most
networks are organized as a stack of layers or
levels, each one built upon the one below it.
– The purpose of each layer is to offer certain
services to the higher layers, shielding those
layers from the details of how the offered
services are actually implemented.
– A protocol is an agreement between the
communicating parties on how communication
is to proceed.
 Network Software(Cont’d)

The philosophers The layered computer

analogy network
 Network Software (Cont’d)
• The key terms
– Layers; Protocol;
– Interface: Between each pair of adjacent
layers is an interface.
– Network architecture: A set of layers and
protocols is called a network
architecture.
– Protocol stack: A list of protocols used
by a certain system, one protocol per
layer, is called a protocol stack.
 Network Software (Cont’d)

An example network protocol stack

M- Message, H- Header
 Network Software (Cont’d)
• Message is generated by the application of the source machine.
• Message will be sent from the source to the destination.
• Message “M” is transferred from layer 5 to layer 4, with a
header containing control information, such as sequence
numbers, which helps layer 4 maintain the message order.
• Layer 3 break the message from layer 4 into two pieces to fit
the transmission restrictions, while adding another header to
tell layer 2 where the dest. is.
• Layer 2 adds the messages from layer 3 with another header,
telling the actual (physical) address of the dest, and a trailer,
which is the checksum of the message for correction assertion.
• At the receiving machine the message moves upward, from
layer to layer, with headers being stripped off as it progresses.
Message is sent to the dest. machine.
 Network Software (Cont’d)
2. Design Issues for the Layers
1. How is it possible that we find and fix these errors?
– One mechanism for finding errors in received information
uses codes for error detection & correction. Error control is
an important issue because physical communication circuits
are not perfect.
Another reliability issue is finding a working path through a
network. Often there are multiple paths between a source
and destination, and in a large network, there may be some
links or routers that are broken.- Routing
2. A second design issue concerns the evolution of the
network.
- protocol layering- Every layer needs a mechanism for
identifying senders and receivers. This mechanism is called
addressing or naming, in the low and high layers,
respectively.
• An aspect of growth is that different network technologies
often have different limitations.- mechanisms for
disassembling, transmitting, and then reassembling
messages. This overall topic is called internetworking.
• When networks get large, new problems arise. Cities can
have traffic jams, a shortage of telephone numbers, and it
is easy to get lost.- scalable.
• A third design issue is resource allocation.
- Design- statistical multiplexing, meaning sharing based on
the statistics of demand.
- An allocation problem that occurs at every level is how to
keep a fast sender from swamping a slow receiver with
data.- flow control.
• Too many computers want to send too much traffic, and the
network cannot deliver it all. This overloading of the network
is called congestion.
• The last major design issue is to secure the network by
defending it against different kinds of threats.
-provide confidentiality defend against this threat, and
they are used in multiple layers. Mechanisms for
authentication prevent someone from impersonating
someone else.
- mechanisms for integrity prevent surreptitious changes to
messages, such as altering ‘‘debit my account $10’’ to
‘‘debit my account $1000.’’ All of these designs are based on
cryptography
 Network Software (Cont’d)
3. Connection-Oriented and Connectionless Services?
– Connection-Oriented Service: the service user first
establishes a connection, uses the connection, and then
releases the connection. (e.g., the telephone, tube)
– Connectionless Service: Each message carries the full
destination address, and each one is routed through the
system independent of all the others. (e.g., the postal
system) Usually, connectionless service can not guarantee
the order of messages.
– In order to enhance the reliability of transmission of
connection-oriented service, acknowledge each received
message is helpful. For example, the file transfer.
– However, some applications prefer fast speed than the
reliability. For example, the digitized voice traffic, video
Reliable connection-oriented service has two minor variations:
1. Message Sequences - When two 1024-byte messages are
sent,
they arrive as two distinct 1024- byte messages, never as
one
2048-byte message.
2. Byte Streams- the connection is simply a stream of bytes,
with no message boundaries.
To download a DVD movie, a byte stream from the server to

the user’s computer is all that is needed.

For some applications, the transit delays introduced by
acknowledgements are unacceptable.
One such application is digitized voice traffic for voice over
IP.
Unreliable (meaning not acknowledged) connectionless service
is often called datagram service, in analogy with telegram
service, which also does not return an acknowledgement to
the sender.
 • Six different types of service

both reliable and unreliable connection-oriented and connectionless

communication coexist
4. Service Primitives
• A service is formally specified by a set of primitives
(operations) available to user processes to access the service.
• These primitives tell the service to perform some action or
report on an action taken by a peer entity.
• The set of primitives available depends on the nature of the
service being provided.

Six service primitives that provide a simple connection-

oriented service.
 simple client-server interaction using acknowledged
datagrams
Packets sent in a simple client-server interaction on a connection-oriented
network
 III. Reference Models
Two important network architectures:
• The OSI reference model (Open Systems Interconnection)
• The TCP/IP reference model.
OSI reference model: (Day and Zimmermann, 1983)
• Developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) so it is
called as ISO OSI reference model because it deals with connecting open
systems for communication with other systems.
• It is rarely used today.
• OSI model itself is not a network architecture because it does not specify
the exact services and protocols to be used in each layer.
• Although the protocols associated with the OSI model are not used any
more, the model itself is actually quite general and still valid, and the
features discussed at each layer are still very important.
TCP/IP reference model: developed by ARPANET (Advanced Research
Projects Agency Network)- Used to construct the Internet today.
• The model itself is not of much use but the protocols are widely used.
The OSI model has seven layers.
The principles that were applied to arrive at the seven layers can be
briefly summarized as follows:
1. A layer should be created where a different abstraction is needed.
2. Each layer should perform a well-defined function.
3. The function of each layer should be chosen with an eye toward
defining internationally standardized protocols.
4. The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize the information
flow across the interfaces.
5. The number of layers should be large enough that distinct functions
need not be thrown together in the same layer out of necessity and
small enough that the architecture does not become unwieldy.
OSI Reference model
1. The Physical Layer
• The physical layer is concerned with transmitting raw bits
over a communication channel.
• Voltage representation: 0 volts for 0 bit and 5 volts for 1 bit.
• Physical media: Wired & Wireless- Twisted pair cables, coaxial
cables, fibre optics & Radio , infrared, blue tooth.
• Topology: Physical Structure of N/W.
• Transmission mode: Simplex, half duplex, full duplex.
• Transmission technology: Broadcast & point-to-point.
• Bit rate (no. of bits /sec) & Baud rate (no. of bits successfully
transmitted /sec) .
• Design issues largely deal with mechanical, electrical, and
timing interfaces, as well as the physical transmission medium,
which lies below the physical layer.
2. The Data Link Layer
• The main task of the data link layer is Framing (data frames-
typically a few hundred or a few thousand bytes) and transmit the
frames sequentially.
• If the service is reliable, the receiver confirms correct receipt of
each frame by sending back an acknowledgement frame.
• Physical Address- Name, Roll no.
• Flow (bits checking) & Error (detection & correction) Control.
• Acks (acknowledgement) : +ve- data success- ACK
& -ve- data loss- NAK.
• Data retransmission (fail or retransmit) and Error frames (damage
or loss).
• Sequence no.: Access controlling & Accounting & billing.
• having the sender break up the input data into data frames and
transmit the frames sequentially.
• How to control access to the shared channel. A special sublayer of
the data link layer, the medium access control sublayer, deals with
this problem.
3. The Network Layer:
• The network layer controls the operation of the subnet(routing).
• A key design issue is determining how packets are routed from
source to destination.
Network Layer issue: Handling congestion.
• The quality of service provided (delay, transit time, jitter, etc.)
4. The Transport Layer:
• The basic function of the transport layer is to accept data from
above, split it up into smaller units if need be, pass these to the
network layer, and ensure that the pieces all arrive correctly at the
other end.
• The transport layer Services: The most popular type of transport
connection is an error-free point-to-point channel that delivers
messages or bytes in the order in which they were sent.
• The transport layer is a true end-to-end layer, all the way from the
source to the destination.
• The difference between layers 1 through 3, which are chained,
and layers 4 through 7, which are end-to-end.
5. The Session Layer
• The session layer allows users on different machines to establish
sessions between them.
• Sessions offer various services, including Dialog Control (keeping track of
whose turn it is to transmit), Token Management (preventing two parties
from attempting the same critical operation simultaneously), and
Synchronization (check pointing long transmissions to allow them to pick
up from where they left off in the event of a crash and subsequent
recovery).
6. The Presentation Layer
• concerned with the syntax and semantics of the information
transmitted, to make it possible for computers with different data
representations to communicate.
7. The Application Layer
• The application layer contains a variety of protocols that are commonly
needed by users.
• One widely used application protocol is HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol), which is the basis for the World Wide Web.
• File Transfer, Electronic Mail, and Network News etc…
 The TCP/IP Reference Model
The ARPANET was a research network sponsored by the DoD (U.S.
Department of Defense).
It was first described by
Cerf and Kahn (1974),
and later refined and
defined as a standard in
the Internet community
(Braden, 1989).
The design philosophy
behind the model is
discussed by Clark
(1988). The TCP/IP reference
model
The Link Layer: describes what links such as serial lines and classic
Ethernet must do to meet the needs of this connectionless internet
layer. - an interface between hosts and transmission links.
• The Internet Layer :
• Its job is to permit hosts to inject packets into any network and
have them travel independently to the destination (potentially
on a different network). They may even arrive in a different order
than they were sent, in which case it is the job of higher layers to
rearrange them, if in-order delivery is desired.
• The internet layer defines an official packet format and protocol
called IP (Internet Protocol). The job of the internet layer is to
deliver IP packets where they are supposed to go.
• The underlining Host-to-Network Layer is a great void. host
connected to this layer can send IP packets.
 Introduction (Cont’d)
• The Transport Layer
– It is designed to allow peer entities on the source
and destination hosts to carry on a conversation
– Two end-to-end transport protocols have been
defined here. The first one, TCP (Transmission
Control Protocol), is a reliable connection-oriented
protocol that allows a byte stream originating on
one machine to be delivered without error on any
other machine in the internet.
– The second protocol in this layer, UDP (User
Datagram Protocol), is an unreliable,
connectionless protocol for applications that do
not want TCP's sequencing or flow control and
• The Application Layer
– The TCP/IP model does not have session or presentation
layers, which are of little use to most applications.
– It contains all the higher-level protocols. The early ones
included virtual terminal (TELNET), file transfer (FTP), and
electronic mail (SMTP). Many other protocols have been
added to these over the years: the Domain Name System
(DNS) for mapping host names onto their network addresses,
Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) is an application
protocol used for transporting Usenet news articles (netnews)
between news servers and for reading and posting articles by
end user client applications, the protocol for moving USENET
news articles around, and HTTP, the protocol for fetching
pages on the World Wide Web, and many others.
The TCP/IP model with some protocols we will study.
• Comparison of the OSI and TCP/IP Reference
Models
Similarities
•Both are based on the concept of a stack of
independent
protocols.
•Both of them have transport layer to provide an end-
to-end,
network-independent transport service
Differences
•In OSI, a layer's service definition tells what the layer
does, and a layer's interface tells the processes above
it
how to access it, without explaining how the layers
works inside.
• The TCP/IP model did not clearly distinguish between
service, interface of the layers.
• As a consequence, the protocols in the OSI model are
better hidden than in the TCP/IP model and can be
replaced relatively easily as the technology changes.
• The hybrid reference model
Three concepts are central to the OSI model:
1. Services
2. Interfaces
3. Protocols
• The service definition tells what the layer does, not how entities
above it access it or how the layer works. It defines the layer’s
semantics.
• A layer’s interface tells the processes above it how to access it. It
specifies what the parameters are and what results to expect. It,
too, says nothing about how the layer works inside.
• Finally, the peer protocols used in a layer are the layer’s own
business. It can use any protocols it wants to, as long as it gets
the job done (i.e., provides the offered services). It can also
change them at will without affecting software in higher layers.
 A Critique of the OSI Model and Protocols
• Neither the OSI model and its protocols nor the TCP/IP model
and its protocols are perfect.
• Quite a bit of criticism can be, and has been, directed at both of
them.
1. Bad timing.
2. Bad technology.
3. Bad implementations.
4. Bad politics.
The apocalypse of the two elephants
1. Bad timing The time at which a standard is established is
absolutely critical to its success.
• David Clark of M.I.T. has a theory of standards that he calls the
apocalypse of the two elephants.
2. Bad Technology: The OSI model, along with its associated service
definitions and protocols, is extraordinarily complex.
• They are also difficult to implement and inefficient in operation.
Q: What do you get when you cross a mobster with an international
standard?
A: Someone who makes you an offer you can’t understand.
• In addition to being incomprehensible, another problem with OSI
is that some functions, such as addressing, flow control, and
error control, reappear again and again in each layer.
3. Bad Implementations: It did not take long for people to associate
‘‘OSI’’ with ‘‘poor quality.’’ Although the products improved in
the course of time, the image stuck.
• In contrast, one of the first implementations of TCP/IP was part
of Berkeley UNIX and was quite good (not to mention, free).
4. Bad Politics:
On account of the initial implementation, many people,
especially in academia, thought of TCP/IP as part of UNIX,
and UNIX in the 1980s in academia was not unlike
parenthood (then incorrectly called motherhood) and apple
pie.
OSI, on the other hand, was widely thought to be the
creature of the European telecommunication ministries, the
European Community, and later the U.S. Government.
 A Critique of the TCP/IP Reference Model
• The TCP/IP model and protocols have their problems too. First,
the model does not clearly distinguish the concepts of services,
interfaces, and protocols.
• Good software engineering practice requires differentiating
between the specification and the implementation, something
that OSI does very carefully, but TCP/IP does not.
• Consequently, the TCP/IP model is not much of a guide for
designing new networks using new technologies.
• Second, the TCP/IP model is not at all general and is poorly suited
to describing any protocol stack other than TCP/IP. Trying to use
the TCP/IP model to describe Bluetooth, for example, is
completely impossible.
• Third, the link layer is not really a layer at all in the normal sense of
the term as used in the context of layered protocols. It is an
interface (between the network and data link layers).
• The distinction between an interface and a layer is crucial, and one
should not be sloppy about it.
• Fourth, the TCP/IP model does not distinguish between the
physical and data link layers. These are completely different. The
physical layer has to do with the transmission characteristics of
copper wire, fiber optics, and wireless communication.
• The data link layer’s job is to delimit the start and end of frames
and get them from one side to the other with the desired degree
of reliability.
• A proper model should include both as separate layers.
• The TCP/IP model does not do this.
• Finally, although the IP and TCP protocols were carefully thought
out and well implemented, many of the other protocols were ad
hoc, generally produced by a couple of graduate students hacking
away until they got tired.
IV. Example Networks — The
Internet

(a)Structure of the telephone system.

(b) Baran's proposed distributed switching
system.
• Example Networks — The Internet 2

The original ARPANET design ( IMP - Interface Message

Processors- minicomputers)
Growth of the ARPANET. (a) December 1969. (b) July 1970.
(c) March 1971. (d) April 1972. (e) September 1972.
• Example Networks — The Internet 3

The NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network) backbone in 1988

Microcomputer called a fuzzball.
The fuzzballs were connected with 56-kbps leased lines and formed the subnet,
the same hardware technology the ARPANET used.
The software technology was different however: the fuzzballs spoke TCP/IP right
from the start, making it the first TCP/IP WAN.
• Example Networks —— The Internet 4

Architecture of the Internet

POP: Point Of Presence

ISP: Internet Service Provider
NAP: Network Access Point
Overview of the Internet architecture
internet exchange points- ixps
fiber to home -ftth
DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer)
CMTS: Cable Modem Termination System
• A common way to connect to an ISP is to use the phone line to
your house, in which case your phone company is your ISP.
• DSL- Digital Subscriber Line, reuses the telephone line that
connects to your house for digital data transmission.
• The computer is connected to a device called a DSL modem that
converts between digital packets and analog signals that can pass
unrestricted over the telephone line.
• At the other end, a device called a DSLAM (Digital Subscriber
Line Access Multiplexer) converts between signals and packets.
• Several other popular ways to connect to an ISP are – Dial-up-
modem for ‘‘modulator demodulator’’ and refers to any device
that converts between digital bits and analog signals.
• Another method is to send signals over the cable TV system. Like
DSL, this is a way to reuse existing infrastructure.
• Cable Modem and the device at the cable head end is called the
CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System).
• Internet access at much greater than dial-up speeds is called
broadband.
• ISP networks may be regional, national, or international in scope.
• ISPs connect their networks to exchange traffic at IXPs (Internet
eXchange Points).
• Internet used to be that a machine was on the Internet if it:
(1) ran the TCP/IP protocol stack;
(2) had an IP address; and
(3) could send IP packets to all the other machines on the
Internet.
 Wireless LANs: 802.11
• Wi-Fi - Wireless Fidelity
• 802.11 networks are made up of clients, such as laptops and mobile
phones, and infrastructure called APs (access points) that is installed in
buildings. Access points are sometimes called base stations.
• The access points connect to the wired network, and all communication
between clients goes through an access point.
• Two Computers in an office without an access point. This arrangement is
called an ad hoc network.

(a) Wireless network with an access point. (b) Ad hoc network

Multipath Fading :
• Frequencies used for 802.11, radio signals can be reflected off
solid objects so that multiple echoes of a transmission may reach
a receiver along different paths.
• The echoes can cancel or reinforce each other, causing the
received signal to fluctuate greatly-multipath fading.
• The key idea for overcoming variable wireless conditions or
multipath fading is path diversity, or the sending of information
along multiple, independent paths.
• The information is likely to be received even if one of the paths
happens to be poor due to a fade. These independent paths are
typically built into the digital modulation scheme at the physical
layer. Options include using different frequencies across the
allowed band, following different spatial paths between different
pairs of antennas, or repeating bits over different periods of time.
 Multipath fading

The 802.11a (1999) and 802.11g (2003) standards switched to a

different modulation scheme called OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing). It divides a wide band of spectrum into many
narrow slices over which different bits are sent in parallel.
The latest version is 802.11n (2009). It uses wider frequency bands and
up to four antennas per computer to achieve rates up to 450 Mbps.
• 802.11 radios also have to deal with the problem of multiple
transmissions that are sent at the same time will collide, which
may interfere with reception. To handle this problem, 802.11 uses a
CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access).
• To handle this problem, 802.11 uses a CSMA scheme and ALOHA.

The range of a single radio may not cover the entire system
• Another problem is that of mobility. If a mobile client is moved away from the
access point it is using and into the range of a different access point, some way
of handing it off is needed.
• The solution is that an 802.11 network can consist of multiple cells, each with
its own access point, and a distribution system that connects the cells.
• The distribution system is often switched Ethernet, but it can use any
technology.
• problem of security: Since wireless transmissions are broadcast, it is easy for
nearby computers to receive packets of information that were not intended for
them.
• To prevent this, the 802.11 standard included an Encryption Scheme known as
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).
• The idea was to make wireless security like that of wired security.
• WEP has since been replaced with newer schemes that have different
cryptographic details in the 802.11i standard, also called WPA- WiFi Protected
Access, but now replaced by WPA2.
• 802.11 has caused a revolution in wireless networking that is set
to continue.
• Beyond buildings, it is starting to be installed in trains, planes,
boats, and automobiles so that people can surf the Internet
wherever they go. Mobile phones and all manner of consumer
electronics, from game consoles to digital cameras, can
communicate with it.
• Network Standardization

The IEEE 802 series standards. The important ones are marked with *. The ones
marked with ↓ are hibernating. The one marked with t gave up and disbanded
itself.
 PHYSICAL LAYER:
GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA
1. Magnetic Media
2. Twisted Pairs
3. Coaxial Cable
4. Power Lines
5. Fiber Optics
Magnetic Media
• One of the most common ways to transport data from one
computer to another is to write them onto magnetic tape or
removable media (e.g., recordable DVDs), physically transport
the tape or disks to the destination machine, and read them
back in again.
• An industry-standard Ultrium tape can hold 800 gigabytes.
• A box 60 × 60 × 60 cm can hold about 1000 of these tapes, for
a total capacity of 800 terabytes, or 6400 terabits (6.4
petabits).
• The cost of an Ultrium tape is around $40 when bought in
bulk. A tape can be reused at least 10 times, so the tape cost
is maybe $4000 per box per usage.
• Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of
tapes hurtling down the highway.
• Although the bandwidth characteristics of magnetic tape are
excellent, the delay characteristics are poor.
• Transmission time is measured in minutes or hours, not
milliseconds.
• For many applications an online connection is needed.
2. Twisted Pairs
• One of the oldest and still most common transmission media is
twisted pair.
• A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires, typically
about 1 mm thick.
• The wires are twisted together in a helical form, just like a DNA
molecule.
• Twisting is done because two parallel wires constitute a fine
antenna.
• When the wires are twisted, the waves from different twists
cancel out, so the wire radiates less effectively.
• The most common application of the twisted pair is the
telephone system.
• Twisted pairs can run several kilometers without amplification,
but for longer distances the signal becomes too attenuated and
repeaters are needed.
• Twisted pairs can be used for transmitting either analog or
digital information.
• The bandwidth depends on the thickness of the wire and the
distance traveled, but several megabits/sec can be achieved for
a few kilometers in many cases.
• Due to their adequate performance and low cost, twisted pairs
are widely used.
• A category 5 twisted pair consists of two insulated wires gently
twisted together. Four such pairs are typically grouped in a
plastic sheath to protect the wires and keep them together.
 Category 5 UTP cable with four twisted pairs.

 100-Mbps Ethernet uses two (out of the four) pairs, one pair for
each direction.
 To reach higher speeds, 1-Gbps Ethernet uses all four pairs in both
directions (full- duplex links- used in both directions at the same
time, like a two-lane road) simultaneously.
 Half-duplex links - used in either direction, but only one way at a
time, like a single-track railroad line.
 A third category consists of links that allow traffic in only one
direction, like a one-way street. They are called simplex links.
• Category 3 cables that uses the same connector, but has more twists per
meter. More twists result in less crosstalk and a better-quality signal over
longer distances, making the cables more suitable for high-speed computer
communication, especially 100-Mbps and 1-Gbps Ethernet LANs.
• Category 6 or even Category 7- These categories has more stringent
specifications to handle signals with greater bandwidths.
• Some cables in Category 6 and above are rated for signals of 500 MHz and can
support the 10-Gbps links that will soon be deployed.
• Through Category 6, these wiring types are referred to as UTP (Unshielded
Twisted Pair) as they consist simply of wires and insulators.
• In contrast to these, Category 7 cables have shielding on the individual twisted
pairs, as well as around the entire cable (but inside the plastic protective
sheath). Shielding reduces the susceptibility to external interference and
crosstalk with other nearby cables to meet demanding performance
specifications.
• Expensive shielded twisted pair cables that IBM introduced in the early
1980s, but which did not prove popular outside of IBM installations.
 3. Coaxial Cable
• It has better shielding and greater bandwidth than unshielded
twisted pairs, so it can span longer distances at higher speeds.
Two kinds of coaxial cable are widely used.
• One kind, 50-ohm cable, is commonly used when it is intended
for digital transmission from the start.
• The other kind, 75-ohm cable, is commonly used for analog
transmission and cable television.
• Starting in the mid- 1990s, cable TV operators began to provide
Internet access over cable, which has made 75-ohm cable more
important for data communication.
• A coaxial cable consists of a stiff copper wire as the core,
surrounded by an insulating material. The insulator is encased
by a cylindrical conductor, often as a closely woven braided
mesh.
• The outer conductor is covered in a protective plastic
sheath(cover).
A cutaway view of a coaxial cable

• The construction and shielding of the coaxial cable give it a good

combination of high bandwidth and excellent noise immunity.
• The bandwidth possible depends on the cable quality and length.
Modern cables have a bandwidth of up to a few GHz.
• Coaxial cables used to be widely used within the telephone
system for long-distance lines but have now largely been replaced
by fiber optics on long haul routes.
• Coax is still widely used for cable television and metropolitan area
networks.
4. Power Lines

A network that uses household electrical wiring

5. Fiber Optics
An optical transmission system has three key components:
1. The Light Source: A pulse of light indicates a 1 bit and the
absence of light indicates a 0 bit.
2. The Transmission Medium is an ultra-thin fiber of glass
3. The detector generates an electrical pulse when light falls on it
• By attaching a light source to one end of an optical fiber and a
detector to the other, we have a unidirectional data transmission
system that accepts an electrical signal, converts and transmits it
by light pulses, and then reconverts the output to an electrical
signal at the receiving end.
• This transmission system would leak light and be useless in
practice.
(a) Three examples of a light ray from inside a silica fiber impinging
on the air/silica boundary at different angles.
(b) Light trapped by total internal reflection and can propagate for
many kilometers with virtually no loss.
• Single-mode fibers can transmit data at 100 Gbps for 100 km
without amplification.
• Even higher data rates have been achieved in the laboratory for
shorter distances.
Transmission of Light Through Fiber

• Optical fibers are made of glass, which, in turn, is made from

sand, an inexpensive raw material available in unlimited amounts.
• Glassmaking was known to the ancient Egyptians, but their glass
had to be no more than 1 mm thick or the light could not shine
through.
• Glass transparent enough to be useful for windows was
developed during the Renaissance (regeneration).
• The glass used for modern optical fibers is so transparent that if
the oceans were full of it instead of water, the seabed would be
as visible from the surface as the ground is from an airplane on a
clear day.
Fiber Cables
• Fiber optic cables are similar to coax, except without the braid.
• At the center is the glass core through which the light propagates.
In multimode fibers, the core is typically 50 microns in diameter,
about the thickness of a human hair.
• In single-mode fibers, the core is 8 to 10 microns.

(a) Side view of a single fiber.

(b) (b) End view of a sheath with three fibers
Fibers can be connected in three different ways.
• First, they can terminate in connectors and be plugged into fiber
sockets.
• Connectors lose about 10 to 20% of the light, but they make it
easy to reconfigure systems.
• Second, they can be spliced mechanically.
• Mechanical splices just lay the two carefully cut ends next to
each other in a special sleeve and clamp them in place.
Alignment can be improved by passing light through the junction
and then making small adjustments to maximize the signal.
Mechanical splices take trained personnel about 5 minutes and
result in a 10% light loss.
• Third, two pieces of fiber can be fused (melted) to form a solid
connection. A fusion splice is almost as good as a single drawn
fiber, but even here, a small amount of attenuation occurs.
• Two kinds of light sources are typically used to do the signaling.
These are LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) and semiconductor lasers.

A comparison of semiconductor diodes and LEDs as light sources.

 Comparison of Fiber Optics and Copper Wire
• Fiber can handle much higher bandwidths than copper.
• Due to the low attenuation, repeaters are needed only about
every 50 km on long lines, versus about every 5 km for copper,
resulting in a big cost saving.
• Fiber also has the advantage of not being affected by power
surges, electromagnetic interference, or power failures.
• Nor is it affected by corrosive chemicals in the air, important for
harsh factory environments.
• Fiber has less weight compare to copper.
 WIRELESS TRANSMISSION
• The Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Radio Transmission
• Microwave Transmission
• Infrared Transmission
• Light Transmission
People who need to be online for all time. For these mobile
users Twisted Pairs, Coaxial Cable and Fiber Optics are of no
use.
For mobile users , Wireless communication is the solution.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
• The number of oscillations per second of a wave is called its
frequency, f, and is measured in Hz (in honor of Heinrich
Hertz).
• The distance between two consecutive maxima (or minima) is
called the wavelength, which is universally designated by the
Greek letter λ (lambda).
• First form of spread spectrum, frequency hopping spread
spectrum, the transmitter hops from frequency to frequency
hundreds of times per second. It is popular for military
communication because it makes transmissions hard to detect
and next to impossible to jam. It also offers good resistance to
multipath fading and narrowband interference because the
receiver will not be stuck on an impaired frequency for long
enough to shut down communication.
ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
The electromagnetic spectrum and its uses for communication.

Very high frequency VHF

Ultra high frequency UHF
Super high frequency SHF
Extremely high frequency EHF
Terahertz or Tremendously high frequency THz or THF
A second form of spread spectrum, direct sequence spread spectrum, uses a code
sequence to spread the data signal over a wider frequency band.
• It is widely used commercially as a spectrally efficient way to let multiple signals
share the same frequency band.
• These signals can be given different codes, a method called CDMA (Code
Division Multiple Access).
A third method of communication with a wider band is UWB (Ultra- Wide Band)
communication. UWB sends a series of rapid pulses, varying their positions to
communicate information.
• The rapid transitions lead to a signal that is spread thinly over a very wide
frequency band.
• UWB has very little energy at any given frequency when used for short-range
transmission, it does not cause harmful interference to those other
narrowband radio signals. It is said to underlay the other signals.
Spread spectrum and ultra-wideband (UWB) communication.
 Radio Transmission
• Radio frequency (RF) waves are easy to generate, can travel long
distances, and can penetrate buildings easily, so they are widely
used for communication, both indoors and outdoors.
• Radio waves also are omnidirectional, meaning that they travel in
all directions from the source, so the transmitter and receiver do
not have to be carefully aligned physically.
• The signal energy is spread more thinly over a larger surface. This
attenuation is called path loss.
• At high frequencies, radio waves tend to travel in straight lines
and bounce off obstacles.
• Path loss still reduces power, though the received signal can
depend strongly on reflections as well.
• High-frequency radio waves are also absorbed by rain and other
obstacles to a larger extent than are low-frequency ones.
(a) In the VLF, LF, and MF bands, radio waves follow the curvature of the
earth.
(b) In the HF band, they bounce off the ionosphere.

The military also communicate in the HF and VHF bands.

 Microwave Transmission
• Microwaves travel in a straight line, so if the towers are too far
apart, the earth will get in the way. Thus, repeaters are needed
periodically.
• The distance between repeaters goes up very roughly with the
square root of the tower height.
• For 100-meter-high towers, repeaters can be 80 km apart.
• Unlike radio waves at lower frequencies, microwaves do not pass
through buildings well.
• Multipath fading is a serious problem.
• Microwave communication is so widely used for long-distance
telephone communication, mobile phones, television distribution,
and other purposes that a severe shortage of spectrum has
developed.
• Microwave is also relatively inexpensive.
• Putting up two simple towers (which can be just big poles with
four guy wires) and putting antennas on each one may be
cheaper than burying 50 km of fiber through a congested urban
area or up over a mountain, and it may also be cheaper than
leasing the telephone company’s fiber, especially if the
telephone company has not yet even fully paid for the copper it
ripped out when it put in the fiber.
Infrared Transmission
• Widely used for short-range communication.
• The remote controls used for televisions, VCRs, and stereos all
use infrared communication.
• They are relatively directional, cheap, and easy to build.
• A major drawback is they do not pass through solid objects.
• Infrared communication has a limited use on the desktop, for
example, to connect notebook computers and printers with the
IrDA (Infrared Data Association) standard, but it is not a major
player in the communication game.
Light Transmission
• A more modern application is to connect the LANs in two
buildings via lasers mounted on their rooftops.
• This scheme offers very high bandwidth at very low cost and is
relatively secure because it is difficult to tap a narrow laser beam.
It is also relatively easy to install and, unlike microwave
transmission, does not require an FCC license.
Convection currents can interfere with laser communication systems.
A bidirectional system with two lasers is pictured here.