Module 2: Physical Layer

Overview
Guided - wired
Unguided - wireless
Characteristics and quality determined by medium and signal
For guided, the medium is more important
For unguided, the bandwidth produced by the antenna is more
important
Key concerns are data rate and distance
Numerical using Shannons and Nyquists theorem.

Transmission Media
Two basic formats
Guided media : wires, fiber optics
Medium is important
Unguided media : wireless, radio transmission
Antenna is important
Each have tradeoffs over data rate, distance
Attenuation : weakening of signal over distance
7.4
Design Factors
Bandwidth
Higher bandwidth gives higher data rate
Transmission impairments
Attenuation
Interference
Number of receivers
In guided media
More receivers (multi-point) introduce more attenuation

Guided Transmission Media
Twisted Pair
Coaxial cable
Optical fiber

Twisted Pair
Unshielded and Shielded TP
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Ordinary telephone wire
Cheapest
Easiest to install
Suffers from external EM interference
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
Metal braid or sheathing that reduces interference
More expensive
Harder to handle (thick, heavy)
7.9
Twisted Pair - Applications
Most common medium
Telephone network
Between house and local exchange (subscriber loop)
Within buildings
To private branch exchange (PBX)
For local area networks (LAN)
10Mbps or 100Mbps

Twisted Pair - Pros and Cons
Cheap
Easy to work with
Low data rate
Short range

Near End Crosstalk
Coupling of signal from one pair to another
Coupling takes place when transmit signal entering the link couples
back to receiving pair
i.e. near transmitted signal is picked up by near receiving pair
UTP Categories
Cat 3
up to 16MHz
Voice grade found in most offices
Twist length of 7.5 cm to 10 cm
Cat 4
up to 20 MHz
Cat 5
up to 100MHz
Commonly pre-installed in new office buildings
Twist length 0.6 cm to 0.85 cm
Cat 5E (Enhanced) Cat 6
Cat 7

Comparison of Shielded and Unshielded
Twisted Pair


Attenuation (dB per 100 m)

Near-end Crosstalk (dB)

Frequency
(MHz)

Category 3
UTP

Category 5
UTP

150-ohm
STP

Category 3
UTP

Category 5
UTP

150-ohm
STP

1

2.6

2.0

1.1

41

62

58

4

5.6

4.1

2.2

32

53

58

16

13.1

8.2

4.4

23

44

50.4

25



10.4

6.2



41

47.5

100



22.0

12.3



32

38.5

300





21.4





31.3

Coaxial Cable
Coaxial Cable Applications
Most versatile medium
Television distribution
Ariel to TV
Cable TV
Long distance telephone transmission
Can carry 10,000 voice calls simultaneously
Being replaced by fiber optic
Short distance computer systems links
Local area networks

Optical Fiber
Optical Fiber - Benefits
Greater capacity
Data rates of hundreds of Gbps
Smaller size & weight
Lower attenuation
Electromagnetic isolation
Greater repeater spacing
10s of km at least
Optical Fiber - Applications
Long-haul trunks
Metropolitan trunks
Rural exchange trunks
Subscriber loops
LANs

Types of Optical Fiber
There are two basic types of fiber: multimode fiber and
single-mode fiber.

Multimode fiber is best designed for short transmission
distances, and is suited for use in LAN systems and video
surveillance.

Single-mode fiber is best designed for longer transmission
distances, making it suitable for long-distance telephony
and multichannel television broadcast systems.
Propagation Modes (Types of Optical Fiber )
Current technology supports
two modes for propagating
light along optical channels,
each requiring fiber with
different physical
characteristics: Multimode
and Single Mode.

Multimode, in turn, can be
implemented in two forms:
step-index or graded index.
Multimode: In this case multiple beams from a light
source move through the core in different paths.
In multimode step-index fiber, the density of the
core remains constant from the center to the edges.
A beam of light moves through this constant density
in a straight line until it reaches the interface of the
core and cladding. At the interface there is an abrupt
change to a lower density that alters the angle of
the beams motion.
In a multimode graded-index fiber the density is
highest at the center of the core and decreases
gradually to its lowest at the edge.


Propagation Modes
DATA RATE LIMITS
A very important consideration in data communications is how fast we can send data, in
bits per second, over a channel. Data rate depends on three factors:
1. The bandwidth available
2. The level of the signals we use
3. The quality of the channel (the level of noise)
Noiseless Channel: Nyquist Bit Rate
Noisy Channel: Shannon Capacity
Using Both Limits
3.25
Capacity of a System
The bit rate of a system increases with an increase
in the number of signal levels we use to denote a
symbol.
A symbol can consist of a single bit or n bits.
The number of signal levels = 2
n
.
As the number of levels goes up, the spacing
between level decreases -> increasing the
probability of an error occurring in the presence of
transmission impairments.
3.26
Nyquist Theorem
Nyquist gives the upper bound for the bit rate of a
transmission system by calculating the bit rate
directly from the number of bits in a symbol (or
signal levels) and the bandwidth of the system
(assuming 2 symbols/per cycle and first harmonic).
Nyquist theorem states that for a noiseless
channel:
C = 2 B log
2
2
n

C= capacity in bps
B = bandwidth in Hz
3.27
Shannons Theorem
Shannons theorem gives the capacity of a system
in the presence of noise.

C = B log
2
(1 + SNR)

3.28
The Shannon capacity gives us the upper
limit; the Nyquist formula tells us how many
signal levels we need.