Course: Computer Networks
(CSL 302, Core)
5th Semester
Topics Covered
Physical Layer
Introduction
Signal
Information converted into electrical form and suitable
for transmission
Signals can be either analog or digital
Analog Signal
Continuous variations of voltage or current
Digital signal can take only discrete stepwise values
‘0’ corresponds to a low level of voltage/ current
‘1’ corresponds to a high level of voltage/ current
Bandwidth of a Signal and Medium
Bandwidth of a Signal
In a communication system, the message signal can be
voice, music, and picture or computer data
Each of these signals has different ranges of
frequencies
Signals Frequency Range Bandwidth of signal
Speech 300 Hz to 3100 Hz 2800 Hz
Music 20 Hz to 20000 Hz 19980 Hz
Video 1500 MHz to 1506 MHz 6 MHz
Computer data 2000 MHz to 2600 MHz 600 MHz
Cont…
Bandwidth of Transmission Medium
Different types of transmission media offer different
bandwidths
Commonly used transmission media are wire, free space,
and fibre optic cable
Coaxial cable offers a bandwidth of approximately 750 MHz
Communication through free space using radio waves takes place
over a very wide range of frequencies: from a few hundreds of
kHz to a few GHz.
Optical communication using fibres is performed in the frequency
range of 1 THz to 1000 THz (microwaves to ultraviolet)
Transmission Media
Cont…
Guided Media
The physical medium through which the signals are
transmitted
Also known as Bounded media
Unguided Transmission
Transmits the electromagnetic waves without using any
physical medium
Also known as wireless transmission
Air is the media through which the electromagnetic
energy can flow easily
Types of Guided Media
Twisted pair
A physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted
with each other
Consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a
regular spiral pattern
Frequency range 0 to 3.5 KHz
Cheap, lightweight and easy to install
Cont…
Twisted pair
Types of Twisted pair
Unshielded Twisted Pair
An unshielded twisted pair
widely used in telecommunication
Various categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable
Category 1: used for telephone lines that have low-speed
data
Category 2: can support up to 4Mbps
Category 3: can support up to 16Mbps
Category 4: can support up to 20Mbps, can be used for
long-distance communication
Category 5: can support up to 200Mbps
Shielded Twisted Pair
Cable - contains the mesh surrounding the wire that
allows the higher transmission rate
Characteristics
Itis shielded that provides higher data transmission rate
Cost - not very high, not very low
Installation is easy
Higher capacity as compared to UTP cable
Disadvantages
More expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable
Has a higher attenuation rate
Cont…
Coaxial Cable
Contains two conductors parallel to each other
inner conductor - made up of copper
outer conductor - made up of copper mesh
Very commonly used transmission media, for
example, TV wire is usually a coaxial cable
Has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted
pair cable
Cont…
Cont…
Coaxial cables are of two types
Basebandtransmission
Broadband transmission
Fiber Optics
Permit transmission over longer distances and at
higher bandwidths (data transfer rates) than
electrical cables
Optical Fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made
by drawing glass (silica) or plastic
Fibers are used instead of metal wires
signals
travel along them with less loss
immune to electromagnetic interference
Used most often as a means to transmit light
between the two ends of the fiber
Cont…
Unguided Transmission
Unguided transmission
Transmits the electromagnetic waves without using any
physical medium
Also known as wireless transmission
In unguided media, air is the media through which the
electromagnetic energy can flow easily
Broadly classified into three categories
Radio waves
Microwaves
Infrared
Transmission Mode
Transmission mode
The way in which data is transmitted from one device to
another device
Also known as the communication mode
Each communication channel has a direction associated
with it, and transmission media provide the direction.
Therefore, the transmission mode is also known as a
directional mode
Defined in the physical layer
Cont…
Transmission mode categories
Cont…
Simplex mode
The communication is unidirectional, i.e., the data flow in
one direction
A device can only send the data but cannot receive it
or it can receive the data but cannot send the data
Not very popular, used in the business field as in sales
that do not require any corresponding reply
Ex:
Radiostation
Keyboard and Monitor
Cont…
Simplex mode
Cont…
Half-duplex mode
The station can transmit and receive the data as well
Messages flow in both the directions, but not at the
same time
The entire bandwidth of the communication channel is
utilized in one direction at a time.
Possible to perform the error detection, and if any error
occurs, then the receiver requests the sender to
retransmit the data
Ex: A Walkie-talkie
Cont…
Half-duplex mode
Cont…
Full duplex mode
The communication is bi-directional, i.e., the data flow
in both the directions
Both the stations can send and receive the message
simultaneously
Full-duplex mode has two simplex channels
One channel has traffic moving in one direction, and another
channel has traffic flowing in the opposite direction
The fastest mode of communication between devices
Ex: Telephone network
Cont…
Full duplex mode
Transmission Impairment
Transmission Impairment
Occurs when the received signal is different from the
transmitted signal
Analog signals: resulting received signal gets different
amplitude or the shape
Digitally signals: resulting received signal have changes in bits
(0's or 1's)
Cont…
Encoding Techniques
Data can be represented either in analog or digital
form
The computers used the digital form to store the
information
[Link] data needs to be converted in digital form so
that it can be used by a computer
Digital-to-digital encoding is the representation of
digital information by a digital signal
Cont…
Digital-to-digital encoding
When binary 1s and 0s generated by the computer are
translated into a sequence of voltage pulses that can
be propagated over a wire,
Example
Cont…
Digital-to-digital encoding is divided into three
categories:
Cont…
Unipolar Encoding
Cont…
Polar Encoding
Cont…
Non-return to Zero (NRZ)
The level of the signal can be represented either
positive or negative
Cont…
Return to zero (RZ)
Cont…
Biphase
Signalchanges at the middle of the bit interval but
does not return to zero
Cont…
Two types of conventions in Manchester encoding
Dr. Thomas conventions
IEEE 802.3 conventions
Dr. Thomas: In this manchester encoding 0 is represented
as low-to-high and 1 is represented as high-to-low.
Cont…
IEEE 802.3: In this manchester encoding, 0 is represented as
high-to-low and 1 is represented as low-to-high.
Cont…
Differential Manchester Encoding
Presence and absence of transition indicate the value.
0 should contain an edge but 1 should not contain any
edge it should be continuous.
