Chapter III: PHYSICAL LAYER

Aims and Learning Outcomes

That students can:

1. Discuss the function of physical layer of the OSI model.

2. Distinguish between analog and digital signals and understand
their characteristics
3. Discuss transmission-related issues, including various
transmission media.
4. Analyse the different physical transmission media and their
characteristics
5. Explain the different transmission mode and the methods of
sending messages.
6. Define the basic multiplexing and switching technique and their
role in data transmission.

Physical layer in the OSI model plays the role of interacting with actual
hardware and signaling mechanism. Physical layer is the only layer of OSI network
model which actually deals with the physical connectivity of two different stations.
This layer defines the hardware equipment, cabling, wiring, frequencies, pulses
used to represent binary signals etc. Physical layer provides its services to Data-
link layer. Data-link layer hands over frames to physical layer. Physical layer
converts them to electrical pulses, which represent binary data. The binary data is
then sent over the wired or wireless media.
D. DIGITAL TRANSMISSION
Aims and Learning Outcomes
That students can:
1. Explain the difference between analog and digital signals
2. Discuss the relationship between data and signals as well as
distinguish and discuss their types, behavior, properties,
characterization, and transmission.
3. Demonstrate clear understanding of digital transmission of
analog and digital data, encoding techniques – line encoding
(unipolar, polar, and bypolar encoding; e.g. NRZ, RZ,
Manchester, PCM, etc.) - techniques used to convert digital data
and analog signals to digital signals for transmission.
4. Explain how noise, attenuation, Dispersion and distortion affect
signal traveling through a transmission medium

Data can be represented either in analog or digital form. The computers

used the digital form to store the information. Therefore, the data needs to be
converted in digital form so that it can be used by a computer.
SIGNALS
When data is sent over physical medium, it needs to be first converted into
electromagnetic signals. Data itself can be analog such as human voice, or digital
such as file on the disk. Both analog and digital data can be represented in digital
or analog signals.
https://www.schoolelectronic.com/2012/01/difference-between-analog-and-digital.html

Digital Signals - Digital signals are discrete in nature and represent

sequence of voltage pulses. Digital signals are used within the circuitry of a
computer system.

Analog Signals - Analog signals are in continuous wave form in nature and
represented by continuous electromagnetic waves.

DIGITAL-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION
Digital-to-digital encoding is the representation of digital information
by a digital signal. When binary 1s and 0s generated by the computer are
translated into a sequence of voltage pulses that can be propagated over a
wire, this process is known as digital-to-digital encoding.
It can be done in two ways, line coding and block coding. For all
communications, line coding is necessary whereas block coding is optional.
Line Coding
The process for converting digital data into digital signal is
said to be Line Coding. Digital data is found in binary format. It is
represented (stored) internally as series of 1s and 0s.
There are three types of line coding schemes available:

Unipolar
- Digital transmission system sends the voltage pulses over the
medium link such as wire or cable.
- In most types of encoding, one voltage level represents 0, and
another voltage level represents 1.
- The polarity of each pulse determines whether it is positive or
negative.
- This type of encoding is known as Unipolar encoding as it uses only
one polarity.
- In this, 1s are represented as a positive value and 0s are represented
as a zero value.
- In this case, to represent binary 1, high voltage is transmitted and to
represent 0, no voltage is transmitted.
- Unipolar encoding is simpler and inexpensive to implement.

Data stream: 0101011

Polar Encoding
Polar encoding scheme uses multiple voltage levels to represent
binary values. Polar encodings is available in four types:
NRZ
- NRZ stands for Non-return zero.
- In NRZ encoding, the level of the signal can be represented either positive
or negative.
- Generally, positive voltage represents 1 and negative value represents 0.
The two most common methods used in NRZ are:
NRZ-L:
- In NRZ-L encoding, the level of the signal depends on the type of the
bit that it represents. If a bit is 0 or 1, then their voltages will be
positive and negative respectively. Therefore, we can say that the
level of the signal is dependent on the state of the bit.
- NRZ-L changes voltage level at when a different bit is encountered
whereas NRZ-I changes voltage when a 1 is encountered.
NRZ-I: NRZ-I is an inversion of the voltage level that represents 1 bit. In the
NRZ-I encoding scheme, a transition occurs between the positive and
negative voltage that represents 1 bit. In this scheme, 0 bit represents no
change and 1 bit represents a change in voltage level.

Data stream: 01001110

Return to Zero (RZ)

- RZ stands for Return to zero.

- There must be a signal change for each bit to achieve
synchronization. However, to change with every bit, we need to have
three values: positive, negative and zero.
- RZ is an encoding scheme that provides three values, positive
voltage represents 1, the negative voltage represents 0, and zero
voltage represents none.
- In the RZ scheme, halfway through each interval, the signal returns
to zero.
- In RZ scheme, 1 bit is represented by positive-to-zero and 0 bit is
represented by negative-to-zero.

Biphase
Biphase is an encoding scheme in which signal changes at the
middle of the bit interval but does not return to zero.
Biphase encoding is implemented in two different ways:

Manchester
It changes the signal at the middle of the bit interval but does not
return to zero for synchronization.
In Manchester encoding, a negative-to-positive transition represents
binary 1, and positive-to-negative transition represents 0.

o Manchester has the same level of synchronization as RZ scheme

except that it has two levels of amplitude.
 Differential Manchester

o It changes the signal at the middle of the bit interval for

synchronization, but the presence or absence of the transition at the
beginning of the interval determines the bit. A transition means binary
0 and no transition means binary 1.
o In Manchester Encoding scheme, two signal changes represent 0
and one signal change represent 1.
o It also transits at the middle of the bit but changes phase only when
1 is encountered.

Bipolar Encoding
Bipolar encoding uses three voltage levels, positive, negative, and zero.
Zero voltage represents binary 0 and bit 1 is represented by altering positive and
negative voltages.

ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION
- When an analog signal is digitalized, this is called an analog-to-digital
conversion.
- Suppose human sends a voice in the form of an analog signal, we need to
digitalize the analog signal which is less prone to noise. It requires a
reduction in the number of values in an analog message so that they can
be represented in the digital stream.
 - In analog-to-digital conversion, the information contained in a continuous
wave form is converted in digital pulses.
To convert analog wave into digital data, we use Pulse Code Modulation
(PCM).
PCM is one of the most commonly used method to convert analog data into
digital form. It involves three steps:
- Sampling
- Quantization
- Encoding.

TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

When signals travel through the medium, they tend to deteriorate. This may
have many reasons as given:
 Attenuation
It means loss of energy. The strength of signal decreases with
increasing distance which causes loss of energy in overcoming resistance
of medium. This is also known as attenuated signal. Amplifiers are used to
amplify the attenuated signal which gives the original signal back.
For the receiver to interpret the data accurately, the signal must be
sufficiently strong. When the signal passes through the medium, it tends to
get weaker. As it covers distance, it loses strength.

Delay distortion
Signals are sent over media with pre-defined speed and frequency.
If the signal speed and frequency do not match, there are possibilities that
signal reaches destination in arbitrary fashion. In digital media, this is very
critical that some bits reach earlier than the previously sent ones.

Noise
Random disturbance or fluctuation in analog or digital signal is said
to be Noise in signal, which may distort the actual information being carried.
Noise can be characterized in one of the following class:
 Thermal Noise
Heat agitates the electronic conductors of a medium which may
introduce noise in the media. Up to a certain level, thermal noise is
unavoidable.
 Intermodulation
When multiple frequencies share a medium, their interference
can cause noise in the medium. Intermodulation noise occurs if two
different frequencies are sharing a medium and one of them has
excessive strength or the component itself is not functioning
properly, then the resultant frequency may not be delivered as
expected.
 Crosstalk
This sort of noise happens when a foreign signal enters into the
media. This is because signal in one medium affects the signal of
second medium.
 Impulse
This noise is introduced because of irregular disturbances such
as lightening, electricity, short-circuit, or faulty components. Digital
data is mostly affected by this sort of noise.

CHANNEL CAPACITY
The speed of transmission of information is said to be the channel
capacity. We count it as data rate in digital world. It depends on numerous
factors such as:
 Bandwidth: The physical limitation of underlying media.
 Error-rate: Incorrect reception of information because of
noise.
 Encoding: The number of levels used for signaling.
