Transmission Media/Communication

Networks Based Channels

on Commmunication Channels

• Wired Computer Networks

• Wireless Computer Networks
 Wired Computer Networks
Wired computer networks are mostly LANs. In
wired network computers are connected to each
other through wiring or cables.

Most commonly used cables in wired networks

are
• Twisted Pair Cables
• Co-axial cables
• Optical Fibres
 Twisted Pair Cable
•These cables consist of two insulated copper wires twisted
around each other.
Types:
• Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
• Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
STP offers greater protection from interference,But it is heavier
and costlier than UTP.

USE
1. In local telephone communication
2. For digital data transmission over short distances upto 1 km
 Advantages:
•Easy to install and maintain
•Simple
•Inexpensive
•Low weight
•Suitable for small (Local) Networks

Disadvantages:
•Not suitable for long distance due to high attenuation.
•Low bandwidth support.
•Low Speed
• Coaxial cable consists of a solid copper wire core surrounded by a plastic cladding
shielded in a wire mesh.
• Shield prevents the noise by redirecting it to ground.

Types:
Coaxial cable comes in two sizes which are called thinnet and thicknet.
• Thicknet : segment length upto 500 m
• Thinnet : segment length upto 185 m
USE:
In TV channel communication
Advantages:
• Better than twisted wire cable.
• Popular for TV networks.
• Offers higher bandwidth & Speed
Disadvantages:
• Expensive than twisted wires.
• Not compatible with twisted wire cable.
• Thin strands of glass or glass like material
designed to carry light from one source to
another.
• Source converts (Modulates) the data signal
into light using LED (Light Emitting
Diodes) or LASER diodes and send it over
the Optical fiber.
It consists of three parts:
1. The core: glass or plastic through which the
light travels.
2. The cladding : covers the core and reflects
light back to the core
3. Protective coating : protects the fiber
Advantages
• Not affected by any kind of noise.
• High transmission capacity
• Speed of Light
• Suitable for broadband communication

Disadvantages
• Installation requires care.
• Connecting two Optical fibers is difficult.
• Optical fibers are more difficult to solder
• Most expensive
S. No. Factor Twisted Pair Cable Co-axial Cable Optical fiber
1. Cost Low Moderate High
Higher than twisted
2. Low Highest
Noise immunity pair

3. Affected Less affected Not affected

External Magnetic field

4. Low Moderate Very high

Data rate

5. Low Moderate Very high

Bandwidth

6. Easy Fairly easy Difficult

Installation

10. Short circuit between Possible Possible Not possible

the two conductor

Light as compared to
coaxial cable butheavy
11. Weight as compared to optical Heavy Light
fiber
 Wireless Computer Networks
Wireless Networks – It uses high-frequency radio waves rather than
wires to communicate. Wireless allows for devices to be shared without
networking cable which increases mobility but decreases range. There
are two main types of wireless networking; peer to peer or ad-hoc and
infrastructure..

Most commonly used WIRELESS media are

• Radiowaves
• Microwaves
• Satellite Link
• Infrared
• Bluetooth
• Wifi
Radio communication uses radio
frequencies in the range of 3khz
to 3ghz. Signals are modulated on
a high speed radio wave carrier
frequency using Amplitude
Modulation:AM,Frequency
Modulation:FM, and Phase
Modulation:PM eg walkie takie
AM FM radio broadcast etc
Radio waves are omnidirectional
and can penetrate through
buildings.
ADVANTAGES
•Relatively inexpensive than wired media.
•These waves are omni-directional, so the transmitting and receiving antennas
need not be aligned.

DISADVANTAGES
•The transmission can be interfered by motors or other electrical equipment
•Permission from concerned authorities is required for use of radio wave
•Transmission.
•Less secure mode of transmission
Microwaves travel in straight lines and cannot
penetrate any solid object. Therefore for long distance
microwave communication, high towers are built and
microwave antennas are put on their top.

In the big cities where land is very costly and a lot of

formalities have to be completed to get permission to
dig land for cabling, microwave antennas can be put
on top of high rise buildings and communication can
be started in a short time.
ADVANTAGES
•Free from land acquisition rights
•Relatively inexpensive than wired media
•Offers ease of communication over difficult terrain

DISADVANTAGES

The transmission is in straight lines so the transmitting and receiving

antennas need to be properly aligned ( line of sight transmission)
Geostationary satellites are placed around
36000 KM away from the earth’s surface. In
satellite communication transmitting station
transmits the signals to the satellite. (It is called
up-linking). After receiving the signals
(microwaves) it amplifies them and transmit
back to earth in whole visibility area.
Receiving stations at different places can
receive these signals. (It is called down-
linking).
ADVANTAGES
•Satellites cover large area of earth
•Since communication over very long distances is possible, this becomes a commercially
attractive option.

DISADVANTAGES
•This system is expensive
•Requires legal permissions
These waves are used for short range communication (approx. 5m) in a variety of wireless
communications, monitoring, and control applications. Home-entertainment remote-
control devices, Cordless mouse, and Intrusion detectors are some of the devices that
utilize infrared communication.
ADVANTAGES
•It is a line of sight transmission; therefore information passed to one device is
not leaked to another device.
•No government license is required for their use

DISADVANTAGES
•It is a line of sight transmission, therefore at a time only two devices can
communicate.
•The waves do not cross any solid object in between
•Performance drops with longer distances
Bluetooth- Bluetooth technology uses radio waves in the frequency range of 2.402 GHzto
2.480 GHz. This technology is used for short range communication (approx. 10m) in a variety of
devices for wireless communication. Baby monitors, door openers, and cell phones are some of
the devices that utilize Bluetooth communication.

ADVANTAGES
•Line of sight between communicating devices is not required.

DISADVANTAGES
•Slow data transfer rate (upto 1Mbps).

Wifi Communication is similar to Bluetooth in operation but covers a larger range (50-200m)
Computer hardware devices which are used to connect computers, printers, or any other
electronic device to a computer network are called network devices. These devices transfer
data in a fast, secure and correct way with some specific functionality over same or different
networks. Some devices are installed on the device, like Internal modem, NIC card or RJ45
connector, whereas some are part of the network, like router, switch, etc.
This is at top among other networking devices
and mostly used networking device. This is also
known as network adapter card, Ethernet Card
and LAN card. It allows our PC to communicate
with other PCs. A PC uses parallel data
transmission to transmit data between its
internal parts where as the media that
connects this PC with other device/PCs uses
serial data transmission. A NIC converts
parallel data stream into serial data stream and
vice versa.
Wi-Fi cards are small and portable cards that allow your
computer to connect to the internet through a wireless
network. Wi-Fi transmission is through the radio waves,
these signals are picked up by Wi-Fi receivers such as
computers and cell phones equipped with Wi-Fi cards.
The devices need to be within the range of a Wi-Fi
network to receive the signals and produces a wireless
internet connection. Once a connection is established
between user and the network, the user is prompted with
a login screen and password for establishing is a secure
connection. Wi-Fi cards can be external or internal. If a
Wi-Fi card is not installed inside your computer, you may
purchase an external USB antenna attachment and
connect it to your device. Many computers and mobile
devices are now a days equipped with wireless
networking capability and do not require a Wi-Fi card.
A hub is the most basic networking device
that connects multiple computers or other
network devices together. Unlike a network
switch or router, a network hub has no
routing tables or intelligence on where to
send information and broadcasts all
network data across each connection.
A network switch also connects computers to
each other, like a hub. Where the switch differs
from a hub is in the way it handles packets of
data. When a switch receives a packet of data,
it determines what computer or device the
packet is intended for and sends it to that
computer only. It does not broadcast the
packet to all computers as a hub does which
means bandwidth is not shared and makes the
network much more efficient. For this reason
alone, switches are usually preferred over a
hub.
Switches are intelligent hub.
A bridge is a type of computer
network device that provides
interconnection with other bridge
networks that use the same protocol..
.
The router, at least the common
home network device that we usually call a
router, is the piece of network hardware that
allows communication between your local
home network—like your personal computers
and other connected devices—and
the internet. A router is the first line of
security from intrusion into a network.
Enabling the highest level of security on the
router turns on things like the firewall, and is
the best way to keep your computer system
and information safe from attack.
In computer networking and
telecommunications, a gateway is a
component that is part of two
networks, which use
different protocols. The gateway will
translate one protocol into the other.
A router is a special case of a gateway.
A gateway is a hardware device that
acts as a "gate" between two networks.
It may be a router, firewall, server, or
other device that enables traffic to flow
in and out of the network.
RJ45 is a type of connector commonly used
for Ethernet networking. It looks similar to a
telephone jack, but is slightly wider. Since
Ethernet cables have an RJ45 connector on
each end, Ethernet cables are sometimes also
called RJ45 cables.
Modem is short for "Modulator-Demodulator."
It is a hardware component that allows
a computer or another device, such as
a router or switch, to connect to the Internet.
It converts or "modulates" an analog signal
from a telephone or cable wire to digital data
(1s and 0s) that a computer can recognize.
Similarly, it converts digital data from a
computer or other device into an analog signal
that can be sent over standard telephone lines.
MAC Addresses are unique 48-bits hardware number of a computer, which is embedded
into network card (known as Network Interface Card) during the time of manufacturing.
MAC Address is also known as Physical Address of a network device. In IEEE 802
80-20 Thumb Rule says that 80 % traffic in a network should be local

TIPS TO SOLVE NETWORKING PROBLEMS

SERVER : Large no of computers in a building

HUB/SWITCH: Each Building
MODEM: Server Room
REPEATER: If distance is more than 100 metres
BEST CABLE
• Twisted Pair/Coaxial when distance is in metres
• Optical fibre for long distance / high speed communication
• Hilly Regions: Radio waves
• State to State or City : Satellite Links