To be transmitted, data must be transformed to electromagnetic signals

ANALOG AND DIGITAL

Both data and the signals that represent them can be either analog or digital in form.

Analog and Digital Data

Data can be analog or digital. The term analog data refers to information that is continuous;
digital data refers to information that has discrete states. For example, an analog clock that has
hour, minute, and second hands gives information in a continuous form; the movements of the
hands are continuous. On the other hand, a digital clock that reports the hours and the minutes
will change suddenly from 8:05 to 8:06. Analog data, such as the sounds made by a human
voice, take on continuous values. When someone speaks, an analog wave is created in the air.
This can be captured by a microphone and converted to an analog signal or sampled and
converted to a digital signal. Digital data take on discrete values. For example, data are stored in
computer memory in the form of Os and 1s. They can be converted to a digital signal or
modulated into an analog signal for transmission across a medium

Data can be analog or digital. Analog data are continuous and take continuous values.
Digital data have discrete states and take discrete values

Analog and Digital Signals

Like the data they represent, signals can be either analog or digital. An analog signal has
infinitely many levels of intensity over a period of time. As the wave moves from value A to
value B, it passes through and includes an infinite number of values along its path. A digital
signal, on the other hand, can have only a limited number of defined values. Although each value
can be any number, it is often as simple as 1 and O. The simplest way to show signals is by
plotting them on a pair of perpendicular axes. The vertical axis represents the value or strength of
a signal. The horizontal axis represents time.The curve representing the analog signal passes
through an infinite number of points. The vertical lines of the digital signal, however,
demonstrate the sudden jump that the signal makes from value to value.
Signals can be analog or digital. Analog signals can have an infinite number of values in a
range; digital signals can have only a limited number of values.

DIGITAL SIGNALS

Bit Rate

The bit rate is the number of bits sent in Is, expressed in bits per second (bps).

Assume we need to download text documents at the rate of 100 pages per minute. What is the
required bit rate of the channel?

Solution

A page is an average of 24 lines with 80 characters in each line. If we assume that one character
requires 8 bits, the bit rate is 100 x 24 x 80 x 8 =1,636,000 bps =1.636 Mbps

Bit Length

The bit length is the distance one bit occupies on the transmission medium.

Bit length =propagation speed x bit duration

Transmission of Digital Signals

Baseband Transmission
Baseband transmission means sending a digital signal over a channel without changing the
digital signal to an analog signal. In baseband transmission, the required bandwidth is
proportional to the bit rate; if we need to send bits faster, we need more bandwidth.

Broadband Transmission (Using Modulation)

Broadband transmission or modulation means changing the digital signal to an analog signal for
transmission.

TRANSMISSION IMPAIRMENT

Signals travel through transmission media, which are not perfect. The imperfection causes signal
impairment. This means that the signal at the beginning of the medium is not the same as the
signal at the end of the medium. What is sent is not what is received. Three causes of impairment
are attenuation, distortion, and noise.

Attenuation

Attenuation means a loss of energy. When a signal, simple or composite, travels through a
medium, it loses some of its energy in overcoming the resistance of the medium. That is why a
wire carrying electric signals gets warm, if not hot, after a while. Some of the electrical energy in
the signal is converted to heat. To compensate for this loss, amplifiers are used to amplify the
signal. Figure shows the effect of attenuation and amplification

Decibel
To show that a signal has lost or gained strength, engineers use the unit of the decibel. The
decibel (dB) measures the relative strengths of two signals or one signal at two different points.
Note that the decibel is negative if a signal is attenuated and positive if a signal is amplified.
Variables PI and P2 are the powers of a signal at points 1 and 2, respectively. Note that some
engineering books define the decibel in terms of voltage instead of power. In this case, because
power is proportional to the square of the voltage, the formula is dB = 20 log 10 (V2IV1). In this
text, we express dB in terms of power

Distortion

Distortion means that the signal changes its form or shape. Distortion can occur in a composite
signal made of different frequencies. Each signal component has its own propagation speed (see
the next section) through a medium and, therefore, its own delay in arriving at the final
destination. Differences in delay may create a difference in phase if the delay is not exactly the
same as the period duration. In other words, signal components at the receiver have phases
different from what they had at the sender. The shape of the composite signal is therefore not the
same.
Noise

Noise is another cause of impairment. Several types of noise, such as thermal noise, induced
noise, crosstalk, and impulse noise, may corrupt the signal. Thermal noise is the random motion
of electrons in a wire which creates an extra signal not originally sent by the transmitter. Induced
noise comes from sources such as motors and appliances

These devices act as a sending antenna, and the transmission medium acts as the receiving
antenna. Crosstalk is the effect of one wire on the other. One wire acts as a sending antenna and
the other as the receiving antenna. Impulse noise is a spike (a signal with high energy in a very
short time) that comes from power lines, lightning, and so on.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)

The signal-to-noise ratio is defined as

SNR =average signal power/ average noise power

We need to consider the average signal power and the average noise power because these may
change with time. SNR is actually the ratio of what is wanted (signal) to what is not wanted
(noise). A high SNR means the signal is less corrupted by noise; a low SNR means the signal is
more corrupted by noise. Because SNR is the ratio of two powers, it is often described in decibel
units, SNRdB, defined as

SNRdB = l0log10 SNR

Bandwidth

One characteristic that measures network performance is bandwidth. However, the term can be
used in two different contexts with two different measuring values: bandwidth in hertz and
bandwidth in bits per second.

Bandwidth in Hertz

Bandwidth in hertz is the range of frequencies contained in a composite signal or the range of
frequencies a channel can pass. For example, we can say the bandwidth of a subscriber telephone
line is 4 kHz.

Bandwidth in Bits per Seconds

The term bandwidth can also refer to the number of bits per second that a channel, a link, or even
a network can transmit. For example, one can say the bandwidth of a Fast Ethernet network (or
the links in this network) is a maximum of 100 Mbps. This means that this network can send 100
Mbps.

Throughput

The throughput is a measure of how fast we can actually send data through a network. Although,
at first glance, bandwidth in bits per second and throughput seem the same, they are different. A
link may have a bandwidth of B bps, but we can only send T bps through this link with T always
less than B. In other words, the bandwidth is a potential measurement of a link; the throughput is
an actual measurement of how fast we can send data. For example, we may have a link with a
bandwidth of 1 Mbps, but the devices connected to the end of the link may handle only 200 kbps.
This means that we cannot send more than 200 kbps through this link. Imagine a highway
designed to transmit 1000 cars per minute from one point to another. However, if there is
congestion on the road, this figure may be reduced to 100 cars per minute. The bandwidth is
1000 cars per minute; the throughput is 100 cars per minute.
Latency (Delay)

The latency or delay defines how long it takes for an entire message to completely arrive at the
destination from the time the first bit is sent out from the source. We can say that latency is made
of four components: propagation time, transmission time, queuing time and processing delay.
Latency =propagation time +transmission time +queuing time + processing delay
Propagation Time

Propagation time measures the time required for a bit to travel from the source to the destination.
The propagation time is calculated by dividing the distance by the propagation speed.
Propagation time = Distance /Propagation speed

The propagation speed of electromagnetic signals depends on the medium and on the frequency
of the signal For example, in a vacuum, light is propagated with a speed of 3 x 10 8 m/s. It is
lower in air; it is much lower in cable

Transmission Time

In data communications we don't send just 1 bit, we send a message. The first bit may take a time
equal to the propagation time to reach its destination; the last bit also may take the same amount
of time. However, there is a time between the first bit leaving the sender and the last bit arriving
at the receiver. The first bit leaves earlier and arrives earlier; the last bit leaves later and arrives
later. The time required for transmission of a message depends on the size of the message and the
bandwidth of the channel.

Transmission time =Message size/ Bandwidth

Queuing Time

The third component in latency is the queuing time, the time needed for each intermediate or end
device to hold the message before it can be processed. The queuing time is not a fixed factor; it
changes with the load imposed on the network. When there is heavy traffic on the network, the
queuing time increases. An intermediate device, such as a router, queues the arrived messages
and processes them one by one. If there are many messages, each message will have to wait
Jitter

Another performance issue that is related to delay is jitter. We can roughly say that jitter is a
problem if different packets of data encounter different delays and the application using the data
at the receiver site is time-sensitive (audio and video data, for example). If the delay for the first
packet is 20 ms, for the second is 45 ms, and for the third is 40 ms, then the real-time application
that uses the packets endures jitter.