CHAPTER - FOUR

What is Transmission media?

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o Transmission media is a communication channel that carries the information from the
sender to the receiver. Data is transmitted through the electromagnetic signals.
o The main functionality of the transmission media is to carry the information in the form of
bits through LAN(Local Area Network).
o It is a physical path between transmitter and receiver in data communication.
o In a copper-based network, the bits in the form of electrical signals.
o In a fiber based network, the bits in the form of light pulses.
o In OSI(Open System Interconnection) phase, transmission media supports the Layer 1.
Therefore, it is considered to be as a Layer 1 component.
o The electrical signals can be sent through the copper wire, fibere optics, atmosphere,
water, and vacuum.
 …….Cont’d
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o The characteristics and quality of data transmission are determined by the characteristics
of medium and signal.
o Transmission media is of two types are wired media and wireless media. In wired media,
medium characteristics are more important whereas, in wireless media, signal
characteristics are more important.
o Different transmission media have different properties such as bandwidth, delay, cost and
ease of installation and maintenance.
o The transmission media is available in the lowest layer of the OSI reference model,
i.e., Physical layer.
 Some factors need to be considered for designing the transmission
media:
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o Bandwidth: All the factors are remaining constant, the greater the bandwidth of a
medium, the higher the data transmission rate of a signal.
o Transmission impairment: When the received signal is not identical to the transmitted
one due to the transmission impairment. The quality of the signals will get destroyed due
to transmission impairment.
o Interference: An interference is defined as the process of disrupting a signal when it
travels over a communication medium on the addition of some unwanted signal.
 Causes Of Transmission Impairment:
 …….Cont’d
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o Attenuation: Attenuation means the loss of energy, i.e., the strength of the
signal decreases with increasing the distance which causes the loss of energy.
o Distortion: Distortion occurs when there is a change in the shape of the
signal. This type of distortion is examined from different signals having
different frequencies. Each frequency component has its own propagation
speed, so they reach at a different time which leads to the delay distortion.
o Noise: When data is travelled over a transmission medium, some unwanted
signal is added to it which creates the noise.
Classification Of Transmission
Media:
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 Guided (Wired) Media
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 It is defined as the physical medium through which the

signals are transmitted. It is also known as Bounded
media.
 Guided media are those that provide a conduit from one
device to another. These include twisted-pair cable, coaxial
cable and fiber-optic cable.
 A signal traveling along any of these media is directed and
contained by the physical limits of the medium. Twisted-
pair and coaxial cables use metallic (copper) conductors
that accept and transport signals in the form of electric
current.

 Types Of Guided media:
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1. Twisted pair:
Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted with each
other. A twisted pair cable is cheap as compared to other transmission media.
Installation of the twisted pair cable is easy, and it is a lightweight cable.
The frequency range for twisted pair cable is from 0 to 3.5KHz.
A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular
spiral pattern.
The degree of reduction in noise interference is determined by the number of
turns per foot. Increasing the number of turns per foot decreases noise
interference.
 …….Cont’d
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o One of the wires is used to carry signals to the receiver and the other is used
only as a ground reference.
o In addition to the signal sent by the sender on one of the wires, interference
(noise) and crosstalk may affect both wires and create unwanted signals.
 Unshielded Twisted Pair:
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An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in telecommunication. Following
are the categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable:
o Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone lines that have low-speed data.
o Category 2: It can support up to 4Mbps.
o Category 3: It can support up to 16Mbps.
o Category 4: It can support up to 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for long-distance communication.
o Category 5: It can support up to 200Mbps.
 …….Cont’d
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Advantages Of UTP Cable Connectors

Unshielded Twisted • The most common UTP
Pair: connector is RJ45. RJ
It is cheap.
stands for registered
Installation of the jack, implying that the
unshielded twisted pair connector follows a
is easy.
standard borrowed from
It can be used for high-
the telephone industry.
speed LAN.
Disadvantage:
This cable can only be
used for shorter
 …….Cont’d
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♂ The straight-through is the most common type and is used to connect

computers to hubs or switches (connect different network devices). They are
most likely what you will find when you go to your local computer laboratory.
♂ Crossover Ethernet cable is more commonly used to connect a computer to a
computer (connect similar network devices)
 Shielded Twisted Pair
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A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire
that allows the higher transmission rate.
This type of cable consists of a special jacket to block external interference. It
is used in fast-data-rate Ethernet and voice and data channels of telephone lines.
 …….Cont’d
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Characteristics Of Shielded Twisted Pair:

The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and
not very low.
An installation of STP is easy.
It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair
cable.
It has a higher attenuation.
It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.
Disadvantages
It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.
It has a higher attenuation rate.
 2. Coaxial Cable
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 Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example, TV wire
is usually a coaxial cable.
 The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to each
other.
 It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
 The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the outer
conductor is made up of copper mesh. The middle core is made up of non-
conductive cover that separates the inner conductor from the outer conductor.
 The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper mesh
prevents from the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).
 …….Cont’d
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 This outer conductor is also enclosed in an insulating sheath and the whole cable
is protected by a plastic cover.

Coaxial cable is of two types:

→ Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single signal at
high speed.
→ Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting multiple signals
simultaneously.
 Coaxial Cable Connectors
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 To connect coaxial cables to devices, we need coaxial connectors. The most

common type of connector used today is the Bayonet Neill-Concelman (BNC)
connector.
 Figure blow shows three popular types of these connectors: the BNC connector,
the BNC T connector, and the BNC terminator.
 …….Cont’d
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Advantages Of Coaxial cable:

† The data can be transmitted at high speed.
† It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
† It provides higher bandwidth.
Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:
† It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.
† If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire
network.
 Fiber Optic
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 Fiber optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
 Fiber optic is a cable that holds the optical fibers coated in plastic that are used
to send the data by pulses of light.
 The plastic coating protects the optical fibers from heat, cold, electromagnetic
interference from other types of wiring.
 Fiber optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.
 Fiber optic cabling consists of a center glass core surrounded by several layers of
protective materials.
 It transmits light rather than electronic signals eliminating the problem of
electrical interference.
Diagrammatic representation of fiber optic
cable:
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 Basic elements of Fiber optic
cable:
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† Core: The optical fiber consists of a narrow strand of glass or

plastic known as a core. A core is a light transmission area of
the fiber. The more the area of the core, the more light will be
transmitted into the fiber.
† Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding.
The main functionality of the cladding is to provide the lower
refractive index at the core interface as to cause the reflection
within the core so that the light waves are transmitted through
the fiber.
† Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as
a jacket. The main purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fiber
strength, absorb shock and extra fiber protection.
 Following are the advantages of fiber optic cable over
copper:
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◊ Greater Bandwidth: The fiber optic cable provides more bandwidth as compared
copper. Therefore, the fiber optic carries more data as compared to copper cable.
◊ Faster speed: Fiber optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This allows the
fiber optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
◊ Longer distances: The fiber optic cable carries the data at a longer distance as
compared to copper cable.
◊ Better reliability: The fiber optic cable is more reliable than the copper cable as it is
immune to any temperature changes while it can cause obstruct in the connectivity of
copper cable.
◊ Thinner and Sturdier: Fiber optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight so it can
withstand more pull pressure than copper cable.
 Unguided Transmission
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An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves

without using any physical medium. Therefore it is also known
as wireless transmission.
In unguided media, air is the media through which the
electromagnetic energy can flow easily.
Unguided transmission is broadly classified into three
categories:
 Radio waves
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⸙ Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all the
directions of free space.
⸙ Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all the
directions.
⸙ The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 GHz.
⸙ In the case of radio waves, the sending and receiving antenna are not aligned,
i.e., the wave sent by the sending antenna can be received by any receiving
antenna.
⸙ An example of the radio wave is FM radio.
…….Cont’d
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 …….Cont’d
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Applications Of Radio waves:

 A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one
sender and many receivers.
 An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a
radio wave.
Advantages Of Radio transmission:
 Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and
mobile cellular phones.
 Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the
walls.
 Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.
Microwaves
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 Terrestrial Microwave
Transmission
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 Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the focused
beam of a radio signal from one ground-based microwave transmission antenna
to another.
 Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in the range
from 1GHz to 300 GHz.
 Microwaves are unidirectional as the sending and receiving antenna is to be
aligned, i.e., the waves sent by the sending antenna are narrowly focused.
 In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to another
antenna which is km away.
 It works on the line of sight transmission, i.e., the antennas mounted on the
towers are the direct sight of each other.
 Characteristics of Microwave:
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 Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is

from 4-6 GHz to 21-23 GHz.
 Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
 Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
 Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a
longer distance.
 Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by
environmental conditions and antenna size.
 Advantages Of Microwave:
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 Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.

 It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the
installation of cables.
 Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as the
installation of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
 Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave
transmission.
Disadvantages of Microwave
transmission:
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 Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping creates insecure communication. Any

malicious user can catch the signal in the air by using its own antenna.
 Out of phase signal: A signal can be moved out of phase by using microwave
transmission.
 Susceptible to weather condition: A microwave transmission is susceptible
to weather condition. This means that any environmental change such as rain,
wind can distort the signal.
 Bandwidth limited: Allocation of bandwidth is limited in the case of
microwave transmission.
Satellite Microwave Communication
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A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known

height.
Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more
flexibility than cable and fiber optic systems.
We can communicate with any point on the globe by using satellite
communication.
How Does Satellite work?
 The satellite accepts the signal that is transmitted from the earth station, and it
amplifies the signal. The amplified signal is retransmitted to another earth
station.
Advantages Of Satellite Microwave
Communication:
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The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial

microwave.
The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance from the
center of the coverage area.
Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication
applications.
It is easy to install.
It is used in a wide variety of applications such as weather forecasting,
radio/TV signal broadcasting, mobile communication, etc.
Disadvantages Of Satellite Microwave
Communication:
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Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher cost.
The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so that
it remains in orbit.
The life of the satellite is about 12-15 years.
Due to this reason, another launch of the satellite has to be planned before it
becomes non-functional.
 Infrared:
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An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for communication

over short ranges.
The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
It is used for short-range communication such as data transfer between two
cell phones, TV remote operation, data transfer between a computer and cell
phone resides in the same closed area.
 Characteristics Of Infrared:
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It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared
communication in one room cannot be interrupted by the nearby rooms.
An infrared communication provides better security with minimum
interference.
Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the sun
rays will interfere with the infrared waves.
Thank
You