Physical Layer: Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja, PH.D

Physical Layer
Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja, Ph.D.

Fidelity National Financial Distinguished Professor of CIS
School of Computing, UNF
Introduction
⚫ Purpose of the physical layer is to transport a raw bit
stream from one machine to another.
⚫ We need to consider the characteristics of different

transmission media, including:
⚫ Twisted Pair
⚫ Coax Cable
⚫ Fiber
⚫ Satellite based communication
Twisted Pair
Category 5 UTP cable with four twisted pairs.

Twisted Pair
⚫ Consists of two insulated copper wires (about 1 mm thick) twisted
together to reduce electrical interference.
⚫ Used in phone lines, LANs.
⚫ Cat 3: Prior to 1988 (4 Unshielded Twisted Pairs in plastic sheath)
⚫ Cat 5: 1988 onwards, more twists (compared to Cat 3) in the wire for
reduced electrical interference; now replaced by Cat 5e
⚫ Bandwidth: 100 MHz
⚫ Data Rate: Supports 10 to 100 Mbps for up to 100 meters; supports regular Ethernet
⚫ Cat 5e: better insulation, 24 gauge wire (0.52 mm wide), lesser

crosstalk
⚫ Data Rate: 100 Mbps for 100 meters, can support 1 Gbps; supports Fast Ethernet
Twisted Pair
⚫ Cat 6: 23 gauge wire (0.57 mm wide) , better cable insulation as it
insulates each twisted pair in its own sheath; more expensive than
Cat 5e
⚫ Data Rate: 1 Gbps for 100 meters or 10 Gbps for 55 meters; certified to support 1
Gbps Ethernet
⚫ Cat 6a (augmented): improved shielding; less susceptible to

interference and crosstalk
⚫ Data Rate: 10 Gbps for 100 meters; supports 10 Gbps Ethernet
⚫ Cat 7: fully shielded (using foil) twisted-pair wires inside an overall

shield (metal braid) virtually eliminates crosstalk and system noise,
ideal for high EMI areas such as industrial and medical imaging
facilities
⚫ Data Rate: 10 Gbps
Coax Cable
⚫ Better shielding and more bandwidth for longer distances and higher rates
than twisted pair.
⚫ Has stiff copper wire as the core surrounded by insulating material. The
insulator is encased by a braided conductor (for EMI protection) which is
covered by plastic.
Coax Cable
There are two types of coax cables: Baseband and Broadband coax cables.
⚫ Baseband Coax Cable: For LANs; uses digital transmission; 1 to 2 Gbps for up
to 1 km; now replaced by fiber for LANs
⚫ Broadband Coax Cable: For Cable TV; uses analog transmission; 500 Mbps for
up to 100 kms.
Fiber Cables
Has three components:
⚫ The transmission medium which is an ultra thin fiber of glass
⚫ The light source which is either a LED or a laser diode
⚫ The photodetector (photodiode) which generates an electrical

pulse when light falls on it.
Light source
(LED, laser) Light trapped by Photodetector
total internal reflection
Fiber Cables
(a) Side view of a single fiber. (b) End view of a sheath with three fibers.
Fiber Cables - Advantages
⚫ Fiber optics can achieve transfer rates of 1 Gbps – 100 Gbps for 1 km.
⚫ Fiber is unaffected by power line surges and electromagnetic interference
(EMI)/noise.
⚫ Fiber is light weight as compared to copper wire.
⚫ Fiber requires much less space in underground cabling ducts.
⚫ Fiber is more secure as since it is harder to tap into.
⚫ Fiber requires fewer repeaters than coaxial cables.
⚫ Used in long distance phone lines (backbone of phone networks) and to
replace coax cables.
Fiber Cables – Single mode
⚫ Single-mode fiber:
Core to cladding diameter ratio is 9 microns to 125 microns. It has a small
diameter core so that light can’t bounce around and travels in a straight line,
creating the ability for the signal to travel faster, further.
This application is typically used with lasers for long distances (100 kms), higher
bandwidth applications such as WAN backbones and Telcos to connect their
switching offices.
⚫ http://www.multicominc.com/active/manufacturer/multicom/Fiber%20Opti
cs/singlemode-multimode.html#Step-Index_Multimode_Fiber
Fiber Cables – Multi mode
⚫ Multi-mode fiber (Step-index and Graded-index):

Core to cladding diameter ratio is 50 microns to 125 microns or 62.5 microns to
125 microns. It has a large diameter core that allows multiple modes of light to
propagate. Because of this, the number of light reflections created as the light
passes through the core increases. Because of the high dispersion and
attenuation rate with this type of fiber, the quality of the signal is reduced over
long distances. This application is typically used with LEDs for short distance (10
kms), fiber to the desktop, data and audio/video applications in LANs.
http://www.multicominc.com/active/manufacturer/multicom/Fiber%20Optics/s
inglemode-multimode.html#Step-Index_Multimode_Fiber
Fiber Cables – Modes
Communication Satellites
⚫ Satellites listen to the incoming signal and then re-broadcast it on another

frequency to avoid interference with the incoming signal.
⚫ Satellite links support a data rate of 5 – 100 Mbps.
⚫ One Earth Station sends a transmission to the satellite. This is called a
Uplink.
⚫ The satellite Transponder converts the signal and sends it down to the
second earth station. This is called a Downlink.
Communication Satellites
⚫ Communication via satellite involves propagation delay (PD) due to the

elevation of the satellite. The one-way PD = 270 milliseconds (msec) or about
0.25 second.
⚫ Hence the round-trip PD for acknowledging a packet will be 0.25 + 0.25 = 0.5
second per packet.
⚫ In comparison, for coax cable, the PD is about 5 µsecond/km.
⚫ Hence satellites are more suited to transmitting large amounts of data (one-
way) else the propagation delay will dominate.
Definitions
⚫ Channel Capacity:
The rate at which data can be transmitted over a channel (bps).
⚫ Data rate: expressed in bps.
⚫ Bandwidth:
Frequency range of the transmitted signal determined by the nature of
the transmission medium (Hz or cycles/second).
⚫ Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR):

The ratio of the power in a signal to the power contained in noise (dB).
Higher the SNR, the higher the signal quality.
(SNR)dB = 10 log10 (Signal Power / Noise Power) = 10 log10 (S/N)

Shannon’s Formula
C = W log2 (1 + S / N)
where C= channel capacity in bps, W = bandwidth of the channel in Hz
⚫ Problem: A voice channel is used via modem to transmit digital data.

Assume B/W = 3100 Hz and SNR = 30 dB. What is the channel capacity?
(SNR)dB = 10 log10 (S/N)
30 = 10 log10 (S/N)
3 = log10 (S/N)
103 = (S/N)
S/N = 1000
C = W log2 (1 + S / N)
C = 3100 log2 (1 + 1000)
C = 3100 log2 (1001)
C = 3100 (ln (1001) / ln (2))
C = 3100 (6.90875 / 0.69315)
C = 30,898.4 bps
Structure of Telephone System
⚫ A hierarchical system for carrying voice calls made of:
⚫ Local loops, mostly analog twisted pairs (analog signaling) to houses
⚫ Trunks, digital fiber optic links (digital signaling) that carry calls
⚫ Switching offices, that move calls among trunks

Telephone System: A Computer to
Computer Call
⚫ Telephone modems send digital data over an 3.3 KHz analog voice channel
interface to the POTS
⚫ Rates <56 kbps; early way to connect to the Internet
Advantages of Digital over Analog Signaling
⚫ Digital signals (0 or 1) can easily be regenerated by a regenerator/repeater
since there are only 2 values. Analog signals, on the other hand, suffer from
distortion (information loss) with each amplifier and this effect is cumulative.
So, digital transmission has a low error rate.
⚫ Voice, data, music, images (e.g. TV, fax, video) can be interspersed to make
more efficient use of the circuits.
⚫ Higher data rates possible with digital transmission.
⚫ Digital transmission is cheaper than analog transmission because it is enough

to be able to distinguish a 0 from a 1 (e.g. 0 is <= 0.4 V and 1 is >= 3.4 V)
How undersea cables are laid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQVzU_YQ3IQ

Physical Layer: Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja, PH.D

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Physical Layer: Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja, PH.D

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Physical Layer: Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja, PH.D

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Physical Layer

Dr. Sanjay P. Ahuja, Ph.D.

⚫ We need to consider the characteristics of different

Category 5 UTP cable with four twisted pairs.

⚫ Used in phone lines, LANs.

⚫ Cat 3: Prior to 1988 (4 Unshielded Twisted Pairs in plastic sheath)

⚫ Cat 5e: better insulation, 24 gauge wire (0.52 mm wide), lesser

⚫ Cat 6a (augmented): improved shielding; less susceptible to

⚫ Cat 7: fully shielded (using foil) twisted-pair wires inside an overall

⚫ The light source which is either a LED or a laser diode

⚫ The photodetector (photodiode) which generates an electrical

⚫ Multi-mode fiber (Step-index and Graded-index):

⚫ Satellites listen to the incoming signal and then re-broadcast it on another

⚫ Communication via satellite involves propagation delay (PD) due to the

⚫ In comparison, for coax cable, the PD is about 5 µsecond/km.

⚫ Data rate: expressed in bps.

⚫ Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR):

(SNR)dB = 10 log10 (Signal Power / Noise Power) = 10 log10 (S/N)

⚫ Problem: A voice channel is used via modem to transmit digital data.

⚫ Switching offices, that move calls among trunks

⚫ Higher data rates possible with digital transmission.

⚫ Digital transmission is cheaper than analog transmission because it is enough

You might also like