Wolkite University Information Technology

Collage of Computing & Informatics Information System

Computer Science
Software Engineering

Data Communication and Computer Networks

Wendosen Z & Amare M

The Physical Layer

 2.1 Introduction
 the layer that actually interacts with the transmission
media
 the physical part of the network that connects network
components together
 involved in physically carrying information from one
node in the network to the next
 position of the physical layer

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 Bit-to-Signal Transformation
 since a transmission medium (cable or air) cannot carry bits,
the bits must be represented by a signal, electromagnetic
energy that can propagate through a medium
Bit rate Control
 the transmission medium determines the upper limit of the
data rate, the physical layer is the controller
Bit Synchronization
 the timing of bit transfer is controlled by providing clocking
mechanisms that control both the sender and the receiver
Multiplexing
 to share a transmission medium when its bandwidth is
greater than the bandwidth needs of the two communicating
devices

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 Switching
 there are three methods
 circuit switching - a physical layer function
 message switching - data link and network layer function
 packet switching - also data link and network layer
function
 switching will be covered later after the data link layer

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 2.2 Analog and digital data/signals
 period, frequency, phase;
 time and frequency domains;
 bandwidth (the range of frequencies that a medium can pass
- for analog signals) and bit rate (bps, the number of bits
transmitted per second - for digital signals),
 data rate limits (Niquist theorem for noiseless channels, and
Shannon’s theorem for noisy channels; both are functions of
bandwidth),
 transmission impairments
 attenuation: loss of energy
 distortion: the signal changes its shape; for signals made
of different frequencies
 noise: thermal, induced, crosstalk, … that corrupt the
signal

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 2.3 Data Transmission and Multiplexing
 information (digital or analog) must be converted to either digital
or analog signal
 Digital transmission
 line coding and block coding are used to convert binary data
to digital signals
 sampling - to convert analog data to digital data; then use line
coding or block coding or a combination to convert to digital
signals
 PAM - Pulse Amplitude Modulation - not used much in
computer communications
 PCM - Pulse Code Modulation
 the original signal is sampled at equal intervals
 quantization - a method of assigning integral values in
a specific range of sampled instances

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  Transmission mode of binary data
 parallel - sending n bits with each clock tick to speed
up transmission; n lines are needed hence costly
 serial - 1 bit is sent with each clock tick; needs one
line hence less expensive but slow
 serial transmission could be synchronous or
asynchronous
 Analog transmission
 modulation of digital data - digital-to-analog conversion
 based on the three characteristics of a sine wave -
amplitude, frequency, phase
 ASK (amplitude shift keying), FSK (frequency shift
keying), PSK (pulse shift keying)
 MODEM - Modulator/Demodulator
 modulation of analog signals - representing analog
information by analog signal
 AM (amplitude modulation), FM (frequency
modulation), PM (pulse modulation)
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 Multiplexing
 the set of techniques that allows the simultaneous
transmission of multiple signals across a single data link
 in a multiplexed system, n lines share the bandwidth of one
link
 MUX (multiplexer by the sender) and DEMUX (demultiplexer
by the receiver) required

 categories of multiplexing
 for analog signals
 FDM - Frequency-Division Multiplexing
 WDM - Wave-Division Multiplexing; mainly for fiber
optic cable
 for digital signals
 TDM - Time-Division Multiplexing
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 2.4 Devices
1.NIC - Network Interface Card
 amplifies electronic signals
 packages data for transmission
 physically connects a computer to the transmission
medium
2.Transmission Media - actually below the physical layer, but
controlled by it
 two categories
 guided (wired) - copper wire (twisted-pair cable,
coaxial cable) and fiber-optic cable
 unguided (wireless) - terrestrial radio, microwave,
satellite - signals broadcast through air
 comparison factors: bandwidth, delay, cost, ease of
installation and maintenance

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  Twisted-Pair Cable
 consists of two insulated copper wires - one to carry
signals and the other to serve as a ground reference. The
receiver uses the difference between the two levels. If the
two wires are equally affected by noise or crosstalk, the
receiver is immune (the difference is zero). The twisting is
important here
 repeaters needed for longer distances
 bandwidth depends on the thickness of the wire and
distance
 two important varieties for computer communications

(a) Category 3 UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) (b) Category 5 UTP - more twists per cm

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  EIA (Electronic Industries Association) developed
standards to classify UTP cables; 7 categories - Category
1 to Category 7; 1 with the lowest quality and 7 the
highest. Classification based on bandwidth, data rate,
whether it can carry analog, digital or both signals, and
use (telephone, LANs)
 STP - shielded twisted pair - by IBM where a metal foil
covers each insulated wire. Bulkier and expensive; hence
not used outside of IBM
 Coaxial Cable
 better shielding than twisted pair  can span longer
distances at higher speeds
 bandwidth dependent on cable quality, length, … - close
to 1 GHz for modern cables

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  stiff copper wire at the core, surrounded by an insulating
material in turn covered by a cylindrical conductor, then
by a protective plastic sheath

 Fiber-Optic Cable
 three key components
 the light source (on one end): a pulse of light indicates
a 1 bit, absence of light indicates a 0 bit
 the transmission medium: an ultra-thin fiber or glass
 the detector (on the other end): generates an electrical
pulse when light falls on it

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 at the center is a glass core through which the light
propagates; it is surrounded by a glass cladding with a lower
index of refraction than the core to keep all the light in the core;
then comes a thin plastic jacket to protect the cladding (Fig. a)
fibers are typically grouped in bundles, protected by an outer
sheath (Fig. b)

side view of a single fiber end view of a sheath with three fibers
advantages of fiber optic cables
 repeaters required only about every 50 km (saves cost)
 not affected by power surge, electromagnetic interference,…
 do not leak light and difficult to tap - security
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 Unguided (wireless) communication
The electromagnetic spectrum and its uses for communication

Official ITU names: low, medium, high, very high, ultra high, super
14 high, extremely high, tremendously high frequency
 radio, microwave, infrared, and visible light can be used for
transmitting information by modulating the amplitude, frequency,
or phase of the waves
the rest would have been better, but are hard to produce and
modulate, do not propagate well through buildings, are
dangerous to life

Radio Transmission
 range in frequencies between 3 KHz to 1 GHz
 omnidirectional, i.e., radio waves propagate in all directions
 hence no need of aligning the transmitting and receiving
antennas
 can be used for multicast transmission
 disadv: two antennas using the same frequency band are
susceptible to interference with each other
 the band is regulated by a government authority
 can travel long distances, penetrate buildings (can be used
indoors and outdoors)
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 Microwave Transmission
 range in frequencies between 1 GHz to 300 GHz
 unidirectional (in nearly straight lines); can be narrowly
focused
 the transmitting and receiving antennas must be aligned
 interference between antennas can be easily avoided
 VHF microwaves cannot penetrate walls
 used for unicast communication such as cellular phones and
wireless LANs

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 Satellite Transmission
 a node in the network can be a satellite, an earth station, an
end-user terminal or telephone
 real (such as the Moon) versus artificial satellites
 real satellites would have been possible, but artificial
satellites are preferred since we can install electronic
equipment to regenerate the signal that has lost its energy
during travel; real satellites are also far from the earth
creating a long delay in communication
 can provide transmission capability to and from any location
on earth; good for us poor people 
 a satellite (artificial) contains several transponders, each
listening to some portion of the spectrum, amplifies the
incoming signal, and then rebroadcasts it at another
frequency to avoid interference with the incoming signal
 transmission from the earth to the satellite is called uplink;
from the satellite to the earth is called downlink

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  satellites are inherently broadcast media - security and
privacy issues (encryption may be essential)
 orbit: the path in which a satellite travels around the earth
 footprint: the area that the signal from a satellite is aimed at
(the signal power is maximum at the center of the footprint
and decreases as we move away from it)
 period: is the time required for a satellite to make a complete
trip around the earth and is determined by Kepler’s law,
which defines the period as a function of the distance of the
satellite from the center of the earth
 period = C x distance1.5, where
C = 1/100, period is in seconds and distance in kms
 ex. 1. the period of the Moon
 located approximately 384,000 km above the earth
 the radius of the earth is 6378 km
 period = (1/100) (384,000+6378)1.5  2,439,090 s  28.23
days  1 month

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 2. the period of a satellite located at an orbit approximately
35,786 km
period = (1/100) (35,786+6378)1.5  86,579 s  24 hours (the same
as the rotation speed of the earth - called Geosynchronous Earth
Orbit)
 how many satellites can there be on the sky?
 satellites are spaced not closer than 2 degrees
Þthere can be only 360/2 = 180 satellites in the
Geosynchronous Earth Orbit - too few
Þuse other orbits
 there exist two Van Allen belts: layers that contain
charged particles. A satellite orbiting in one of these
two belts would be totally destroyed by the energetic
charged particles

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  three categories of satellites - based on the location of the
orbit
 Geosynchronous Earth Orbit - GEO
 Medium-Earth Orbit - MEO
 Low-Earth Orbit - LEO

acceptable for audio

communication

communication satellites and altitude above the earth, round trip delay time,
20 number of satellites (usually equally spaced) needed for global coverage
  GEO - at 35,786 km
 the satellite moves at the same speed as the earth so
that it remains fixed above a certain spot - the name
geosynchronous
 VSATs - Very Small Aperture Terminals
 have great potential in rural areas
 they do not have enough power to communicate;
hence a special ground station, the hub, with a
large, high gain antenna is used to relay traffic
between VSATs (creates longer delay)

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  MEO - between 5,000-15,000 km  many orbits
 a satellite at this orbit takes approximately 6 hours to
circle the earth
 e.g. of a MEO system: GPS - Global Positioning
System (consists of 24 satellites and used for land and
sea navigation to provide time and location for ships
and vehicles; not used for communication)
 LEO - below 2,000 km  many orbits
 a satellite at this orbit takes between 90 and 120
minutes to circle the earth
 orbit slot allocation done by ITU - too much politics

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 Light Transmission

Convection currents can interfere with laser communication

systems. A bidirectional system with two lasers is pictured here.

Computer Networks, Fifth Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum and David Wetherall, © Pearson Education-Prentice Hall, 2011
 1.Connectors - to connect cables with devices
 RJ45 (Registered Jack) connector for UTP cables
 BNC (Bayone-Neill-Concelman) connectors for coaxial cables
 ST (straight-tip) connector for fiber optic cables and
 MT-RJ is a new one with the same size as RJ45
2.Devices to connect LANs or segments of LANs
 they operate in different layers since different devices use
different pieces of information to decide how to switch

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  general scenario
 a user generates data to be sent to a remote machine and
passes them to the transport layer
 the transport layer adds a header, for example a TCP
header, and passes down to the network layer
 the network layer adds its own header to form a network
layer packet, for example an IP packet (shaded part)
 the data link layer adds its own header and checksum
(CRC) and passes to the physical layer for transmission,
for example, over a LAN

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 Note: the definitions as given below are often mixed and seem
to evolve through time!
i.Repeaters
 to overcome attenuation; it receives a signal before it
becomes too weak or corrupted, regenerates the original bit
pattern and then sends the refreshed signal
 for example, to extend the 500 m limit of 10Base5 Ethernet
 does not understand frames, packets, or headers;
understands only volts

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  it does not connect two LANs (of different protocols); it
connects segments of a LAN
 the location of a repeater is important; it must be placed so
that a signal reaches it before any noise changes the bits
completely

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 ii. HUBs
 in general refers to any connecting device, but has a specific
meaning
 it is a multiport repeater (a number of lines)
 used to create connections between stations in a physical
star topology
 frames arriving on any of the lines are sent out on all the
others

 if two frames arrive at the same

time, they may collide
 all the lines must operate at the
same speed

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 iii. Bridges and Switches
 connect two or more LANs and operate in both the physical
and the data link layers
 as a physical layer device, it regenerates the signal it
receives
 as a data link layer device, it can check the physical
addresses (source and destination) contained in the frame
 it has a filtering capability to decide whether a frame has to
be forwarded or dropped using a table (that maps addresses
to ports)

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  bridges and switches are usually used interchangeably;
the difference is that a switch is most often used to
connect individual computers
iv. Routers
 operate at the network layer to connect different networks
 when a packet arrives, the frame header and trailer are
stripped off and the packet located in the frame’s payload
field is passed to the routing software. The software uses
the packet header to choose an output line

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 v. Gateways
 connects networks that use different protocols
 transport gateway: connects two computers that use
different transport protocols, reformatting packets as need
be
 application gateway: understands the format and content of
the data and translates messages from one format to another,
e.g., an e-mail gateway could translate Internet messages to
SMS messages for mobile phones

Routers and gateways can be used to provide additional

services
 example: transcoding and adaptation of audiovisual material

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Digital Subscriber Lines (3)

A typical ADSL equipment configuration.

Fiber To The Home

Passive optical network for Fiber To The Home.

Mobile Telephone System

• First-Generation (1G) Mobile Phones Analog Voice

• Second-Generation (2G) Mobile Phones Digital Voice
• Third-Generation (3G) Mobile Phones Digital Voice + Data
Advanced Mobile Phone System

(a) Frequencies are not reused in adjacent cells.

(b) To add more users, smaller cells can be used.
GSM—The Global System for Mobile
Communications (1)

GSM mobile network architecture.

GSM—The Global System for Mobile
Communications (2)

GSM uses 124 frequency channels, each of which uses an eight-

slot TDM system.
Digital Voice and Data (1)
Basic services intend by IMT-2000 network
• High-quality voice transmission.
• Messaging (replacing email, fax, SMS, chat).
• Multimedia (music, videos, films, television).
• Internet access (Web surfing, incl. audio, video).
Digital Voice and Data (2)

Soft handoff (a) before, (b) during, and (c) after.

Cable Television

• Community antenna television

• Internet over cable
• Spectrum allocation
• Cable modems
• ADSL versus cable
Community Antenna Television

An early cable television system

Internet over Cable (1)

Cable television
Internet over Cable (2)

The fixed telephone system.

Spectrum Allocation

Frequency allocation in a typical

cable TV system used for Internet access.
Cable Modems

Typical details of the upstream and downstream

channels in North America.