Physical layer in the OSI model plays the role of interacting with actual hardware

and signaling mechanism. Physical layer is the only layer of OSI network model which
actually deals with the physical connectivity of two different stations. This layer defines
the hardware equipment, cabling, wiring, frequencies, pulses used to represent binary
signals etc.
Physical layer provides its services to Data-link layer. Data-link layer hands over
frames to physical layer. Physical layer converts them to electrical pulses, which
represent binary data.The binary data is then sent over the wired or wireless media.

Signals
When data is sent over physical medium, it needs to be first converted into
electromagnetic signals. Data itself can be analog such as human voice, or digital such
as file on the disk.Both analog and digital data can be represented in digital or analog
signals.
 Digital Signals
Digital signals are discrete in nature and represent sequence of voltage pulses. Digital
signals are used within the circuitry of a computer system.
 Analog Signals
Analog signals are in continuous wave form in nature and represented by continuous
electromagnetic waves.

Details of Signals in Given Links:

94_Sample_Chapter.pdf

Line Coding
The process for converting digital data into digital signal is said to be Line Coding.
Digital data is found in binary format.It is represented (stored) internally as series of 1s
and 0s.
Digital signal is denoted by discreet signal, which represents digital data.There are
three types of line coding schemes available:

Uni-polar Encoding
Unipolar encoding schemes use single voltage level to represent data. In this case, to
represent binary 1, high voltage is transmitted and to represent 0, no voltage is
transmitted. It is also called Unipolar-Non-return-to-zero, because there is no rest
condition i.e. it either represents 1 or 0.

Polar Encoding
Polar encoding scheme uses multiple voltage levels to represent binary values. Polar
encodings is available in four types:
 Polar Non-Return to Zero (Polar NRZ)
It uses two different voltage levels to represent binary values. Generally, positive voltage
represents 1 and negative value represents 0. It is also NRZ because there is no rest
condition.
NRZ scheme has two variants: NRZ-L and NRZ-I.
 NRZ-L changes voltage level at when a different bit is encountered whereas NRZ-I changes
voltage when a 1 is encountered.

 Return to Zero (RZ)

Problem with NRZ is that the receiver cannot conclude when a bit ended and when the next
bit is started, in case when sender and receiver’s clock are not synchronized.
 RZ uses three voltage levels, positive voltage to represent 1, negative voltage to represent
0 and zero voltage for none. Signals change during bits not between bits.

 Manchester
This encoding scheme is a combination of RZ and NRZ-L. Bit time is divided into two
halves. It transits in the middle of the bit and changes phase when a different bit is
encountered.

 Differential Manchester
This encoding scheme is a combination of RZ and NRZ-I. It also transit at the middle of the
bit but changes phase only when 1 is encountered.
Bipolar Encoding
Bipolar encoding uses three voltage levels, positive, negative and zero. Zero voltage
represents binary 0 and bit 1 is represented by altering positive and negative voltages.
Block Coding
To ensure accuracy of the received data frame redundant bits are used. For example,
in even-parity, one parity bit is added to make the count of 1s in the frame even. This
way the original number of bits is increased. It is called Block Coding.
Block coding is represented by slash notation, mB/nB.Means, m-bit block is substituted
with n-bit block where n > m. Block coding involves three steps:

 Division,
 Substitution
 Combination.
After block coding is done, it is line coded for transmission.

Analog-to-Digital Conversion
Microphones create analog voice and camera creates analog videos, which are treated
is analog data. To transmit this analog data over digital signals, we need analog to
digital conversion.
Analog data is a continuous stream of data in the wave form whereas digital data is
discrete. To convert analog wave into digital data, we use Pulse Code Modulation
(PCM).
PCM is one of the most commonly used method to convert analog data into digital
form. It involves three steps:

 Sampling
 Quantization
 Encoding.
Sampling

The analog signal is sampled every T interval. Most important factor in sampling is the
rate at which analog signal is sampled. According to Nyquist Theorem, the sampling
rate must be at least two times of the highest frequency of the signal.
Quantization

Sampling yields discrete form of continuous analog signal. Every discrete pattern
shows the amplitude of the analog signal at that instance. The quantization is done
between the maximum amplitude value and the minimum amplitude value.
Quantization is approximation of the instantaneous analog value.
Encoding

In encoding, each approximated value is then converted into binary format.

Transmission Modes
The transmission mode decides how data is transmitted between two computers.The
binary data in the form of 1s and 0s can be sent in two different modes: Parallel and
Serial.
Parallel Transmission

The binary bits are organized in-to groups of fixed length. Both sender and receiver are
connected in parallel with the equal number of data lines. Both computers distinguish
between high order and low order data lines. The sender sends all the bits at once on
all lines.Because the data lines are equal to the number of bits in a group or data
frame, a complete group of bits (data frame) is sent in one go. Advantage of Parallel
transmission is high speed and disadvantage is the cost of wires, as it is equal to the
number of bits sent in parallel.
Serial Transmission
In serial transmission, bits are sent one after another in a queue manner. Serial
transmission requires only one communication channel.

Serial transmission can be either asynchronous or synchronous.

Asynchronous Serial Transmission
It is named so because there’is no importance of timing. Data-bits have specific pattern
and they help receiver recognize the start and end data bits.For example, a 0 is
prefixed on every data byte and one or more 1s are added at the end.
Two continuous data-frames (bytes) may have a gap between them.
Synchronous Serial Transmission
Timing in synchronous transmission has importance as there is no mechanism
followed to recognize start and end data bits.There is no pattern or prefix/suffix
method. Data bits are sent in burst mode without maintaining gap between bytes (8-
bits). Single burst of data bits may contain a number of bytes. Therefore, timing
becomes very important.
It is up to the receiver to recognize and separate bits into bytes.The advantage of
synchronous transmission is high speed, and it has no overhead of extra header and
footer bits as in asynchronous transmission.

Transmission Impairment
When signals travel through the medium they tend to deteriorate. This may have many
reasons as given:
 Attenuation
For the receiver to interpret the data accurately, the signal must be sufficiently strong.When
the signal passes through the medium, it tends to get weaker.As it covers distance, it loses
strength.
 Dispersion
As signal travels through the media, it tends to spread and overlaps. The amount of
dispersion depends upon the frequency used.
 Delay distortion
Signals are sent over media with pre-defined speed and frequency. If the signal speed and
frequency do not match, there are possibilities that signal reaches destination in arbitrary
fashion. In digital media, this is very critical that some bits reach earlier than the previously
sent ones.
 Noise
Random disturbance or fluctuation in analog or digital signal is said to be Noise in signal,
which may distort the actual information being carried. Noise can be characterized in one of
the following class:
o Thermal Noise
Heat agitates the electronic conductors of a medium which may introduce noise in
the media. Up to a certain level, thermal noise is unavoidable.
o Intermodulation
When multiple frequencies share a medium, their interference can cause noise in
the medium. Intermodulation noise occurs if two different frequencies are sharing a
medium and one of them has excessive strength or the component itself is not
functioning properly, then the resultant frequency may not be delivered as expected.
o Crosstalk
This sort of noise happens when a foreign signal enters into the media. This is
because signal in one medium affects the signal of second medium.
 o Impulse
This noise is introduced because of irregular disturbances such as lightening,
electricity, short-circuit, or faulty components. Digital data is mostly affected by this
sort of noise.

Channel bandwidth and Throuput is given in below links:

channel banwidth.pdf
Propagation Time/Delay and Transmission Time/delay:
Transmission Delay :
Time taken to put a packet onto link. In other words, it is simply time required to put data
bits on the wire/communication medium. It depends on length of packet and bandwidth
of network.
Transmission Delay = Data size / bandwidth = (L/B) second
Propagation delay :
Time taken by the first bit to travel from sender to receiver end of the link. In other
words, it is simply the time required for bits to reach the destination from the start point.
Factors on which Propagation delay depends are Distance and propagation speed.
Propagation delay = distance/transmission speed = d/s
Queuing Delay :
Queuing delay is the time a job waits in a queue until it can be executed. It depends on
congestion. It is the time difference between when the packet arrived Destination and
when the packet data was processed or executed. It may be caused by mainly three
reasons i.e. originating switches, intermediate switches or call receiver servicing
switches.

Average Queuing delay = (N-1)L/(2*R)

where N = no. of packets
L=size of packet
R=bandwidth
Processing Delay :
Processing delay is the time it takes routers to process the packet header. Processing
of packets helps in detecting bit-level errors that occur during transmission of a packet
to the destination. Processing delays in high-speed routers are typically on the order of
microseconds or less.
In simple words, it is just the time taken to process packets.

Total time or End-to-End time

= Transmission delay + Propagation delay+ Queuing delay
+ Processing delay

For M hops and N packets –

Total delay
= M*(Transmission delay + propagation delay)+
(M-1)*(Processing delay + Queuing delay) +
(N-1)*(Transmission delay)
For N connecting link in the circuit –
Transmission delay = N*L/R
Propagation delay = N*(d/s)

Question : How much time will it take to send a packet of size L bits from A to B in
given setup if Bandwidth is R bps, propagation speed is t meter/sec and distance b/w
any two points is d meters (ignore processing and queuing delay) ?
A---R1---R2---B
Ans:
N = no. of links = no. of hops = no. of routers +1 = 3
File size = L bits
Bandwidth = R bps
Propagation speed = t meter/sec
Distance = d meters
Transmission delay = (N*L)/R = (3*L)/R sec
Propagation delay = N*(d/t) = (3*d)/t sec
Total time = 3*(L/R + d/t) sec

THIS QUESTION EXPLAINS FORMULA :-

In a Packet switch network having Hops= 4, transfer 10 packets from A to B given
packet size is L bits. Bandwidth to transfer data is R Mbps and speed of propagation is
S meter/sec. Assume processing delay= P seconds and distance between two point is
D meters. Find total time required for 10 packets to reach A from B.
A---R1---R2---R3---B
Explanation :
No. of hops= No. of links = M= 4
Here we send 10 packets, also since there is no acknowledgement of packet received
required we perform parallel processing. When the 1st packet reaches R2, the second
packet reaches R1.
Formulas used-
R is in Mbps so convert to bps by multiplying 10^6.
Bandwidth=R*(10^6) bps
Packet size =L bits
Transmission delay= Packet size/Bandwidth =L/( R*(10^6) )
Propagation Delay = Distance / Speed = D /S
Processing delay is in seconds no change
Delay can also be calculated as : Delay for 1st packet to reach + delay for (N-1) packets
Delay for 1st packet = M*(Propagation delay + Transmission delay) + (M-1)*(Processing
delay + Queuing delay)
Delay for N-1 remaining packets = (N-1)*(Transmission delay)
So finally applying the formula and putting the values we get-
Total delay = 4*( L/(R*(10^6) + D/S) + (4-1)*(P + 0) + (10-1)*( L/(R*(10^6) )

Transmission Media
The media over which the information between two computer systems is sent, called
transmission media. Transmission media comes in two forms.
 Guided Media
All communication wires/cables are guided media, such as UTP, coaxial cables, and fiber
Optics. In this media, the sender and receiver are directly connected and the information is
send (guided) through it.
 Unguided Media
Wireless or open air space is said to be unguided media, because there is no connectivity
between the sender and receiver. Information is spread over the air, and anyone including
the actual recipient may collect the information.

What is Transmission media?

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 fibre 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, fibre optics, atmosphere,
water, and vacuum.
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:
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:

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:

Guided Media
It is defined as the physical medium through which the signals are transmitted. It is also
known as Bounded media.

Types Of Guided media:

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.
Types of Twisted pair:

Unshielded Twisted Pair:

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 upto 4Mbps.
o Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.
o Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for long-distance
communication.
o Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.

Advantages Of Unshielded Twisted Pair:

o It is cheap.
o Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
o It can be used for high-speed LAN.

Disadvantage:

o This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of attenuation.
Shielded Twisted Pair
A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire that allows
the higher transmission rate.

Characteristics Of Shielded Twisted Pair:

o The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very low.
o An installation of STP is easy.
o It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
o It has a higher attenuation.
o It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.

Disadvantages

o It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.

o It has a higher attenuation rate.

Coaxial Cable
o Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example, TV wire is
usually a coaxial cable.
o The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to each other.
o It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
o 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.
o The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper mesh
prevents from the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).

Coaxial cable is of two types:

 1. Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single signal
at high speed.
2. Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting multiple
signals simultaneously.

Advantages Of Coaxial cable:

o The data can be transmitted at high speed.

o It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
o It provides higher bandwidth.

Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:

o It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.

o If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.

Fibre Optic
o Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
o Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that are used to
send the data by pulses of light.
o The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold, electromagnetic
interference from other types of wiring.
o Fibre optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.

Diagrammatic representation of fibre optic cable:

Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

 o Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic known as a
core. A core is a light transmission area of the fibre. The more the area of the core,
the more light will be transmitted into the fibre.
o 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 fibre.
o Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket. The main
purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb shock and extra fibre
protection.

Following are the advantages of fibre optic cable over copper:

o Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable provides more bandwidth as compared

copper. Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as compared to copper cable.
o Faster speed: Fibre optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This allows the
fibre optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
o Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries the data at a longer distance as
compared to copper cable.
o Better reliability: The fibre 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.
o Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight so it can
withstand more pull pressure than copper cable.

UnGuided Transmission
o An unguided transmission transmits the electromagnetic waves without using any
physical medium. Therefore it is also known as wireless transmission.
o 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
o Radio waves are the electromagnetic waves that are transmitted in all the directions
of free space.
 o Radio waves are omnidirectional, i.e., the signals are propagated in all the directions.
o The range in frequencies of radio waves is from 3Khz to 1 khz.
o 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.
o An example of the radio wave is FM radio.

Applications Of Radio waves:

o A Radio wave is useful for multicasting when there is one sender and many
receivers.
o An FM radio, television, cordless phones are examples of a radio wave.

Advantages Of Radio transmission:

o Radio transmission is mainly used for wide area networks and mobile cellular phones.
o Radio waves cover a large area, and they can penetrate the walls.
o Radio transmission provides a higher transmission rate.

Microwaves
Microwaves are of two types:

o Terrestrial microwave
o Satellite microwave communication.

Terrestrial Microwave Transmission

o Terrestrial Microwave transmission is a technology that transmits the focused beam
of a radio signal from one ground-based microwave transmission antenna to another.
o Microwaves are the electromagnetic waves having the frequency in the range from
1GHz to 1000 GHz.
o Microwaves are unidirectional as the sending and receiving antenna is to be aligned,
i.e., the waves sent by the sending antenna are narrowly focussed.
o In this case, antennas are mounted on the towers to send a beam to another
antenna which is km away.
o 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:

o Frequency range: The frequency range of terrestrial microwave is from 4-6 GHz to

21-23 GHz.
o Bandwidth: It supports the bandwidth from 1 to 10 Mbps.
o Short distance: It is inexpensive for short distance.
o Long distance: It is expensive as it requires a higher tower for a longer distance.
o Attenuation: Attenuation means loss of signal. It is affected by environmental
conditions and antenna size.

Advantages Of Microwave:

o Microwave transmission is cheaper than using cables.

 o It is free from land acquisition as it does not require any land for the installation of
cables.
o Microwave transmission provides an easy communication in terrains as the
installation of cable in terrain is quite a difficult task.
o Communication over oceans can be achieved by using microwave transmission.

Disadvantages of Microwave transmission:

o Eavesdropping: An eavesdropping creates insecure communication. Any malicious

user can catch the signal in the air by using its own antenna.
o Out of phase signal: A signal can be moved out of phase by using microwave
transmission.
o 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.
o Bandwidth limited: Allocation of bandwidth is limited in the case of microwave
transmission.

Satellite Microwave Communication

o A satellite is a physical object that revolves around the earth at a known height.
o Satellite communication is more reliable nowadays as it offers more flexibility than
cable and fibre optic systems.
o 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:

o The coverage area of a satellite microwave is more than the terrestrial microwave.
o The transmission cost of the satellite is independent of the distance from the centre
of the coverage area.
o Satellite communication is used in mobile and wireless communication applications.
o It is easy to install.
o 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:

 o Satellite designing and development requires more time and higher cost.
o The Satellite needs to be monitored and controlled on regular periods so that it
remains in orbit.
o 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
o An infrared transmission is a wireless technology used for communication over short
ranges.
o The frequency of the infrared in the range from 300 GHz to 400 THz.
o 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:

o It supports high bandwidth, and hence the data rate will be very high.
o Infrared waves cannot penetrate the walls. Therefore, the infrared communication in
one room cannot be interrupted by the nearby rooms.
o An infrared communication provides better security with minimum interference.
o Infrared communication is unreliable outside the building because the sun rays will
interfere with the infrared waves.