Transmission Media

Chapter 6

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7. Transmission media
 Transmission medium and physical layer

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 Transmission media

7.1 Guided Media

7.2 Unguided media: Wireless

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Transmission Media(cont’d)
 Classes of transmission media

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7-1 GUIDED MEDIA

Guided media, which are those that provide a conduit

from one device to another, include twisted-pair cable,
coaxial cable, and fiber-optic cable.

Topics discussed in this section:

Twisted-Pair Cable
Coaxial Cable
Fiber-Optic Cable

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Twisted-Pair Cable

Figure 7.3 Twisted-pair cable

 Two copper conductors

 One carriers signals, the other is the ground reference
 Receiver operates on the difference between the signals.
 This is why they are twisted, to maintain balance
 More twists mean better quality

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 Twisted-Pair Cable

Effect of noise on parallel lines

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Twisted-Pair Cable
Effect of noise on twisted-pair lines

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 Twisted-Pair Cable
Twisted-Pair Cable comes in two forms
- Unshielded twisted pair cable
- Shielded twisted pair cable

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Table 7.1 Categories of unshielded twisted-pair cables

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 Twisted-Pair Cable

 UTP connectors

• RJ – Registered Jack
• keyed connector, can be inserted one way

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Twisted-Pair Cable

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 Coaxial Cable

 (Coaxial Cable)
carries signals of higher frequency ranges

 Frequency range of coaxial cable

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Coaxial Cable
Figure 7.7 Coaxial cable

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 Coaxial Cable

 Coaxial Cable Standards

~ are categorized by RG(radio government) rating

Table 7.2 Categories of coaxial cables

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Coaxial Cable
 Coaxial Cable Connectors

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 Coaxial Cable

 Performance

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Optical Fiber Cable

 Optical Fiber
~ is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the
form of light

 Nature of Light
~ is a form of electromagnetic energy. It travels at its
fastest in a vacuum : 300,000km/s. This speed decreases
as the medium through which the light travels become
denser.

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 Optical Fiber Cable

(Refraction)

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Optical Fiber Cable

(critical angle)
As the angle of incidence increases, it moves
away from vertical and closer to the horizontal.

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 Optical Fiber Cable

(Reflection)
 When the angle of incidence becomes greater
than the critical angle, a new phenomenon
occurs called reflection

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Optical Fiber Cable

 Optical Fiber

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 Optical Fiber Cable
 Propagation Models
current technology supports two models for
propagating light along optical channel.

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Optical Fiber Cable

Figure 7.13 Modes

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 Optical Fiber Cable
 Multimode step-index
~ multiple beams from a light source move
through the core in different paths.

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Optical Fiber Cable

 Multimode graded-index
 fiber with varying densities
 highest density at the center of the core

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 Optical Fiber Cable
 Single Mode
~ uses step-index fiber and a highly focused
source of light that limits beams to a small
range of angles, all close to the horizontal.

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Optical Fiber Cable

 Fiber sizes
~ are defined by the ratio of the diameter of their
core to the diameter of their cladding.
Table 7.3 Fiber types

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 Optical Fiber Cable

 Cable Composition

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Optical Fiber Cable

 Fiber-optic Cable Composition

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 Optical Fiber Cable

 Optical Fiber Performance

Wavelength (μm)

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Optical Fiber Cable

 Advantages of Optical Fiber

Noise resistance
Less signal attenuation
Higher bandwidth
 Disadvantages of Optical Fiber Cost
 Installation/maintenance
 Fragility

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 Optical Fiber - Benefits

 Greater capacity
 Fiber: 100’s of Gbps over 10’s of Kms
 Cable: 100’s of Mbps over 1’s of Kms
 Twisted pair: 100’s of Mbps over 10’s of meters
 Electromagnetic isolation
 Not affected by external EM fields:
 No interference, impulse noise, crosstalk
 Does not radiate:
 Not a source of interference
 Difficult to tap (data security)

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7.2 UNGUIDED MEDIA: WIRELESS

Unguided media transport electromagnetic waves

without using a physical conductor. This type of
communication is often referred to as wireless
communication.

Topics discussed in this section:

Radio Waves
Microwaves
Infrared

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 (Unguided media)

 wireless
 signals are broadcasted through air

Figure 7.17 Electromagnetic spectrum for wireless communication

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Wireless Transmission
Radio Frequency Allocation

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 Wireless Transmission

 Propagation of radio waves

Types of propagation

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Wireless Transmission
Table 7.4 Bands

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 Wireless Transmission
 Wireless Transmission Waves

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RADIO WAVE
 Electromagnetic waves ranging in frequencies between 3khz and
1Ghz are called Radio wave.

Radio waves are Omni-

directional, they are
propagated in all directions.

Radio waves are

propagated in sky mode,
can travel long distance.

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 RADIO WAVE

Note

Radio waves are used for multicast

communications, such as radio and
television, and paging systems.

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MICRO WAVES

 Electromagnetic waves having frequencies between 1 and 300Ghz

are called Microwaves.
 Microwave propagation is line-of-sight. Since the towers with the
mounted antennas need to be in direct sight of each other.
 Very high-frequency MW cannot penetrate walls.
 The MW band is relatively wide, almost 299 Ghz.
 Therefore wider subbands can be assigned, and a high data rate is
possible.

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 MICRO WAVE

 Repeaters
 To increase the distance served by terrestrial
microwave, a system of repeaters can be installed with
each antenna.

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MICRO WAVE

 Antenna – need unidirectional antenna that send out signals in one

direction
 parabolic dish antenna  horn antenna

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 MICRO WAVE

Microwaves are used for unicast

communication such as cellular telephones,
satellite networks,
and wireless LANs.

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Infrared
 Infrared waves, with frequencies from 300 Ghz to 400 Thz, can
be used for short-range communication.
 Infrared waves, having high frequencies, cannot penetrate walls.
this advantageous characteristic prevents interference between
one system and another; a short-range communication system in
one room cannot be affected by another system in the next room.
 We cannot use infrared waves outside a building because the
sun’s rays contain infrared waves that can interfere with the
communication

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 Infrared

Infrared signals can be used for short-range

communication in a closed area using line-of-
sight propagation.

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