Module 4: Physical Layer
*Network Interface Card (NIC)- used to connect device to the network, may have just
one or more NIC
Basic purpose of the Physical Layer:
1.) Transports bit across the network media
2.) Accepts a complete frame from the data link layer and encodes it as a series of
signals that are transmitted to the local media
3.) The last step in the encapsulation process
4.) the next device in the path to the destination receives the bits and re-
encapsulates the frame, then decides what to do with it.
Organizations that Govern standards of physical layers:
*ISO
*EIA/TIA
*ITU-T
*ANSI
*IEEE
Encoding- converting the stream of bits into a format recognizable by the next
device
Signaling - the signaling method is how the bit values, 1 and 0 are represented on
the physical medium.
Bandwidth terminology:
Latency - amount of time it takes for data to travel from one given point to
another
Throughput- measures of the transfer of bits across the media over a given period
of time
goodput- measure of usable data transferred over a given period of time
Copper cable - most common type of cabling used in networks today.
- inexpensive
-easy to install
-low resitance to electrical currnet flow
Types of copper cabling
1.) UTP (Unshielded Twisted-Pair) cable- most common network media, rj-45 connector
cable, host to intermediary network devices.
2.) STP (Shielded Twisted-Pair) cable- better noise protection than utp, harder to
install, rj-45 connector, interconnect hosts with intermediary network device, has
braided foil.
3.) Coaxial - attaches antennas to wireless devices, cable internet installations,
(BNC, N-type, and F-type connectors)
TIA/EIA establishes standards for UTP
IEEE establishes electrical standards for copper cabling which is rated based on
performance
Category 3 UTP cable - used for telephone cables
Category 5 and 5e UTP cable - used in schools and offices
*cat 5 can only support up to 100 MBPS
*Cat 5e can support up to 1 GBPS
Category 6 can support up to 10 GBPS
UTP Cabling Straight-through VS. Crossover
Straight-through - Both ends T568A or T568B Host to network device
Crossover - One end T568A other end T568B Host to host, switch to swithc, router to
router.
Fiber-Optic Cabling
* not as common as UTP because of expense
*Ideal for some networkin scenarios
* longer range at higher bandwidths
*Uses laser or LED to encode bits as pulses of light
Yellow cable - single mode fiber optic patch cords
orange cable - multimode fiber optics patch cord
IEEE standardizes wireless data communication
Standards:
*Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) - wireless Lan (WLAN) technology
*Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15) - Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)
*WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) - uses a point-to-multipoint topology to provide broadband
wireless access
*Zigbee (IEEE 802.15.4) - Low data-rate, low power-consumption communications,
primarily for internet of things (IoT) applications
Module 6: Data Link Layer
Data link layer - responsible for communications between end-device and network
interface cards
-encapsulates layer 3 packets (IPV4 and IPV6) into layer 2 frames
-error detection rejects corrupt frames
Divided into 2 sub layers
1.) Logical link control (LLC)- communicates between the networking software at the
upper layers and the device hardware at the lower layers
2.) media access contro (MAC) - responsible for data encapsulation and media access
control
Data link layer standards governed by 4
* Institute for electrical and electronic engineers (IEEE)
*International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
*International Organizations for standardization (ISO)
*American National Standards (ANSI)
Lan Topologies
*Bus - All end systems chained together and terminated on each end.
*ring - each end system is connected to its respective neighbors to form a ring.
Half-duplex communication - LEGACY only allows one device to send or receive at a
time on a shared medium, used WLANS and legacy bus topologies with ethernet hubs
Full-duplex communication - allows both devices to simultaneously transmit and
receive on a shared medium. ethernet switches operate in full-duplex mode.
