MULTIPLEXING

MULTIPLEXING
• Multiplexing is a set of techniques that allows that
simultaneous transmission of multiple signals across a single
data link.

• Links will be having limited bandwidth, it has to be used

wisely

• Efficient system must maximize the utilization of all resources.

• Whenever the bandwidth of a medium linking two devices is

greater than the bandwidth needs of devices, the link can be
shared.

• Multiplexing allows several transmission sources to share a

large transmission capacity
 MULTIPLEXING
• A common application of multiplexing is in long-haul
communication

• Trunks on long haul networks are high capacity fiber ,coaxial

or microwave links.

• These links can carry large number of voice and data

transmission simultaneously using multiplexing.
 Multiplexing

• The multiplexing function is depicted in fig.

 MULTIPLEXING

• There are n-inputs to a multiplexer

• The multiplexer is connected by a single data link to a

de-multiplexer

• The link is able to carry n separate channels of data.

• The Multiplexer (MUX) is a device that combines

(multiplexes) data from n input lines and transmits over a
higher-capacity data link.

• The De-multiplexer (DEMUX) is a device that accepts the

multiplexed data stream, separates (de-multiplexes) that data
according to a channel and delivers data to the appropriate
output lines
 MULTIPLEXING
Three types of multiplexing techniques:
1. Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
2. Wavelength Division Multiplexing(WDM)
3. Time Division Multiplexing(TDM)
• Synchronous TDM
• Statistical TDM(or Asynchronous TDM)

• FDM and WDM are for analog signals

• TDM is for digital signals or analog signals carrying
digital data
Categories of Multiplexing
 Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
• FDM is possible when the useful bandwidth of the
transmission medium exceeds required bandwidth of the
signals to be transmitted

• A number of signals can be carried simultaneously if each

signal is modulated to a different carrier frequency

• Carrier frequencies are sufficiently separated so that band

widths of the signals do not overlap (guard bands)

• e.g. broadcast radio, broadcast and cable television

• Channel allocated even if no data

 Frequency Division Multiplexing
• A general case of a FDM is shown below:
 Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
• Six signal sources are fed into a multiplexer, which modulates
each signal onto a different frequency(f1…..f6).

• Each modulated signal requires a certain bandwidth centered on

its carrier frequency ,referred to as a channel

• To prevent interference ,the channels are separated by guard

bands ,which are unused portion of the spectrum.

• The composite signal transmitted across the medium is analog

• The input signals can be either analog or digital

 Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
• In the case of digital input, the input signals must be passed
through modems to convert it to analog.

• In either case ,each input signal must then be modulated to

move it to the appropriate frequency band.

• A generic depiction of an FDM is shown in fig. (a)

FDM System
 Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
•
 Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
•
 Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
•
 Example 8.1
• Example 8.1 Let us consider a simple example of transmitting
three voice signals simultaneously over a medium. As was
mentioned, the bandwidth of a voice signal is generally taken
to be 4 kHz, with an effective spectrum of 300 to 3400 Hz
(Figure 8.4a). If such a signal is used to amplitude-modulate a
64-kHz carrier, the spectrum of Figure 8.4b results. The
modulated signal has a bandwidth of 8 kHz, extending from 60
to 68 kHz. To make efficient use of bandwidth, we elect to
transmit only the lower sideband. If three voice signals are
used to modulate carriers at 64 kHz, 68 kHz, and 72 kHz, and
only the lower sideband of each is taken, the spectrum of
Figure 8.4c results.
FDM of Three Voiceband Signals
 Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)

• Two problems in FDM:

– Crosstalk
• Which may occur if the spectra of adjacent component
signals overlap significantly.
– Intermodulation noise
• On a long link non-linear effects of amplifiers on a
signal in one channel could produce frequency
components in other channels.
Example 1
Assume that a voice channel occupies a bandwidth of 4
KHz. We need to combine three voice channels into a link
with a bandwidth of 12 KHz, from 20 to 32 KHz. Show
the configuration using the frequency domain without the
use of guard bands.

Solution
Shift (modulate) each of the three voice channels to a
different bandwidth, as shown in Figure 6.6.
Example 1
Example 2
Five channels, each with a 100-KHz bandwidth, are to be
multiplexed together. What is the minimum bandwidth of
the link if there is a need for a guard band of 10 KHz
between the channels to prevent interference?

Solution
For five channels, we need at least four guard bands.
This means that the required bandwidth is at least
5 x 100 + 4 x 10 = 540 KHz,
as shown in Figure 6.7.
Example 2
Wavelength Division Multiplexing(WDM)
• WDM is an analog multiplexing technique designed to utilize
the high data rate capability of fiber optic cables

• i.e the true potential of optical fiber is exploited when multiple

beams of light at different frequency are transmitted on the same
optical fiber
• A form of Frequency Division Multiplexing(FDM)
• Both FDM and WDM are combining several signals of different
frequencies into one.
• In WDM fiber optic cables and optical signals (very high
frequency signals) are involved.
• And hence the available bandwidth is utilized efficiently.
• With WDM ,the light streaming through the fiber consists of
many colors or wavelengths each carrying a separate channel of
data
Wavelength Division Multiplexing(WDM)
• A number of sources generate a laser beam of different
wavelengths

• These are sent to a multiplexer.

• The purpose of multiplexer is to combine multiple light

sources into one single light and do the reverse at the
demultiplexer at the receiver side.

• Combining and splitting of light sources are easily handled by

a prism, which bends the light beams by different amounts
depending on their angle of incidence and wavelength.
Wavelength Division Multiplexing(WDM)
• Optical amplifiers ,typically spaced tens of kilometers apart
,amplify all the wavelengths simultaneously

• Finally ,the composite signal arrives at a demultiplexer ,where

the component channels are separated and sent to the receivers
at the destination point.

• Most WDMs operate in the 1550-nm wavelength range.

• In early systems ,200MHz was allocated for each channel.

• But today most WDM systems use 50-GHz spacing

 Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing
• DWDM
• No official or standard definition
• Implies more channels more closely spaced than WDM
• 200GHz or less
 Time Division Multiplexing(TDM)
• TDM is a digital multiplexing technique

• In TDM, the link is time-shared instead of sharing parts of

bandwidth among signals.

• The conceptual view of TDM is given in fig.

• At the sender’s end,the time division multiplexer allocates

each input signal a period of time or time slot.

• Each sending device is assigned the transmission path for a

predefined time slot.
• The time slots 1,2,3 and 4 follow one after other to carry
signals from the four sources 1,2,3 and 4.
 TDM

TDM is a digital multiplexing technique to

combine data.
Time Division Multiplexing
 Time Division Multiplexing(TDM)
• Time Division Multiplexing is divided into
two different schemes:
• Synchronous TDM
• Statistical TDM(Asynchronous TDM)
 Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
• Synchronous TDM can be used with digital signals or analog
signals carrying digital data.

• In this form of multiplexing, data from various sources are

carried in a repetitive frames.

• Each frame consists of a set of time slots , and each source is

assigned one or more time slots per frame.

• The effect is to interleave bits of data from the various sources.

• Synchronous TDM is possible when the achievable data

rate(or bandwidth) of the medium exceeds data rate of digital
signals to be transmitted
 Synchronous TDM

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 Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
• For e.g. ,if the multiplexer has six inputs that might each be 9.6kbps
,then a single line with a capacity of at least 57.6kbps (plus overhead
capacity) could accommodate six sources.

• Multiple digital signals can be carried on a single transmission path

by interleaving portions of each signal in time.

• Interleaving can be at the bit level or blocks of bytes or larger

quantities
• Time slots pre-assigned to sources and fixed
• Time slots allocated even if no data
• Time slots do not have to be evenly distributed amongst sources
• A generic description of a synchronous TDM system is provided in
fig.
TDM System
 Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
•
 Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
•
 Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
• One or more slots are dedicated to each data source.

• The sequence of slots dedicated to one source from frame to

frame is called a channel

• The slot length equals the transmitter buffer length ,typically a

bit or a byte(character)

• The byte interleaving is used with asynchronous and

synchronous sources.

• Each time slot contains one character of data.

• The start and stop bits of each character are eliminated

 Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
•
 Synchronous Time Division Multiplexing
• If the source has no data to send during its time slot ,the
channel capacity is wasted

• It is possible for a synchronous TDM device to handle sources

of different data rate.

• For e.g, the slowest input device could be assigned one slot per
cycle, while faster devices are assigned multiple slots per
cycle.
 TDM Link Control
• No headers and trailers(in synchronous transmission)
• Control mechanisms provided by Data link control protocols
are not needed
• Two data link control mechanisms:
– Flow control
• As far as multiplexer and demultiplexer are concerned ,flow control
is not needed
• Data rate of multiplexed line is fixed and multiplexer and
demultiplexer work on this data rate.
• If one channel receiver can not receive data, the others must carry
on
• The solution is for the saturated output device to cause the flow of
data from the corresponding input device to cease.ie The
corresponding source must be quenched
• This leaves empty slots,and frames as a whole maintains same
transmission rate.
 TDM Link Control
– Error control
– For error control ,it would not request retransmission of the entire
TDM frame because an error occurs on one channel.
– The devices using other channels do not want retransmission nor
would they know that a retransmission has been requested by other
device on another channel.
– Errors are detected and handled by individual channel systems
• Flow control and error control can be provided on per-channel basis using
a data link protocol called HDLC:
• A simplified example is shown in fig.
• Assume two data sources, each using HDLC.
• One is transmitting a stream of HDLC frames containing three octets of
data each,and other is transmitting HDLC frames containing four octets of
data
• Assume character –interleaved multiplexing is used,
Data Link Control on TDM
 Data Link Control on TDM
• The octets of the HDLC frames from the two sources are shuffled together
for transmission over the multiplexed line
• The frame check sequence(FCS) applied to disjoint set of bits
• Even the FCS is not in one piece
• The pieces are reassembled correctly before they are seen by the device on
the other side of the HDLC protocol
 Framing
• No link control protocol is needed to manage the overall TDM link
• However there is a basic requirement for framing
• There is no flag or SYNC characters bracketing TDM frames
• Must provide some means for frame synchronizing mechanism
• Otherwise if the source and destination are out of step,data on all channels are
lost
• The most common method for framing is Added- digit framing
– One control bit added to each TDM frame
• Looks like another channel - “control channel”
– Identifiable bit pattern ,from frame to frame is used as a “control channel”
– e.g. alternating 1010101…unlikely on a data channel
– Receiver can compare incoming bits of one frame position to the expected patter.
– If the pattern doesnot match ,successive bit positions are searched until the
pattern persists over multiple frames
– Once framing synchronization is established ,the receiver continues to monitor the
framing bit channel
– If the pattern braks down ,the receiver must again enter a framing searching mode
 Pulse Stuffing
• Problem in synchonous TDM is synchronizing various data sources
• Each source may have a separate clock,any variation among clocks could
cause loss of synchronization.
• Data rates from different sources not related by simple rational number
• Solution - Pulse Stuffing
– With pulse stuffing ,the outgoing data rate (excluding framing bits) of
the multiplexer is higher than sum of maximum instantaneous incoming
rates

– The extra capacity is used by stuffing extra dummy bits or pulses into
each incoming signal until it matches the locally generated clock
signal

– Stuffed pulses inserted at fixed locations in the multiplexer frame

format ,so that they may be identified and removed at demultiplexer
TDM of Analog and Digital Sources
 SONET/SDH
• Synchronous Optical Network (ANSI)
• Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (ITU-T)
• Compatible
• Signal Hierarchy
– Synchronous Transport Signal level 1 (STS-1) or Optical
Carrier level 1 (OC-1)
– 51.84Mbps
– Carry DS-3 or group of lower rate signals (DS1 DS1C
DS2) plus ITU-T rates (e.g. 2.048Mbps)
– Multiple STS-1 combined into STS-N signal
– ITU-T lowest rate is 155.52Mbps (STM-1)
SONET Frame Format
 Statistical TDM
• In Synchronous TDM many slots are wasted
• A typical example of a synchronous TDM involves linking a number of
terminals to a shared computer port
• Even if all terminals are actively in use ,most of the time there is no data
transfer at any particular terminal.
• Statistical multiplexer has no. of I/O lines on one side and a higher speed
multiplexed line as on synchronous TDM
• Each I/O line has a buffer associated with it
• In statistical multiplexer ,there are n I/O lines but only k,k<n time slots
available on the TDM frame
• For input,the function of Multiplexer is to scan input buffers, collects data
until frame is full and then send the frame
• On output,the multiplexer receives a frame and distributes the slots to the
appropriate output buffer
• Statistical TDM allocates time slots dynamically based on demand
 Statistical TDM

• Because the statistical TDM takes the advantage of the fact that the
attached devices are not all transmitting all of the time ,the data rate on the
multiplexed line is less than the sum of the data rates of the attached
devices.

• Thus a statistical multiplexer can use a lower data rate to support as many
devices as a synchronous multiplexer.

• Or if a statistical multiplexer and a synchronous multiplexer both use the

same data rate ,the statistical multiplexer can support more devices
 Synchronous TDM compared with Statistical TDM
• There are four data sources which produce data at four time
epochs(t0,t1,t2,t3)

• In case of synchronous multiplexer,the multiplexer has an effective output

rate of four times the data rate of any of the input devices

• During each epoch ,data are collected from all four sources and sent out.

• For eg.in the first epoch C and D produce no data

• Thus two and the four time slots transmitted by the multiplexer are empty
 Synchronous TDM compared with Statistical TDM

• In contrast,the statistical multiplexer does not send empty slots if there are
data to send

• Thus during the first epoch,only slots for A and B are sent

• However,the positional significance of the slots lost in this scheme.

• Address information is required to assure proper delivery

• Thus there is more overhead per slot for statistical TDM because each slot
carries address as well as data
• A statistical TDM system uses a synchronous protocol like such as HDLC
• Within the HDLC frame ,the data frame must contain control bits for the
multiplexing operation
Statistical TDM Frame Formats
 Statistical TDM Frame Formats
• In the first case only one source of data is included per frame

• That source is identified by the address

• The length of the data field is variable ,and its end is marked by the end of
the overall frame

• This scheme is good for only light load

• Efficiency can be improved by allowing multiple data sources to be

packaged in a single frame
• But some means is needed to specify the length of data for each source
• In that case the statistical TDM subframe consists of a sequence of data
fields ,each labeled with an address and a length
 Statistical TDM Frame Formats
• The address can be reduced by using relative addressing

• That is,each address specifies a number of the current source relative to the
previous source,modulo the total no. of sources

• For eg. Instead of an 8-bit address field ,a 4-bit field may be sufficient

• Another refinement is to use a two bit label with the length field

• A value of 00,01 or 10 corresponds to data field of one ,two or three

bytes.no length field is necessary

• A value of 11 indicates that a length field is included

 Example 6
Four channels are multiplexed using TDM. If each
channel sends 100 bytes/s and we multiplex 1 byte per
channel, show the frame traveling on the link, the size of
the frame, the duration of a frame, the frame rate, and the
bit rate for the link.

Solution
The multiplexer is shown in Figure 6.15.

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 Figure 6.15 Example 6

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 Example 7
A multiplexer combines four 100-Kbps channels using a
time slot of 2 bits. Show the output with four arbitrary
inputs. What is the frame rate? What is the frame
duration? What is the bit rate? What is the bit duration?

Solution
Figure 6.16 shows the output for four arbitrary inputs.

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Figure 6.16 Example 7

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Assignment II
▪ Application of Synchronous TDM
SONET/SDH
Digital Carrier Systems

▪ Application of Statistical TDM

Cable Modem

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 Performance

• Output data rate less than aggregate input rates

• May cause problems during peak periods
– Buffer inputs
– Keep buffer size to minimum to reduce delay
Buffer Size
and Delay