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INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER NETWORKS:

NETWORKS:

A network is a set of devices (often referred to as nodes) connected by communication links. A

node can be a computer, printer, or any other device capable of sending and/or receiving data
generated by other nodes on the network.

“Computer network’’ to mean a collection of autonomous computers interconnected by a single

technology. Two computers are said to be interconnected if they are able to exchange
information. The connection need not be via a copper wire; fiber optics, microwaves, infrared,
and communication satellites can also be used.

Networks come in many sizes, shapes and forms, as we will see later. They are usually
connected together to make larger networks, with the Internet being the most well-known
example of a network of networks.

USES OF COMPUTER NETWORKS

1. Business Applications
• to distribute information throughout the company (resource sharing). sharing physical
resources such as printers, and tape backup systems, is sharing information
• client-server model. It is widely used and forms the basis of much network usage.
• communication medium among employees. Email (electronic mail), which employees
generally use for a great deal of daily communication.
• Telephone calls between employees may be carried by the computer network instead of
by the phone company. This technology is called IP telephony or Voice over IP (VoIP)
when Internet technology is used.
• Desktop sharing lets remote workers see and interact with a graphical computer screen
• doing business electronically, especially with customers and suppliers. This new model is
called e-commerce (electronic commerce) and it has grown rapidly in recent years.

2. Home Applications:

• peer-to-peer communication
• person-to-person communication
• electronic commerce
• entertainment.(game playing,)

3. Mobile Users
• Text messaging or texting
• Smart phones,
• GPS (Global Positioning System)
• m-commerce
• NFC (Near Field Communication)

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4. Social Issues

• With the good comes the bad, as this new-found freedom brings with it many unsolved
social, political, and ethical issues.

NETWORK HARDWARE:
Network hardware is defined as a set of physical or network devices that are essential for
interaction and communication between hardware units operational on a computer network.
These are dedicated hardware components that connect to each other and enable a network to
function effectively and efficiently.

Network equipment is part of advancements of the Ethernet network protocol and utilizes a
twisted pair or fiber cable as a connection medium. Routers, hubs, switches, and bridges are
some examples of network hardware.

Computers need networking hardware in order to connect to each other. Routers, hubs, switches
and bridges are all pieces of networking equipment that can perform slightly different tasks. A
router can often incorporate hubs, switches and wireless access within the same hardware.

Routers

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A router can form a LAN by connecting devices within a building. It also makes it possible to
connect different networks together. Homes and businesses use a router to connect to the
internet.

Modems
A modem enables a computer to connect to the internet over a telephone line. A modem converts
digital signals from a computer to analogue signals that are then sent down the telephone line.

Hubs, bridges and switches

Hubs, bridges and switches allow multiple devices to connect to the router and they transfer data
to all devices on a network.

Hubs
A hub broadcasts data to all devices on a network. This can use a lot of bandwidth as it results in
unnecessary data being sent - not all computers might need to receive the data. A hub would be
useful to link up a few games consoles for a local multiplayer game using a wired LAN.
Bridges

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A bridge is used to connect two separate LAN networks. A computer can act as a bridge through
the operating system. A bridge looks for the receiving device before it sends the message. This
means that it will not send a message if the receiving computer is not there.

Switches
A switch performs a similar role to a hub and a bridge but is more powerful. It stores the MAC
addresses of devices on a network and filters data packets to see which devices have asked for
them. This makes a switch more efficient when demand is high. If, for example, a game involved
lots of data being passed between machines, then a switch could reduce the amount of latency.

Wireless access points

Wireless access points (WAPs) are required to connect to a network wirelessly. WAPs are
usually built into the broadband router.

NETWORK SOFTWARE:

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Network software encompasses a broad range of software used for design, implementation, and
operation and monitoring of computer networks. Traditional networks were hardware based with
software embedded. With the advent of Software – Defined Networking (SDN), software is
separated from the hardware thus making it more adaptable to the ever-changing nature of the
computer network.

Functions of Network Software

• Helps to set up and install computer networks
• Enables users to have access to network resources in a seamless manner
• Allows administrations to add or remove users from the network
• Helps to define locations of data storage and allows users to access that data
• Helps administrators and security system to protect the network from data breaches,
unauthorized access and attacks on a network
• Enables network virtualizations

COMPONENETS OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE:

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APPLICATION LAYER:
The first component is the application layer or the application plane, which refers to the
applications and services running on the network. It is a program that conveys network
information, the status of the network, and the network requirements for particular resource
availability and application. This is done through the control layer via application programming
interfaces (APIs). The application layer also consists of the application logic and one or more
API drivers.

CONTROL LAYER:
The control layer lies at the center of the architecture and is one of the most important
components of the three layers. You could call it the brain of the whole system. Also called the
controller or the control plane, this layer also includes the network control software and the
network operating system within it.

INFRASTRUCTURE LAYER:
The infrastructure layer, also called the data plane, consists of the actual network devices (both
physical and virtual) that reside in this layer. They are primarily responsible for moving or
forwarding the data packets after receiving due instructions from the control layer.

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REFERENCE MODELS:

In computer networks, reference models give a conceptual framework that standardizes

communication between heterogeneous networks.
The two popular reference models are −
• OSI Model
• TCP/IP Protocol Suite

The OSI Reference Model:

The OSI model (minus the physical medium) is shown in Fig. This model is based on a proposal
developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as a first step toward international
standardization of the protocols used in the various layers (Day and Zimmermann, 1983). It was
revised in 1995(Day, 1995). The model is called the ISO-OSI (Open Systems Interconnection)
Reference Model because it deals with connecting open systems—that is, systems that are open
for communication with other systems.

The OSI model has seven layers. The principles that were applied to arrive at the seven layers
can be briefly summarized as follows:

1. A layer should be created where a different abstraction is needed.

2. Each layer should perform a well-defined function.
3. The function of each layer should be chosen with an eye toward defining internationally
standardized protocols.
4. The layer boundaries should be chosen to minimize the information flow across the interfaces.
5. The number of layers should be large enough that distinct functions need not be thrown
together in the same layer out of necessity and small enough that the architecture does not
become unwieldy.

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The Physical Layer:

The physical layer is concerned with transmitting raw bits over a communication channel. The
design issues have to do with making sure that when one side sends a 1 bit, it is received by the
other side as a 1 bit, not as a 0 bit.

The Data Link Layer:

The main task of the data link layer is to transform a raw transmission facility into a line that
appears free of undetected transmission errors to the network layer. It accomplishes this task by
having the sender break up the input data into data frames (typically a few hundred or a few
thousand bytes) and transmits the frames sequentially. If the service is reliable, the receiver
confirms correct receipt of each frame by sending back an acknowledgement frame.

Another issue that arises in the data link layer (and most of the higher layers as well) is how to
keep a fast transmitter from drowning a slow receiver in data. Some traffic regulation mechanism
is often needed to let the transmitter know how much buffer space the receiver has at the
moment. Frequently, this flow regulation and the error handling are integrated.

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The Network Layer:

The network layer controls the operation of the subnet. A key design issue is determining how
packets are routed from source to destination. Routes can be based on static tables that are ''wired
into'' the network and rarely changed. They can also be determined at the start of each
conversation, for example, a terminal session (e.g., a login to a remote machine). Finally, they
can be highly dynamic, being determined anew for each packet, to reflect the current network
load.
If too many packets are present in the subnet at the same time, they will get in one another's way,
forming bottlenecks. The control of such congestion also belongs to the network layer. More
generally, the quality of service provided (delay, transit time, jitter, etc.) is also a network layer
issue.
When a packet has to travel from one network to another to get to its destination, many problems
can arise. The addressing used by the second network may be different from the first one. The
second one may not accept the packet at all because it is too large. The protocols may differ, and
so on. It is up to the network layer to overcome all these problems to allow heterogeneous
networks to be interconnected. In broadcast networks, the routing problem is simple, so the
network layer is often thin or even nonexistent.

The Transport Layer:

The basic function of the transport layer is to accept data from above, split it up into smaller
units if need be, pass these to the network layer, and ensure that the pieces all arrive correctly at
the other end. Furthermore, all this must be done efficiently and in a way that isolates the upper
layers from the inevitable changes in the hardware technology. The transport layer also
determines what type of service to provide to the session layer, and, ultimately, to the users of
the network. The most popular type of transport connection is an error-free point-to-point
channel that delivers messages or bytes in the order in which they were sent. However, other
possible kinds of transport service are the transporting of isolated messages, with no guarantee
about the order of delivery, and the broadcasting of messages to multiple destinations. The type
of service is determined when the connection is established.

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The transport layer is a true end-to-end layer, all the way from the source to the destination. In
other words, a program on the source machine carries on a conversation with a similar program
on the destination machine, using the message headers and control messages. In the lower layers,
the protocols are between each machine and its immediate neighbors, and not between the
ultimate source and destination machines, which may be separated by many routers.

The Session Layer:

The session layer allows users on different machines to establish sessions between them.
Sessions offer various services, including dialog control (keeping track of whose turn it is to
transmit), token management (preventing two parties from attempting the same critical operation
at the same time), and synchronization (check pointing long transmissions to allow them to
continue from where they were after a crash).

The Presentation Layer:

The presentation layer is concerned with the syntax and semantics of the information transmitted.
In order to make it possible for computers with different data representations to communicate,
the data structures to be exchanged can be defined in an abstract way, along with a standard
encoding to be used ''on the wire.'' The presentation layer manages these abstract data structures
and allows higher-level data structures (e.g., banking records), to be defined and exchanged.

The Application Layer:

The application layer contains a variety of protocols that are commonly needed by users. One
widely-used application protocol is HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), which is the basis for
the World Wide Web. When a browser wants a Web page, it sends the name of the page it wants
to the server using HTTP. The server then sends the page back. Other application protocols are
used for file transfer, electronic mail, and network news.

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The TCP/IP Reference Model:

The TCP/IP reference model was developed prior to OSI model. The major design goals of this
model were,
1. To connect multiple networks together so that they appear as a single network.
2. To survive after partial subnet hardware failures.
3. To provide a flexible architecture.
Unlike OSI reference model, TCP/IP reference model has only 4 layers. They are,
1. Host-to-Network Layer
2. Internet Layer

3. Transport Layer
4. Application Layer

Host-to-Network Layer:
The TCP/IP reference model does not really say much about what happens here, except to point
out that the host has to connect to the network using some protocol so it can send IP packets to it.
This protocol is not defined and varies from host to host and network to network.

Internet Layer:
This layer, called the internet layer, is the linchpin that holds the whole architecture together. Its
job is to permit hosts to inject packets into any network and have they travel independently to the
destination (potentially on a different network). They may even arrive in a different order than
they were sent, in which case it is the job of higher layers to rearrange them, if in-order delivery
is desired. Note that ''internet'' is used here in a generic sense, even though this layer is present in
the Internet.
The internet layer defines an official packet format and protocol called IP (Internet Protocol).
The job of the internet layer is to deliver IP packets where they are supposed to go. Packet
routing is clearly the major issue here, as is avoiding congestion. For these reasons, it is
reasonable to say that the TCP/IP internet layer is similar in functionality to the OSI network
layer. Fig. shows this correspondence.

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The Transport Layer:

The layer above the internet layer in the TCP/IP model is now usually called the transport layer.
It is designed to allow peer entities on the source and destination hosts to carry on a
conversation, just as in the OSI transport layer. Two end-to-end transport protocols have been
defined here. The first one, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), is a reliable connection-
oriented protocol that allows a byte stream originating on one machine to be delivered without
error on any other machine in the internet. It fragments the incoming byte stream into discrete

messages and passes each one on to the internet layer. At the destination, the receiving TCP
process reassembles the received messages into the output stream. TCP also handles flow control
to make sure a fast sender cannot swamp a slow receiver with more messages than it can handle.

Fig: TCP/IPP REFERENCE MODEL

The second protocol in this layer, UDP (User Datagram Protocol), is an unreliable,
connectionless protocol for applications that do not want TCP's sequencing or flow control and
wish to provide their own. It is also widely used for one-shot, client-server-type request-reply
queries and applications in which prompt delivery is more important than accurate delivery, such

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as transmitting speech or video. The relation of IP, TCP, and UDP is shown in Fig.2. Since the
model was developed, IP has been implemented on many other networks.

The Application Layer:

The TCP/IP model does not have session or presentation layers. On top of the transport layer is
the application layer. It contains all the higher-level protocols. The early ones included virtual
terminal (TELNET), file transfer (FTP), and electronic mail (SMTP), as shown in Fig.6.2. The
virtual terminal protocol allows a user on one machine to log onto a distant machine and work
there. The file transfer protocol provides a way to move data efficiently from one machine to
another. Electronic mail was originally just a kind of file transfer, but later a specialized protocol
(SMTP) was developed for it. Many other protocols have been added to these over the years: the
Domain Name System (DNS) for mapping host names onto their network addresses, NNTP, the
protocol for moving USENET news articles around, and HTTP, the protocol for fetching pages
on the World Wide Web, and many others.

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Comparison of the OSI and TCP/IP Reference Models:

The OSI and TCP/IP reference models have much in common. Both are based on the

concept of a stack of independent protocols. Also, the functionality of the layers is roughly

similar. For example, in both models the layers up through and including the transport layer are

there to provide an end-to-end, network-independent transport service to processes wishing to

communicate. These layers form the transport provider. Again in both models, the layers above

transport are application-oriented users of the transport service. Despite these fundamental

similarities, the two models also have many differences.

Three concepts are central to the OSI model:

1. Services.

2. Interfaces.

3. Protocols.

Probably the biggest contribution of the OSI model is to make the distinction between these three

concepts explicit. Each layer performs some services for the layer above it. The service

definition tells what the layer does, not how entities above it access it or how the layer works. It

defines the layer's semantics.

A layer's interface tells the processes above it how to access it. It specifies what the parameters

are and what results to expect. It, too, says nothing about how the layer works inside.

Finally, the peer protocols used in a layer are the layer's own business. It can use any protocols it

wants to, as long as it gets the job done (i.e., provides the offered services). It can also change

them at will without affecting software in higher layers.

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The TCP/IP model did not originally clearly distinguish between service, interface, and protocol,

although people have tried to retrofit it after the fact to make it more OSI-like. For example, the

only real services offered by the internet layer are SEND IP PACKET and RECEIVE IP

PACKET.

As a consequence, the protocols in the OSI model are better hidden than in the TCP/IP model

and can be replaced relatively easily as the technology changes. Being able to make such

changes is one of the main purposes of having layered protocols in the first place. The OSI

reference model was devised before the corresponding protocols were invented. This ordering

means that the model was not biased toward one particular set of protocols, a fact that made it

quite general. The downside of this ordering is that the designers did not have much experience

with the subject and did not have a good idea of which functionality to put in which layer.

Another difference is in the area of connectionless versus connection-oriented communication.

The OSI model supports both connectionless and connection-oriented communication in the

network layer, but only connection-oriented communication in the transport layer, where it

counts (because the transport service is visible to the users). The TCP/IP model has only one

mode in the network layer (connectionless) but supports both modes in the transport layer, giving

the users a choice. This choice is especially important for simple request-response protocols.

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EXAMPLE NETWORKS: INTERNET 3G MOBILE PHONE NETWORKS:

Third generation mobile phones, or “3G Internet” mobile phones, is a set of standards for
wireless mobile communication systems, that promises to deliver quality multimedia services
along with high quality voice transmission.

Features:

• 3G systems comply with the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000)

specifications by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
• The first 3G services were available in 1998.
• It provides high speed transmission having data transfer rate more than 0.2Mbps.
• Global roaming services are available for both voice and data.
• It offers advanced multimedia access like playing music, viewing videos, television
services etc.
• It provides access to all advanced Internet services, for example surfing webpages with
audio and video.
• It paved the way for the increased usage of smartphones with wide screens as they
provided better viewing of mobile webpages, videos and mobile televisions.

Areas of Application:

• Mobile networks.
• Smartphones
• Mobile broadband routers
• Computer modems
• Cellular backups
• Telematics

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WIRLESS LANs (WLANs):

Wireless LANs (WLANs) are wireless computer networks that use high-frequency radio waves
instead of cables for connecting the devices within a limited area forming LAN (Local Area
Network). Users connected by wireless LANs can move around within this limited area such as
home, school, campus, office building, railway platform, etc.

Most WLANs are based upon the standard IEEE 802.11 standard or WiFi.WLAN is one in
which a mobile user can connect to a Local Area Network (LAN) through a wireless connection.

Components of WLANs
The components of WLAN architecture as laid down in IEEE 802.11 are −

Stations (STA) − Stations comprises of all devices and equipment that are connected to the
wireless LAN. Each station has a wireless network interface controller. A station can be of two
types −
• Wireless Access Point (WAP or AP)
• Client
Basic Service Set (BSS) − A basic service set is a group of stations communicating at the
physical layer level. BSS can be of two categories −
• Infrastructure BSS
• Independent BSS
Extended Service Set (ESS) − It is a set of all connected BSS.
Distribution System (DS) − It connects access points in ESS.

Types of WLANS

WLANs, as standardized by IEEE 802.11, operates in two basic modes, infrastructure, and ad
hoc mode.

Infrastructure Mode − Mobile devices or clients connect to an access point (AP) that in turn
connects via a bridge to the LAN or Internet. The client transmits frames to other clients via the
AP.

Ad Hoc Mode − Clients transmit frames directly to each other in a peer-to-peer fashion.

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ADVANTAGES OF WIRELESS LAN:

• They provide clutter-free homes, offices and other networked places.

• The LANs are scalable in nature, i.e. devices may be added or removed from the network
at greater ease than wired LANs.

• The system is portable within the network coverage. Access to the network is not
bounded by the length of the cables.

• Installation and setup are much easier than wired counterparts.

• The equipment and setup costs are reduced.Disadvantages of WLANs

DIS-ADVANTAGES OF WLANs:

• Since radio waves are used for communications, the signals are noisier with more
interference from nearby systems.

• Greater care is needed for encrypting information. Also, they are more prone to errors.
So, they require greater bandwidth than the wired LANs.

• WLANs are slower than wired LANs.

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RFID AND SENSOR NETWORKS

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the application of radio waves to read and capture
information stored on tags affixed to objects. RFID readers are installed at tracking points and
can read information from tags when they come into range, which can be of several feet radius.
A tag need not be within direct line-of-sight of the reader to be tracked. RFID is used to check
identities and track inventory, assets and people. RFID tags can be attached to a variety of
objects like cash, clothing, baggage, parcels, and even implanted in animals and people.

Working Principle

There are two parts in a RFID system−

• a tag or label

• a reader

RFID tags are affixed on the object and have a transmitter and a receiver embedded on it. It
contains the serial number that uniquely identifies a specific object. The tags have two parts−

• a microchip to store and process information, and

• an antenna to receive and transmit a signal.

The RFID reader (also called interrogator) captures the information encoded on the tag using an
antenna. It is a two-way radio transmitter-receiver that emits a signal for the tag. The tag
responds by sending the information embedded in its memory. The reader captures the results
and transmits to the RFID computer program, which then performs the necessary processing.

Types of RFID tags

RFID tags are categorized into three types according to power−

• Passive tags− They use the radio wave energy of the reader to transmit its ID to the
reader.

• Active tags− They are equipped with an on-board battery and transmit their ID
periodically.

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• Battery – assisted Passive− They have a small battery on-board and are activated only
within the range of an RFID reader.

According to readability, RFID tags are as follows−

• Read-only tags− They have a factory-assigned ID which serves as a key into a database.

• Read/write tags− In these tags, object-specific data can be written and retrieved by the
system user.

• Field programmable tags− These are written once by the system, thereby they can be
read multiple times.

• Blank tags− They may be electronically written by the user.

Types of RFID readers

RFID readers are categorized into two types according to power−p>

• Passive readers− They can only receive signals from active tags.

• Active readers− They can transmits interrogator signals to both passive, active as well as
battery-assisted tags and also receives replies from them.

According to position, RFID readers are of two types−

• Fixed readers− They are used to create a highly defined and tightly controlled
interrogation area. Tags are read when they enter this area. Active readers are deployed
here.

• Mobile readers− They are used for creating handheld tag reading devices. They may be
also installed in moving vehicles.

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WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK:

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an infrastructure-less wireless network that is deployed in a

large number of wireless sensors in an ad-hoc manner that is used to monitor the system,
physical or environmental conditions.

Sensor nodes are used in WSN with the onboard processor that manages and monitors the
environment in a particular area. They are connected to the Base Station which acts as a
processing unit in the WSN System.

Base Station in a WSN System is connected through the Internet to share data.

WSN can be used for processing, analysis, storage, and mining of the data.

Applications of WSN:

• Internet of Things (IOT)

• Surveillance and Monitoring for security, threat detection
• Environmental temperature, humidity, and air pressure
• Noise Level of the surrounding
• Medical applications like patient monitoring
• Agriculture
• Landslide Detection

Challenges of WSN:

• Quality of Service
• Security Issue
• Energy Efficiency

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• Network Throughput
• Performance
• Ability to cope with node failure
• Cross layer optimisation
• Scalability to large scale of deployment

Components of WSN:

Sensors:

Sensors in WSN are used to capture the environmental variables and which is used for data
acquisition. Sensor signals are converted into electrical signals.

Radio Nodes:

It is used to receive the data produced by the Sensors and sends it to the WLAN access point. It
consists of a microcontroller, transceiver, external memory, and power source.

WLAN Access Point:

It receives the data which is sent by the Radio nodes wirelessly, generally through the internet.

Evaluation Software:

The data received by the WLAN Access Point is processed by a software called as Evaluation
Software for presenting the report to the users for further processing of the data which can be
used for processing, analysis, storage, and mining of the data.

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PHYSICAL LAYER:

The physical layer is the first and lowest layer of the Open System Interconnection Model (OSI
Model.)

The physical layer (also known as layer 1) deals with bit-level transmission between different
devices and supports electrical or mechanical interfaces connecting to the physical medium for
synchronized communication.

This layer plays with most of the network’s physical connections—wireless transmission,
cabling, cabling standards and types, connectors and types, network interface cards, and more —
as per network requirements.

The physical layer does not deal with the actual physical medium (like copper, fiber, etc.)

The physical layer provides the following services:

• Modulates the process of converting a signal from one form to another so that it can be
physically transmitted over a communication channel.
• Bit-by-bit delivery.
• Line coding, which allows data to be sent by hardware devices that are optimized for
digital communications that may have discreet timing on the transmission link.
• Bit synchronization for synchronous serial communications.
• Start-stop signaling and flow control in asynchronous serial communication.
• Circuit switching and multiplexing hardware control of multiplexed digital signals.
• Carrier sensing and collision detection, whereby the physical layer detects carrier
availability and avoids the congestion problems caused by undeliverable packets.
• Signal equalization to ensure reliable connections and facilitate multiplexing.
• Forward error correction/channel coding such as error correction code.
• Bit interleaving to improve error correction.
• Auto-negotiation.
• Transmission mode control.

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Examples of protocols that use physical layers include:

• Digital Subscriber Line.

• Integrated Services Digital Network.
• Infrared Data Association.
• Universal Serial Bus (USB.)
• Bluetooth.
• Controller Area Network.
• Ethernet.
• Advertisement

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THEORITICAL BASIS FOR DATA COMMUNICATION:

Information can be transmitted on wires by varying some physical property such as current or
voltage. By representing the value of this voltage or current as a single valued function of time
f(t), we can model the behavior of our signal and analyze it mathematically.

No transmission facility can transmit signal with losing some power in process. If all fourier
components were equally diminish, the resulting signal would be reduced in amplitude, but not
distorted. Unfortunately all transmission facilities diminish different fourier components by
different amount, thus introducing distortion. The range of frequencies transmitted without being
strongly attenuated is called the bandwidth. In practice the cut-off is not really sharp, so often the
quoted bandwidth is from 0 to frequency at which half the power gets through.

The bandwidth is a physical property of the medium and usually depends on its construction ,
thickness and length of the medium. In some cases a filter is introduced into the circuit to limit
the bandwidth available to each customer.

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Fourier analysis
Any reasonable behaved periodic function g(t) with period T can be constructed as the sumof
a(possibly infinite) number of sines and cosines.
g(t)=
where f=1/T is the fundamental frequencies , and are cosines and sines amplitude of the nth
harmonics. Such a decomposition is called fourier series.
A data signal that has a finite duration can be handled by just imagining that it repeats the entire
pattern over and over forever.

Maximum data rate of a channel

‘Henry Nyquist’ derived an equation expressing the maximum data rate for a finite bandwidth
noiseless channel.

Nyquist proved that if an arbitrary signal has been run through a low pass filter of bandwidth H,
the filtered signal can be completely re-constructed by making only 2H samples per seconds.

“A continuous time signal may be completely represented in its samples ans recovered back if
the sampling frequency is greater then or equal to twice the maximum frequency”.

The amount of thermal noise present is measured by the ratio of the signal power(in db) to the
noise power called the signal to noise ratio.

Shannon’s major result is that the maximum data rate of a noisy channel whose bandwidth is H
Hz is given by:-

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GUIDED TRANSMISSION MEDIA

It is also referred to as Wired or Bounded transmission media. Signals being transmitted are
directed and confined in a narrow pathway by using physical links.

Features:
• High Speed
• Secure
• Used for comparatively shorter distances

TYPES

There are 3 major types of Guided Media:

(i) Twisted Pair Cable:

It consists of 2 separately insulated conductor wires wound about each other. Generally, several
such pairs are bundled together in a protective sheath. They are the most widely used
Transmission Media.

Twisted Pair is of two types:

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP):

UTP consists of two insulated copper wires twisted around one another. This type of cable has
the ability to block interference and does not depend on a physical shield for this purpose. It is
used for telephonic applications.

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Advantages:

⇢ Least expensive

⇢ Easy to install

⇢ High-speed capacity

⇢ Susceptible to external interference

⇢ Lower capacity and performance in comparison to STP

⇢ Short distance transmission due to attenuation

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP):

This type of cable consists of a special jacket (a copper braid covering or a foil shield) to block
external interference. It is used in fast-data-rate Ethernet and in voice and data channels of
telephone lines.

Advantages:

⇢ Better performance at a higher data rate in comparison to UTP

⇢ Eliminates crosstalk

⇢ Comparatively faster

⇢ Comparatively difficult to install and manufacture

⇢ More expensive

⇢ Bulky

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(ii) Coaxial Cable:

It has an outer plastic covering containing an insulation layer made of PVC or Teflon and 2
parallel conductors each having a separate insulated protection cover. The coaxial cable
transmits information in two modes: Baseband mode(dedicated cable bandwidth) and Broadband
mode(cable bandwidth is split into separate ranges). Cable TVs and analog television networks
widely use Coaxial cables.

Advantages:
• High Bandwidth
• Better noise Immunity
• Easy to install and expand
• Inexpensive
Disadvantages:
Single cable failure can disrupt the entire network

(iii) Optical Fiber Cable:

It uses the concept of reflection of light through a core made up of glass or plastic. The core is
surrounded by a less dense glass or plastic covering called the cladding. It is used for the
transmission of large volumes of data.

The cable can be unidirectional or bidirectional. The WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexer)
supports two modes, namely unidirectional and bidirectional mode.

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Advantages:
• Increased capacity and bandwidth
• Lightweight
• Less signal attenuation
• Immunity to electromagnetic interference
• Resistance to corrosive materials
Disadvantages:
• Difficult to install and maintain
• High cost
• Fragile

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