Transmission media Analog vs.

digital communication
and

Transmission media
INTRODUCTION Transmission medium provides physical entity for the conveyance of signals. Transmission medium is the physical path between transmitter and receiver in a data transmission system. In a simple definition we can say: A transmission medium is the path between a transmitter and a receiver that carries information encoded in a signal.

Transmission media can be classified as guided or unguided. In both cases, communication is in the form of electromagnetic waves. With guided media, the waves are guided along a solid medium, such as copper twisted pair, copper coaxial cable, and optical fiber. The atmosphere and outer space are examples of unguided media that

provide a means of transmitting electromagnetic signals but do not guide them; this form of transmission is usually referred to as wireless transmission.

Electromagnetic Spectrum for Transmission Media

The characteristics and quality of a data transmission are determined both by the characteristics of the medium and the characteristics of the signal. In the case of guided media, the medium itself is more important in determining the limitations of transmission.

For unguided media, the bandwidth of the signal produced by the transmitting antenna is more important than the medium in determining transmission characteristics. One key property of signals transmitted by antenna is directionality. In general, signals at lower frequencies are omnidirectional; that is, the signal propagates in all directions from the antenna. At higher frequencies, it is possible to focus the signal into a directional beam. In considering the design of data transmission systems, a key concern, generally, is data rate and distance: the greater the data rate and distance, the better. A number of design factors relating to the transmission medium and to the signal determine the data rate and distance: Bandwidth: All other factors remaining constant, the greater the bandwidth of a signal, the higher the data rate that can be achieved. Transmission impairments: Impairments, such as attenuation, limit the distance. For guided media, twisted pair generally suffer more impairment than coaxial cable, which in turn suffers more than optical fiber. Interference: Interference from competing signals in overlapping frequency bands can distort or wipe out a signal. Interference is of particular concern for unguided media, but it is also a problem with guided media. For guided media, interference can be caused by emanations from nearby cables. For example, twisted pair are often bundled together, and conduits often carry multiple cables. Interference can also be experienced from unguided transmissions. Proper shielding of a guided medium can minimize this problem. Number of receivers: A guided medium can be used to construct a point-to-point link or a shared link with multiple attachments. In the

latter case, each attachment introduces some attenuation and distortion on the line, limiting distance and/or data rate. Transmission media can be divided into two broad categories : Guided and Unguided.

Types of transmission media

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. Guided Transmission Media uses a "cabling" system that guides the data signals along a specific path. The data signals are bound by the

"cabling" system. Guided Media is also known as Bound Media. Cabling is meant in a generic sense in the previous sentences and is not meant to be interpreted as copper wire cabling only. Cable is the medium through which information usually moves from one network device to another. Twisted pair cable and coaxial cable use metallic (copper) conductors that accept and transport signals in the form of electric current. Optical fiber is a glass or plastic cable that accepts and transports signals in the form of light. There four basic types of Guided Media shown below:

Types of guided media

OPEN WIRE Open Wire is traditionally used to describe the electrical wire strung along power poles. There is a single wire strung between poles. No shielding or protection from noise interference is used. We are going to extend the traditional definition of Open Wire to include any data signal path without shielding or protection from noise interference. This can include multiconductor cables or single wires. This media is susceptible to a large degree of noise and interference and consequently not acceptable for data transmission except for short distances under 20 ft.

TWISTED-PAIR (TP) CABLE Twisted pair cable is least expensive and most widely used. The wires in Twisted Pair cabling are twisted together in pairs. Each pair would consist of a wire used for the +ve data signal and a wire used for the -ve data signal. Any noise that appears on one wire of the pair would occur on the other wire. Because the wires are opposite polarities, they are 180 degrees out of phase When the noise appears on both wires, it cancels or nulls itself out at the receiving end. Twisted Pair cables are most effectively used in systems that use a balanced line method of transmission : polar line coding (Manchester Encoding) as opposed to unipolar line coding (TTL logic).

COAXIAL CABLE A form of network cabling used primarily in older Ethernet networks and in electrically noisy industrial environments. The name coax comes from its two-conductor construction in which the conductors run concentrically with each other along the axis of the cable. Coaxial cabling has been largely replaced by twisted-pair cabling for local area network (LAN) installations within buildings, and by fiber-optic cabling for high-speed network backbones.

Coaxial cable FIBER-OPTIC CABLE

Fiber-optic is a glass cabling media that sends network signals using light. Fiber-optic cabling has higher bandwidth capacity than copper cabling, and is used mainly for high-speed network Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) or Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) backbones, long cable runs, and connections to high-performance workstations. A fiber-optic cable is made of glass or plastic and transmits signals in the form of light. Light is a form of electromagnetic energy. It travels at its fastest in a vacuum: 3,00,000 kilometers/sec. The speed of light depends on the density of the medium through, which it is traveling (the higher the density, the slower the speed). Light travels in a straight line as long as it is moving through a single uniform substance. If a ray of light traveling through one substance suddenly enters another (more or less dense), the ray changes direction. This change is called Refraction.

Unguided media (wireless)

use radio waves of different frequencies and do not need a wire or cable conductor to transmit signals. Transmission and reception are achieved by means of an antenna Directional: Transmitting antenna puts out focused beam .transmitter and receiver must be aligned Omnidirectional: Signal spreads out in all directions. can be received by many antennas.

Wireless examples:

Bluetooth Wi-Fi Satellite IR

Infrared

Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a low-cost, low power, short range wireless communication technology used in. networking, mobile phones and other portable device. Bluetooth wireless technology also enables devices to communicate with each other as soon as-they come within range; no need to connect, plug into, install, enable or configure anything. What Bluetooth Does Best? Imagine being able to connect to the Internet on a dial-up connection you access through your mobile phone. Surfing the Internet then becomes possible anywhere your mobile phone can connect to your internet service provider. Perhaps you prefer to use a traditional mouse with your laptop. Choose a Bluetooth-enabled mouse and you wont have to keep track of a mouse cable. If you have a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone that stores your business information in the Vcard format, you can easily share this information with your colleagues. Swap your Vcard with theirs, by wirelessly connecting to their Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones.

WiFi: WiFi or Wireless Fidelity refers to the technology surrounding the radio transmission of internet protocol data from an internet connection wirelessly to a host computer. Most often the internet connection is a higher speed one such as satellite, DSL or cable rather than slower dialup connections.

Satellite:

Satellite is relay station. Receives on one frequency, amplifies or repeats signal and transmits on another frequency. E.g. Uplink 5.925-6.425 GHz & downlink 3.7-4.2 GHz. Typically requires geo-stationary orbit. Height of 35,784Km. Spaced at least 3-4 apart. Uses: Television, Long distance telephone, Private business networks

Infrared: Infrared technology allows computing devices to communicate via short-range wireless signals. With infrared, computers can transfer files and other digital data bidirectionally. The infrared transmission technology used in computers is similar to that used in consumer product remote control units.

Part2

Analog communication with digital communication comparison

Analog systems are less expensive in many cases than digital ones for the same application, digital systems offer much more efficiency, better performance, and much greater flexibility. Efficiency: The Source Coding Theorem allows quantification of just how complex a given message source is and allows us to exploit that complexity by source coding (compression). In analog communication, the only parameters of interest are message bandwidth and amplitude. We cannot exploit signal structure to achieve a more efficient communication system. Performance: Because of the Noisy Channel Coding Theorem, we have a specific criterion by which to formulate errorcorrecting codes that can bring us as close to error-free transmission as we might want. Even though we may send information by way of a noisy channel, digital schemes are capable of error-free transmission while analog ones cannot overcome channel disturbances; see this problem for a comparison. Flexibility: Digital communication systems can transmit realvalued discrete-time signals, which could be analog ones

obtained by analog-to-digital conversion, and symbolic-valued ones (computer data, for example). Any signal that can be transmitted by analog means can be sent by digital means, with the only issue being the number of bits used in A/D conversion (how accurately do we need to represent signal amplitude). Images can be sent by analog means (commercial television), but better communication performance occurs when we use digital systems (HDTV). In addition to digital communication's ability to transmit a wider variety of signals than analog systems, point-to-point digital systems can be organized into global (and beyond as well) systems that provide efficient and flexible information transmission. Computer networks, explored in the next section, are what we call such systems today. Even analog-based networks, such as the telephone system, employ modern computer networking ideas rather than the purely analog systems of the past. Consequently, with the increased speed of digital computers, the development of increasingly efficient algorithms, and the ability to interconnect computers to form a communications infrastructure, digital communication is now the best choice for many situations. At end we can say: Digital communication systems offer much more efficiency, better performance, and much greater flexibility.